Awards

Anika Mathur earns college Community Impact Award

Charles Ferrer — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 21:56:24 +0000

Anika Mathur earns college Community Impact Award Charles Ferrer Tue, 12/02/2025 - 14:56

Charles Ferrer

Anika Mathur

Anika Mathur, a fourth-year electrical engineering student, has earned the fall 2025 Community Impact Award from the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

The award recognizes graduating undergraduate students who contribute to improving their community at the department, program, college, university and community level.

Mathur has served as treasurer for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and Engineers Without Border (EWB) since September 2023.

“Anika leads by example, inspiring others to take action while fostering an inclusive environment,” said Professor Melinda Piket-May. “Through her leadership roles, she promotes collaboration and encourages participation from students of all backgrounds. By modeling these values, Anika strengthens the college community and sets a standard for future leaders.”

Mathur’s impact with other student organizations supported by the Campos Student Center has spread positive ripples for their leadership boards.

“Anika has mentored multiple students into leadership roles and actively promotes collaboration between student organizations,” said Amanda McKenzie, coordinator of student societies. “Her financial expertise has made her a trusted student leader. She also ensures that all students feel welcome, often going out of her way to engage quieter or newer members in conversation.”

We sat down with Mathur as she reflected on her leadership and community involvement at the college.

You’ve mentioned that your community journey started before you even arrived at CU Boulder. How did that experience shape everything that followed?

When I visited CU as a high school senior, I attended Mocktail Night, an event for admitted students hosted by SWE and the dean’s office. The women I met that night inspired me so much and they were the reason I chose CU. I walked away feeling seen, welcomed and reassured that I could belong here. That moment stayed with me. So, when I came to campus as a first-year student, I sought out SWE at the Be Involved Fair on my very first day because I wanted to join the community that had already made such an impact on my life.

Your involvement with SWE has grown significantly over the years. What has that experience meant to you?

Early on, I went to as many SWE events as possible from friendship bracelet nights to resume reviews. By the end of that year, I wanted to help build the same supportive space I had benefited from. Becoming director of events allowed me to create welcoming environments through our weekly “Totally Tuesday” meetings. Now, as Treasurer for a second year, I help maintain the organization’s financial health and guide committees in planning events that bring women engineers together. What I value most is helping others feel encouraged and confident. Engineering can be overwhelming, and sometimes the most meaningful impact comes from checking in on someone who looks uncertain or saying “I’ll go with you” to a first-time attendee.

Mathur (middle left) along with student leadership member of the Society of Women Engineers at the 2025 National Conference in New Orleans, La.

You also hold a major role in Engineers Without Borders. What has your work on the Nepal team taught you?

EWB has taught me how important it is to slow down and listen before deciding what “help” looks like. We work with communities, not for them, and that approach has changed the way I think about engineering. It’s not just about designing a solution, it’s about understanding people’s needs, priorities and perspectives. Being able to support that kind of long-term, relationship-focused work means a lot to me.

Tell us more about your STEM outreach work with TeachEngineering. What impact did that have on you?

Creating hands-on STEM education videos for the TeachEngineering Digital Library allowed me to reach K-12 teachers and students across the country. Knowing that these videos might be the first time a student sees engineering is incredibly meaningful. Not everyone grows up knowing an engineer, so if a student watches an experiment and thinks, “Maybe I could do this too,” then I’ve made a difference.

What drives you to show up for your communities?

It honestly has been rooted in creating spaces where students can grow with confidence, especially during moments when engineering can feel overwhelming or isolating. Some of the most meaningful contributions happen in the small moments: showing up consistently, checking in when someone seems unsure, saying “I’ll go with you to this event,” or simply making room for someone to try something new. Those moments build trust and connection. I hope to continue creating communities where we lift one another up, celebrate each other’s achievements and move forward together.

What are some of your favorite aspects about the ECEE department during your undergraduate career?

