- Date & Time: Wednesday, November 15, 2023; 3:00-3:40pm (EST)
Location: Virtual Event
Speaker: Prof. Yuejie Chi, Carnegie Mellon University
MERL Contact: Bingnan Wang Brief - MERL is excited to announce the featured keynote speaker for our Virtual Open House 2023: Prof. Yuejie Chi from Carnegie Mellon University.
Our virtual open house this year will take place on November 15, 2023, 1:00pm - 5:30pm (EST). Prof. Chi’s talk is scheduled for 3:00-3:40pm (EST). For details and agenda of the event, please visit: https://merl.com/events/voh23
Join us to learn more about who we are, what we do, and discuss our internship, post-doc, and full-time employment opportunities. To register, go to: https://mailchi.mp/merl/voh23
Title: Sample Complexity of Q-learning: from Single-agent to Federated Learning
Abstract: Q-learning, which seeks to learn the optimal Q-function of a Markov decision process (MDP) in a model-free fashion, lies at the heart of reinforcement learning practices. However, theoretical understandings on its non-asymptotic sample complexity remain unsatisfactory, despite significant recent efforts. In this talk, we first show a tight sample complexity bound of Q-learning in the single-agent setting, together with a matching lower bound to establish its minimax sub-optimality. We then show how federated versions of Q-learning allow collaborative learning using data collected by multiple agents without central sharing, where an importance averaging scheme is introduced to unveil the blessing of heterogeneity.
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- Date & Time: Wednesday, November 15, 2023; 1:00 - 5:30 EST
Location: Virtual Event
MERL Contact: Bingnan Wang Brief - Join us for MERL's Virtual Open House (VOH) 2023 on November 15th. Live sessions will be held from 1:00-5:30pm EST, including an overview of recent activities by our research groups, a featured guest speaker and live interaction with our research staff through the Gather platform. Registered attendees will be able to browse our virtual booths at their convenience and connect with our research staff to learn about engagement opportunities, including internship/post-doc openings as well as visiting faculty positions.
For agenda and details of the event: https://www.merl.com/events/voh23
To register for the VOH, go to:
https://mailchi.mp/merl/voh23
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- Date: August 30, 2023
Awarded to: Bingnan Wang, Hiroshi Inoue, and Makoto Kanemaru
MERL Contact: Bingnan Wang
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Data Analytics, Multi-Physical Modeling
Brief - MERL and Mitsubishi Electric's paper titled “Motor Eccentricity Fault Detection: Physics-Based and Data-Driven Approaches” was awarded one of three best paper awards at the 14th IEEE International Symposium on Diagnostics for Electric Machines, Power Electronics and Drives (SDEMPED 2023). MERL Senior Principal Research Scientist Bingnan Wang presented the paper and received the award at the symposium. Co-authors of the paper include Mitsubishi Electric researchers Hiroshi Inoue and Makoto Kanemaru.
SDEMPED was established as the only international symposium entirely devoted to the diagnostics of electrical machines, power electronics and drives. It is now a regular biennial event. The 14th version, SDEMPED 2023 was held in Chania, Greece from August 28th to 31st, 2023.
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- Date: May 15, 2023 - May 18, 2023
Where: San Francisco, CA
MERL Contacts: Dehong Liu; Bingnan Wang
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Control, Electric Systems, Machine Learning, Optimization, Signal Processing
Brief - MERL researchers Yusuke Sakamoto, Anantaram Varatharajan, and
Bingnan Wang presented four papers at IEMDC 2023 held May 15-18 in San Francisco, CA. The topics of the four oral presentations range from electric machine design optimization, to fault detection and sensorless control. Bingnan Wang organized a special session at the conference entitled: Learning-based Electric Machine Design and Optimization. Bingnan Wang and Yusuke Sakamoto together chaired the special session, as well as a session on: Condition Monitoring, Fault Diagnosis and Prognosis.
The 14th IEEE International Electric Machines and Drives Conference: IEMDC 2023, is one of the major conferences in the area of electric machines and drives. The conference was established in 1997 and has taken place every two years thereafter.
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- Date: October 28, 2022
MERL Contacts: Dehong Liu; Bingnan Wang; Jinyun Zhang
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Data Analytics, Multi-Physical Modeling
Brief - MERL researcher Bingnan Wang gave seminar talk at Wisconsin Electric Machines and Power Electronics Consortium (WEMPEC), which is recognized globally for its sustained contributions to electric machines and power electronics technology. He gave an overview of MERL research, especially on electric machines, and introduced our recent work on quantitative eccentricity fault diagnosis technologies for electric motors, including physical-model approach using improved winding function theory, and data-driven approach using topological data analysis to effectively differentiate signals from different fault conditions.
