Wolfgang Fink, Ph.D.

New fellows, both from the College of Engineering, have made substantial contributions to academia, as well as creating inventions that have impacted fields from additive manufacturing to eyesight.

The National Academy of Inventors has elected two University of Arizona faculty members to its 2023 class of fellows.

Douglas Loy, professor or materials science and engineering, and Wolfgang Fink, professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering, each received the designation this week. As fellows, they have created inventions that have made an impact on the quality of life and welfare of society as defined by the academy’s standards. NAI fellow status is the highest professional distinction awarded by the organization, and only academic inventors are eligible for the honor.

“The nomination of our faculty members to this illustrious association of inventors speaks to the continued excellence at the University of Arizona when it comes to supporting innovation and bold thinking,” said University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins. “Dr. Fink and Dr. Loy are each impressive representatives of the university within their fields and I am proud to see them recognized… Continue reading.

“Wherever there’s a will, there’s a way. That’s engineering.” Deidra R. Hodges, PhD, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Florida International University

Electrical engineering is a rich field with challenges for tomorrow’s engineers. Sitting at one of the most interesting crossroads of science and technology, its territory stretches across microelectronics, energy systems, telecommunications, and robotics. Much overlap exists between its different research areas, and that overlap is mimicked in many of the field’s largest potential breakthroughs.

In an increasingly electrified and circuit-powered world, electrical engineers are more important than ever, working on innovations that could help address humanity’s most pressing problems. Some of their aims might be achieved overnight; others might take a generation or more of additional research. But despite their diverse range, they remain closely related: progress in one area could unlock progress in another, and vice versa. To engineers, these problems represent possibilities… Continue reading.

The Edward & Maria Keonjian Endowed Chair Supports Discoveries Big and Small.

Wolfgang Fink is the inaugural Edward & Maria Keonjian Endowed Chair, with joint appointments at the in the departments of electrical and computer engineering, biomedical engineering, systems and industrial engineering, aerospace and mechanical engineering, and ophthalmology and vision science. Fink is the founder and director of both the Visual and Autonomous Exploration Systems Research Laboratory and the Arizona Center for Informatics and Telehealth in Medicine.

Which of Your Research Projects Have Been Supported By the Edward & Maria Keonjian Endowment?

I would almost have to ask the reverse question: Which research has not been supported? That would be much easier to answer. The Edward & Maria Keonjian endowment has been a major support in the running of the Visual and Autonomous Exploration Systems Research Laboratory. In terms of supplies, devices and machinery, it has significantly supported both the biomedical side, with its vision-related research, and the autonomous-systems side, which involves the exploration of other planets… Continue reading.

Wolfgang Fink holds commonalities with the award’s namesakes, who were leaders in establishing the UA as an optics powerhouse.

Wolfgang Fink’s selection as this year’s recipient of the SPIE Aden and Marjorie Meinel Technology Achievement Award continues a distinguished legacy of optics and photonics at the University of Arizona. He received the award for his pioneering work on ophthalmic technologies, including visual prostheses and diagnostic methods.

SPIE, or the International Society for Optics and Photonics, has recognized some of the top minds in optics and photonics technology with this award since 1979, according to Jennifer Barton, president-elect of SPIE and director of the UA’s BIO5 Institute. Awardees include individuals, such as Tatsuo Harada at Hitachi, Ltd., who advanced optical grating technology, and married team Jean and Harold Bennett, who invented new precision optomechanics at the U.S. Naval Ordnance Test Station. Companies and federal research centers, such as Honeywell Corporation and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, or JPL, have also received the award… Continue reading.

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University of Arizona engineers have developed a system that allows autonomous vehicles to scout out underground habitats for astronauts.

House hunting on Mars could soon become a thing, and researchers at the University of Arizona are already in the business of scouting real estate that future astronauts could use as habitats. Researchers in the UArizona College of Engineering have developed technology that would allow a flock of robots to explore subsurface environments on other worlds.

“Lava tubes and caves would make perfect habitats for astronauts because you don’t have to build a structure; you are shielded from harmful cosmic radiation, so all you need to do is make it pretty and cozy,” said Wolfgang Fink, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at UArizona… Continue reading.

