Research

Major External Research Grants
CSU Electromagnetics Lab
MASCRAD Snow Field Site
PhD, MS, REU Students
ATMC Telecom. Lab, UMD
Research at CU and U of Belgrade
EM and Engineering Education Research

Graduate and Undergraduate Research Assistantships available on NSF, DoD, and other grants.


Major External Research Grants

Active grant funding in 2017:

Active grant funding in 2016:

Contract “RF Analysis and Validation Engineering Software (RAVEnS),” from the Air Force Research Laboratory (‎AFRL), Applied Research Associates (ARA), PI: Branislav Notaros (single-investigator contract), start date July 1, 2020, end date June 30, 2025, $1,000,000.

Grant “Novel Integrated Characterization of Microphysical Properties of Ice Particles Using In-Situ Field Measurements and Polarimetric Radar Observations,” from the National Science Foundation, Geosciences Directorate, Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS) Division, Physical and Dynamic Meteorology (PDM) Program, unsolicited grant, PI: Branislav Notaros, co-PI: V. Bringi, start date October 1, 2020, end date September 30, 2023, $647,003, Award No. AGS- 2029806 (Program Director: Dr. Jielun Sun).

Grant “A Telemedicine Approach for Monitoring Fracture Healing Via Direct Electromagnetic Coupling,” from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NIH R21 grant, PI: Christian Puttlitz, Co-PIs: Kevin Labus and Branislav Notaros, and Subcontract to UC Denver, start date March 1, 2020, end date February 28, 2023, $351,322 (B. Notaros part: $93,835).

Grant “Direct Electromagnetic Coupling for Diagnostic Prediction of Fracture Healing,” from the Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT), State of Colorado, PI: Christian Puttlitz, Co-PIs: Kevin Labus, Branislav Notaros, and Jeremiah Easley, start date March 1, 2020, end date February 28, 2021, $170,000.

Grant “Novel RF Volume Coils for High and Ultra-High Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scanners,” from the National Science Foundation, Engineering Directorate, Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS) Division, Communications, Circuits, and Sensing Systems (CCSS) Program, unsolicited grant, PI Branislav Notaros (single-PI grant), start date September 1, 2018, end date August 31, 2023, $370,000, Award No. ECCS-1810492 (Program Director: Dr. Jenshan Lin).

Grant “Development of Uncertainty Quantification and Design Approaches and Solutions,” from the Air Force Research Laboratory (‎AFRL), CREATE SENTRi, Riverside Research Institute, PI: Donald Estep (Statistics Department), co-PI: Branislav Notaros (B. Notaros part: 65%), co-PI: Troy Butler (subcontract to University of Colorado Denver), start date September 19, 2016, end date September 18, 2021, $744,882.

Grant "CPS: Synergy: Collaborative Research: Enabling Smart Underground Mining with an Integrated Context-Aware Wireless Cyber-Physical Framework,” from the National Science Foundation, Engineering Directorate, Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS) Division, Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) Program, PI: Sudeep Pasricha, co-PI: Branislav Notaros, start date October 1, 2016, end date September 30, 2020, CSU part: $412,500, Award No. ECCS-1646562.

Grant “Toward a More Statistically Robust, Generalized Process Evaluation Framework of Bin and Bulk Microphysics in Winter Precipitation Using NASA GV and GPM-DPR Data,” from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), Science Mission Directorate, Earth Science, Precipitation Measurement Missions (PMM), PMM Science Team, PI: Branislav Notaros, co-PIs: V. N. Bringi and Andrew Newman, start date March 1, 2016, end date August 31, 2020, $240,000, Award No. NNX16AE43G.

Grant “IUSE Revolutionizing Engineering Departments (RED): Revolutionizing Roles to Reimagine Integrated Systems of Engineering Formation (R2E2 – Revolutionary Redesign of Engineering Education),” from National Science Foundation, Directorate of Engineering, Division of Engineering Education and Centers (EEC), PI: Anthony Maciejewski, ECE Dept. Head; B. Notaros is Senior Personnel on this grant; start date July 1, 2015, end date June 30, 2021, $1,988,663, Award No. EEC 1519438.

Grant “Advanced Comprehensive Analysis of Rain Drop Shapes, Oscillation Modes, and Fall Velocities Using High-Resolution Surface Disdrometers, Polarimetric Radar, and Numerical Models,” from the National Science Foundation, Geosciences Directorate, Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS) Division, Physical and Dynamic Meteorology (PDM) Program, unsolicited grant, PI: V. Bringi, co-PI: Branislav Notaros, start date January 1, 2015, end date December 31, 2019, $530,342, Award No. AGS-1431127.