One of my favorite parts of the ECEE department has been how genuinely inclusive it feels. Even though the field is very male-dominated, I’ve never felt lesser than my peers here and a huge part of that is because our professors and staff are intentional about creating a welcoming, encouraging environment. I’ve also received an incredible amount of support throughout my time in the department, from professors who take time to help you truly understand the material to advising staff who always make sure you’re on the right track. That level of support has meant everything and has shaped a big part of my experience.

What about electrical engineering excites you?

I love how versatile electrical engineering is. There are so many directions you can go and the skill set opens doors in almost every industry. That range keeps the field exciting for me. I also love the mix of theory and hands-on problem-solving. Electrical engineering gives you the tools to build meaningful, real-world technology while still leaving endless room to explore.

What advice would you give future engineering students who want to make an impact?

My advice to future students is that if you want to make an impact here, start small. Just show up. Walk into that first meeting, even if you feel nervous. Ask someone how they’re doing, and really listen to the answer. Say yes to opportunities that feel new or a little uncertain. Community is built through consistent, simple acts of showing up for each other.

Lead with kindness. Engineering is challenging, and people often carry more than they let on. A supportive word, a shared moment or a genuine conversation can make a real difference. Surround yourself with people who encourage you, and be that source of encouragement for others too.

And most importantly: you are already enough. You don’t need to prove that you deserve to study engineering, you already do. What matters is that we keep lifting each other up, step by step, so we all continue to grow, learn and shine here. The most meaningful part of my experience at CU has been the people and the community we’ve built together. Being part of helping others feel supported, confident, and valued is something I am genuinely proud of, and I hope every student who comes after me carries that forward.

What’s next?

I’m continuing my studies in the Bachelor’s–Accelerated Master’s Program at CU Boulder to complete my master’s in electrical engineering with a concentration in high speed digital engineering. After that, I hope to work in industry, likely in hardware or signal integrity. I really enjoy the intersection of engineering and people, so I’d love a role that lets me solve technical challenges while working closely with others.

I’d love to thank the people who’ve supported me throughout my journey. I’m incredibly grateful to Professor Piket-May and Professor Bogatin for their guidance, as well as the advising staff who have always been there to help. I also want to thank Amanda for her constant encouragement and for creating such a supportive environment for all of our student orgs. Most of all, I want to thank my fellow SWE board members. They have been my strongest support system, and I truly couldn’t have gotten here without them. Their teamwork, kindness and friendship have made this experience meaningful and I’m grateful for everything we’ve built together.

Mathur, a fourth-year electrical engineering student, has earned the fall 2025 Community Impact Award from the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Mathur has served as treasurer for the Society of Women Engineers and Engineers Without Border during her time at CU Boulder.

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Diddams inducted into National Academy of Engineering

Charles Ferrer — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 15:09:21 +0000

Diddams inducted into National Academy of Engineering Charles Ferrer Wed, 10/15/2025 - 09:09

Charles Ferrer

Diddams was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering at their annual meeting on Oct. 5 in Washington, DC.

Scott Diddams, professor and Robert H. Davis Endowed Chair in Discovery Learning, was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Election to the NAE is one of the highest professional distinctions granted to engineers in academia and industry.

Diddams, based in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering and the Department of Physics, was recognized for his outstanding contributions in optical frequency combs and their applications. He joins 128 new U.S. members and 21 international members to the Class of 2025.

“Each day when I get up, I feel fortunate that my job allows me to be curious, attempt to solve hard problems and work with students and motivated people doing the same,” Diddams said. “I am truly humbled by this honor.”

Diddams carries out experimental research in the fields of precision spectroscopy and quantum metrology, nonlinear optics, microwave photonics and ultrafast lasers.

One of his current projects is a collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that aims to use an optical atomic clock, to test Einstein’s theory of general relativity atop Mt. Blue Sky. This endeavor marks one of the first efforts to take ultra-precise quantum technology out of the lab and into the natural environment, opening new opportunities for navigation, geosciences and timekeeping.

