Three Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering graduate students have received 2024 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships for their promising quantum and metameterial antennas research.
This year, the NSF awarded 27 students from CU Boulder, including 18 from the College of Engineering and Applied Science with the 2024 graduate research fellowship, a prestigious award recognizing students in a wide variety of STEM disciplines, exploring some of the most pressing issues of our time.
Each recipient will receive three years of financial support, including an annual stipend of $37,000, as well as professional development and research opportunities.
Aliza Siddiqui
Advisor: Joshua Combes
Lab: Combes Group
Bio: Siddiqui is a first-year PhD student with a research concentration in Quantum Engineering and Architecture. She graduated from Louisiana State University, home of the Tigers, with a degree in computer science.
My proposal involves creating a new benchmarking/testing framework for the next generation of error-corrected quantum computers. Given the noise of physical qubits, recent work has suggested combining the state of several physical qubits to create a logical qubit. I will collaborate with Dr. Josh Combes and Sandia National Labs for my PhD. Through this work, the quantum community will have a tool-kit that will help us determine how well a quantum computer performs, diagnose what and where the issues are and create solutions to realize full-scale, error-corrected quantum systems.
Dylan Meyer
Advisor: Scott Diddams
Lab: Frequency Comb & Quantum Metrology Lab
Bio: Meyer is a first-year PhD student in the FCQM group. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama in Electrical Engineering.
My research proposal is the development of highly stable and robust millimeter wave time and frequency (T&F) transfer, supporting T&F transfer between atomic clocks. T&F transfer is used to create clock networks that are essential for positioning and navigation, such as GPS and essential infrastructure like the Internet and power grid. These technologies support up to $1 billion dollars of trade and financial transactions a day. In addition, these clock networks are capable of fundamental science experiments capable of probing new and exciting questions related to physics and geodesy.
Alex Pham
Advisors: Cody Scarborough and Robert MacCurdy
Lab Groups: EMRG and MAClab
Bio: Pham received their Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Oklahoma, where he conducted research on RF filters. After graduating, he worked for 3 years in industry as an RF engineer developing radar systems. He will begin his PhD this fall 2024.
My research proposal is on the application of multi-material additive manufacturing techniques for metamaterial antennas. Metamaterial antennas are capable of more sophisticated capabilities and unique form-factors compared to conventional antennas. By leveraging multi-material additive manufacturing, there are more degrees-of-freedom for the shape and composition of the metamaterials. This research would enhance the design flexibility and capabilities of next-generation antennas to meet the growing performance demands of future wireless systems.
