Raving fans wear Spartan jewelry - MSU Alumni Association ...

Philip McKinley, professor of Computer Science and Engineering,
and PhD student Anthony Clark design robotic fish as part of
a collaborative research project funded by the National Science
Foundation.
license and have been interested
ever since.
“My research experience as an
undergraduate has served to shape
me as a researcher,” he notes. “I
have experience that many other
graduate students do not have
until a few years into their graduate
studies.”
Temme, who earned his bachelor’s
degree in electrical engineering
in 2010 and received a National
Science Foundation Graduate Research
Fellowship that same year,
explains his success as a researcher.
“The most significant contributions
have been the mentoring by
older students which has taught me
how to persevere, design my experiments,
fix my experiments and also
publish my experiments,” he notes.
“These basics have set me up so that
I am confident in starting my PhD
project as an individual researcher
and not as an assistant.”
He completed his master’s
degree in 2011, working in the lab
of Professor Edward Rothwell, the
inventor of self-structuring antenna
(SSA) technology. A patent for the
antenna was granted to MSU in
2001, and Monarch Antennas (a
joint venture between MSU and
Delphi Technologies) was started to
develop and market the technology.
SSA improves the reliability of
wireless devices such as cell phones
and laptops, and has the potential to
provide fewer dropped calls, smaller
dead zones, faster downloads and
longer battery life. Rothwell serves
as the senior technical consultant to
Monarch.
Temme has just begun work on
his PhD, again in Rothwell’s lab,
studying the effect that fire has on
through-wall radars. “These types
of radars can be used for search
and rescue during emergencies,”
Temme says. “There is existing
research in through-wall radar,
and on the interactions between
forest fires and weather radar;
however, I have not been able to
find research that studies house
fires and search and rescue radars
together. Advances in this area
could lead to companies producing
search and rescue radars for
the fire service.”
He expects to complete his
PhD in 2014 and may then continue
his work at a research and
development laboratory or company,
or at a small startup. “I took
an entrepreneurship class while an
undergrad and I’m open to pursuing
a startup if the opportunity is
available,” he says.
Research Investments
Contribute to Economic
Development
Meanwhile, back in Alocilja’s
lab, new and continued research
has recently led to the formation
of a startup company—
nanoRETE—which will develop
and commercialize an inexpensive
test for handheld biosensors to detect
a broad range of threats such
as E. coli, Salmonella, anthrax and
tuberculosis. The mobile technology
comes at only a fraction of
the cost of the closest currently
available competing technology,
company officials say.
A significant leap forward in
detection and diagnostic technology,
the device utilizes novel
nanoparticles with magnetic,
polymeric and electrical properties
developed by Alocilja.
“Our unique preparation,
extraction and detection protocol
enables the entire process to be
conducted in the field, without
significant training,” says Alocilja.
“Results are generated in about
an hour from receipt of sample to
final readout, quickly identifying
contaminants so that proper and
prompt actions can be taken.”
nanoRETE is backed by
Michigan Accelerator Fund I, a
Grand Rapids, MI, investment
partnership focused on Michiganbased
early stage life science and
MSU Alumni Magazine | 21