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The Paris Olympic Games: behind the scenes from an electrical engineering student

Charles Ferrer — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 13:23:43 +0000

The Paris Olympic Games: behind the scenes from an electrical engineering student Charles Ferrer Thu, 10/17/2024 - 07:23

Charles Ferrer

Ever wonder who’s behind the scenes at the Olympics, the most broadcasted sporting event in the world?

Noah Bernstein, a third-year electrical and computer engineering student, spent 11 exhilarating weeks at the 2024 Paris Olympics as a venue engineering intern with NBCUniversal, working alongside electrical and audio engineers to ensure every broadcast—including opening ceremonies, competitions and medal ceremonies—went off without a hitch.

“It was 100% the internship of a lifetime. I was beyond lucky,” said Bernstein. “Although my work was just a drop in this massive system, working with NBC’s engineering department in Paris was so fascinating, and it was amazing to see how smoothly the entire operation ran.”

‘Countless’ engineers

Noah Bernstein and his engineering mentors from NBCUniversal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Billed as the world’s largest media event, nearly 2,000 NBCUniversal production crews, operations and engineering teams worked together to provide 7,000 hours of coverage for the Paris Olympics. Viewership spanned broadcast, cable and streaming channels for a total of 3,200 live events across their television portfolio, which included NBC Sports, Peacock and USA Network.

“It’s easy to forget just how many incredible minds are behind these games. One may not immediately think about the engineers at the Olympics when you turn on the TV,” Bernstein said. “This experience has made me appreciate the countless engineers working behind every camera and broadcast.”

Stationed at the International Broadcast Center where NBC was located, Bernstein assisted engineers in the setup and testing of broadcast equipment to make sure electronic systems were fully operational for the international event.

His hands-on work included configuring and testing essential broadcast systems, building custom cables and managing inventory. Additionally, he contributed to the integration and testing of advanced fiber optic systems, signal converters and video routers, all while participating in daily training sessions led by industry experts that deepened his understanding of complex broadcast infrastructures.

One of his favorite parts of the internship was fine-tuning his soldering skills. He learned the process used to join metal components together in his applications of embedded systems class. He also worked on cable termination and assembling microphones.

“When I had to be on-call and deliver technical equipment to venues, I occasionally popped my head in to see the games happening,” said Bernstein.

Interning at the Olympics was a grind, but during his free time, he visited a few chateaus by train and explored the beautiful architecture of Paris. He also watched some athletics events, such as boxing and men’s gymnastics and walked to where Team USA was housed.

Bernstein even got to meet some women rugby players and gymnasts. One final perk to make this internship experience even more worth it was watching the Closing Ceremonies.

Olympic Spirit

While the Olympic Games celebrate the spirit of competition among the world’s greatest athletes, the collaborative effort to broadcast these events to billions had a magic of its own.

“A really special part of the experience was working with people from all over the world. NBC has people from different nationalities working for them,” said Bernstein.

“I got to meet people who worked on the Rio and Sochi games, so this truly was an international and special experience.”

Noah Bernstein, a third-year electrical and computer engineering student, spent 11 exhilarating weeks at the 2024 Paris Olympics as a venue engineering intern with NBCUniversal.

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CU electrical engineering undergraduate program rank top 20 nationally

Charles Ferrer — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 20:00:17 +0000

CU electrical engineering undergraduate program rank top 20 nationally Charles Ferrer Wed, 09/25/2024 - 14:00

CU Boulder's electrical engineering program is among the top 20 undergraduate programs according to the U.S. News and World Report for 2024-25. In the specialty rankings, electrical engineering is No. 16 among public universities.

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Bienert joins CU Boulder’s Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Bienert joins CU Boulder’s Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/15/2024 - 00:00

Charles Ferrer

The Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering at CU Boulder is excited in welcoming Nicole Bienert to our teaching and research community.

Bienert is joining as an assistant professor in the electromagnetics research area starting fall 2024. Welcome, Nicole!

Bio: Nicole Bienert received her PhD and master’s in electrical engineering from Stanford University and her Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering with a minor in physics from the Schreyer Honors College at The Pennsylvania State University.

Throughout her education, Nicole interned at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and after graduation, she joined Google as an equitable imaging researcher. She then returned to academia as a postdoc at the University of Southern California.