The seminar was given on Teams. MERL researchers Jin Zhang, Dehong Liu, Yusuke Sakamoto and Bingnan Wang held meetings with WEMPEC faculty members before the seminar to discuss various research topics, and met virtually with students after the talk.
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- Date & Time: Tuesday, December 7, 2021; 1:00 PM EST
Speaker: Prof. Eric Severson, University of Wisconsin-Madison
MERL Host: Bingnan Wang
Research Area: Electric Systems
Abstract 
Electric motors pump our water, heat and cool our homes and offices, drive critical medical and surgical equipment, and, increasingly, operate our transportation systems. Approximately 99% of the world’s electric energy is produced by a rotating generator and 45% of that energy is consumed by an electric motor. The efficiency of this technology is vital in enabling our energy sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint. The reliability and lifetime of this technology have severe, and sometimes life-altering, consequences. Today’s motor technology largely relies upon mechanical bearings to support the motor’s shaft. These bearings are the first components to fail, create frictional losses, and rely on lubricants that create contamination challenges and require periodic maintenance. In short, bearings are the Achilles' heel of modern electric motors.
This seminar will explore the use of actively controlled magnetic forces to levitate the motor shaft, eliminating mechanical bearings and the problems associated with them. The working principles of traditional magnetic levitation technology (active magnetic bearings) will be reviewed and used to explain why this technology has not been successfully applied to the most high-impact motor applications. Research into “bearingless” motors offers a new levitation approach by manipulating the inherent magnetic force capability of all electric motors. While traditional motors are carefully designed to prevent shaft forces, the bearingless motor concept controls these forces to make the motor simultaneously function as an active magnetic bearing. The seminar will showcase the potential of bearingless technology to revolutionize motor systems of critical importance for energy and sustainability—from industrial compressors and blowers, such as those found in HVAC systems and wastewater aeration equipment, to power grid flywheel energy storage devices and electric turbochargers in fuel-efficient vehicles.
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- Date: February 4, 2019
Where: Scientific Reports, open-access journal from Nature Research
MERL Contacts: Devesh K. Jha; Toshiaki Koike-Akino; Chungwei Lin; Kieran Parsons; Bingnan Wang
Research Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Electronic and Photonic Devices, Machine Learning
Brief - MERL researchers developed a novel design method enhanced by modern deep learning techniques for optimizing photonic integrated circuits (PIC). The developed technique employs residual deep neural networks (DNNs) to understand physics underlaying complicated lightwave propagations through nano-structured photonic devices. It was demonstrated that the trained DNN achieves excellent prediction to design power splitting nanostructures having various target power ratios. The work was published in Scientific Reports, which is an online open access journal from Nature Research, having high-impact articles in the research community.
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- Date: March 3, 2019 - March 7, 2019
Where: San Diego, CA
MERL Contacts: Devesh K. Jha; Toshiaki Koike-Akino; Chungwei Lin; Kieran Parsons; Bingnan Wang; Ye Wang
Research Areas: Communications, Machine Learning, Optimization, Signal Processing
Brief - MERL researchers are presenting 4 papers at the OSA Optical Fiber Conference (OFC), which is being held in San Diego from March 3-7, 2019. Topics to be presented include recent advances in nonbinary polar codes, joint polar-coded shaping, and deep learning-based photonics circuit design. Additionally, recent work on multiset-partition distribution matching is presented as an invited talk.
OFC is the flagship conference of the OSA, and the world's most comprehensive technical conference focused on the research advances and latest technological development in optics and photonics. The event attracts more than 10000 participants each year.
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- Date: January 31, 2018
Where: SPIE Photonics West
MERL Contact: Bingnan Wang
Research Areas: Communications, Electronic and Photonic Devices, Signal Processing
Brief - MERL presents two invited papers at SPIE Photonics West 2018, to be held in San Francisco from Jan 27 to February 1. MERL researchers Bingnan Wang and Keisuke Kojima will give an talk on "Metamaterial absorber for THz polarimetric sensing" and "System and device technologies for coherent optical communications", respectively.
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- Date: May 13, 2015 - May 15, 2015
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Electric Systems
Brief - Description: Bingnan Wang presented a paper, 'Circularly Polarized Near Field for Resonant Wireless Power Transfer' at the recently held IEEE Wireless Power Transfer Conference in Boulder, Colorado from May 13-15, 2015.
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- Date: May 15, 2013
Where: IEEE Wireless Power Transfer Conference (WPTC)
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Electric Systems
Brief - The paper "Wireless Power Transfer with Artificial Magnetic Conductors" by Wu, J., Wang, B., Yerazunis, W.S. and Teo, K.H. was presented at the IEEE Wireless Power Transfer Conference (WPTC).
