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Nader Engheta (MS '79, PhD '82) Named a 2023 Distinguished Alumni Awardee

05-22-23

The Distinguished Alumni Award (DAA)—Caltech's highest honor for alumni—is presented this year to four alumni who, because of both personal commitment and professional contributions, have made remarkable impacts in a field, on the community, or in society more broadly.

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Tags: EE honors distinguished alumni

Watson Lecture on May 24: Yaser Abu-Mostafa Will Discuss the Promise and Perils of AI

05-15-23

On Wednesday, May 24, at 7:30 p.m. PDT in Beckman Auditorium on the Caltech campus, Yaser Abu-Mostafa (PhD '83), professor of electrical engineering and computer science, will cap the 100th anniversary season of the Earnest C. Watson Lecture Series with "Artificial Intelligence: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."

ChatGPT has rocked the general public’s perception and expectations of artificial intelligence (AI). In this lecture, Abu-Mostafa will explain the science of AI in plain language and explore how these details illustrate the risks and benefits of AI. Between the extremes of "AI will kill us all" and "AI will solve all our problems," the science can help us identify what is realistic and what is speculative, and guide us in our planning, legislation, and investment in AI. [Caltech story]

Tags: EE research highlights CMS Yaser Abu-Mostafa watson lecture

Ask a Caltech Expert: Machine Learning for Conservation

05-08-23

As part of Conversations on Artificial Intelligence, a webinar series hosted by the Caltech Science Exchange, two artificial intelligence (AI) researchers—Pietro Perona and Suzanne Stathatos—discussed AI’s potential as a powerful tool for wildlife conservation and biodiversity research.

Perona is the Allen E. Puckett Professor of Electrical Engineering at Caltech, and Stathatos is a graduate student who was a software engineer at Amazon and JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA, before coming to Caltech.

In conversation with Caltech science writer Robert Perkins, the engineers describe AI applications for identifying and tracking wildlife that offer fresh insights to biologists and other individuals interested in the environment. [Caltech story]

Tags: EE research highlights CMS Pietro Perona Caltech Science Exchange Suzanne Stathatos

Quantum Entanglement of Photons Doubles Microscope Resolution

05-02-23

Using a "spooky" phenomenon of quantum physics, Caltech researchers have discovered a way to double the resolution of light microscopes. In a paper appearing in the journal Nature Communications, a team led by Lihong Wang, Bren Professor of Medical Engineering and Electrical Engineering, shows the achievement of a leap forward in microscopy through what is known as quantum entanglement. Quantum entanglement is a phenomenon in which two particles are linked such that the state of one particle is tied to the state of the other particle regardless of whether the particles are anywhere near each other. Albert Einstein famously referred to quantum entanglement as "spooky action at a distance" because it could not be explained by his relativity theory. [Caltech story]

Tags: EE MedE Lihong Wang

Newly Observed Effect Makes Atoms Transparent to Certain Frequencies of Light

04-27-23

A newly discovered phenomenon dubbed "collectively induced transparency" (CIT) causes groups of atoms to abruptly stop reflecting light at specific frequencies. [Caltech story]

Tags: APhMS EE Andrei Faraon Riku Fukumori Mi Lei Manuel Endres

AI Offers Tool to Improve Surgeon Performance

04-20-23

When surgeons are trained, they usually need the supervision of more experienced doctors who can mentor them on their technique. That may be changing due to a new artificial intelligence system developed by Caltech researchers and Keck Medicine of USC urologists that aims to provide valuable feedback to surgeons on the quality of their work. [Caltech story]

Tags: research highlights CMS Animashree Anandkumar

Anima Anandkumar Named a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow

04-06-23

Anima Anandkumar, Bren Professor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, has been selected as a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow in the field of computer science. Professor Anandkumar is one of 171 writers, scholars, and artists honored across 48 fields and disciplines. Created in 1925, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has sought since its inception to “further the development of scholars and artists by assisting them to engage in research in any field of knowledge and creation in any of the arts, under the freest possible conditions.” [Caltech story]

Tags: honors CMS Animashree Anandkumar

Conversations on Artificial Intelligence: The Future of Personalized Medicine

03-20-23

As part of Conversations on Artificial Intelligence, a webinar series hosted by the Caltech Science Exchange, Andrew and Peggy Cherng Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering Azita Emami discusses how her lab incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) into medical devices to improve health and enhance quality of life. Watch the conversation. [Caltech story]

Tags: EE research highlights MedE Azita Emami

Knots Smaller Than Human Hair Make Materials Unusually Tough

03-09-23

In the latest advance in nano- and micro-architected materials, engineers at Caltech have developed a new material made from numerous interconnected microscale knots. The knots make the material far tougher than identically structured but unknotted materials: they absorb more energy and are able to deform more while still being able to return to their original shape undamaged. [Caltech story]

Tags: APhMS research highlights MedE Julia Greer Sammy Shaker Weiting Deng Widianto Moestopo