Also featured in:

Robots Using Hansel-and-Gretel Strategy Could Map Martian Caves | gizmodo.com

To explore caves on Mars and the Moon, take a hint from Hansel & Gretel, say boffins | www.theregister.com

House hunting…on Mars: UArizona researchers looking for suitable habitats for astronauts | www.youtube.com

Robots on Mars could steal a trick from Hansel and Gretel | www.futurity.org

Exploring Mars caves, leaving ‘breadcrumbs’ | earthsky.org

A trick inspired by Hansel and Gretel could help rovers explore other worlds | www.sciencenews.org

How Mars rovers could explore vast uncharted caves | mashable.com

A Radical Rethink of the Mars Rover Could Be Key to Human Settlement | www.inverse.com

Exploring Lava Tubes on Other Worlds Will Need Rovers That Can Work Together | www.universetoday.com

Wolfgang Fink is a theoretical physicist and the inaugural Edward and Maria Keonjian Endowed Chair of Microelectronics with joint appointments in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Biomedical Engineering; Systems and Industrial Engineering; Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering; and Ophthalmology and Vision Science at the University of Arizona. Previously, he was a Senior Researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), among other appointments. Pursuing an interdisciplinary, systems-engineering approach in human-machine interfaces, evolutionary optimization, and autonomous systems, Fink has focused his research on biomimetic systems, biomedical sensor development, artificial vision, computer-optimized design, cognitive systems, and autonomous robotic space exploration, and has been an integral part of large-scale, multi-institutional, collaborative enterprises. He was one of the principal investigators of the US Department of Energy’s Artificial Retina Project, a multi-disciplinary, six-laboratory-strong effort to develop an implantable microelectronic retinal device that restores useful vision to people blinded by retinal diseases; he was also a founding co-investigator of the NSF-funded Biomimetic MicroElectronic Systems Engineering Research Center. The broad goals of the Center were to develop retinal implants for the blind, intramuscular stimulators for the paralyzed and cortical implants for stroke patients. This work led to the first artificial retina to receive widespread commercial approval, the Argus II by Second Sight Medical Products… Continue reading.

The recognition marks Wolfgang Fink’s sixth overall fellowship, and the fourth in a national or international society.

The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology(link is external), or ARVO, the largest eye and vision research organization in the world, has selected University of Arizona electrical and computer engineering(link is external) professor Wolfgang Fink as a member of its 2023 class of Fellows. He will be honored with Silver Fellow status at the organization’s annual conference in April 2023.

Fink, the inaugural Edward & Maria Keonjian Endowed Chair in Microelectronics, is also a professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering(link is external), biomedical engineering(link is external), ophthalmology and vision science(link is external), and systems and industrial engineering(link is external). This marks his sixth fellow title, with others in the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering(link is external), the Prognostics and Health Management Society(link is external) and SPIE(link is external) (the international society for optics and photonics). He is also the UA College of Engineering’s 2015 da Vinci Fellow and a fellow of the Arizona Center for Accelerated Biomedical Innovation(link is external)… Continue reading.

Those who are visually impaired may have a new navigational tool thanks to a collaboration at the University of Arizona.

Dr. Sunggye Hong is an associate professor of the Department of Disability and Psychoeducational Studies and the program coordinator of the visual impairments teacher training program.

“People with visual impairments are capable of doing all things that other people would be able to do. If there is a certain task that is difficult for them to perform, then I think it is the duty of science and technology to figure it out and make it happen… Continue reading.

Two professors—one of them blind—work with a group of neuroscience and engineering students on a device to help visually impaired people move through the world more safely and efficiently.

Electrical and computer engineering professor Wolfgang Fink has spent many years of his career working on computerized vision systems to help autonomous robots see and navigate. For the past few years, he’s worked with a group of students to develop an improved way for visually impaired people to do the same thing… Continue reading.

ECE professor Wolfgang Fink and assistant professor of architecture Jonathan Bean are finalists in the U.S. Department of Energy’s “Envelope Retrofit Opportunities for Building Optimization Technologies Prize,” or E-ROBOT Prize. Fink and Bean created wall-EIFS, a robot that can retrofit buildings by installing insulation, thus cutting down carbon emissions. The researchers recently discussed their research in an interview with KOLD.

“Retrofitting the outside of a building is usually very labor-intensive,” Fink said in the KOLD piece. “You have to build a scaffold, lots of people have to be on a scaffold, it’s highly manual. So the idea is to replace that with a robotic approach… Continue reading.

Two University of Arizona professors just won $200,000 for an invention to help cut down on carbon emissions.

