PIPages
Labs

Toshikazu Nishida

University of Florida, FL·Engineering

Smart devices, from wearables to sensor networks, depend on tiny hardware that can sense, compute, communicate and power itself. This network of connected devices is often called the Internet of Things (IoT).

Fields

Engineering

Materials Science

Physics

Topics

Internet of Things

IoT

microelectromechanical systems

Grants
1 known grant, through Mar 2027

What they work on

  1. Develop zero-power magnetic field sensors and shear-stress sensors for self-powered, edge-of-the-node sensing in IoT systems.
  2. Build miniature LiDAR (laser-based distance sensing) for autonomous applications and low-loss, high-gain 5G antennas for high-speed wireless communication.
  3. Integrate microsystems, including MEMS, acoustic, magnetic, metamaterial and microfluidic devices, on flexible platforms for wearable and multi-functional devices.

More about the research

Building it requires turning new materials and devices into complete, low-power systems. One goal is "mist computing," which puts computing directly at the sensor rather than in distant cloud servers. Such systems must handle fast communication, self-powered sensing, energy-efficient computing, networking and integration.

Why it matters

Low-power sensors, antennas and integrated microsystems are the hardware behind wearables, sensor networks and autonomous vehicles. Advances such as zero-power magnetic sensors, miniature LiDAR and better 5G antennas could help industry partners build smarter, more energy-efficient IoT devices. Computing at the sensor itself could reduce the need to send all data to the cloud.

Known grants

From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.

Phase II IUCRC at University of Florida: Center for Multi-functional Integrated System Technology (MIST)

NSF · Apr 2020 – Mar 2027

Closest labs

Aatmesh Shrivastava

Northeastern University, MA·Engineering·Early-career

Develop a distributed beamforming technique that combines RF energy from multiple Wi-Fi or Bluetooth-type transmitters and directs it to a remote IoT receiver, using closed-loop optimization between transmitters and receiver.

Abbas Semnani

University of Toledo, OH·Engineering·Early-career

Develop theoretical and modeling frameworks for microplasmas at high frequencies, including a circuit-based electromagnetic-plasma simulator that links electron density, gas type and pressure to RF behavior.

Mingyue Ji

University of Florida, FL·Engineering·Early-career

Develop reconfigurable radio hardware and CAP-MIMO antenna designs, whose sub-apertures can be split between tasks, so one system can sense surroundings and communicate at once in the INSTINCT system.

The school

University of Florida: 65 labs on PI Pages, $1.3B a year on research, 795 research doctorates a year.

More about University of Florida

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