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Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Danella Zhao

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It is no surprise that Dr. Danella Zhao, Assistant Professor in the Center for Advanced Computer Studies (CACS), considers her recently awarded $621,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award the “greatest milestone of (her) career to date.”

The NSF CAREER award, one of the most prestigious NSF awards, is intended to support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education, and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. According to Dr. Magdy Bayoumi, Director of CACS, Dr. Zhao’s dedication to her students pours out in her personal interest in student recruitment and the institution of a rigorous training program. Dr. Zhao is not only molding insightful young scientists but also creating a pioneering research team - a research team that has to prove their ideas and “reach to that (higher) level of innovation to be able to deliver” (Bayoumi).

The NSF CAREER award will aid Dr. Zhao and her team to be on the cusp of a new wave in the evolution of computer chip technology. The concept of nanoscale many-core system-on-chip (MCSoC) devices – which consist of hundreds or even thousands of processor cores on a single chip – is nearly unheard of. Yet Dr. Zhao is aiming to replace wires with chip-based wireless radios to increase accessibility. Put very simply, Dr. Zhao is developing a method to make small computer chips even smaller. Shorter distances for information to travel equates to fewer losses and near speed-of-light communication! The end result will be a scalable, cost-efficient, flexible, and reusable chip infrastructure that will allow small devices to have more complex functions with fewer errors.

Dr. Zhao is the third CACS faculty member to have received the NSF CAREER award in the last five years (Dr. Hongyi Wu in 2004 and Dr. Dmitri Perkins in 2005). Since joining UL Lafayette in 2004, Dr. Zhao has been the Principal Investigator on four other awards – including the competitive NSF MRI award – totaling over $1.5 million! What’s most impressive, however, is Dr. Zhao’s hope that her work will “educate and train future scientists and educators, impacting a far greater community.”

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