I am most grateful to the students, postdocs, colleagues and mentors who have made me a better scientist, engineer and person. I am also thankful to my family for their personal support in many unseen ways.

Diddams received his PhD degree from the �Թ�� of New Mexico in 1996 and completed his postdoctoral work at JILA. He also spent time as a research physicist, group leader and fellow at NIST. As a postdoc, Diddams built the first optical frequency combs in the lab of CU Boulder Nobel Laureate John Hall. Throughout his career, he has pioneered the use of these powerful tools for optical clocks, tests of fundamental physics, novel spectroscopy and astronomy.

In 2022, he joined the CU Boulder faculty, where he also assumed the role of faculty director of the Quantum Engineering Initiative in the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

His work has resulted in more than 750 peer-reviewed publications, conference papers, and invited talks, and has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award, the U.S. Department of Commerce Gold and Silver Medals, the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (PECASE) and the C.E.K. Mees Medal. Diddams is also a Fellow of OPTICA, IEEE and the American Physical Society.

“As a member of the NAE, it is my hope to give back to the community and country that has provided me with so much as a scientist and engineer.”

Scott Diddams was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering Class of 2025 for his outstanding contributions in optical frequency combs and their applications.

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Tamara Lehman receives CAREER award to strengthen hardware security

Charles Ferrer — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 20:40:09 +0000

Tamara Lehman receives CAREER award to strengthen hardware security Charles Ferrer Wed, 03/12/2025 - 14:40

Charles Ferrer

Lehman lands the 2025 CAREER award through the National Science Foundation to advance computer architecture security.

Computers are faster than ever—but at what cost? Speed and performance have long been prioritized over security in hardware design, leaving modern systems vulnerable to attacks.

Assistant Professor Tamara Lehman, from CU Boulder’s Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, is working to address these vulnerabilities in microarchitecture designs while exploring security metrics for future hardware designs.

Lehman recently received a prestigious $615,000, five-year National Science Foundation CAREER Award to advance computer architecture security.

Addressing security gaps in hardware design

Microarchitectural security is the defense mechanisms that can be added at microarchitectural design time.

“Microarchitectural security has been in the back seat for a long time. For years, we’ve focused on making computers faster without fully considering what that means for security,” Lehman said. “That’s why we’re now dealing with systems that are high-performing but often lack security guarantees.”

Microarchitectural design is the functional level design of the hardware; one level above logic gates and one level below the operating system. It is the implementation of the software interface using the hardware constructs.

Since the 2018 disclosure of the Spectre and Meltdown attacks—security vulnerabilities affecting modern processors—industry and academia have faced increasing pressure to address hardware security risks. However, the lack of standardized metrics for assessing microarchitectural security makes it difficult to compare designs and implement effective safeguards.

Lehman’s research aims to bridge this gap by integrating security metrics directly into the hardware design process.

Lehman working with PhD student, Zach Moolman, in her lab.

Evaluating microarchitectural vulnerabilities

The first phase of the project focuses on caches—critical memory structures that are among the most vulnerable components in modern processors.

Lehman and her PhD students will define security metrics for caches and integrate them into commonly used processor simulators, ensuring these tools become widely available to both researchers and industry professionals. She hopes to propose a novel approach to quantify hardware security risks.

“Right now, companies in industry make trade-offs between performance and security with little concrete data about the security guarantees afforded by defense mechanisms,” she said. “My goal is to develop standardized security metrics that allow designers to measure and compare the security of different microarchitectural components in parallel to performance.”

Once they can prove those security metrics provide a meaningful assessment of security risks, they can expand the framework to other parts of the processor microarchitecture, she said.

Real-world implications: strengthening critical infrastructure

Lehman’s research has significant implications for global cybersecurity.

“We rely on computing devices for everything from banking to autonomous vehicles,” she said. “If a microarchitectural attack compromises the hardware running an autonomous driving system, lives could be at risk.”