Grant “Accurate Characterization of Winter Precipitation Using Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera, Visual Hull, Advanced Scattering Methods, and Polarimetric Radar,” from the National Science Foundation, Geosciences Directorate, Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS) Division, Physical and Dynamic Meteorology (PDM) Program, unsolicited grant, PI Branislav Notaros, co-PI: V. Bringi, start date December 1, 2013, end date November 30, 2018, $607,967, Award No. AGS-1344862.

Grant “Treatment Methodologies for Radiofrequency (RF) Injuries,” subcontract RF Applicator System Development, from Wyle Laboratories, Inc./USAF School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM)/AFOSR, subcontract PI Branislav Notaros (CSU PI Thomas Johnson, Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences), start date September 4, 2013, end date December 1, 2014, $71,497.

Grant “Suppression of Wind Turbine Clutter from Radar Data,” from Matrix Research, Inc./Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program – Phase I, Margaret Cheney, V. Chandraskar, Branislav Notaros, start date October 15, 2013, end date January 14, 2014, $90,000.

Grant “Collaborative Research: Electromagnetic Field Profile Design for Next-Generation Travelling-Wave MRI,” from the National Science Foundation, Engineering Directorate, Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS) Division, Communications, Circuits, and Sensing Systems (CCSS) Program, unsolicited grant, PI Branislav Notaros, start date July 1, 2013, end date June 30, 2019, CSU part: $248,000, Award No. ECCS-1307863.

Grant “Diakoptic Approach to Modeling and Design of Complex Electromagnetic Systems,” from the National Science Foundation, Engineering Directorate, Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS) Division, Integrative, Hybrid and Complex Systems (IHCS) Program, unsolicited grant, PI Branislav Notaros (single-investigator grant), start date May 1, 2010, end date April 30, 2016, $404,000, Award No. ECCS-1002385.

Grant “Analysis of Structures for 3-D ALERT,” subcontract from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Phase 0 DARPA grant, collaboration of CU Boulder (Prof. Zoya Popovic), CSU, and BAE Systems. CSU budget $20,000, start date February 23, 2007, end date March 31, 2007. CSU PI Branislav Notaros.

Grant “Efficient Higher Order Techniques for Electromagnetic Modeling and Design of Photonic Crystal Structures,” from the National Science Foundation, Engineering Directorate, Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS) Division, Integrative, Hybrid and Complex Systems (IHCS) Program, unsolicited grant, PI Branislav Notaros (single-investigator grant), start date September 1, 2006, end date August 31, 2011, $410,396, Award No. ECCS-0650719.

Grant “Textile Based Carbon Nanostructured Flexible Antenna,” from the National Textile Center (NTC), Competency: Materials, B. Notaros is a co-PI, collaborative project with colleagues in the ECE Department and Materials and Textiles Department at UMass Dartmouth and Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute, start date June 1, 2006, end date May 31, 2009, $155,000 per year, Project ID: M06-MD01.

Grant “Higher-Order Finite Element-Moment Method Modeling Techniques for Conformal Antenna Applications,” from the National Science Foundation, Engineering Directorate, Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems Division, Electronics, Photonics, and Device Technologies (EPDT) Program, unsolicited grant, PI Branislav Notaros (single-investigator grant), start date September 1, 2003, end date August 31, 2009, $249,417, Award No. ECCS-0647380.

Grant “Large-Domain Hybrid Moment Method–Physical Optics Techniques for Efficient and Accurate Electromagnetic Modeling of Cars and Aircraft over a Wide Range of Frequencies,” from the National Science Foundation, Engineering Directorate, Electrical and Communications Systems Division, EPDT Program, unsolicited grant, PI Branislav Notaros (single-investigator grant), start date September 1, 2001, end date August 31, 2005, $192,000, Award No. ECS-0115756.

NSF Foundation Coalition grant, project “Electromagnetics Concept Inventory” – Branislav Notaros, National Science Foundation, Engineering Directorate, Engineering Education and Centers Division, start date June 1, 2000, end date August 31, 2003, approx. $70,000, Award No. EEC-9802942.


Research in the Electromagnetics Laboratory

Eng B110, Colorado State University

(Director Branislav Notaros)

Research expertise, interests, contributions, initiatives, and future plans of the Electromagnetics Laboratory at Colorado State University, ECE Department, are in the area of electromagnetics, and in its crossings with other areas of science and engineering. Our current research activities span a very broad range of exciting and emerging topics in computational electromagnetics; modeling and numerical methods; antennas; scattering; metamaterials; cyber-physical systems; uncertainty quantification; atmospheric/meteorological electromagnetics; radar meteorology; characterization of snow and rain; surface and radar precipitation measurements; image processing; RF/optical instrumentation development; bioelectromagnetics; RF design for magnetic resonance imaging at high and ultrahigh magnetic fields; direct electromagnetic coupling system for orthopaedic diagnostics; telemedicine system for orthopaedic applications; and electromagnetics education.

