Lab Members
Graduate Students
Andrew Chang is a Ph.D. candidate whose research interests are circuit interfaces and control of mechanical vibration energy harvesters, next generation full body PET scanners, energy harvesting for wireless sensor nodes & photosensors. He has worked for Bosch Research and Technology Center from 2013-2015 and Abalone Inc. in 2014. Andrew completed a double major in Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering and received his Bachelor of Science degrees from UC Davis in 2005. Andrew also completed his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering in 2009 and Master of Science in Physics in 2016 at UC Davis. When Andrew isn’t in the lab he can be found skiing or traveling.
Son Nguyen received his Bachelor of Engineering degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Vietnam, in 2012, and his M.S. degree in micro and nano systems technology from Buskerud and Vestfold University College, Norway, in 2014. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Micropower Circuits and Systems Group in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Davis. He has worked part time for Redpine Signals, Inc. since June, 2016. His research interests include energy harvesting systems, power management integrated circuits, low-power mixed signal circuits, and microelectromechanical systems.
Nathan Ellis is a Ph.D. candidate whose research interests are high efficiency hybrid DC/DC converters, biomedical devices and system identification. Nathan received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering from University College Cork, Ireland. He is currently an independent contractor at Texas Instruments and has been a consultant/design engineer at Thalman Health since 2015. Nathan previously worked as a co-op at Linear Technology in 2015 and at Cypress Semiconductor in 2012. When Nathan isn’t working on research he can be found surfing.
Ken Thomas is a Ph.D. student whose research interests are RF IC and sensor design. Ken received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan in 2014. Outside of research Ken enjoys board and tabletop games, blues fusion and swing dancing and making sure lists contain three items.
Sean Alling is a Ph.D student whose research interest is in low power embedded systems. He has worked for Smartrise Engineering on the design of software safety systems since 2015. Sean completed a double major in Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering and received his Bachelor of Science degrees from UC Davis in 2015. When Sean isn’t in the lab he is walking his dog, camping or hiking.
Heather Richardson is a Ph.D. student whose research interests are radiation detection for nuclear medicine applications and low-power mixed signal IC design. Heather received her Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering from California State University, Sacramento. Prior to joining UC Davis she taught engineering labs at CSUS and has worked as a Design Engineer for Defense Microelectronics Activity since 2007. When Heather is not on campus she is on adventures with her husband and daughters, playing hockey, cooking, or trying to sneak in a nap.
Connie Duong is a Ph.D. student in the Micropower Circuits and Systems Group, and her research interest is in low-power mixed signal design. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2015. Before joining UC Davis to pursue a Ph.D. she worked for GE Bently Nevada from 2015-2016. When Connie isn’t on campus, she can be found volunteering with children’s Sunday school and spending time with her family.
Karthika Pai is a master’s student whose research is optimizing machine learning algorithms in embedded systems. She completed her undergraduate degree in computer engineering from UC Davis in 2016. After graduating with her master’s degree, she hopes to work in industry as a software engineer or data scientist. While not researching, teaching, or drinking copious amounts of coffee, she’s probably reading in the library or petting cats.
Tim Ambrose is a Ph.D. student whose research is embedded systems and repurposed computing: recycled smart phones for distributed computing clusters. Tim received his Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from Cal Poly SLO in 2015. Prior to joining UC Davis to pursue a Ph.D., he worked as a Hardware/Software Engineering Intern at Keysight, as a Software Test Engineer at Tapestry Solutions: A Boeing Company, and also as a freelance videographer. Tim is a Tesla coil builder, pipe organist and pianist, videographer, element collector, and computer-controlled musical Christmas light show architect.