Three Lee J. Styslinger Jr. College of Engineering faculty recently received National Science Foundation CAREER Awards, one of the most prestigious awards for early-career faculty.
The NSF CAREER Award honors researchers who conduct research that pushes the boundaries of science, engineering and technology and who demonstrate leadership in education or community outreach. These awards provide funding for ground-breaking research, fostering innovation in science and technology and enhancing the connection between fundamental research and national priorities.
Dr. Lina Pu of the Department of Computer Science, Dr. Zhongyang Wang of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Dr. Pan Zhao of the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics were recognized with this distinguished award.
Dr. Lina Pu
Communicating underwater is much more difficult than communicating through the air. Radio waves, which transmit easily through air, attenuate very quickly when they touch water. Thus, underwater systems typically rely on acoustic communication, using sound waves to carry information, which has enabled long-range underwater communication.
However, because sound waves travel much slower underwater than through air and have a limited bandwidth, it is difficult for underwater robots, vehicles and sensors to communicate reliably.
Pu’s CAREER Award will support research into a new underwater communication development called underwater acoustic reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (UA-RIS), which are special panels that can control how sound waves reflect in water, enabling them to travel farther and carry more information. This project will form the foundations of UA-RIS-assisted underwater networking through three research goals: it will design and model innovative UA-RIS architectures using coupled electromechanical and acoustic methods; establish a passive-active co-localization framework; and extend UA-RIS from link-level performance improvement to network-level operation.
Pu’s goal is to build the scientific foundation for smarter underwater communication and sensing systems that could impact ocean research, environmental monitoring, offshore infrastructure inspection and maritime security. Further, Pu will use this research to benefit the public by training students, creating open tools and datasets for other researchers, and encouraging young students to have an interest in ocean technology through outreach activities.
“This award gives us the chance to lay the groundwork for a new generation of underwater communication technology and to share what we learn openly with the field,” Pu said.
Dr. Zhongyang Wang
Hydrogen is a critical element to numerous systems on earth, including long-term energy storage and the production of ammonia, which is used in synthetic fertilizers that support the global food supply.
Although hydrogen is one of the most abundant elements on Earth, it does not exist on its own in nature and must be manufactured. Water electrolysis, the process of using electricity to split water into hydrogen gas and oxygen gas, is the focus of Wang’s project.
Wang’s CAREER Award will support research to manage a critical bottleneck in advancing anion exchange membranes for high-performance anion exchange membrane water electrolysis. This project will address the lack of effective strategies to concurrently achieve high oxidative stability, high ionic conductivity and dimensional stability. The key innovation in Wang’s work is the development of a new copolymer platform that has the potential to decouple and optimize conflicting properties within a single material system.
Wang aims to support innovations in hydrogen production, offering a cleaner, more cost-effective route to produce hydrogen, a development that could improve national energy security, environmental sustainability and the resilience of the global food system.
“This NSF CAREER Award provides our group with a unique opportunity to investigate polymer chemistries and structures that govern ion-conducting polymer properties for electrolysis and energy applications. Our lab aims to build a polymer platform that has the potential to decouple and optimize multiple conflicting properties within a single material system,” Wang said. “The five-year support allows us to pursue high-risk, high-impact research directions while simultaneously building educational activities in polymer science across multiple levels.”
Dr. Pan Zhao
Autonomous system technologies such as self-driving cars, autonomous spacecraft and delivery drones have the potential to transform the transportation, environmental monitoring, disaster response and space exploration industries. However, ensuring that they can safely operate in uncertain conditions, such as strong winds, gravitational changes and system damage, remains a major challenge for scientists and engineers.
Zhao’s research supported by the NSF CAREER Award aims to develop mathematic and computational frameworks that enable autonomous systems to operate under uncertainty while maintaining provable safety and performance guarantees. Using control theory and machine learning, Zhao aims to develop scalable and reliable control methods for high-dimensional autonomous systems.
Zhao plans to integrate educational outreach into this project to broaden student participation in autonomous systems and robotics research. As part of this project, he will organize workshops at major control conferences, drone racing challenges for high school students, twisty events for elementary students, and research training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students at UA.
“I am deeply honored to receive an NSF CAREER Award,” Zhao said. “This award provides an exciting opportunity to advance foundational research at the intersection of control theory and machine learning while supporting the training of students in autonomous systems and aerospace engineering. I believe this recognition also reflects the strong research environment and supportive culture within our department and the Styslinger College of Engineering.”
These awards are given by the NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program, which supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as role models in both research and education.