Engineer among world’s top researchers

College of Engineering assistant professor Susan Hagness is one of the world’s 100 Top Young Innovators, says Technology Review magazine.

Technology Review is honoring 100 young researchers whose innovative work in business and technology has a profound impact on the world. Nominees are recognized for their contribution in transforming the nature of technology in industries such as biotechnology, computing, energy, medicine, manufacturing, nanotechnology, telecommunications and transportation.

Hagness is working on technology that could bring astounding new speed to computing and electronic communications. She says scientists are reaching what she calls “the tera era,” or an age in which transmission rates for fiber optic communications may break the terabit-per-second mark. A terabit is one trillion bits per second.

In addition, the research field of nanotechnology is exploding nationally, and recent advances in materials technology and fabrication techniques are making it possible to design “photonic microstructures” that are fractions of the width of human hair in size. Hagness is working to understand how light travels within these structures, a key step before they can be applied in a new generation of integrated circuits.

She also is working to develop a low-cost, computer-based microwave alternative to traditional mammograms. The system could improve early tumor detection and eliminate the trauma of unnecessary biopsies.

In the classroom, Hagness is working to reverse the paradigm of “in-class lecture and out-of-class problem-solving.” She uses interactive multimedia-based lectures, combined with small-group problem-solving sessions, to help students visualize and understand complex material.

Hagness is being honored today, May 23, during a conference and awards ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.