Author: Adi Dasari

Chinaza Ogbonna Wins Webb-Donnell Communication Competition

Chinaza’s talk, “A Smart Implant for Safer Surgeries,” wins the Webb-Donnell Communication Competition held by the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. She presented her work on a novel implantable sensor that’s wirelessly interrogatable, biodegradable, and capable of detecting pH, trypsin, and blood; three key biomarkers that signal post-surgical leaks. She has demonstrated early detection performance of pH in benchtop models and is currently fabricating our trypsin sensors and blood sensors will follow. The next step after that is testing in ex vivo biological systems, to validate function in tissue-like environments. This is where we start translating engineering into clinical reality. This work is a move toward proactive surgical recovery—where we’re not just treating symptoms, but listening to biology in real time. Congratulations Chinaza!

Mindy Yao Receives IEEE AP-S Pre-Doctoral Research Grant

Undergraduate researcher Mindy Yao received the prestigious 2025 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) Pre-Doctoral Research Grant. Mindy worked as researcher at the mmWave Antennas and Arrays Laboratory. She has made contributions to the mmWave robotic antenna measurement setup as well as spherical nearfield to farfield transformations. She graduated with a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology in December 2025 and joined Skyworks as an RF Module Design Intern. Congratulations Mindy!

Sonny Lee Wins 3rd Place in Student Paper Competition at IEEE International Symposium on Phased Array Systems

Sonny’s paper, “Highly Integrated mmWave Antenna-on-Chip Arrays Using Substrate-Integrated Air Cavities,” won third place in the student paper competition at the IEEE International Symposium on Phased Array Systems (PAST). The paper presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of a 60 GHz beamforming array for 6G high data-rate wireless systems. The proposed silicon-based antenna offers the potential for future wireless system-on-a-chip (SoC) applications better equipped to handle high data throughput. Congratulations Sonny!

Sonny and Thomas Presented at IEEE Phased Array

Two Ph.D. students from the mmWave Antennas and Arrays Laboratory – Seung Yoon (Sonny) Lee and Thomas Williamson – presented their papers at the 2024 IEEE International Symposium on Phased Array Systems & Technology (PAST) held October 15-18 in Boston, MA. Sonny’s paper is titled “Highly Integrated mmWave Antenna-on-Chip Arrays Using Substrate-Integrated Air Cavities”. Tom’s paper is titled “A 10–50 GHz Ultrawideband Low Loss mmWave VO2 based Phase Shifter for Passive Scanning Arrays”.

Walter Disharoon Receives Herbert P. Haley Fellowship

Ph.D. student Walter Disharoon received the Herbert P. Haley Fellowship. Walter joined Georgia Tech as a Ph.D. student in 2021. He joined the mmWave antennas and arrays laboratory in Spring 2022. He won the fellowship for his continued research on VO2-based reconfigurable metasurfaces including a reconfigurable reflectarray and an energy selective surface.  Congratulations Walter!