Beyond personal and commercial computing, her research could help protect critical infrastructure from cyberattacks, such as power grid systems and banking systems.

Lehman noted how the 2021 Colonial Pipeline cyberattack disrupted oil supply chains across the United States and a prime example of how vulnerabilities in computing systems can have far-reaching consequences.

Bringing security for hardware designs

Ultimately, Lehman’s research aims to shift the conversation from viewing security as a trade-off to seeing it as a fundamental design requirement.

“There are no standardized security metrics for hardware or for software,” she said. “We hope to establish widely accepted security evaluation methods that can be integrated into both research and industry design practices.”

“I want to move us toward a more concrete, data-driven approach where security is as quantifiable as performance in hardware design,” Lehman said.

Tamara Lehman, assistant professor of computer engineering, has earned a CAREER award through the National Science Foundation to address hardware vulnerabilities in microarchitecture designs while exploring security metrics for future hardware designs.

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Gopinath, Afridi win 2016 CAREER Awards from NSF

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 18:52:59 +0000

Gopinath, Afridi win 2016 CAREER Awards from NSF Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/06/2016 - 12:52

Assistant professors Juliet Gopinath and Khurram Afridi have received 2016 CAREER Awards, the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award for junior faculty.

"We anticipate with excitement that this new class of CAREER grantees will make pioneering discoveries and inspire young minds to advance the engineering enterprise and improve the lives of all Americans," NSF Assistant Director for Engineering Pramod Khargonekar said in a press release.

Gopinath will use her award to study the relationship between orbital angular momentum and rotating objects. “The results from the research will be far-reaching, with information about orbital angular momentum modal content essential for free-space communications and endoscopic super-resolution imaging (STED) for protein-level imaging in the human body,” she wrote in her proposal.

Afridi’s award will support his research in high-frequency power electronics for wireless power transfer systems. The technology “has the potential to address critical energy issues and improve human quality of life by enabling autonomous charging in applications ranging from electric vehicles (EVs) and robotics to portable electronics and biomedical implants,” Afridi wrote.

CAREER awards provide approximately $500,000 over five years.

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Zoya Popovic named 2015 Distinguished Research Lecturer

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Jul 2015 20:22:51 +0000

Zoya Popovic named 2015 Distinguished Research Lecturer Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/23/2015 - 14:22

Zoya Popovic of electrical, computer and energy engineering will deliver this year's Distinguished Research Lecture at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16, in the Glenn Miller Ballroom. This lectureship is among the highest honors bestowed by the faculty upon a faculty member at CU-Boulder.

The title of Popovic's talk is "The Wireless World: 50 Cell Phones Sold Per Second!" She will attempt to answer the questions of where we are now in terms of wireless technology and its applications, how we got there, what are the current challenges, how engineers are solving them, and to speculate a bit on what the future holds.

The effects of wireless on the economy are impressive: In the first quarter of 2015 alone, the iPhone brought Apple over $50 billion, and this is just a part of wireless technology. In recent years, wireless communications accounts for 2% of energy usage in the world, which is equivalent to the aviation industry. At CU, research by Popovic and others solves challenges such as how to send more data while using less power, how radio waves can help in medicine, how to make smaller more functional radar and how to cook smartly.

Her lecture is free and open to the public, though pre-registration is recommended. To register, please visit www.tinyurl.com/ZoyaPopovic.

Each year, the Office of the Vice �Թ�� for Research requests nominations from faculty for the Distinguished Research Lectureship, and a faculty review panel recommends one faculty member as a recipient. Three faculty members were selected this year, with Diane McKnight from civil, environmental and architectural engineering and Doug Seals from integrative physiology also delivering lectures.

