2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Translating Industry-Sponsored Neuromorphic Vision Research into Modular Learning Units for Engineering Courses

Presented at College Industry Partnerships Division (CIP) Technical Session 4

Industry-university collaborations can play an important role in exposing engineering students to emerging technologies and real-world problem contexts. However, translating research driven and industry sponsored projects into scalable, course ready instructional materials can be challenging. This paper presents a case study of the Neuromorphic Imaging and Processing for Tracking and Evaluation at the Edge (NIPTEE) project, illustrating how an industry-sponsored research effort can be transformed into modular learning units for integration into engineering curricula. These modules present a pathway from undergraduate capstone projects to graduate research, providing a range of educational topics from system-level design, to benchmarking, and trade-space analysis. Insights gained from student projects were organized into modular learning units covering industry problem formulation, event-based sensing, embedded acceleration, performance benchmarking, and engineering decision making. This paper describes a collaborative structure supporting module development, organization of learning units, supporting pilot implementations within engineering courses. By emphasizing transferable skills, the proposed approach enables instructors to incorporate emerging technologies into existing courses without requiring extensive curriculum redesign.

Authors

Flore Stécie Norcéide University of Massachusetts Lowell [biography]

Flore Stecie Norceide is a PhD student in Electrical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Her research focuses on benchmarking hardware and software architectures for event driven computation with a focus on its application to object detection, tracking, and classification.
Emi Aoki University of Massachusetts Lowell [biography]

Emi Aoki is a PhD student in Electrical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Her previous research experience has been in data analysis, computational modeling, and augmented reality application development and design. Her current research interests focus on modeling and simulation for digital twins and Model-Based Systems Engineering.
Gayathri Boopathy University of Massachusetts Lowell [biography]

Gayathri Boopathy is a Ph.D. student in Computer Engineering whose research focuses on augmented reality (AR), machine learning, physical therapy, MediaPipe, and human-computer interaction. Her work integrates immersive technology with ML and AI to design intelligent systems for motion analysis, gesture recognition, and rehabilitation support. Building on her previous research on AR-based hand tracking and movement classification, she explores the fusion of spatial computing and biomechanical modeling to advance digital health and interactive computing. Gayathri’s interdisciplinary approach bridges engineering, healthcare, and data science to develop impactful solutions for next-generation human-machine interfaces.
Sriram Krishnamoorthy University of Massachusetts Lowell [biography]

Sriram Krishnamoorthy is a PhD student in Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. His research involves detecting acoustic, optical, and radar signatures in drones to characterize individual agents in a swarm. This research has applicability in agriculture, reconnaissance and infrastructure safety.
Prof. Charles Thompson PhD University of Massachusetts Lowell [biography]

Charles Thompson is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Director of the Center for Advanced Computation and Telecommunications and formerly Associate to the Dean for Research and Graduate Study at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from New York University, a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of NewYork, and a Ph.D. in Acoustics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Upon graduation he became an Assistant Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. In 1987 he joined the Department Electrical and Computer Engineering at UMASS Lowell as its Analog Devices Career Development Professor. Dr. Thompson has served on the executive boards of the Cooperative Research Fellowship program of Bell Laboratories (1991-1999) and the AT&T Labs Fellowship Program (1996-2006).

At Bell Laboratories Dr. Thompson created with the Vice President of Research and Nobel laureate, Arno Penizas, the W. Lincoln Hawkins Mentoring Excellence Award (1994). This award is given to a member of the research staff for fostering the career growth of Bell Labs students and associates. This award is Research‚Äôs highest honor for mentoring contributions. In 1998, AT&T Labs instituted a similar award named for Dr. Thompson.

Charles Thompson is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Director of the Center for Advanced Computation and Telecommunications and formerly Associate to the Dean for Research and Graduate Study at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from New York University, a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of NewYork, and a Ph.D. in Acoustics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Upon graduation he became an Assistant Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. In 1987 he joined the Department Electrical and Computer Engineering at UMASS Lowell as its Analog Devices Career Development Professor. Dr. Thompson has served on the executive boards of the Cooperative Research Fellowship program of Bell Laboratories (1991-1999) and the AT&T Labs Fellowship Program (1996-2006).

At Bell Laboratories Dr. Thompson created with the Vice President of Research and Nobel laureate, Arno Penizas, the W. Lincoln Hawkins Mentoring Excellence Award (1994). This award is given to a member of the research staff for fostering the career growth of Bell Labs students and associates. This award is Research‚Äôs highest honor for mentoring contributions. In 1998, AT&T Labs instituted a similar award named for Dr. Thompson.

His awards include the US Presidential Award for Excellence in Mentoring; Tau Beta Pi Eminent Engineer; James E. Blackwell Scholar; AT&T Bell Laboratories Cooperative Research Fellowship. He is cited in Who‚Äôs Who among African Americans, Education, and Technology Today; American Men and Women of Science, West Babylon Alumni Hall of Fame; He is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and cited for his fundamental contributions to theoretical and computational acoustics. He is senior member of IEEE, and a member of the American Physical Society and Sigma Xi. He has published reesearch in acoustics, control theory, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, linear and nonlinear systems, and telecommunications.
Orlando Arias University of Massachusetts Lowell
IAN HUMPHREY Rockwell Collins, Inc.
Prof. Kavitha Chandra University of Massachusetts Lowell [biography]

Kavitha Chandra is the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Francis College of Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She directs the Research, Academics and Mentoring Pathways (RAMP) to Success summer bridge and academic program for new engineering students, preparing them with research, communication and leadership skills. Her research interests are in computational and data-driven modeling of physical systems in acoustics and communication networks, model-based systems engineering, user-centric design of emerging technology and engineering education.

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