Research Focus: Bienert is a computational imaging researcher in environmental radar remote sensing and computational photography. Her innovations in signal processing, inverse theory and instrumentation enable 2D-4D imaging at a quality, clarity, resolution, or spatial extent impossible with conventional imaging methods. Her work earned the 2020 IGARSS Prize Paper Award and an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

What are you most excited about joining CU Engineering?
In returning to academia from industry, I am most excited about working with students again. I look forward to inspiring curiosity, creating career opportunities and promoting student success and well-being. The CU Engineering student body strikes me as a group passionate about innovation, exploration, creation, having an impact and the outdoors. This mindset resonates with me and forms an energy I look forward to using to help propel students along a successful educational journey.

Why CU Boulder?
My focus on environmental sensing requires easy access to diverse landscapes (e.g. mountains, forests, deserts and farmlands) which is provided in abundance by Boulder’s location. Additionally, I am an avid skier and outdoors enthusiast, so I look forward to exploring the beautiful Rocky Mountains and joining the outdoors community of Boulder.

CU Boulder is a world-class institution, particularly renowned for its electromagnetics/RF program. As an electromagnetics/RF researcher, I look forward to expanding on this successful program with distributed radar sensing and computational photography.”

Nicole Bienert is joining as an assistant professor in the electromagnetics research area starting fall 2024. Welcome, Nicole!

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CU Boulder wins $20M to lead National Quantum Nanofab facility

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 22:04:09 +0000

CU Boulder wins $20M to lead National Quantum Nanofab facility Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/20/2024 - 16:04

A new facility will give researchers from Colorado and across the country a space to think up and design devices that tap into the world of atoms and even smaller things—potentially leading to new sensors, ultra-fast computer chips and more.

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CU Boulder's electrical and computer engineering graduate program rank top 20 nationally

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 20:37:12 +0000

CU Boulder's electrical and computer engineering graduate program rank top 20 nationally Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/18/2024 - 14:37

The electrical and computer engineering programs at CU Boulder are among the top 20 engineering graduate programs according to the U.S. News and World Report for 2024-25. In the specialty rankings, computer engineering is No. 16 and electrical engineering is No. 17 among public universities.

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Air quality detection and filtration technology to support Native American communities

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 21:38:31 +0000

Air quality detection and filtration technology to support Native American communities Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/13/2024 - 15:38

Dragan Maksimovic, professor of electrical, computer and energy engineering and Shelly Miller, professor of mechanical engineering are collaborating to develop air quality technologies that detect and filtrate air for Native American communities through a NIST-sponsored project.

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Tamara Silbergleit Lehman earns IEEE Rising Star Service Award for advancing computing technologies

Anonymous — Tue, 28 May 2024 18:59:23 +0000

Tamara Silbergleit Lehman earns IEEE Rising Star Service Award for advancing computing technologies Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/28/2024 - 12:59

Charles Ferrer

Assistant Professor Tamara Silbergleit Lehman recently received the 2024 Technical and Conference Activities Rising Star Service Award from the IEEE Computer Society, the largest global organization engaging computer scientists and engineers.

The Rising Star Service Award is presented annually to an individual who is 10 years or less into their career and has contributed to advancing computer science and technology.

Lehman, who joined the Department of Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering at CU Boulder in 2019, focuses on all aspects of computer security from the microarchitectural perspective and has led efforts to make computer architecture more inclusive. Her research interests span a wide array of topics at the intersection of computer architecture and security, aiming to design secure processors that are robust against numerous microarchitectural vulnerabilities.

“Receiving this award encourages me to continue doing the work to improve diversity and inclusion within the computer architecture community,” Lehman said. “I hope this service can help make improvements in the diversity of the community.”

Lehman organized the Career Workshop for Inclusion and Diversity in Computer Architecture (CWIDCA) for five years, which is the longest running workshop of its kind among the computer architecture community. The CWIDCA — in conjunction with MICRO, the top-tier conference in computer architecture research — has supported about 30 students annually for its ninth year in creating networks of diverse researchers across companies, universities and countries. She collaborated with fellow co-organizers, including Valentina Salapura of Google, Alan Bivens of IBM, Professor Hyeran Jeon from University of California Merced and Professor Elaheh Sadredini from University of California Riverside.

As part of her nomination, Professor Yan Solihin from the University of Central Florida remarked, “Tamara goes above and beyond to ensure her role has an impact in the community. It is clear from her impressive record of service and leadership that she truly cares about the success of our community.”

“I want to thank my friend and mentor Professor Iris Bahar for supporting me throughout the years,” said Lehman, “and Professor Yan Solihin for allowing me to serve in the organizing committee as the Travel Awards chair for the 50th Anniversary of the International Symposium on Computer Architecture.”