Popovic is a Distinguished Professor and the Hudson Moore Jr. Endowed Chair of Electrical Engineering at the �Թ�� of Colorado. She obtained her Dipl.Ing. degree at the �Թ�� of Belgrade, Serbia, and her Ph.D. at Caltech. She has graduated more than 50 PhDs and currently advises 15 doctoral students in various areas of high-frequency electronics and microwave engineering. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the recipient of two IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques (MTT) Microwave Prizes for best journal papers, the White House National Science Foundation (NSF) Presidential Faculty Fellow award, the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) Issac Koga Gold Medal, the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE)/HP Terman Medal and the German Humboldt Research Award. She was named IEEE MTT Distinguished Educator in 2013. Her husband is a physicist, and together they have three daughters.

Zoya Popovic of electrical, computer and energy engineering will deliver this year's Distinguished Research Lecture at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16, in the Glenn Miller Ballroom.

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Erickson named CU-Boulder Inventor of the Year

Anonymous — Thu, 23 Apr 2015 20:34:20 +0000

Erickson named CU-Boulder Inventor of the Year Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/23/2015 - 14:34

Professor Robert Erickson has been named CU-Boulder Inventor of the Year by the �Թ�� of Colorado Technology Transfer Office. The award recognizes a researcher who "best represents both the spirit of innovation at CU-Boulder and best practices in commercialization of university technologies."

Erickson's work focuses on making use of new technologies to improve power management and energy utilization in a wide range of electronic systems including battery-powered mobile electronics, high-frequency switching power supplies and renewable-energy systems. His inventions continue to attract sustaining members to the Colorado Power Electronics Center (CoPEC), and one of his inventions, a low-profile micro inverter, has been engineered into a solar roof shingle.

Erickson holds eight patents, and took an entrepreneurial leave from the university in 2011 to serve as chief technology officer for Phobos Energy, a company he co-founded.

Currently, Erickson is serving as principal investigator on a two-year, $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a new composite power conversion approach for electric vehicles. He and professors Khurram Afridi, Dragan Maksimovic, Dan Seltzer and Ronggui Yang also received a grant to compete in the Google/IEEE Little Box Challenge. The contest's goal is to dramatically change the technology of solar power inverters, creating one that is at least 10 times smaller than the current picnic cooler-sized inverters commonly used in photovoltaic solar power systems and other green energy applications.

Professor's work focuses on making use of new technologies to improve power management and energy utilization in a wide range of electronic systems.

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Two faculty members named IEEE Fellows for 2015

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 07:00:00 +0000

Two faculty members named IEEE Fellows for 2015 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 12/17/2014 - 00:00

Two faculty members from the CU-Boulder Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering were recently named Fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for 2015.

Professor Dragan Maksimovic was selected for contributions to digital control of high-frequency switched-mode power converters. Professor Victor Bright of mechanical engineering, who holds a joint appointment in ECEE, was selected for his contributions to micro- and nano-electromechanical systems

According to the IEEE, the grade of fellow is the highest grade of membership, and the total number of members selected annually cannot exceed one-tenth of one percent of the organization's total voting membership. The grade is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and important career achievement.

Maksimovic and Bright join 10 other ECEE faculty members who are already IEEE Fellows: Frank Barnes, Steven Cundiff, Robert Erickson, Albin Gasiewski, Edward Kuester, Michael Lightner, Lucy Pao, Jay Pearlman, Zoya Popovic and Mahesh Varanasi. Five of the department's emeritus faculty members are also Fellows.

�Թ�� IEEE

The IEEE is the world's leading professional association for advancing technology for humanity. Through its 400,000 members in 160 countries, the IEEE is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Dedicated to the advancement of technology, the IEEE publishes 30 percent of the world's literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields, and has developed more than 900 active industry standards. The association also sponsors or co-sponsors nearly 400 international technical conferences each year. To learn more about IEEE or the IEEE Fellow Program, please visit www.ieee.org.

Two faculty members from the CU-Boulder Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering were recently named Fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for 2015.

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Moddel receives patent for new solar-cell technology

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 06:00:00 +0000

Moddel receives patent for new solar-cell technology Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/15/2014 - 00:00

The idea for Garret Moddel's most recent patent - his 30th - has been in the works for nearly as many years.

