Engineering Innovations

Utkarsh Singh on Poisson Bolometers and Nanoscale Infrared Detection at Purdue ECE Host Kristin Malavenda interviews Purdue ECE PhD student Utkarsh Singh about his path from New Delhi to Purdue and his research on nanoscale spintronic devices for long-wave infrared (8–14 µm) detection. Singh explains how nanoscale structures exhibit new physics and can enable smaller, lower-power detectors with different, more digital readout behavior than traditional analog infrared sensors. He describes Poisson bolometers, which treat fluctuations between discrete resistance states as a useful noise signal, measuring changes in switching statistics under infrared radiation rather than minimizing noise. The conversation covers applications including surveillance, biomedical imaging, astronomy, and heat-assisted detection and ranging, as well as challenges in fabrication yield, device fragility, and degradation. Singh also discusses PhD realities, advisor support, a rewarding hardware-readout success, and advice on patience, research experience, self-care, and hobbies like music, working out, and traveling.
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
00:50 Early Interest in Engineering
02:06 Choosing ECE Path
02:47 Why Purdue for PhD
03:49 Research Evolves Over Time
05:15 Nanoscale Devices Explained
06:20 Infrared Detection Basics
07:43 Why Nanoscale Matters
08:44 Poisson Bolometer Concept
11:23 Why Better IR Detection
13:04 Infrared Detector Roadmap
13:43 Nanofab Scale Challenges
15:08 Handling and Device Degradation
16:36 Learning From Failure
17:49 PhD Workday Rhythm
18:41 Research Direction Realities
19:48 Advisor Support Style
21:03 Breakthrough Moments
23:10 PhD Advice and Balance 24:30 Hobbies and Wrap Up

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The Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University is one of the nation's largest and most highly ranked ECE programs. Purdue ECE prepares the next generation of engineers and technology leaders through world-class education and interdisciplinary research that advances semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, communications, computing, microelectronics and more. With strong industry partnerships and a commitment to innovation, Purdue ECE is helping solve some of the world's most pressing technological challenges.

How to Stop Software Disasters Before They Start: Purdue PhD Paschal Amusuo on Formal Verification, Unit Proofing & Zero Trust

In this episode of Engineering Innovations from Purdue ECE, host Kristin Malavenda interviews fifth-year PhD candidate Paschal Amusuo, a Qualcomm Innovation Fellow researching software security with formal verification and runtime defenses. Amusuo shares his path from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, to Purdue and explains how memory-safety bugs—like those behind major outages such as the 2024 CrowdStrike incident—can crash systems or enable attackers to steal or alter data. He describes how formal verification differs from testing by mathematically checking whether any input can cause failure, and how his “unit proofing” approach makes these techniques more accessible to software engineers. He also discusses zero-trust design for third-party software dependencies, daily PhD life, mentorship with advisor James Davis, real-world vulnerability disclosures, and advice for prospective PhD students focused on learning and impact.

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Purdue University's Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, founded in 1888, is one of the largest ECE departments in the nation and consistently ranks among the best.

Explaining Trustworthy AI & Self-Driving Labs with Purdue PhD Candidate Akshita Kamsali
In this episode of Engineering Innovations from Purdue’s Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, host Kristin Malavenda interviews fifth-year PhD candidate Akshita Kamsali, who works with Professor Avi Kok on deep learning with a focus on computer vision and natural language processing. Akshita shares how her engineering background and Purdue exchange experience led her to pursue a PhD at Purdue, and how her research evolved from optics to AI. She explains her work on understanding and improving the reliability of deep learning models used in sensitive areas such as medicine and security, and discusses her Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory internship exploring large language models for multimodal “self-driving labs,” emphasizing challenges such as safety, security, transparent object sensing, accuracy, and efficiency. Akshita also reflects on the realities of the PhD journey, advising, and career plans.

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Purdue University's Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, founded in 1888, is one of the largest ECE departments in the nation and is consistently ranked among the best in the country.

What does it take to turn a big research idea into a real device and a paper in Nature?
In this episode of Engineering Innovations, we talk with Purdue ECE PhD student Connor Devitt about research that could help shape the future of 5G and 6G wireless communication. The conversation explores how tunable chip-scale filters work, why they matter for future mobile networks, and what it was like to push this project from concept to fabrication to publication. Along the way, we also get a look at the day-to-day life of a Purdue ECE PhD student, from lab work and device testing to setbacks, breakthroughs and the long road of research.

Purdue ECE: http://engineering.purdue.edu/ECE
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/purdue-ece

Purdue University's Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, founded in 1888, is one of the largest ECE departments in the nation and is consistently ranked among the best in the country.

Engineering Innovations: The Internet, but Make it Quantum

Host Kristin Malavenda interviews Purdue ECE associate professor Joseph Luken about engineering “spooky action at a distance” into real technology, including quantum communication networks and the future quantum internet. Luken explains how the quantum internet would transmit qubits and distribute entanglement, why networking is essential for scaling quantum computing and sensing, and why Einstein objected to entanglement until Bell’s later experimental tests supported quantum predictions. He describes quantum key distribution (QKD), how it detects eavesdropping, and how it contrasts with post-quantum cryptography, arguing for pursuing both given the risk of future quantum attacks. Luken discusses recent industry momentum, predicts fault-tolerant quantum computing may arrive within 10 years, and emphasizes integrated photonics as critical to moving quantum systems off optics tables and reducing loss.
Purdue ECE: http://engineering.purdue.edu/ECE
Facebook: http://facebook.com/purdueece
X: https://x.com/PurdueECE
Instagram: https://instagram.com/purdue.ece
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/purdue-ece

Purdue University's Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, founded in 1888, is one of the largest ECE departments in the nation and is consistently ranked among the best in the country.