Lehman has earned numerous awards, including Outstanding Mentor for the Discovery Learning Apprenticeship and Outstanding Service for Inclusion and Diversity at CU Boulder, as well as the DARPA Risers award for her research that is advancing national security. In 2023, she was invited as a keynote speaker for the International Conference on Engineering Applications of Neural Networks in Spain.

She earned a PhD from Duke University in computer engineering. While completing her PhD, Lehman worked two consecutive summers at Intel Labs with the architectural security team in 2015 and 2016, which produced a patent titled, “Cryptographic Cache Lines for A Trusted Execution Environment.” She completed her master’s degree in computer engineering at Duke University and earned a bachelor’s of science from the University of Florida in industrial and systems engineering. Lehman holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Computer Science and is a member of the Colorado Research Center for Democracy and Technology.

She has authored 11 publications for major conferences, including the Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems, Parallel Architectures and Compilation Techniques and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. Additionally, she has published in several journals, with one article winning the Best Paper award and another receiving an honorable mention in Micro Top Picks.

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Al Gasiewski presented IEEE award for remote sensing research

Anonymous — Tue, 07 May 2024 14:48:38 +0000

Al Gasiewski presented IEEE award for remote sensing research Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/07/2024 - 08:48

Charles Ferrer

Professor Al Gasiewski was presented the Golden Florin award from the IEEE in recognition for his more than 40 years of outstanding contributions in passive microwave remote sensing research.

“I am grateful to the dozens of colleagues, advisors and students who throughout the past decades have made the progress in environmental remote sensing possible,” said Gasiewski, “and my family has been a constant source of support in my endeavors to better protect our planet.”

Based in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering at CU Boulder, Gasiewski has been a CU Boulder faculty member since 2006. He is the founding director of the Center for Environmental Technology, a laboratory which develops innovative observing systems for environmental applications.

Environmental research for global future

“It is more important than ever that we strive to take care of our environment and maintain professional opportunities for individuals globally to study remote sensing science,” said Gasiewski.

He added that his research provides a unique means of observing the large-scale environment of the planet.

“Microwave remote sensing provides us critical data about the atmosphere, oceans, ice sheets, land masses from forests to cities and numerous other related environmental realms,” he said. “It permits us to make informed decisions from the individual to the societal level that best protect our shared future.”

Gasiewski’s research has focused on sensing the natural environment using microwaves. He has developed a variety of microwave radiometers for weather and climate monitoring, including polarimetric radiometers used for ocean wind sensing, millimeter and submillimeter wave radiometers for measuring atmospheric temperature, water vapor, clouds, precipitation, imaging radiometers for sea ice and soil moisture mapping.

He recently developed a new radio detection method that promises to provide precise microwave measurements from weather satellites amidst the increasing amount of radio noise from wireless communications systems. His work is foundational to our system for global weather forecasting using satellites.

Gasiewski is an IEEE Fellow and member of the American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union and the International Union of Radio Scientists. His past awards include the IEEE GRSS' Education award in 2017 and the IEEE GRSS’ Outstanding Service Award in 2006.

About the Golden Florin Award
The Golden Florin Award is jointly sponsored by the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) and the Italian Centre for Microwave Remote Sensing. Recipients are national and international members of the GRSS. The Golden Florin is awarded every two years to researchers who have distinguished achievements and scientific breakthroughs in microwave radiometry in remote sensing.

Photo: Al Gasiewski awarded the 2024 Golden Florin award by the IEEE GRSS and the Italian Centre for Microwave Remote Sensing.

Professor Al Gasiewski was presented the Golden Florin award from the IEEE in recognition for his more than 40 years of outstanding contributions in passive microwave remote sensing research.

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ECEE students earn college undergraduate awards 2024

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 06:00:00 +0000

ECEE students earn college undergraduate awards 2024 Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/22/2024 - 00:00

Charles Ferrer

Two exceptional students from the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering (ECEE) have earned 2024 Graduating Student Awards from the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

These honors are awarded to seniors who are nominated by faculty, staff or fellow students for their outstanding contributions and achievements.

ECEE students will celebrate graduation on Thursday, May 9, 2024 from 4-6 p.m. at the Business Field.

Two exceptional students from the ECEE department have earned 2024 Graduating Student Awards from the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

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PhD students earn major NSF graduate research fellowships

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 20:31:58 +0000

PhD students earn major NSF graduate research fellowships Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/16/2024 - 14:31

Charles Ferrer

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.

Three Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering graduate students have received 2024 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships for their promising quantum and metamaterial antennas research.

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