 

Our main contributions to computational electromagnetics (CEM) are in higher order CEM techniques based on the method of moments (MoM), surface integral equation (SIE) approach, volume integral equation (VIE) formulation, finite element method (FEM), ray tracing (RT), physical optics (PO), domain decomposition method (DDM), diakoptics, hybrid CEM methods, adjoint methods, a posteriori error estimation, adaptive mesh refinement, uncertainty quantification, sensitivity analysis, and general surface meshing methods, as applied to modeling and design of antennas, scatterers, and RF/microwave and optical devices and systems.


In addition to higher order, large (up to two wavelengths in each dimension) elements (large-domain modeling), a mixture of low-to-high-order, small-to-large elements is possible in the same CEM model. Our elements and basis functions are hierarchical and suitable for p- and hp-refinements. We are also developing and advancing all sorts of hybrid higher order CEM methods, e.g., FEM-SIE, VIE-SIE, MoM-PO, SIE-FEM-diakoptics, SIE-VIE-diakoptics, and so on.


Some current projects include:

  1. adaptive mesh refinement and uncertainty quantification for RF Analysis and Validation Engineering Software (RAVEnS);
  2. development of uncertainty quantification and design approaches and solutions for CREATE/SENTRi;
  3. adjoint based error estimation and adaptive mesh refinement for computational electromagnetics;
  4. refinement-by-superposition approach to adaptive fully anisotropic hp-refinement in computational electromagnetics;
  5. general surface meshing in CEM using iterative adaptive refinement;
  6. advanced ray tracing techniques for indoor and outdoor propagation modeling;
  7. accurate characterization of winter precipitation (snow) using multi-angle snowflake camera (MASC), visual hull for reconstruction of 3D hydrometeor shapes, higher order CEM scattering methods, and fully polarimetric data from CSU-CHILL (S-band and X-band) and NCAR S-Pol radars (see MASCRAD Snow Field Site for more information);
  8. integrated design of exposure and excitation of EM fields in the UHF and low microwave frequency range for next-generation traveling-wave magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at high and ultrahigh magnetic fields (B0 ≥ 3T);
    Quadrifilar Helical Antenna as a Whole-Body Traveling-Wave RF Coil for 3T and 7T MRI
    RF Excitation in 7 Tesla MRI Systems Using Monofilar Axial-Mode Helical Antenna
    Long and Short Monofilar and Quadrifilar Helical Antenna RF Coils at 7 T
    Subject-loaded quadrifilar helical-antenna RF coil with high B1+ field uniformity and large FOV for 3-T MRI




  9. direct electromagnetic coupling (DEC) system for human orthopaedic fracture-healing diagnostics;
  10. telemedicine system for orthopaedic patient self-testing and data transmission;
  11. advanced comprehensive analysis of rain drop shapes, oscillation modes, and fall velocities using high-resolution surface disdrometers, polarimetric radar, and numerical models;
    Measurement and Analysis of Rain Precipitation at MASCRAD Instrumentation Site in Colorado
    Towards Completing the Rain Drop Size Spectrum: Case Studies Involving 2D-Video Disdrometer, Droplet Spectrometer, and Polarimetric Radar Measurements
    DPWX/Microburst winds and melting hail at the Easton Airport field site: 9 July 2015
    Investigating rain drop shapes, oscillation modes, and implications for radiowave propagation
    Large Raindrops Against Melting Hail: Calculation of Specific Differential Attenuation, Phase and Reflectivity
  12. fast scalable higher order direct algorithms for large and complex problems in computational sciences and engineering;
  13. hierarchical matrix methods for extreme-scale parallel computing on leading-edge HPC platforms;
  14. observational analysis, modeling, and development of a statistically robust, generalized process evaluation framework of bin and bulk microphysics in winter precipitation using NASA GV and GPM-DPR data;
  15. modeling and measurements of EM propagation in underground mines and enabling smart underground mining with an integrated context-aware wireless cyber-physical framework;
    Underground wireless system may save trapped miners with smart phones, CSU researchers say
    Can you hear me now? CSU research could help miners stay safe
  16. development of the optical/electronic/laser-sensing/image-processing Snowflake Measurement and Analysis System (SMAS);
  17. RF/microwave applicator system development for biomedical applications;

  18. characterization of rotating wind turbine signatures;
  19. development of antennas for biomedical applications;
  20. revolutionizing engineering departments (RED) – revolutionary redesign of engineering education.

