The Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering (BCOE) is on the rise – and two BCOE faculty have recently broken new records at the college.

Alexander Balandin, distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering and founding chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has recently surpassed 50,000 citations of his research publications with expertise on nanoscale materials, devices and circuits. Eamonn Keogh, professor of computer science and engineering, has achieved the same benchmark for his work on databases, data mining and artificial intelligence. These successes are a first for faculty members at BCOE and a testament to the impact of the college’s research expertise.

In addition, both Keogh and Balandin are rapidly approaching h=100, a very high value in the h-index and an indication of profound research influence. The h-index is a metric that quantifies both journal scientific productivity through number of publications and scientific impact through number of citations by other scientists and publications. For example, an h-index of 100 means that 100 of the researcher’s papers have each been cited at least 100 times.

Balandin is internationally recognized for pioneering studies of graphene’s thermal properties, discovery of unique features of phonon thermal transport in two-dimensional materials, as well as the first proposals and demonstrations of practical applications of graphene in thermal management of electronics.

Balandin recently joined a new U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Frontier Research Center that aims to create a more resilient and sustainable electricity grid. The four-year, $12.4 million award among multiple institutions establishes a center headquartered at Arizona State University called Ultra Materials for a Resilient, Smart Electricity Grid. Balandin co-leads the Ultra Center’s thrust on Thermal Energy Transport and Interfaces.

In addition, Balandin received nearly $500,000 from the DOE to investigate electric-bias control of quantum materials. The research findings at UCR’s Phonon Optimized Engineering Materials (POEM) Center, for which he serves as director, are expected to influence the future of quantum communications and computing technologies as well as medical radiation therapy.

Keogh is a UCR faculty entrepreneur and in 2016 co-founded FarmSense, a smart pest monitoring system dubbed “the next generation of insect monitoring.” Keogh’s technology uses insect traps with optical sensors to automate insect classification and counting, so farmers can respond in real-time to pesty invaders.

FarmSense has been abuzz across the globe – earning second place in the Entrepreneurship World Cup U.S. National Finals this fall and advancing to the Entrepreneurship World Cup finals. In the last year, FarmSense has won three National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants worth $1.2 million to advance Keogh’s invention into commercialization.

Listed by Microsoft Academic Search at the 5th most influential data miner in the world, Keogh’s research areas include data mining, machine learning and information retrieval, specializing in techniques for solving similarity and indexing problems in time-series datasets. Keogh has given over two dozen well received tutorials at premier conferences in data mining and databases.

For the latest research updates from Balandin, visit here.

For the latest research updates from Keogh, visit here.