Alumnus Kai Wu receives NSF CAREER Award for room temperature, lightweight neural imaging platform

ECE is proud to share that alumnus Kai Wu who is currently a tenure-track faculty at Texas Tech University has received the prestigious and highly competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award.

Wu’s funded project, “CAREER: FLEX-MEG: Flexible Quantum MEG with Physics-Aware Compressed Sensing for Scalable, Real-Time Neural Imaging,” is supported by a $500,000 NSF award over five years through the Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS). The project aims to create a transformative new neurotechnology for room-temperature, high-resolution, noninvasive brain imaging. Current magnetoencephalography (MEG) systems are often bulky, expensive, and difficult to use in natural or mobile settings because they rely on large instrumentation and specialized cooling. Instead, Wu’s project develops flexible, scalp-conformal arrays of tri-axial magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) sensors that can operate without cryogenic cooling, enabling lightweight and wearable neural imaging platforms.

The research combines these advanced quantum MEG sensors with physics-aware compressed sensing (PACS), edge AI, and hierarchical in-sensor computing to process large neural datasets in real time while reducing latency, power use, and data-throughput demands. The project also explores a bidirectional, all-magnetic neural interface by integrating sensing with on-chip microcoil-based magnetothermal neurostimulation, opening the door to closed-loop systems that can both monitor and modulate neural activity.

In addition to its research advances, the project includes a strong education and workforce-development component. Planned activities include interdisciplinary student training in spintronic devices, quantum sensing, and biomedical instrumentation; a course-based undergraduate research experience in neuroengineering; K-12 outreach through hands-on STEM activities in West Texas schools; and industry-connected opportunities that help prepare students for careers in emerging sensing, neurotechnology, and AI-enabled healthcare fields.

ECE congratulates Dr. Professor Wu on this outstanding achievement and celebrates the continued impact of its alumni in advancing engineering research, education, and innovation.

One of the most prestigious awards instituted by the NSF, it recognizes and supports faculty early in their careers who show the potential to “serve as academic role models in research and education and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.”

Learn more about the project on the NSF website 

Learn about alumnus Kai Wu’s research