Two alumni of the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering were elected as members of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in February 2022. Election to the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer and honors outstanding contributions to research, practice or education.
Richard G. Baraniuk was selected for the development and broad dissemination of open educational resources and for foundational contributions to compressive sensing.
Baraniuk received his master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from UW-Madison in 1988. He is the C. Sidney Burrus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rice University and the founding director of OpenStax.
Baraniuk’s research interests lie in new theory, algorithms, and hardware for sensing, signal processing, and machine learning. He holds 30 U.S. and six foreign patents, several of which have been licensed to Siemens to radically speed up magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. He is also one of the founders of the open education (OER) movement that aims to unlock education opportunities for all. Baraniuk is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Inventors, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and IEEE.
Daniel N. Miller, a senior fellow of the Skunk Works at Lockheed Martin Corporation, was selected for theoretical contributions and practical innovations in flow control that improve the performance of aircraft propulsion systems.
Miller received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mechanical engineering from UW-Madison. Miller has led numerous air vehicle innovations in the areas of propulsion, aerodynamics, thermodynamics, flight controls, high energy laser integration, and composite structures. These technologies have been used on major programs including the F-35, F-22, C-130, and are being evaluated for next-generation platforms.
Based on his technical accomplishments, Miller has earned the prestigious position of senior technical fellow in the Air Vehicle Sciences & Systems organization of the Skunk Works. His accomplishments include 24 U.S. and European patents granted with 20 additional patents pending; more than 50 technical publications; co-editor and co-author of an AIAA textbook on flow control; co-instructor of an AIAA short course series at 10 conferences; and 20 invited lectures hosted by academia, government, and professional societies. He has received the highly coveted Corporate NOVA award, which is the Lockheed Martin Corporation’s highest award for technical achievement, and the LM Aeronautics Company AeroStar award. In addition, AIAA, ASME, SAE, and academia have honored him with various awards for his superior contributions. He is also an associate fellow of AIAA.
A formal induction ceremony for the 111 new NAE members and 22 new international members will take place at the academy’s annual meeting on Oct. 2, 2022.