ECE welcomes four new faculty for 2022/23

Welcome to our newest faculty members! Two have recently joined us, and two will join us within the next year.

Alexander Burgers, Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Quantum optics, hybrid quantum systems, cold atoms in optical tweezers, cavity QED, nanophotonics, integrated quantum systems, light-matter interactions, Rydberg mediated interactions, quantum simulation and quantum sensing. 

Alex Burgers recently completed postdoctoral work at Princeton University with Jeff Thompson where he manipulated Ytterbium atoms in optical tweezers for quantum information science applications. He received his PhD at the University of Michigan where he studied quantum optics by using optically active quantum dots under the direction of Prof. Duncan Steel. He then was a postdoctoral researcher at Caltech in Jeff Kimble’s group coupling cold atoms to nanophotonic structures. Burgers joined the University Fall term 2022.

Aline Eid, Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Building a responsive and sustainable infrastructure through the development of innovative wireless systems. Leveraging wireless beams for powering, communicating, and sensing to give birth to a new generation of responsive surfaces. 

Aline is currently a postdoctoral associate in the Media Lab at MIT. During her Ph.D. research at Georgia Tech, she focused her research efforts on the design of mm-wave RFID architectures, and harvesting and backscattering communications solutions for smart environments. Her research on “5G as a wireless power grid” was featured as one of the top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2021 by the World’s Economic Forum and highlighted in more than 40 news outlets, including The Economist and Popular Mechanics. Eid will join the University Winter term 2023.

Liyue Shen, Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Biomedical AI, medical image analysis, biomedical imaging, machine learning, computer vision, signal and image processing, AI for precision health, and bioinformatics.

Liyue Shen completed her PhD in electrical engineering at Stanford University under the direction of John Pauly and Lei Xing. Her research interest is in Biomedical AI, which lies in the interdisciplinary areas of machine learning, computer vision, signal and image processing, medical image analysis, biomedical imaging, and data science. She is particularly interested in developing efficient and reliable AI/ML-driven computational methods for biomedical imaging and informatics to tackle real-world biomedicine and healthcare problems, including but not limited to, personalized cancer treatment, and precision medicine. Shen will join the University Fall term 2023.

Zheshen Zhang, Associate Professor

Research Interests: Theoretical and experimental aspects of quantum information science, aiming to enable new sensing, computing, communication, and networking capabilities. 

Zheshen Zhang joined Michigan from University of Arizona, where he was an assistant professor. Prior to joining U. Arizona, he was a postdoctoral associate and then a research scientist at MIT. He received his PhD degree in ECE from Georgia Tech. His research is focused on harnessing unique quantum resources such as entanglement to develop quantum sensors surpassing the classical measurement limits, quantum communication systems with enhanced security and capacity, quantum networks for long-range entanglement distribution, and quantum processors capable of tackling problems intractable on classical computers. He received an NSF CAREER Award, and currently serves on the Editorial Board for Communications Physics of Nature Portfolio and IEEE Progress in Quantum Electronics. Zhang joined the University Fall term 2022.