Professor: Grace Lu

Department: Electrical Engineering Systems

Website: http://ee.usc.edu/faculty_staff/faculty_directory/lu.htm
Description: For the coming summer, we welcome undergraduate students to participate in the project to develop
nanowire based photovoltaic devices. Solar cells will be implemented by using nanoporous metal oxide templates
along with bottom-up growth of single crystalline nanowires. The dimensions of the nano-templates are controllable
and can be optimized to enhance light trapping. Vertically-aligned nanowires will be used to form radial junctions for
efficient charge separation and transport.
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites: None Specified
Comments: Our NAMI group focuses on the electrical properties of low dimensional nanostructures and their device
applications. The research activities of the group include, but are not limited to, the synthesis and characterization of
nano-materials and structures, and development of future devices with low power consumption, enhanced operation
speed, versatile functionalities and high performance.

Professor: Michelle Povinelli

Department: Electrical Engineering/Electrophysics
Website: http://www.usc.edu/nanophotonics
Description: Project: Photonic Crystals Participate in design, fabrication, and testing of photonic crystals. Photonic
crystals are materials that change how light flows and can act as mirrors, filters, or as "slow-light" medium. We
simulate how light propagates through the materials on the USC supercomputer, design devices of interest, fabricate
them in the USC Photonics Cleanroom facility using techniques similar to circuit fabrication, and characterize the
devices in our laboratory.
Number of Students: 1
Prerequisites: See Below
Comments: The USC Nanophotonics group, led by Professor Michelle Povinelli, studies how light interacts with
nanostructured materials for applications in optical communications, solar cells, and biology.

Professor: Steve Nutt

Department: Materials Science
Website: http://chems.usc.edu/faculty_staff/nutt.htm
Description: Next-generation power lines – The next generation of power distribution lines will be supported by fiber-
reinforced composites, which afford greater capacity because of higher strength, lighter weight, and reduced sag
relative to conventional steel-reinforced conductors. However, a major issue concerns durability and the ability to
predict lifetime, which will be limited by environmental factors that cause aging, as well as fatigue. The project scope
includes investigation of aging mechanisms and effects on property retention, as well as methods to mitigate or limit
degradation mechanisms.
Number of Students: 3
Prerequisites: None Specified
Comments: View website for more information.

Professor: Grace Lu
Department: Electrical Engineering Systems
Website: http://ee.usc.edu/faculty_staff/faculty_directory/lu.htm
Description: Our group focuses on the electrical properties of low dimensional nanostructures and their device
applications. The research activities include the synthesis and characterization of nano-materials, and development
of future devices with low power consumption, enhanced operation speed, and versatile functionalities. For the
coming summer, we welcome undergraduate students to participate in the project to develop nanowire based
photovoltaic devices. Solar cells will be implemented by using nanoporous metal oxide templates along with bottom-
up growth of single crystalline nanowires. The dimensions of the nano-templates are controllable and can be
optimized to enhance light trapping. Vertically-aligned nanowires will be used to form radial junctions for efficient
charge separation and transport.
Number of Students: 2
Prerequisites: See description
Comments: http://ee.usc.edu/

Professor: Murali Annavaram

Department: Electrical Engineering Systems
Website: http://www.usc.edu/dept/ee/scip/
Description: During the internship period at our research group the intern would learn the basics of our research
projects on system reliability issues and would learn about the evaluation infrastructure developed in our research
group. As a first step we’ll look at the FPGA evaluation setup used in our research and then the intern would get to
use this setup to collect experimental data. After this initial exposure to the evaluation setup, the intern would be
given a small project to enhance the emulation setup by improving a well defined aspect of trace collection process.
The intern would get familiar with design of experiments and how novel mircroarchitectural ideas in computer
engineering can be evaluated. The intern would get practical hands on experience using Perl scripting, verilog HDL
coding, and FPGA design implementation flow. While prior experience in this domains is useful it is not necessary to
apply for this internship.
Number of Students: 3
Prerequisites: See Project Description below
Comments: