Faculty Research Labs

Faculty Advisors: Charles Liu, Airs Lin, Mo Zhang

The Embedded Architecture Lab was a spin-off of the former Structures, Propulsion, and Control Engineering (SPACE) Center, NASA University Research Center (URC) at California State University, Los Angeles. The Embedded Architecture Lab seeks to transfer innovative technologies to the development of Internet of Things (IoT) based on heterogeneous computing, machine learning, robotics, wireless sensor network, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), and System-on-Chip (SoC). The Embedded Architecture Lab actively participates in open house and outreach events to enhance technology literacy and promote STEM education. The faculty advisors sponsor over 10 senior design projects and 25 master thesis research projects. The industry sponsors of the Lab include Intel, Boeing, Xilinx, saya, Cypress Semiconductor, and NXP Semiconductors.

Faculty Advisor: Deborah Won

The Intelligent Medicine Laboratory (IntelliMed Lab) seeks to develop medical device therapies and technology which are intelligently controlled through sensor feedback.  At the core of IntelliMed research are devices that interface with the human body to either apply therapies or acquire and analyze signals from the human body in order to ultimately protect or improve a person’s health. The work of IntelliMed brings together interdisciplinary collaboration involving computational analysis, machine learning, sensors and instrumentation, and human and animal experimentation, for the ultimate goal of improving the health and wellness of individuals with medical conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injury, stroke, and autism spectrum disorder.

Faculty Advisors: Drs. Masood Shahverdi and Arash Jamehbozorg

The Power and Energy Lab focuses on the following areas: Microgrid Control and Energy Management Systems, Renewable Energy Sources (Solar PV and Wind), Electric Vehicles, Energy Storage Systems, Power Systems Optimization, Power Systems Dynamics and Stability, and Deep Learning and Machine Learning in Power Systems and Electric Vehicles.

Faculty Advisor: Curtis Wang

The Bio-inspired Computing Lab uses inspiration from biology to create new computing paradigms for the control of cyber-physical systems.  The applications we work on range from machine learning-based control of biomedical therapies, to embedded systems that control instrumentation for collecting high-throughput data from mammalian spinal cords, to high-performance computing (supercomputing) for processing terabytes of imaging from micro- and nano-scale computed tomography of mammalian spinal cords.  Ultimately, the mammalian spinal cord is much smarter than a bundle of cords; the spinal cord has its own memory and fast local computation of complex motions that serve as a strong inspiration for computing architectures of the future.  Our lab collaborates with engineers and physiologists to develop hardware and software systems that work together to discover more about the spinal cord so that we can use nature's elegant and simple yet complex designs to create safer, more efficient, and more powerful computing systems.  The primary application of this technology is to provide patients with spinal cord injury potential therapies, ranging from pain modulation to full control of the extremities.

The Quantum Information and Signal Processing (QISP) laboratory is focused on several areas of research and development:

1. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and quantum information science: The focus of the efforts in this area is information reconciliation for both Discrete Variable (DV) and Continuous Variable (CV) QKD; semiconductor nanowire single-photon detectors, and quantum metrology.
2. Autonomous robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems: The R&D focus in this area is path planning and indoor autonomous navigation using Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM); obstacle avoidance and object detection and classification using deep convolutional neural network AI techniques; sensor fusion (LiDAR, RADAR, SONAR, Stereo camera, etc.); robot to robot and robot to infrastructure and cloud communications; and system integration including control boards, motor drives, and safety systems.
3. Underground transportation infrastructure autonomous monitoring and fault detection and classification using AI techniques.

Wireless communications and 6G systems R&D with emphasis on Drone to Ground communication system, interference cancellation, and beamforming in the mm-Wave regime.

Faculty Advisors: Marina Mondin, Harry Theman, Seth Linker

The LVC (LIGO Virgo Collaboration) is a multinational collaboration formed of scientists who are detecting Gravitational Waves with the LIGO and Virgo interferometers and researching ways to improve the sensitivity and reach into the Universe (LIGO is the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory). Here at CSULA, we are focused on improving the optical coatings that serve as the reflective surfaces on the detectors' test masses. Gravitational waves are very difficult to detect and require the most precise optics that have ever been created. Our aim is to develop new materials for dielectric (Bragg reflection) mirrors that have the lowest thermal noise and least embedded scatterers while maintaining the highest reflectivity and lowest thermal absorption. Our research involves a collaboration with the University of Sannio in Italy, where we (two of our graduates continuing into a Ph.D.) manufacture the coatings, as well as Caltech and the University of Utah, where we measure their mechanical Q factors. The contribution of CSULA is important, we study the crystallization temperature threshold during annealing. This research is being done in tandem and with frequent exchanges with the University of Utah. The students who work in our group are currently gaining experience in X-Ray diffraction techniques and analysis, Microscope analysis, automation of complex machines, and Signal Processing and go to work closely with scientists at great Universities. Importantly, the students who spend a significant portion of time devoted to this research become members of the LIGO collaboration and co-authors of their prestigious astro-physics collaboration papers.

  

(Photos L to R) LVC Optics Lab diagram, Coater at the University of Sannio, Automated microscope, LVC group present and past students advisors