Nick Karl

My overall objective is to work on interesting disruptive projects, projects with real impact that will drive the future. I have experience with and am interested in research (and pushing the performance) of metamaterial technologies and THz (far IR) technologies. In my graduate school work this was done through the development of novel techniques as well as the application of known engineering principles. I am a big-picture thinker with strong organizational skills and a passion for problem-solving, who likes to grapple with interesting engineering problems. I embrace problems that require multi-disciplinary approaches. I love working with passionate people, and I enjoy leading by example and getting my hands dirty.

I have worked on projects in multiple spaces, including THz communications, active metamaterials, metamaterial optimization, robotics, and materials characterization. I also think a lot about tools to faciliate good research and analysis. Things I've worked on include: building an ultra-fast femto-second laser system, analysis software design, metamaterial fabrication mask design, building multiple custom experimental setups for metamaterial research. Developing a power delivery system to drive our active metamaterial device controlled by a C# GUI giving us the needed control over the metamaterial. Thinking about coupling optimization to efficiently guide light from freespace into desired guided modes, and simulating our metamaterial devices and setups.

Resume Contents:

• Education
• Skills
• Experience
• Conferences
• Refereed Publications

Education

Brown University - Providence, Rhode Island

• Ph.D. Electrical Engineering: August 2014 - May 2018 (expected)
  

Rice University - Houston, Texas

• M.S. Electrical Engineering: August 2011 - May 2014
  Thesis: " Electrically Driven Terahertz Metamaterial Diffractive Modulator"

Florida Institute of Technology - Melbourne, Florida - GPA: 4.0

• B.S. Electrical & Computer Engineering: Spring 2009 - May 2011

Skills

• Strong analytical, quantitative, and technical skills – involving statistical data analysis, experimental design and visualization, hardware interfacing and design, optics-photonics and optoelectronics systems, and numerical implementation for design and analysis of applied problems

• Self-directed problem solver – delivering results on a wide range of large and small projects encompassing project formulation, design, numerical verification, fabrication, equipment purchasing, experimental implementation, data collection, data analysis, results presentation, manuscript writing, and journal submission

• Skilled experimentalist – comfortable with complicated high-cost experimental systems, capable of troubleshooting and repairing ultra-fast (femto-second) laser systems, able to independently gain familiarity of new equipment

• Adept communicator – ability to synthesize and present complex technical research and concepts to expert and non-expert audiences through compelling verbal and written communications

• Collaborative – worked on projects that required cross-discipline partnerships, mentored 1st year PhD students in navigating graduate school, guided new lab members in learning experimental and analytical techniques

Experience

Brown University

• Graduate Student Research Assistant
  August 2014 - Present

Some highlights from my time at Brown were:

• Developed a metamaterial research project involving collaboration between Los Alamos Natl. Lab, Sandia Natl. Lab, and Brown University.
• Devised a novel TE mode coupler using parallel plate waveguides for simple excitation of the TE1 mode in a dielectric slab waveguide.
• Designed and programmed a power supply setup meeting the specifications required by our active metamaterial, involving 32 independent switchable outputs from 0 to 20V. The base board uses an AD5370; the USB interface software and GUI was programmed in C#.
• Wrote data aquisition software and operating procedures for the group’s transmission THz time-domain spectroscopy ultra-fast laser setup, including laser maintenance.
• Presented results at national and international conferences. The CLEO conference is a large conference with thousands of attendees. While the IRMMW-THz conference is a narrow conference in our sub-field.
• Contributed to the formulation and execution of multiple research proposals, and extension of existing programs.
• Reviewed multiple papers for journals including Optics Express, Optics Letters, JOSA B, and Nature Scientific Reports. Peer reviewing papers is an important function in the scientific community.
• Teaching Assistant – Taught junior level E&M to groups of 20 in a lab setting, with lecture and lab-work, including grading lab reports, and answering student questions.

I really enjoyed working with Prof. Mittleman and everyone else in the lab. The Engineering department at Brown has really great people with a strong vision for the future.

