People

Ronald A. Coutu, Jr. is a Professor and the V. Clayton Lafferty Endowed Chair in Electrical Engineering at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI. He received his B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1993, his M.S. in electrical engineering from the California Polytechnic State University (CalPoly) in San Luis Obispo in 1995, and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology in 2004. He is a California Professional Engineer and Senior Member of the IEEE and SPIE. His research interests include MEMS, advanced microsystems, biosensors, device fabrication, micro-electrical contacts, and phase-change materials.

Protap K. Mahanta was born in Dinajpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He received BS and MS degree in Applied Physics, Electronics and Communication Engineering (APECE) from University of Dhaka, Bangladesh and M.E. in Electrical Engineering from University of Idaho, Idaho, USA. As part of his master’s thesis, he conducted research on Carbon nanomaterial based VLSI interconnects at University of Dhaka. During the M.E program, he worked on signal and power integrity of high speed, ultra-low power, thin and dense microelectronic chip/package/system endowed by Micron Technology, Inc. He was also the recipient of the Sumitomo Scholarship, an outstanding academic excellence award from the Sumitomo Corporation, Japan, during his study at University of Dhaka. In Fall 2017, he has joined in Prof. Ronald Coutu’s MEMS and Advanced Microsystems research group in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Marquette University, Milwaukee, to pursue his Ph.D degree. His current research is focused on the physics, design, fabrication and testing of micro contact of RF MEMS switch.

Turja Nandy, who is from Bangladesh, has started his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Marquette University, WI, USA from Spring-2018. Previously, he has completed his B.Sc. in Applied Physics, Electronics and Communication Engineering and M.Sc. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University of Dhaka. His bachelor and master researches were about graphene nano-materials, nano-structured thin films and their applications. For his academic excellence, Turja has achieved National Science and Technology Fellowship 2015-16 from Government of Bangladesh and Erasmus Mundus Scholarship 2017-18 from European Union. Currently, he is working as a Research Assistant (RA) in Prof. Dr. Coutu’s Advanced Microsystems Research Laboratory. His present research is focused on design, fabrication and testing of Micro-electro-mechanical System (MEMS) membrane based gas sensor through miniaturized photo-acoustic detection system and also improved MEMS gas sensing using integrated efficient micro-heater and micro-pre-concentrator.

Mohiuddin Munna is in Ph.D. program in Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Marquette University. He received BS and MS degree in Applied Physics, Electronics and Communication Engineering (APECE) from University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. As part of his master’s thesis, he conducted research Study on Two-Dimensional Electron Gas, Hole Gas and Drain Current Capabilities of Strained III-Nitrides. He joined as a lecturer (On Study Leave) in Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Dhaka, Dhaka Bangladesh. He has joined Prof. Ronald Coutu’s MEMS and Advanced Microsystems research group in spring 2018. His research focus is on fabrication and characterization of RF switches. Currently he is working on phase change material (PCM), metal insulator transition (MIT) material and Liquid Crystal Based RF switches.

Farhana Anwar has started to pursue her M.S. degree from the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Marquette University, Milwaukee in Fall, 2017. She has also joined as a Research Assistant in Prof. Ronald Coutu’s MEMS and Advanced Microsystems research group, and her current research is focused on the design, fabrication and testing of pressure sensitivity of MEMS membrane. Farhana came to Marquette University as an international student from Bangladesh, where she received B.Sc. degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE) from University of Dhaka. As part of her honors thesis, she conducted research on nanowire CdS/CdTe solar cell. During her B.Sc. program, she worked on design and simulation of Core Multishell Nanowire/Quantum Dot heterojunction structure, Core Multishell Metal Nanowire, Lead Free Perovskite Solar Cell, and CZTS Solar Cell.

Wesley is a third year undergraduate studying Bioelectrical Engineering at Marquette University. As a research assistant, his focus is on designing, building, and testing wheatstone-bridge sensors for various applications. In the future, he plans to pursue more research interests and study clinical engineering.