Moddel, professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering at CU-Boulder, was issued a patent in August for geometric diode, applications and method, a technology that lays the foundation for high-efficiency, low-cost photovoltaic cells.

"Before CU, I was at a Silicon Valley solar startup where we were making the usual semiconductor solar cells," Moddel said. "But I had this question in my head â€“ couldn't we make it out of something simpler?"

He came up with a few concepts at the time, but didn't pursue them until years later, when he jumped at the chance to develop his ideas further at CU-Boulder.

He explained that the problem with conventional solar cells is they can only convert about 35% of the light they collect into electrical power. Limitations on semiconductors mean that certain parts of the light spectrum, like infrared, aren't utilized, and other parts are wasted.

Antenna-coupled diode (rectenna) solar cells, which pick up light like a radio wave, help to solve that problem. But the diode that converts AC to DC still presents a challenge for maximizing the efficiency of the cell and making it cost-effective to manufacture.

"The diode has to operate at extremely high frequency - that's the hard part, and that's what my lab works on," Moddel said.

His geometric diode consists of a thin, arrowhead-shaped graphene film not much longer than an electron's mean-free path length, which allows charge carriers to move more easily to the left than to the right. The flat surface avoids a capacitance/resistance tradeoff that has prevented other diode implementations from being adopted.

The next step in Moddel's work will be to refine the materials and structure of the geometric diode. "We're now trying to make it practical to produce," he said.

Read More

http://ecee.colorado.edu/~moddel/QEL/Papers/Moddel11.pdf
Rectennas Solar Cells , Garret Moddel and Sachit Grover, editors, (Springer, New York, 2013)

Moddel was issued a patent in August for geometric diode, applications and method, a technology that lays the foundation for high-efficiency, low-cost photovoltaic cells.

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Grant will enable deep-brain imaging

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 06:00:00 +0000

Grant will enable deep-brain imaging Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/12/2014 - 00:00

In order to understand diseases like Parkinson's, researchers need to look at individual neurons in the brain. However, with current techniques, nearly 75 percent of the brain is inaccessible.

ECEE Assistant Professor Juliet Gopinath and her research team want to change that. They've received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a fiber-optic imaging instrument that will complete deep-brain imaging using a miniature nonlinear microscope. Specifically, the instrument will provide the ability look deep in the brain at the function of neurons in the olfactory system.

"Optical imaging methods offer an unprecedented ability to study individual neurons in the brain," Gopinath said.

Gopinath is collaborating with Victor Bright from CU-Boulder's Department of Mechanical Engineering, as well as Emily Gibson and Diego Restrepo from CU-Denver. Restrepo is the director of the Center for Neuroscience.

The project builds on the team's established work in four disciplines: lasers and nonlinear optics for the excitation source; nonlinear microscopy for high resolution imaging; electrically tunable electrowetting lenses for scanning; and optogenetics for optically reading out action potentials, or electrical signals that are released when neurons fire.

ECEE Assistant Professor Juliet Gopinath and her research team have received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a fiber-optic imaging instrument that will complete deep-brain imaging using a miniature nonlinear microscope.

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Awards

Anika Mathur earns college Community Impact Award

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Diddams inducted into National Academy of Engineering

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Tamara Lehman receives CAREER award to strengthen hardware security

Addressing security gaps in hardware design

Evaluating microarchitectural vulnerabilities

Real-world implications: strengthening critical infrastructure

Bringing security for hardware designs

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Gopinath, Afridi win 2016 CAREER Awards from NSF

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Zoya Popovic named 2015 Distinguished Research Lecturer

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Erickson named CU-Boulder Inventor of the Year

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Two faculty members named IEEE Fellows for 2015

�Թ��� IEEE

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Moddel receives patent for new solar-cell technology

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Grant will enable deep-brain imaging

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�Թ�� IEEE