Guangxi Wang ’03 One of Three Students in World to Receive IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society Undergraduate Scholarship

For the third consecutive year, a Lafayette student is among the few in the world to receive a Microwave Theory and Techniques Society Undergraduate Scholarship from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Guangxi Wang ’03, an electrical and computer engineering major from Shanghai, China, is one of only three students to receive the scholarship for the 2002-2003 school year. The internationally competitive grants are given to outstanding undergraduates to encourage them to pursue careers in microwave engineering. Wang will receive a $1,200 scholarship and an additional $1,000 to fund travel to an IEEE conference. He also received a $1,000 2001-2002 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Undergraduate Scholarship.

Lafayette’s prior two recipients of Microwave Theory and Techniques Society Undergraduate Scholarships, Soumya Chandramouli ’02 (Bombay, India) and Feiyu Wang ’01 (Shanghai, China), were featured in the March 2002 issue of IEEE Microwave Magazine and have set the standard for desired outcomes from the scholarship recipients, according to Wayne Shiroma, coordinator for the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society Undergraduate Scholarship Program.

All three students have conducted research with William Jemison ’85, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, through Lafayette’s EXCEL Scholars program. In EXCEL, students work closely with faculty on research while earning a stipend.

Guangxi Wang and Prashant Poddar ’04 (Ranchi, India) are collaborating with Jemison as EXCEL Scholars this summer on a project funded by a $124,254 National Science Foundation grant. They will investigate microwave-photonic techniques that could improve high-speed wireless applications such as telemedicine, multimedia distribution, and advanced satellite and military communications.

Previously, Wang conducted research with Jemison on the biomedical applications of microwave-enhanced liposuction. The project addressed the design and analysis of antennas used for biomedical applications in such procedures as deep-seated brain tumors or heart surgery. The researchers analyzed existing MEL biological antenna designs and proposed improvements. Wang developed computer-simulated antenna models, ran simulations, and collected data.

“Professor Jemison gave me instructions and background knowledge essential to understanding the underlying theories,” Wang says. “He also gave me lots of insight into the project, especially the generic methodology of conducting research. This project was rewarding, because it expanded my research skills and allowed me to explore unknown areas instead of just learning from books.”

“Lafayette provides excellent opportunities to access faculty research resources,” he adds. “Such opportunities are not common in most other schools, and they are very beneficial to students who wish to accumulate research experience for their future career.”

Wang was a member of a three-student Lafayette team that placed in the top echelon of this year’s 62nd William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, an annual international contest renowned for its difficulty. Lafayette finished No. 54, placing in the top 12 percent of the 453 participating institutions from the United States and Canada. Wang tied for 414th place, putting him among the top 14 percent of the 2,954 individual competitors. The prior year, Wang and his Lafayette teammates finished 40th in the contest, placing in the top 10 percent, with Wang’s individual performance putting him among the top 11 percent of individual competitors. In the 60th Annual William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, he was among five Lafayette students placing in the top 25 percent of competitors; Feiyu Wang placed in the top 35 percent.

In 2001, Guangxi Wang and two other Lafayette students placed in the top 14 percent of participating teams and earned the second-highest rating in the 17th annual international Mathematical Contest in Modeling, sponsored by the Consortium for Mathematics and its Applications. He and Feiyu Wang were part of a team that took first place in Lafayette’s Barge Mathematics Competition, earning a $600 prize. In the Barge competition, teams of three to five students solve one math problem each week for eight weeks.

Wang has been a member of the McKelvy House Scholars Program, in which about 20 students of high academic achievement and promise reside together in a historic off-campus house and participate in shared intellectual and social activities. He is a recipient of Lafayette’s Eugene P. Chase Phi Beta Kappa Prize, awarded to a sophomore who has demonstrated scholarship as a first-year student.

Guangxi Wang has served as secretary of the Asian Cultural Association and is a member of the International Students Association, the German Club, and the Math Problem Solving Group. He has volunteered through the Landis Community Outreach Center, served as a tutor, participated in intramural sports, and won a student chess tournament.

