Ada Poon

Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering

Bio

Ada received her Ph.D. degree from the EECS department at the University of California at Berkeley in 2004. Her dissertation attempted to connect information theory with electromagnetic theory so as to better understand the fundamental limit of wireless channels. Upon graduation, she spent one year at Intel as a senior research scientist building reconfigurable baseband processors for flexible radios. Afterwards, she joined her advisor’s startup company, SiBeam Inc., architecting Gigabit wireless transceivers leveraging 60 GHz CMOS and MIMO antenna systems. After two years in industries, she returned to academic and joined the faculty of the ECE department at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Since then, she has changed her research direction from wireless communications to integrated biomedical systems. In 2008, she moved back to California and joined the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University.

Academic Appointments

Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering
Member, Bio-X
Member, Cardiovascular Institute
Member, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute

Administrative Appointments

Member, Stanford Diabetes Research Center (2019 - Present)

Honors & Awards

CZ Biohub Investigator, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub (2017)
CAREER Award, NSF (2013)
Research Grant recipient, Okawa Foundation (2010)
Terman Fellow, Stanford (2008)

Projects

Memory recovery device for Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias

In US, one in 10 people age 65 and older has Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This number increases to one in 3 people age 85 and older. Loss of memory and reasoning badly rob the quality of life and dignity of the elderly. Unfortunately, AD cannot be prevented, cured, or even slowed. Instead of waiting for a pharmaceutical breakthrough, we propose a radical solution to develop a redundant electronic memory system that would progressively replace degenerated neurons and hence reversing effects of neurodegeneration in AD and other dementias.

Location

Stanford, CA
Wireless neuromodulation platforms, Stanford University
Optical or electrical stimulation of neural circuits in mice during natural behavior is an important paradigm for studying brain function. Conventional systems for optogenetics and electrical stimulation require tethers or large head-mounted devices that disrupt animal behavior. Our research focuses on developing new wireless tools for activity modulation and recording in both the brain and the periphery. Targeted technologies include wireless platforms for experiments in freely-moving animals and tiny, fully-implantable devices for controlled delivery of light or electrical pulses.

Location

Stanford, CA

Collaborators
- Scott Delp, James H. Clark Professor in the School of Engineering, Professor of Bioengineering, of Mechanical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Orthopaedic Surgery, Stanford University
- Karl Deisseroth, Professor, Stanford University
Wireless power transfer to microimplants, Stanford University
Medical electronics are capable of precisely monitoring or modulating activity in the human body, and thus hold promise for treating a broad range of diseases. To implant electronic devices in the body, they need to be miniaturized and powered wirelessly across complex biological tissue. We are developing a new method of electromagnetic energy transfer, termed midfield powering, to power devices at the scale of a millimeter or less anywhere in the body, including the heart and the brain. Our approach spans fundamental studies of wave-tissue interactions, development of new electromagnetic structures, and experiments in both computational and animal tissue models.

Location

Stanford, CA

Collaborators
- Ramin Beygui, Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Stanford University
Low-power biomedical integrated circuits, Stanford University

Advances in integrated circuit technology have enabled electronic systems that can augment or even replace physiological functions. While the processing capabilities of these devices are virtually unlimited, the available energy is highly constrained. Our research combines low-power architectures with innovations in circuit design techniques to design biomedical electronics capable of ultra-low-power operation in the human body.

Location

Stanford University
Metasurfaces, Stanford University
The solid immersion lens is a powerful optical tool that allows light entering material from air or vacuum to focus to a spot much smaller than the free-space wavelength. Conventionally, however, they rely on semispherical topographies and are non-planar and bulky, which limits their integration in many applications. Recently, there has been considerable interest in using planar structures, referred to as metasurfaces, to construct flat optical components for manipulating light in unusual ways. Here, we propose and demonstrate the concept of a planar immersion lens based on metasurfaces. The resulting planar device, when placed near an interface between air and dielectric material, can focus electromagnetic radiation incident from air to a spot in material smaller than the free-space wavelength.

Location

Stanford, CA

Collaborators
- Shanhui Fan, Professor of Electrical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Applied Physics, Stanford University

Professional Education

PhD, UC Berkeley, Electrical Engineering (2004)
MS, UC Berkeley, Electrical Engineering (1999)

Current Research and Scholarly Interests

Our research focuses on providing theoretical foundations and engineering platforms for realizing electronics that seamlessly integrate with the body. Such systems will allow precise recording or modulation of physiological activity, for advancing basic scientific discovery and for restoring or augmenting biological functions for clinical applications. To build these integrated biomedical systems, our research program emphasizes a vertical integration of diverse fields ranging from physics, wireless technologies, and low-power integrated circuits. In close collaboration with biologists and clinical specialists, we validate our systems in animal models and prepare the testing of the systems in humans.

Stanford Advisees

Doctoral Dissertation Reader (AC)
Jonathan Goodman
Doctoral Dissertation Advisor (AC)
George Alexopoulos, Ziad Ali, Joanna Sands, Joon Yang
Master's Program Advisor
Sandra Chea, Yung Cheng, Nabid Farvez, Marissa Hsu, Devrath Iyer, Nathan Jensen
Doctoral (Program)
Linus Hein, Caoimhe Lyons, Grace Maddocks, Mira Partha, Joanna Sands, Nicholas Vitale, Joon Yang, Orr Zohar

All Publications

Profiles With Related Publications

close
Stanley Brodsky

Professor of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, Emeritus

359 Total Publications
close
Mark Brongersma

Stephen Harris Professor, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and, by courtesy, of Applied Physics

453 Total Publications
close
Robert Byer

William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor, Emeritus

568 Total Publications
close
Peter B. Catrysse

Sr Research Engineer

87 Total Publications
close
Jeremy Dahl

Associate Professor of Radiology (Pediatric Radiology)
Research Interests
Ultrasonic beamforming, imaging methods, systems, and devices.

208 Total Publications
close
Utkan Demirci

Professor of Radiology (Canary Cancer Center) and, by courtesy, of Electrical Engineering

263 Total Publications
close
Richard E. Fan

Clinical Assistant Professor, Urology

73 Total Publications
close
Katherine Harmon

Postdoctoral Scholar, Materials Science and Engineering

8 Total Publications
close
Robert Huggins

Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Emeritus

153 Total Publications
close
Adam Kerr

Co-Director CNI / Sr Research Engineer

55 Total Publications
close
Mehdi Khalighi

Director of MR & PET/MR, Rad/PET/MRI Metabolic Service Center

29 Total Publications
close
Butrus Khuri-Yakub

Professor (Research) of Electrical Engineering, Emeritus

470 Total Publications