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Guangran Kevin Zhu

g.kevin.zhu@ieee.org

Research Interests
Education
Work Experience
Patent
Publications
Affiliation
Code for Fun
Writings for Fun
Resume (PDF)
 
Modified: $Date:: 2018-09-01 02:48:45 -0400 (Sat, 01 Sep 2018) $



Research Interests

Welcome to my homepage! My previous research concentrated on two main areas: numerical modeling of electromagnetic/acoustic/elastic wave propagation in dispersive media and its application in medical imaging and wireless communications. I developed highly efficient codes using the finite-difference time-domain method to simulate the wave propagation/scattering with MPI. In medical imaging, I previously worked on microwave tomography, microwave radar imaging, and microwave-induced thermoacoustic imaging. At University of Toronto, my focus was on the formation and attenuation of the precursor fields in dispersive media and its application in communications. Starting in January 2013, I have become a technical staff in the Electronics Business Unit of ANSYS, Inc.

On a side note, I am an avid user of GNU/Linux and Emacs, and enjoy programming with data structures and design patterns in C++ with Boost.

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Education

McGill University Montreal, QC
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering May 2011
University of New Brunswick Fredericton, NB
M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering Oct 2005
B.Sc. in Computer Engineering May 2003

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Work Experience

ANSYS, Inc. Canonsburg, PA
Lead research and development engineer, Electronics Business Unit (Signal integrity and power integrity) Aug 2019 - Present
Senior research and development engineer, Electronics Business Unit (Signal integrity and power integrity) Aug 2015 - 2018
Research and development engineer II, Electronics Business Unit (Signal integrity and power integrity) Jan 2013 - Jul 2015
University of Toronto Toronto, ON
Post-doctoral fellow, Electrical and Computer Engineering (Precursor field theory) Sep 2011 - Dec 2012
McGill University Montreal, QC
Research associate, Physics (Parallel computing) May 2011 - Aug 2011
Research assistant, Electrical and Computer Engineering (Microwave breast imaging) Nov 2005 - May 2010
University of New Brunswick Fredericton, NB
Research assistant, Electrical and Computer Engineering (Wireless communications) Jan 2004 - Aug 2005
IBM Canada Ltd. Markham, ON
Industrial internship, Toronto Software Lab (E-commerce) May 2001 - Aug 2002

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Patent


G. Zhu, W. Thiel, and J. E. Bracken, "Systems and methods for modeling asymmetric vias," U.S. Patent 9715570, Jul. 25, 2017.

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Publications

Google Scholar Citations


Thesis
G. K. Zhu, "Application of Microwave Techniques in Breast Imaging," Ph.D. dissertation, McGill University, May 2011.
G. K. Zhu, "On the separation of distributed antennas for wireless communications," M.Sc. thesis, University of New Brunswick, 2005.

Journal Papers
G. K. Zhu, W. Thiel, and J. E. Bracken, "An analytic method for capacitance extraction of asymmetric vias," IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 280--282, May 2015.
G. K. Zhu, M. Mojahedi, and C. D. Sarris, "Acoustic precursor wave propagation in viscoelastic media," IEEE Trans. Ultrason., Ferroelectr., Freq. Control, vol. 61, no. 3, pp. 505--514, Mar. 2014.
E. Kirshin, B. Oreshkin, G. K. Zhu, M. Popović, and M. Coates, "Microwave radar and microwave-induced thermoacoustics: dual-modality approach for breast cancer detection," IEEE Trans. Bio. Med. Eng., vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 354--360, 2012.
G. K. Zhu, "Applying Software Design Patterns in Electromagnetic Field Simulators," IEEE Antennas Propag. Mag., vol. 52, no. 2, pp. 174--179, 2012.
G. K. Zhu and M. Popović, "Comparison of radar and thermoacoustic techniques in microwave breast imaging,"Progress in Electromagnetics Research B, vol. 35, pp. 1--14, 2011.
G. K. Zhu and M. Popović, "Spectral difference between microwave radar and microwave-induced thermoacoustic signals," IEEE Antennas Wireless Propag. Lett., vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 1259--1262, 2009.
G. K. Zhu and M. Popović, "Enhancing microwave breast tomography with microwave-induced thermoacoustic imaging," Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society Journal, vol. 26, no. 4, 2009.
G. K. Zhu, M. Popović, and Q. Fang, "Microwave-induced thermoacoustics: Assisting microwave tomography," IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 45, no. 3, pp. 1654--1657, 2009.