Jonathan Bean, assistant professor of architecture, and Wolfgang Fink, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, worked together to create a robot that can address the climate crisis by helping to improve the energy performance of existing buildings.

“It’s tough to add insulation to many existing buildings. Increasingly, performance without compromising health and durability is a challenge,” said Bean.

Bean said existing buildings account for about 50% of carbon emissions globally… Continue reading.

wall-EIFS, a robotically applied, 3D-sprayable exterior insulation and finish system for building envelope retrofits, is one of 10 finalist prize winners of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Envelope Retrofit Opportunities for Building Optimization Technologies Prize, or E-ROBOT Prize. Each finalist team is awarded $200,000. View the team’s winning video entry.

The E-ROBOT Prize’s goal is to catalyze the development of minimally invasive, low-cost and holistic building envelope retrofit solutions that make retrofits easier, faster, safer and more accessible for workers. Jonathan Bean, assistant professor of architecture, and Wolfgang Fink, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, created the wall Exterior Insulation and Finish System, or wall-EIFS, in collaboration with Energy Quest Technologies President Dewey Benson… Continue reading.

A University of Arizona professor explains that NASA’s historic helicopter flight over Mars has a technique behind it.

It is known as the tier-scalable reconnaissance paradigm.

That’s when aerial vehicles provide a regional overhead perspective for rovers on the planet’s surface while also connecting to technology already in orbit… Continue reading.

The Prognostics and Health Management Society has elected Wolfgang Fink, electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering professor and inaugural Edward & Maria Keonjian Endowed Chair in the College of Engineering, as the organization’s vice president.

Founded in 2009, the PHM Society is a nonprofit dedicated to advancing the discipline of PHM, which draws from aerospace, artificial intelligence, health care, physics, materials science and many branches of engineering, among other fields. Fink has been involved with the organization for many years, first giving a presentation in 2013 as a luminary speaker… Continue reading.

University of Arizona biomedical engineering and electrical and computer engineering professor Wolfgang Fink received the inaugural Scott Clements Most Valuable Person Award at the Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) Society’s 12th annual conference. The Scott Clements MVP Award recognizes individuals who have contributed to community engagement, cross-sector initiatives and other support of the PHM Society. The Society awarded Fink both for his contributions to their events and his assistance in gaining broader recognition from the scientific community.

“I feel very humbled by receiving this honor, especially since the award is named after the legendary Scott Clements, who has been a fundamental pillar of the PHM Society for years,” said Fink, who is also the Edward & Maria Keonjian Endowed Chair in the College of Engineering. “It is great to be recognized outside the university… Continue reading.

Professional optics society recognizes University of Arizona professor for his work in artificial vision for the blind and smartphone-based eye exams and disease diagnostics.

University of Arizona electrical and computer engineering professor and Edward & Maria Keonjian Endowed Chair Wolfgang Fink is one of the newest Fellows of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, or SPIE.

The organization, with a membership of about 255,000, has selected only 1,500 fellows since 1955. Fink received the designation “for achievements in vision science for the blind and tele-ophthalmic healthcare worldwide… Continue reading.

For many people, getting away from it all means decamping to a cabin in the woods or a house by the beach. Soon there may be another option: lifting off to a hotel serenely orbiting high above the planet.

Though space hotels have long belonged only to the world of make-believe, that’s about to change. NASA says it will open the International Space Station (ISS) to tourists as early as 2020. A Houston-based startup called Orion Span has proposed a four-guest space hotel called Aurora Station that would open in 2022… Continue reading.

On behalf of the SPIE Board of Directors and the Membership Committee, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Fink has been elected to the grade of Senior Member of SPIE… Continue reading.

The Session: “Non-Deterministic Autonomy: a Hawking-Musk-esque Nightmare?!”, chaired by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Fink at the SPIE DCS 2019 Conference, comprised four unique talks that completely challenged and obliterated commonly pursued concepts, such as Artificial Intelligence, for emulating the human mind. Addressed also was AI’s flawed decision-making process with the hopes of the emergence of self-awareness… Continue reading.

Wolfgang Fink (Right) has always had a knack for seeing how the pieces of a puzzle fit together. Once, when a team of researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory was stumped on how to fix a problematic planetary rover arm, he suggested using a method he’d developed to improve the function of proteins, pointing out something no one had thought of before: Both robot arms and proteins have joints. It worked.

