Regarded as the greatest distinction bestowed upon only ten students of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering each academic year, the Attributes of a Gator Engineer Awards recognize five undergraduate and five PhD students who exemplify the five qualities all UF engineers are encouraged to espouse: 1. Creativity, 2. Leadership, 3. Integrity, 4. Professional Excellence, and 5. Service to Global Community. Chosen as an exemplary of the Professional Excellence category -which includes attributes such as technically competent, skilled in management and planning, problem solving, and scientifically insightful– Robert, currently a PhD student, was nominated by his advisor and fellow FICS research faculty member, Prof. Swarup Bhunia, for his work in the areas of bio-medical signal processing, energy-efficient re-configurable computing, and hardware security.

For his Master’s thesis, Robert, in collaboration with researchers at the L. Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, developed Context Aware Thresholding, a novel algorithm that can be used for computer aided diagnosis and treatment of urinary incontinence using an implantable bladder pressure sensor and external neuro-stimulator. It has been successfully demonstrated in a human trial, and two patents have been filed on the algorithm and corresponding treatment methodology. Robert has also worked extensively in the field of energy-efficient re-configurable computing for which he was invited to present at IBM T.J. Watson Research Lab’s CMOS Forum. Together with Professor Bhunia, Robert is contributing a chapter to a book titled Emerging Technology and Architectures for Big-Data Analytics. The two are also currently preparing a separate authored work on hardware acceleration with nano scale memories. Robert’s work in emerging memory devices and architectures has also led to a first authorship in the most prestigious IEEE (engineering industry) journal, Proceedings of the IEEE, for an article entitled “Emerging Trends in Design and Applications of Memory-based Computing and Content Addressable Memories”. More recently, Robert has begun working in the area of hardware security, and has helped develop a novel concept for system security, for which a provisional patent has been filed. Besides his scholarly works, Robert also spends time mentoring students, and has previously worked with a group of undergraduates to build a mini, energy-efficient super computer. He has also worked with an undergraduate on the design and implementation of a novel, efficient, and adaptive algorithm for ultrasonography, which is capable of identifying and classifying tumors in a variety of organs. In addition, he has worked with a Master’s student on the implementation of a low-power image encryption technique suitable for embedded Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

To learn more about The Attributes of Gator Engineer Award, click HERE.
https://www.eng.ufl.edu/students/students/new-students/attributes/