Invited to join Phi Beta Kappa in her junior year, Chandramouli graduated with honors in electrical and computer engineering last month after completing a senior thesis under Jemison’s guidance. Her work resulted in a paper coauthored with Jemison and Eric Funk, researcher at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., entitled “Direct Carrier Modulation for Wireless Digital Communications Using an Improved Microwave-Photonic Vector Modulator Approach,” which she presented at the 2002 IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society Symposium, and which was published in the symposium digest.

“This is the second year in a row that a Lafayette undergraduate has presented a paper at this prestigious IEEE conference,” notes Jemison. “I know of no other undergraduate who presented at the conference.”

Chandramouli’s work and that of another Lafayette student provided the foundation for the successful NSF funding proposal related to Jemison’s summer project with Guangxi Wang and Poddar, the professor notes.

Chandramouli will begin studies toward master’s and Ph.D. degrees in the fall at Georgia Tech, which has one of the top university microwave integrated circuit design centers, notes Jemison.

Feiyu Wang presented his research to an audience of about 100 people from academia and industry at last year’s IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society Symposium in Phoenix, Ariz. He co-authored a paper with Jemison and J.C.M. Hwang, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Lehigh University, entitled “A GaAs MESFET Transient Model Capable of Predicting Trap-Induced Memory Effects Under Complex Digital Modulation,” which was published in the symposium digest. The paper was one of several that he coauthored with Jemison during his Lafayette career.

“Mr. Wang did an excellent job of presenting our work and fielding questions after his talk,” says Jemison. “My colleagues were noticeably impressed that he was an undergraduate. Moreover, none could recall an undergraduate presenting at this conference.” Of the 143 student papers presented at the conference, most were by Ph.D. candidates, he adds.

In addition, Wang was one of two Lafayette students mentored by Jemison who were honored for presentations on their research at the 2000 IEEE Sarnoff Symposium on Communications Technology for the New Millennium. They tied for second place in a session that highlighted research being performed at the region’s colleges and universities. The students coauthored the papers they presented with Jemison and others who conducted research on microwave power amplifiers funded by a three-year, $175,290 NSF grant. The Sarnoff Symposium is a highly respected regional conference on the latest advances in various microwave communications technologies, notes Jemison.

“The conference was attended by approximately 400 microwave communications professionals from both industry and academia,” he says. “My colleagues who saw the presentations remarked to me that they were extremely impressed with the quality of research being performed by our undergraduates.”

Wang will start his second year in the Ph.D. program in microwave technology at the California Institute of Technology this fall. He graduated Lafayette summa cum laude with degrees in electrical engineering (with honors) and economics and business. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, Pi Mu Epsilon, and Omicron Delta Epsilon. Wang received the Benjamin F. Barge Mathematical Prize and the Finley W. and Ethelwyne H. Smith Electronic Engineering Prize. In 1998, he was a member of a Lafayette team that placed in the top 15 percent of 419 participating institutions in the Putnam Mathematical Competition, finishing in the top 18 percent of the 2,581 individual competitors.

A recipient of several NSF and Office of Naval Research grants, Jemison is coauthor with Funk on seven papers. They have been invited to present a paper on microwave photonics at the 2002 European Microwave Conference in Milan, Italy, in September.

Jemison joined Lafayette’s department of electrical and computer engineering in 1996. He earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Drexel University, his master’s in engineering science from Penn State University, and his bachelor’s in electrical engineering at Lafayette. He has over ten years of government and industrial research and development experience with the Naval Air Warfare Center, Lockheed Martin Corp., and Orbit/FR Inc. He is a senior member of IEEE and has authored or co-authored over 45 publications, including a book chapter.

Jemison is the recipient of three U.S. patents. He teaches courses and laboratories in analog and digital circuits, electromagnetics, electronics, control systems, senior design, and microwave communications, and has received multiple Lehigh Valley Section IEEE Outstanding Advisor awards for his work with the IEEE student branch at Lafayette.

IIE Scholarship. Guangxi Wang ’03 received a Microwave Theory and Techniques Society Scholarship. He did research with the guidance of William Jemison ’85, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.