Today, it means that the electrical and computer engineering professor — who has joint appointments in biomedical engineering, ophthalmology and vision science, systems and industrial engineering, and aerospace and mechanical engineering — can continue finding connections across disciplines to solve a world of problems… Continue reading.

For almost 20 years, humans have maintained a continuous presence beyond Earth. The International Space Station has provided a habitat where humans can live and work for extended periods of time. Yet, despite having established a permanent base for life in space, terra firma is always in reach — within 254 miles, to be exact. If a crew member were to fall seriously ill, he or she could make the return trip back to Earth in a matter of hours.

“As soon as you venture beyond low Earth orbit, to go to Mars or even further, bailing out no longer is an option,” says Wolfgang Fink, associate professor and Keonjian Endowed Chair in the UA’s College of Engineering. “You’re on your own.”

Fink predicts that in the not-too-far future, humans will work side by side with robotic machines, non-human intelligence and smart devices in ways never seen before. Human logic and thinking will be joined by, and complemented by, artificial brains and reasoning algorithms…

… Read the full article at UA NEWS.

Student-professor teams at Arizona do big things, like improve the ways humans and machines interact, use technology in new ways to benefit health and the environment, and more.

CURIOUS BOTS

Because this robotic explorer will have to make decisions on its own, it will need cognitive abilities that until now have been unique to humans, such as curiosity.

Associate professor Wolfgang Fink and his team of students and researchers are going to answer the question, “Can a machine learn how to be curious?” Inside the Visual and Autonomous Exploration Systems Research Laboratory, they are working to build a robotic geologist that can operate in environments too hazardous for humans, such as natural disaster zones… Continue reading.

An interview from SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing 2017.

Read the full article at SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.

Electrical and computer engineering associate professor Wolfgang Fink has been named fellow for the Arizona Center for Accelerated Biomedical Innovation for his research and advancements in the field of biomedical technologies.

“I felt very honored to receive this award,” said Fink, who holds a joint faculty position in biomedical engineering. “It was definitely very nice to receive this recognition.”

ACABI’s purpose is to bring together biomedical experts to collaborate for the goal of accelerating the development of biomedical technologies.

“ACABI is like a think tank,” Fink said. “So when a medical problem that involves engineering presents itself, the purpose is to brainstorm and come up with ways to solve it… Continue reading.

Congratulations to these recently honored employees.

Wolfgang Fink, UA associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and Keonjian Chair in the College of Engineering, received the 2016 University Excellence in STEM Diversity award from UA Women in Science and Engineering, or WISE, at its annual banquet in Tucson on April 28. As faculty adviser to the UA student chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, or NSBE, Fink helped a team of undergraduates win the NSBE national robotic pipeline inspection competition and later publish their research findings in the Journal of Pipeline Engineering. Fink also works to increase diversity in STEM through outreach activities in local schools. NSBE chapter president Eugenia Anane-Wae and treasurer Ty’Dria White accepted the WISE award on Fink’s behalf. Fink has been elected to serve a two-year term on the UA Faculty Senate. He is featured in the current issue of Arizona Alumni Magazine.

Note: The University Excellence in STEM Diversity award recognizes a faculty or staff member who goes above and beyond in encouraging interest and diversity in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) fields.

Read the full article at UA@Work.

Planetary exploration and medical diagnostics might seem like topics for researchers in two different fields. But for Wolfgang Fink, the connection between the two is about equipping machines to make judgments normally entrusted to people.

“You can’t take the experts everywhere,” Fink says.

Consider extreme space environments, where it’s dangerous and costly to send astronauts. Conventional rovers are controlled from Earth, but the distance delays commands by hours. To advance the science, Fink is developing robots to react with excitement and curiosity to objects that differ from their typical surroundings. Working with other instruments in space, such as blimps, next-generation rovers will independently prioritize what to investigate further.

“These next-generation robotic missions will simultaneously explore distant locales at several levels — from orbit, from the air, and on the ground — to home in on important geology, hydrology, climate, and possibly astrobiology on distant worlds,” Fink says… Continue reading.

In three days “The Force Awakens.”

It’s undeniable the Star Wars franchise has had a lasting effect on popular culture, bringing science fiction to the mainstream and creating a sub-culture all its own.

In 1977, “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” hit theaters. Despite studio expectations the film would flop, it ended up dazzling audiences. Among those watching in awe was a young Wolfgang Fink, who is now an associate professor of electrical, computer and biomedical engineering, and the Keonjian Endowed Chair of Microelectronics at the Univ. of Arizona.

