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Winter 2014
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  • Spring 2016

    Spring 2016: Premium Blend

    Found in everything from space shuttles to dental fillings, composite materials have thoroughly infiltrated modern society. But their potential is still greatly untapped, offering researchers ample opportunity for discovery.

  • Fall 2015

    Fall 2015: Collision Course

    Within the particle showers created at the Large Hadron Collider, answers to some of the universe’s mysteries are waiting.

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    Spring 2015: Almost Human

    Model systems like pigeons can help illuminate our own evolutionary and genomic history.

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    UT Arlington's tiny windmills are bringing renewable energy to a whole new scale.

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    Winter 2014: Overdue for an Overhaul

    The stability of our highways, pipelines, and even manholes is reaching a breaking point.

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    2012: Mystery solved?

    Scientists believe they have discovered a subatomic particle that is crucial to understanding the universe.

  • 2011

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    UT Arlington researchers unlock clues to the human body’s most mysterious and complex organ.

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    2010: Powered by genetics

    UT Arlington researchers probe the hidden world of microbes in search of renewable energy sources.

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    2009: Winning the battle against pain

    Wounded soldiers are benefiting from Robert Gatchel’s program that combines physical rehabilitation with treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.

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    2007: Sensing a solution

    Tiny sensors implanted in the body show promise in combating acid reflux disease, pain and other health problems.

  • 2006

    2006:Semiconductors: The next generation

    Nanotechnology researchers pursue hybrid silicon chips with life-saving potential.

  • 2005

    2005: Imaging is everything

    Biomedical engineers combat diseases with procedures that are painless to patients.

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S.O.S.

Building a Better Radar

Professor’s processing system could provide U.S. Navy and Marine Corps with more efficient radar and surveillance systems 

Qilian Liang

Qilian Liang's signal processing system eliminates redundant data.

One UT Arlington electrical engineer is partnering with the U.S. Navy to do more with less.

Professor Qilian Liang was recently awarded a five-year, $797,500 grant by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to simplify data collection through an algorithmic system he designed and is streamlin­ing. The goal is to create a signal processing system that provides better information for radar while collecting less data.

“When the Navy’s radar looks at a specific area, it takes into account everything in that area,” Dr. Liang explains. “Much of that data isn’t needed for the system to come to a precise answer on what a radar system says is there. If you take in less data, it takes the system less time to make an informed decision.”

The amount of time and space saved depends on the sample size of whatever the Navy is asking the system to evaluate. The redundant data is eliminated with co-prime and nested samplings in time and spatial domains, which only keep a small subset of data. (Co-prime signal processing is a new waveform sampling strategy that offers simplified sensor array design, streamlined signal processing, and efficient image formation techniques.)

“This project will help to automate processes that provide small tactical units with more efficient data processing,” Liang says.

He believes the results from this research will potentially benefit different programs on Navy and Marine Corps ships and planes; for example, besides helping make their radars more efficient, it could improve the performance of sensor and surveillance systems.

Liang’s grant was funded by the ONR Basic Research Challenge program, which was established to competitively select and fund promising research projects in new areas not addressed by current pro­grams. Its aim is to stimulate new, high-risk research that fosters leading-edge science.

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