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- Date: May 15, 2013
Where: Proceedings of IEEE
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; William S. Yerazunis Brief - The article "Wireless Power Transfer: Metamaterials and Array of Coupled Resonators" by Wang, B., Yerazunis, W. and Teo, K.H. was published in Proceedings of IEEE.
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- Date: March 14, 2013
Where: Proceedings of the IEEE
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Electric Systems
Brief - The article "Wireless Power Transfer: Metamaterials and Array of Coupled Resonators" by Wang, B., Yerazunis, W. and Teo, K.H. was published in Proceedings of the IEEE.
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- Date: March 1, 2013
Where: IEICE Technical Committee Conference (OCS/OFT/OPE)
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; Toshiaki Koike-Akino; Kieran Parsons
Research Area: Electronic and Photonic Devices
Brief - The paper "An MMI-based Polarization Splitter using Patterned Metal and Angled Joint" by Kojima, K., Nishikawa, S., Yagyu, E., Yuan, W., Wang, B., Koike-Akino, T. and Parsons, K. was presented at the IEICE Technical Committee Conference (OCS/OFT/OPE).
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- Date: October 31, 2012
Where: European Radar Conference (EuRAD)
MERL Contact: Bingnan Wang
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Electric Systems
Brief - The paper "Accurate Models for Spiral Resonators" by Ellstein, D., Wang, B. and Teo, K.H. was presented at the European Radar Conference (EuRAD).
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- Date: October 29, 2012
Where: IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (ISAP)
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; William S. Yerazunis
Research Area: Electric Systems
Brief - The paper "Power Delivery Optimization for a Mobile Power Transfer System based on Resonator Arrays" by Yerazunis, W., Wang, B. and Teo, K.H. was presented at the IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (ISAP).
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- Date: September 16, 2012
Where: European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC)
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; Toshiaki Koike-Akino; Kieran Parsons
Research Area: Electronic and Photonic Devices
Brief - The paper "An MMI-based Polarization Splitter Using Patterned Metal and Tilted Joint" by Yuan, W., Kojima, K., Wang, B., Koike-Akino, T., Parsons, K., Nishikawa, S. and Yagyu, E. was presented at the European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC).
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- Date: April 23, 2012
Where: Optics Express
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; Kieran Parsons
Research Area: Electronic and Photonic Devices
Brief - The article "Mode-evolution-based Polarization Rotator-splitter Design via Simple Fabrication Process" by Yuan, W., Kojima, K., Wang, B., Koike-Akino, T., Parsons, K., Nishikawa, S. and Yagyu, E. was published in Optics Express.
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- Date: March 26, 2012
Where: European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP)
MERL Contact: Bingnan Wang
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Electric Systems
Brief - The paper "Analysis on Wireless Power Transfer to Moving Devices Based on Array of Resonators" by Wang, B., Ellstein, D. and Teo, K.H. was presented at the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP).
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- Date: March 5, 2012
Where: IEEE International Workshop on Antenna Technology (iWAT)
MERL Contact: Bingnan Wang
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Electric Systems
Brief - The paper "Metamaterials for Wireless Power Transfer" by Wang, B. and Teo, K.H. was presented at the IEEE International Workshop on Antenna Technology (iWAT).
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- Date: October 14, 2011
Where: IEICE Technical Committee on Antennas and Propagation (AP)
MERL Contact: Bingnan Wang
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Electric Systems
Brief - The paper "Flexible and Mobile Near-Field Wireless Power Transfer using an Array of Resonators" by Wang, B., Teo, K.H., Yamaguchi, S., Takahashi, T. and Konishi, Y. was presented at IEICE Technical Committee on Antennas and Propagation (AP).
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- Date: June 23, 2011
Where: Applied Physics Letters
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; Jinyun Zhang; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Electric Systems
Brief - The article "Experiments on Wireless Power Transfer with Metamaterials" by Wang, B., Teo, K.H., Nichino, T., Yerazunis, W., Barnwell, J. and Zhang, J. was published in Applied Physics Letters.
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- Date: April 11, 2011
Where: European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP)
MERL Contacts: Bingnan Wang; William S. Yerazunis
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Electric Systems
Brief - The paper "Wireless Power Transfer with Metamaterials" by Wang, B., Teo, K.H., Nishino, T., Yerazunis, W., Barnwell, J. and Zhang, J. was presented at the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP).
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- Date: August 28, 2010
Where: IEEE International Conference on Wireless Information Technology and Systems (ICWITS)
MERL Contact: Bingnan Wang
Research Areas: Applied Physics, Electric Systems
Brief - The paper "Wireless Power Transmission Efficiency Enhancement with Metamaterials" by Wang, B., Nishino, T. and Teo, K.H. was presented at the IEEE International Conference on Wireless Information Technology and Systems (ICWITS).
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