Conference Papers
E. Kirshin, G. K. Zhu, M. Popović, and M. Coates "UWB imaging algorithms for microwave radar breast screening: the value of propagation model complexity," in European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP'11), Rome, Italy, April, 2011.
E. Kirshin, B. Oreshkin, G. K. Zhu, M. Popović, and M. Coates " Microwave breast cancer detection: optimal detection rule for joint microwave radar and microwave-induced thermoacoustics modalities," in International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI'11), Illlinois, Chicago, March, 2011.
G. K. Zhu and M. Popović, "FDTD Electromagnetic-acoustic model: a 2-D numerical coding framework," in Proc. IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (AP-S'10), Toronto, Canada, Jul. 2010.
G. K. Zhu and M. Popović, "Spectra response of a multi-layered sphere applied in microwave breast imaging," in Proc. European Conference on antennas and propagation (EuCAP'10), Barcelona, Spain, Apr. 2010.
G. K. Zhu, B. Oreshkin, E. Porter, M. Coates, and M. Popović, "Numerical breast models for commercial FDTD simulators," in Proc. European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP'09), Berlin, Germany, Mar. 2009.
G. K. Zhu and M. Popović, "Microwave-induced thermoacoustics: assisting microwave tomography," in Proc. Biennial IEEE Conference on Electromagnetic Field Computation (CEFC'08), Athens, Greece, May 2008.
G. K. Zhu and M. Popović, "2-d computational study of the microwave-induced thermoacoustic effect on human breast with tumor," in Proc. Annual Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics (ACES'07), Verona, Italy, Mar. 2007.
G. K. Zhu, B. Petersen, and B. Colpitts, "Signaling wavelength in an antenna array for space-time wireless over LOS channels," in Proc. Communication Networks and Services Research Conference (CNSR'05), Halifax, Nova Scotia, May 2005.

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Affiliation

Member, IEEE 2006-Present
Member, IEEE Antenna and Propagation Society 2007-Present
Member, IEEE Microwave Theory and Technologies Society 2007-Present
Member, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics 2011-Present

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Code for Fun

Acoustic FDTD Solver (AC2D) -- is a software to simulate acoustic wave propagation in lossy media in two dimensions. It uses the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method to solve the wave equation. It is a result of the post-doctoral research at University of Toronto. The information related to the software is located here. (created on 2013-02)

Plane scattering - implement the solutions to the cannonical problem of a plane wave scattered by a multilayer slab. The code is written in Matlab. (created on 2010-10)

Images [--]
Two-slab reflectionless coating, which appears in Fig. 6.2.1 in S. J. Orfanidis, Electromagnetic Waves and Antennas.



Dielectric mirror with quarter-wavelength layers, which appears in Fig. 6.3.2 in S. J. Orfanidis, Electromagnetic Waves and Antennas.



Phase shifted Fabry-Perot resonator, which appears in Fig. 6.5.1 in S. J. Orfanidis, Electromagnetic Waves and Antennas.




Cylinder Scattering -- implement the solutions to some canonical electromagnetic scattering problems in the cylindrical coordinate. The code is written in Matlab and listed at Matlab Central. (created on 2011-01)

Images [--]
The following is the output: a TMz planewave scattered by a dielectric cylinder of a radius of one background wavelength. The relative permittivity of the cylinder is 4 and the frequency of the plane wave is 1 Hz.



The following is the output: a infinitely-long current source of 1A radiates a dielectric cylinder of a radius of one background wavelength. The relative permittivity of the cylinder is 4 and the frequency is 1 Hz.




Sphere Scattering -- implement the solutions of a plane wave scattered by a dielectric sphere and by a multi-layer dielectric sphere in the spherical coordinate. The code is written in Matlab and listed at Matlab Central. (created on 2011-04)

Images [--]
The following is the absolute value of the electric field as a planewave is scattered by a dielectric sphere of a radius of one background wavelength. The relative permittivity of the sphere is 4. The frequency of the plane wave is 1 Hz.



The following is the absolute value of the fields on the Y-Z plane as a planewave propagating towards +Z direction is scattered by a 3-layer sphere at the radii of (1.5, 1.0, 0.6) with respect to one background wavelength. The relative permittivities of the layers are (2.0, 8.0, 4.0) and the frequency is 1 Hz.



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Writings for Fun

"Partial and Total Reflection of an Obliquely Incident Plane Wave" -- This document presents the field solution when partial and total reflection occur at a dielectric interface. (created on 2012-10)

"Derive the Laplace Transform of the Decaying Exponential Function" -- This document gives the derivation of the Laplace transform of the decaying exponential using the basic definition of the Riemann integral. (created on 2012-11)

"Proof of the Kramers-Kronig Relation" -- This document gives the proof of the Kramers-Kronig relation without reliance on the theory of complex variables. (created on 2012-11)

"Mnemonics for the Gradient, Divergence, and Curl Operators" -- This article proposes three mnemonics expressed in the matrix forms to remember the operators in the Cartesian, cylindrical, and spherical coordinate systems. (created on 2011-12)

"My Experience of Learning English" -- Learning English starting after the age of 12 is different from learning the language at a younger age. This article in Chinese summarizes my experience of learning English. (created on 2011-08)

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Disclaimer -- The content of personal and other unofficial home pages is not sanctioned by University of Toronto and does not represent official information or opinions of the University. Guangran Kevin Zhu is solely responsible for the contents of this page.