Laboratory and equipment:

Electromagnetics Laboratory, CSU Engineering Building B110, includes a completely computerized and motorized six-axis 10 MHz–50 GHz antenna and scattering test system (three-axis spherical positioning system and three-axis planar positioning system), completely built by students, in a fully anechoic and shielded chamber and a vector network analyzer system (PNA), with time-domain option, oscilloscope, power generators, pulse generator, and other RF equipment.

Antenna test system development: click here


MASCRAD Snow Observation/Analysis Field Site

(PI Branislav Notaros)

As an example of the interdisciplinary activities of the CSU Electromagnetics Laboratory, one of our most exciting current projects is the MASCRAD (MASC + Radar) project, the principal goal of which is to establish a novel approach to characterization of winter precipitation and modeling of associated polarimetric radar observables, with a longer-term goal to significantly improve the radar-based quantitative precipitation estimation in stronger, more hazardous, winter events. Our microphysical characteristics studies of snow are based on a synergistic use of optical instrumentation, image processing, scattering computations, and radar analyses. Overall, there is great need and interest for advances in characterization, classification, and quantification of snow – currently the least understood component of the global water cycle. We have built and established the MASCRAD Field Site for in-situ and remote sensing observations and microphysical characteristics analysis of winter precipitation at the Easton Valley View Airport, south of Greeley, in La Salle, Colorado. The ground instrumentation at the site includes a multi-angle snowflake camera (MASC), 2D-video disdrometer (2DVD), precipitation occurrence sensor system (POSS), meteorological particle spectrometer (MPS), Pluvio precipitation gauge, VAISALA weather station, and NCAR Mesonet sensors, all installed inside a 2/3-scaled double fence intercomparison reference (DFIR) wind shield. Surface measurements are augmented by the data from radiosondes which are released during intensive operational periods using the collocated NCAR EOL GAUS (GPS Advanced Upper-Air System) Sounding System (in the 2014/2015 winter campaign) and Center for Severe Weather Research (CSWR) Sounding System (in the 2015/2016 winter campaign). The MASCRAD site operates (at ranges of 13 km and 33 km, respectively) under the umbrella of two state-of-the-art polarimetric (dual-polarization) research weather radars, CSU-CHILL Radar (both S-band and X-band) and NCAR SPOL Radar, with high spatial and temporal resolutions and special MASCRAD scan strategies. It is supported by excellent geometrical and image processing and scattering modeling and computing capabilities, and is one of the currently best instrumented and most sophisticated field sites for winter precipitation measurements and analysis in the nation.

Accurate Characterization of Winter Precipitation Using Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera, Visual Hull, Advanced Scattering Methods and Polarimetric Radar
Measurement and Characterization of Winter Precipitation at MASCRAD Snow Field Site
Snow Precipitation Measurement and Analysis During MASCRAD Winter Observations
Visual Hull Method for Realistic 3D Particle Shape Reconstruction Based on High-Resolution Photographs of Snowflakes in Freefall from Multiple Views
Dual-polarized radar and surface observations of a winter graupel shower with negative Zdr column
DPWX/Initial Multiple Angle Snow Camera-Radar experiment (MASCRAD) project operations: 15 November 2014
Efficient and Accurate Computational Electromagnetics Approach to Precipitation Particle Scattering Analysis Based on Higher-Order Method of Moments Integral Equation Modeling
Let It Snow





International Collaborative Experiments for Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games, Korea, ICE-POP 2018

As an example of our international collaborations, we are collaborating with Korea Meteorological Administration and Kyungpook National University, Republic of Korea, in preparation, operation, and post-analysis of the International Collaborative Experiments for Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games, Korea, ICE-POP 2018, which has been one of the largest snow observation and analysis field campaigns so far, and has involved several cutting-edge radars, aircraft measurements, ships, satellite observations, many advanced ground optical disdrometers, etc.


Ph.D. Students




M.S. Students


Undergraduate REU Students

Other research undergraduate students supported by NSF grants (at CSU):


Postdocs and Senior Research Scientists at CSU


ATMC Telecommunications Lab, UMD

Telecommunications Laboratory, a part of the Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Center (ATMC) at UMass Dartmouth, is a state-of-the-art RF, antenna, and wireless facility providing excellent opportunities for student training and partnering with industry. Its equipment includes:


Participation on Grants and Contracts at University of Colorado and University of Belgrade


Electromagnetics and Engineering Education Research