Research

The University of Tennessee's flagship campus in Knoxville boasts a vigorous research agenda engaging scholars and students with expertise in issues vital to local and global interests. UT Knoxville is the hub of a vibrant research community that includes Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other University of Tennessee System campuses and institutes. EECS engineers and scientists are actively engaged in the following areas of research:

AICIP's research interests include collaborative signal and information processing in sensor networks, automatic target recognition (acoustic and seismic signals, video, hyperspectral imaging), distributed data mining, image processing (image restoration, image correction, optimization problem, medical imaging) and content-based image retrieval.

The research at the Analog & Mixed Signal VLSI and Devices Laboratory focuses on Analog & Mixed signal circuit designs in bulk CMOS and SOI technologies, Semiconductor devices for high frequency and high power applications and Bio-Microelectronics. In addition, the lab collaborates with Oak Ridge National Labs in the areas of Monolithic Sensors and Nano-technology.

The Antennas and Microwave Systems group's research interests encompass UWB systems for various applications including See-Thru-Walls and precise In-Door Localization; Reconfigurable Antennas, particularly their development, RF front ends for wireless applications; advancing state of the art steer-able DBS antennas for mobile platforms and phased arrays, as well as enhancing efficient power-combining techniques. The group's research capabilities include Electromagnetic Analysis, Antenna Modeling, and full experimental validation at both frequency and time domains. Furthermore, Antennas and Microwave System's activities include components development, sub-systems designs and integration, and product development.

The Distributed Intelligence Laboratory (DILab) was founded in August of 2002 by Prof. Lynne E. Parker and is engaged in research in cooperative robotics and distributed artificial intelligence. Our research is focused on the computational issues of distributed intelligent systems – particularly embodied intelligent systems that have a physical instantiation in the world, such as multi-robot teams, sensor networks, or software agents. We characterize distributed intelligent systems as multiple entities that integrate perception, reasoning, and action to perform cooperative tasks under circumstances that are insufficiently known in advance, and dynamically changing during task execution.

The Emergent Computation Project (ECP) investigates the processes by which large numbers of simple agents or computational units can self-organize to process information, to control complex systems, and to assemble complicated hierarchical structures. In addition to this basic research, we are applying emergent computation to the development of post-Moore's Law computing technologies, to neuromorphic computing, and to nanotechnology.

The Grid-based Ecological Multimodeling (GEM) project focuses on the development of new computational methods, particularly using parallel and grid computing, to address environmental problems that require interactions between multiple types of computational models.

Since 1970, the Imaging, Robotics and Intelligent Systems Laboratory (IRIS) at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville has been conducting research in the field of image processing. The laboratory's emphasis is currently on building 3D imaging systems.

The Innovative Computing Laboratory (ICL) aspires to be a world leader in enabling technologies and software for scientific computing. Our vision is to provide high performance tools to tackle science’s most challenging problems and to play a major role in the development of standards for scientific computing in general. Successful research efforts of the past have provided the foundation for addressing the challenges of the future. Recognizing that enabling technologies serve as catalysts for computational innovation, ICL continues to adapt to the ever increasing computational demands of the scientific community through our vision of what the next generation of enabling technologies can accomplish. Current projects are broken down into our four main focus areas - numerical libraries, high performance distributed computing, performance evaluation and benchmarking, and asset management.

The research focus of the Integrated Circuits and Systems Laboratory at The University of Tennessee includes Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) CMOS mixed-signal systems, CMOS low-voltage analog IC design, development of novel devices for SOI technology (such as the G4-FET or MOS-JFET) and CMOS analog design techniques for extreme environment applications. Partnered with the Analog VLSI and Devices Laboratory, the ICASL team collaborates with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Center for Environmental Biotechnology, particularly in the areas of Nanotechnology, BioMicroElectronics, and Smart Sensors.

The University of Tennessee (UT) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) established the Joint Institute for Computational Sciences (JICS) to advance scientific discovery and state-of-the-art engineering and to further knowledge of computational modeling and simulation by 1) taking full advantage of the terascale and beyond computers in the National Center for Computational Sciences housed at ORNL, and 2) educating a new generation of scientists and engineers well-versed in the application of computational modeling and simulation for solving for the most challenging scientific and engineering problems.

The Laboratory for Information Technologies (LIT) specializes in secure information systems, high performance and parallel databases, videoconferencing, and link/pattern analysis and discovery in collected data. Primary applications and support are in the law enforcement community, where we develop systems to support operations in state, local and federal agencies.

The Logistical Computing and Internetworking Laboratory (LoCI) is devoted to information logistics in distributed computer systems and networks. Information logistics is the study of the flexible coscheduling of the fundamental physical resources that underpin computer systems: storage, computation, and data transmission.

The Machine Intelligence Lab focuses on the development of practical machine learning technology that can be applied to a broad range of systems. In particular, reinforcement learning algorithms are investigated, with an emphasis on quantitative studies of performance and scalability.

The Networking Research Group (NRG) is developing engineering solutions for next-generation high-performance networks. Of particular focus are high-capacity packet switching architectures and security infrastructure for wireless sensor networks.

Microelectronic Systems deals with custom and semicustom integrated circuits as well as printed circuit boards and multi-chip modules can be designed using the extensive set of CAD software tools installed at the University of Tennessee. Several hundred projects have been completed during the past 15 years and have ranged in complexity from small custom analog and digital cells to mixed-signal and Discrete Cosine and Wavelet Transform ICs.

The goal of the Molecular-Scale Engineering and Nanoscale Technologies Research Group (MENT) group is to understand and manipulate molecular-scale processes that will allow for the controlled synthesis and then directed assembly of functional nanoscale components into functional devices and systems. The end product of this work will be new molecular-scale devices for applications such as information processing, sensing and biosensing, actuation, and communications.

The Industrial Plasma Engineering Group of the UT Plasma Sciences Laboratory is headed by Dr. J. Reece Roth, Weston Fulton Professor of Electrical Engineering and a Fellow of the IEEE. Courses are available on Industrial Plasma Engineering, Plasma Diagnostics, Fusion Energy, and Advanced Plasma Physics. Experimental research on the physics and industrial applications of the One Atmosphere Uniform Glow Discharge Plasma is conducted under the auspices of the NSF, AFOSR, Atmospheric Glow Technologies Inc. and other sponsors at a level of $400K/year.

The University of Tennessee Power Engineering Laboratory is known for its high quality research contributions in converters, control of drives, microprocessor control, and artificial intelligence-based control (expert systems, fuzzy logic and neural networks) of power electronic systems.

The See Laboratory (Seelab) is devoted to innovative research in visualization and computer graphics with direct impact on today's cutting edge medical and scientific research.

The Software Quality Research Lab (SQRL) conducts research in innovative software development techniques. The laboratory's research focuses on integrating sound, mathematically rigorous principles into the software development process.