Most Promising Engineer, Ph.D. - Education
Eduardo Rojas
Nastrucci, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Director of WiDE Lab, Director of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Embry Riddle Aeronautical University
Dr. Eduardo Rojas only earned his Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida three years ago, but he’s already established himself as a dedicated and valuable member of the faculty at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s College of Engineering.
As assistant professor of Electrical Engineering, Dr. Rojas has made an unmistakably positive impact through his boundless energy, enthusiasm, leadership, and his ability to reach out across disciplinary silos to collaborate with colleagues in other fields.
Dr. Rojas has established himself as a national leader in the specialized area of Microwave Circuits and Antennas. The National Science Foundation recognized his precocious achievements with an Early Career Development Award, one of the most prestigious and coveted awards in academia, reserved only for the few who NSF considers holding the greatest promise in the field of their research.
Dr. Rojas’ research focuses on advancing the state-of-the-art of additively manufactured devices. In this pursuit, he’s already contributed to the field by developing novel manufacturing techniques, materials, and geometries. These contributions that have improved performance, lowered manufacturing costs, and eased miniaturization processes on a slew of products in the emerging “Internet of Things” market.
For example, he has introduced the concept of meshed rectangular waveguides and is one of the first researchers to demonstrate savings of up to 40% in weight and material utilization. He is also one of the pioneers in studying the effect of meshing in coplanar waveguides developing novel 3D antenna geometries that help to improve the read range of RFID tags.
His research has also helped move additive manufacturing towards the mm-wave frequencies, where next-generation 5G communications devices are expected to operate.
Dr. Rojas is also one of two faculty members at the University developing a camera —EagleCam — to ride onboard Intuitive Machine’s lunar module, the Nova-C, and deploy minutes before landing to capture a third person view of landing on a celestial body, creating the ultimate selfie for the first time in history. He and his students will ensure the photos are transmitted back to earth through the communication systems they are designing to operate between the EagleCam and Nova-C.
An outstanding teacher and an exceptionally dedicated educator, Dr. Rojas’ love of teaching and mentoring his students began when he was an undergraduate student in Venezuela at the Universidad de Carabobo and continues to this day. In his short time at Embry Riddle, he’s improved an Avionics course and developed an entirely new course titled “Space Antennas.”
With four patents in his name and many technical publications under his belt, Dr. Rojas’ humility, mild demeanor, and collegiality have already made him a natural leader and a popular figure among students, faculty, and staff at Embry-Riddle.