Two Purdue faculty receive top U.S. Defense Department award
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Two Purdue University faculty members have received Army Research Laboratory Director's Challenge Coin awards from the U.S. Department of Defense for developing technologies credited with saving lives on the battlefield.
The researchers are Edward J. Delp, the Charles William Harrison Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and William J. Chappell, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.
"It is extremely rare for a private citizen to receive this award," said Melba M. Crawford, Purdue's associate dean of engineering for research. "It's a terrific honor that recognizes their exemplary research and contributions to national defense."
Delp and Chappell are part of a Multi-University Research Initiative, or MURI, that includes work on a project called Standoff Inverse Analysis and Manipulation of Electronic Systems, or SIAMES.
"Research breakthroughs discovered under the SIAMES MURI were rapidly transitioned into important electronic warfare applications in support of the warfighter," said Dev Palmer, MURI program manager at the Army Research Laboratory, who presented the awards on behalf of ARL director John M. Miller. "Plainly stated, the system improvements that resulted directly from this MURI have saved American lives on the battlefield."
A Challenge Coin is a military coin bearing a unit insignia or emblem.
Delp and Chappell were recognized for contributions having the potential to substantially improve the performance of the next-generation of military radio communications and sensor systems.
The project also involves researchers from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and North Carolina State University. Students working on the project have interned at Defense Department laboratories, and three graduates supported by the MURI at Purdue now work as full-time employees at the laboratories.
"The researchers and students supported under the SIAMES MURI have generated a substantial amount of intellectual output in the form of refereed journal articles and conference papers, leading to quite a few masters and doctoral degrees," Palmer said.
Miller recognized Delp for his work to develop new approaches to "waveform design and analysis contributing to optimal detection and classification of radio transceivers."
Chappell was recognized for his contributions in expanding the scientific understanding of the root causes behind "passive intermodulation distortion in passive components at microwave frequencies, and in developing strategies for controlling and cancelling this distortion using a simple magnetic field bias."
"Their contributions have the potential to substantially improve the performance of the next generation of military radio communications and sensor systems," Miller said.
Writer: Emil Venere, (765) 494-4709, venere@purdue.edu
Sources: Melba Crawford, 765-496-3224, mcrawford@purdue.edu
Edward J. Delp, 765-494-1740, ace@ecn.purdue.edu
William J. Chappell, 765-494-6225, chappell@ecn.purdue.edu