School Notes: School of Engineering & Applied Science
September/October 2026

Bridging quality and practicality

Robots, drones, self-driving vehicles, and other autonomous devices rely on thermal sensing and imaging to navigate the spaces they travel in. It’s also used for night vision, remote thermometers, and rescue operations. There are two common types of thermal imaging technology. One is very accurate but requires extremely cold temperatures and is very expensive. The other is more accessible but lacks accuracy. Using a type of transistor that amplifies a circuit, Fengnian Xia, the Tso-Ping Ma Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and his research team developed a thermal imaging technology that’s much more accurate, while still practical for common uses.

Professor honored for work

Richard E. Carson, professor of biomedical engineering and of radiology and biomedical imaging, has been named the 2026 recipient of the prestigious Paul C. Aebersold Award from the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. Carson’s work has contributed to significant advances in the understanding and application of nuclear medicine, specifically in the field of neuroscience and neuropsychiatric disorders. Most recently, he led the collaboration that produced the NeuroEXPLORER, an ultra-high-performance imaging system that is producing unprecedented images of the human brain. The Aebersold Award, first presented in 1973, recognizes outstanding achievement in basic science applied to nuclear medicine. 

Research that stands the test of time

Leandros Tassiulas, the John C. Malone Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, received the ACM e-Energy Test of Time Award for a 2011 paper on how to optimally schedule consumer power demands in real time to minimize grid operational costs. The award, granted by the Association for Computing Machinery, recognizes research that has had long-lasting influence by opening a new area of research, introducing new techniques, or solving a problem of lasting importance, as observed over a time range of at least ten years after publication.