100+ people attend groundbreaking celebration
December 11, 2009
More than 100 alumni, officials, distinguished guests and Ohio State faculty, staff and students celebrated the groundbreaking of the new Wireless Communication/Radio Frequency Research Building on Friday, December 11, 2009. This new building will house the faculty, researchers, students, and staff of the ElectroScience Laboratory.
Colloquium: Life experiences of alumni and future directions in RF technologies
The day began with the Colloquium: Life Experiences of Alumni & Future Directions in RF Technologies which was held at the Ohio Supercomputer Center’s Bale Theater. Many ElectroScience Laboratory alumni shared their experiences including: Dennis Burnside, Curt Levis, Bill Kent, Errol English, Bob Puskar, Tom Kornbau, Eric Evans, Clay Larson, Robert Dybdal, Charlie Rhoads, Daniel Devasirvatham, Johnson Wang, Jack Winters, Pravit Tulyathan, Steve Schneider, Jeff Berrie, and Constantine Balanis. Professor Prabhakar Pathak moderated the colloquium.
In addition, a historical overview presentation of the ElectroScience Laboratory was shared.
Student poster show
Following the colloquium, ESL students presented fourteen posters that crossed the breadth and diversity of current research done at the ElectroScience Laboratory.
More than 100 attended the groundbreaking ceremony and reception
More than 100 alumni, local, state and university officials; distinguished guests and Ohio State faculty, staff and students braved the cold to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new Wireless Communication/Radio Frequency Research Building on December 11, 2009.
The new building, designed to promote and support research partnerships with established and start-up companies, will house the faculty, researchers, students, and staff of the ElectroScience Laboratory. It will also connect to and complement the existing Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory as the experimental facilities will remain in the current building. This new space is uniquely designed to host industrial partners that can benefit from access to world-renowned researchers, specialized facilities and innovations in wireless sensors, radio frequency identification (RFIDs), biomedical sensing, RF materials engineering, radars, microwave and THz imaging, optics and certainly wireless communications.
Remarks at the ceremony were made by John Volakis, Director, ElectroScience Laboratory; Gregory Washington, Interim Dean, College of Engineering; Doug Aschenbach, President, SciTech; Norm Chagnon, Executive Director, Ohio Third Frontier Commission; Robert Lee, Chair, Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering; and E. Gordon Gee, President, The Ohio State University.
“I would like to sincerely thank everyone who helped make this building and groundbreaking celebration a reality, including Interim Dean Gregory Washington, ECE Department Chair Robert Lee, SciTech President Doug Aschenbach, the Ohio Third Frontier Commission and the Ohio Department of Development.” John Volakis said. “I would also like to thank everyone who traveled near and far to celebrate this momentous occasion with us, including many ESL alumni from across the country.”
A reception was held inside the ElectroScience Laboratory following the ceremony. Students, faculty, and researchers gave tours of several ESL facilities including the Anechoic Chamber, Clean Room, Integrated Wireless Communication Systems Lab, the Northrop Radar Lab and the Optics Lab.
The Ohio State University partnered with the Science and Technology Campus Corporation (SciTech), a university-affiliated developer to construct this innovative 40,580-square-foot facility. Ohio Third Frontier funds (nearly $5M) obtained via the IDCAST program led by Larrell Walters at the University of Dayton were critical to the realization of this new building that builds on established excellence on RF sensing at Ohio State. Alumni donations and the Ohio State College of Engineering provided the remaining funds to construct this $7.3 million project. Completion of the new building is scheduled for spring 2011.