Rice University

• Graduate Student Research Assistant
  August 2011 - August 2014

Some details about my graduate work:

• Developed time-domain waveform analysis software that allows for the review of spectral features in real-time as analysis parameters are adjusted, useful for sensitivity analysis. The software was developed in C#.
• Created machine-shop drawings of various components needed for mounting the metamaterial and used in setup of the experiments, drawings were designed in Solidworks. Refined a method to achieve the needed metamaterial electrical contact using ultrasonic wire-bonding, involving sputtering gold onto machined pins for solid contact.
• Worked on multiple research projects in parallel, including mentoring REU undergraduates, and hosting a teacher from the NSF RET program in which high-school teachers join the lab and participate in an REU-like experience to more effectively teach science.
• Founding member of the Rice University OSA student chapter, and subsequent treasurer and president. Our strong focus was on science outreach and we hosted multiple events in which middle and high school students came to Rice and participated in lab tours and hands-on optics demos/challenges. We also hosted world-class researchers to give invited talks with more than 80 attendees. These events were each funded via OSA student-grants which we applied for each year. (see photos)
• Teaching Assistant – Supported electrical engineering senior design teams as a Ph.D. student, including revising, working with, and grading project proposals, and judging at the senior design showcase.

Rockwell Collins, Melbourne, Florida

• Senior Intern Engineer
  May 2011 - Aug 2011

The summer before I moved to Texas for graduate school.

• Worked on a commercial airline transceiver retrofit verification project, in which our team utilized lab test setups to provide real-world input conditions to a retrofitted transceiver system and verified that output met new Federal Aviation Administration requirements for Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS) which are managed by the transceivers.
• Worked on a requirements system update project, which consisted of updating an IBM Doors requirements database. I wrote code in the Doors scripting language to match requirements to their corresponding update, providing an output of changed requirement details.

Florida Institute of Technology

• Autonomous Construction Robot
  Spring 2011

My senior design project with 3 friends at Florida Tech.

• Won 1st place at the ECE Senior Design showcase, with our team.
• The robot was designed to navigate an arena using ultra-sonic sensors, identify Lego bricks and their orientation using stereo CMUcam3 cameras, use an arm and claw implementing inverse kinematics to grasp and move bricks. Our design was not fully operational at the showcase, but multiple subsystems were demonstrated to a high degree of completion.
• ECE Seminar Series Primary Web Developer
  Summer 2010

I led the development of a mobile website for the Florida Tech ECE seminar series. The site is still in use by the ECE department: FIT SECES.

Conferences

1. "Terahertz Phase Modulation in a Slab Waveguide Metasurface," Contributed Talk - IRMMW-THz 2017 Cancun, Mexico (2017)
2. "Characterization of Switchable Terahertz Metasurfaces," Contributed Talk - CLEO: 2017 San Jose, California (2017)
3. "Switchable terahertz metasurface experimental results and characterization," Poster - CINT Triennial Review, Los Alamos, New Mexico (2016)
4. "Theoretical and experimental determination of surface susceptibility of switchable terahertz metasurfaces," Contributed Talk - IRMMW-THz 2016 Copenhagen, Denmark (2016)
5. "Terahertz surface wave modulation in a dielectric slab metasurface," Contributed Talk - CLEO: 2015 San Jose, California (2015)
6. "Active metamaterial diffraction grating," Contributed Talk & Student Leadership Summit - FiO: 2103 Orlando, Florida (2013)
7. "Active metamaterial diffraction grating," Contributed Talk - CLEO: 2013 San Jose, California (2013)

Publications

1. "Characterization of an Active Metasurface using Terahertz Ellipsometry"
   N. Karl, M. S. Heimbeck, H. O. Everitt, H.-T. Chen, A. J. Taylor, I. Brener, A. Benz, J. L. Reno, R. Mendis, D. M. Mittleman
   Applied Physics Letters, (in press)
2. "Frequency-division multiplexer and demultiplexer for terahertz wireless links"
   J. Ma, N. Karl, S. Bretin, G. Ducournau, and D. M. Mittleman
   Nature Communications, 8, 729 (2017)
3. "Nonlinear Terahertz Metamaterials with Active Electrical Control"
   G. Keiser, N. Karl, P. Liu, C. Tulloss, H.-T. Chen, A. J. Taylor, I. Brener, J. L. Reno, D. M. Mittleman
   Applied Physics Letters, 111, 121101 (2017)
4. "Terahertz artificial dielectric lens"
   R. Mendis, M. Nagai, Y. Wang, N. Karl, D. M. Mittleman
   Nature Scientific Reports, 6, 23023 (2016)
5. "Frequency-division multiplexing in the terahertz range using a leaky-wave antenna"
   N. Karl, W. M. Robert, Y. Monnai, R. Mendis, D. M. Mittleman
   Nature Photonics, 9, 717 (2015)
6. "An electrically driven terahertz metamaterial diffraction modulator with over 20 dB of dynamic range"
   N. Karl, K. Reichel, H.-T. Chen, A. J. Taylor, I. Brener, A. Benz, J. L. Reno, R. Mendis, D. M. Mittleman
   Applied Physics Letters, 104, 091115 (2014)