Dear Colleagues,
Although summer is typically a time for rest, there has been a lot going on at Duke ECE the past few months!
In May, Duke hosted a National Academy of Engineering regional meeting on the future of commercial aviation, allowing our school and department to display how we can contribute and lead in national engineering conversations.
Our faculty continue to show technical depth and long-term impact in research. We are proud that Crystal Noel received an NSF CAREER Award to study new photonic materials for quantum computers. Other faculty were recognized for previous work shaping semiconductors, AI hardware, and more.
We are also seeing our research move from the lab toward broader societal and commercial application. Synapse Semiconductor, a retina-inspired hardware startup founded by Duke ECE researchers, was selected for Y Combinator, underscoring the strength of our growing innovation ecosystem.
On a somber note, Horace Craig Casey, Jr., passed away at the age of 91. Dr. Casey was ECE chair for 15 years and a faculty member for 23 years before becoming an emeritus professor. His leadership helped launch our department on its current trajectory, and his research on semiconductor heterostructure lasers helped enable technologies that now underpin worldwide applications. We send our condolences to Dr. Casey's family and friends.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you have a great end to your summer break!