“It was a great experience because I think Star Wars started a new genre of movie, the science fiction fairytale, if you will. It was very fascinating,” said Fink in an interview with R&D Magazine. “Star Wars was kind of always way ahead of its time in terms of new technologies… Continue reading.

The real star of the upcoming "Star Wars" movie may not be a human or a Wookie. Instead, it may be a round, 2-foot-tall astromech droid named BB-8.

It may look great on the screen, but could BB-8 exist in real life?

University of Arizona researcher Wolfgang Fink would know, as an expert in artificially intelligent Mars rovers — and as an unabashed "Star Wars" fan.

Fink, who spends an extraordinary amount of time around robots, has done his share of thinking about the astromech droids seen in the franchise. And with J.J. Abrams’ "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" opening in theaters on Dec. 18, Fink is focused on BB-8.

Compared to that of R2-D2 and C-3PO from previous "Star Wars" incarnations, the design of BB-8 has "a striking advantage," Fink says.

"R2-D2 is on three legs and rolls around, so the challenge there would be if you have rugged terrain. Now, of course, C-3PO is a humanoid robot and can climb just like we do," he says.

Fink is an associate professor of electrical, computer and biomedical engineering at the UA, as well as the Keonjian Endowed Chair in Microelectronics. In his lab, he designs and builds artificially intelligent, autonomous Mars rovers. But as he reflects on his love of "Star Wars" in an intentionally dim office, he wields a crimson-red light saber that vacillates between a dull hum and a piercing whoosh as he waves it left to right.

The year is 2045.

Geologists have landed on various bodies in the solar system and are exploring alien landscapes. On Mars, a geologist climbs up a slope after spotting a peculiar-looking rock. On Saturn’s moon Titan, a blimp glides through the brown haze, surveying the methane lakes below while directing another explorer to cross the lake and investigate an odd feature sticking out above the surface.

These planetary geologists are not human. They’re robots, built in various shapes and forms. Some are rovers, others hover in the atmosphere and others float. All have one thing in common: They are hardwired to explore the unknown. They are curious.
Unlike conventional planetary rovers, which are basically cameras on wheels controlled by humans on Earth, these new planetary explorers go about their work autonomously, capable of making decisions on their own.

“In environments where you need a curious explorer with the ability to spot unusual and interesting objects, but you either can’t or don’t want to send humans, you have to rely on robots with a built-in sense of curiosity and the ability to make decisions autonomously,” said Wolfgang Fink, who heads the Visual and Autonomous Exploration Systems Research Laboratory at the University of Arizona’s College of Engineering.

“To accomplish this, we have to instill algorithms in the robot that will create ‘excitement’ about an object if it is different from the surrounding environment.”

Like many men of science, Wolfgang Fink works in diverse disciplines and enjoys eclectic avocations. He’s a physicist, an engineer, an educator, an inventor, a licensed helicopter pilot and a classically trained pianist. You might call him a Renaissance man.

Fink, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering and inaugural Edward & Maria Keonjian Endowed Chair at the UA College of Engineering, has been recognized as the da Vinci Fellow for 2015 — a major College of Engineering honor named for the ultimate Renaissance man.

Each year, the College selects one member of the Engineering faculty as a da Vinci Fellow in recognition of excellence in teaching or research excellence. The award includes a one-time grant of $10,000 for teaching and research.

“I am very humbled to be named da Vinci Fellow for 2015,” said Fink, who holds joint appointments in the UA departments of systems and industrial engineering, aerospace and mechanical engineering and ophthalmology and vision science. “This award will enable me to pursue bold new ideas that might be considered speculative by funding agencies or are beyond their purview.”

University of Arizona researchers are developing technology that converts smartphones into powerful eye-examining instruments that could prevent millions of people from going blind.

Wolfgang Fink, professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering, is principal investigator of a new project funded by the National Science Foundation Partnerships for Innovation: Building Innovation Capacity program to create “smart ophthalmoscopes,” specialized instruments for examining various parts of the eye’s interior. The devices, which can be attached to any smartphone, and accompanying software will enable health care providers, particularly in remote areas, to quickly and easily determine if patients are at risk of losing their vision.

The need is great. The World Health Organization has estimated that of the 285 million people worldwide who are visually impaired, 39 million are blind. Tragically, nearly 80 percent of this blindness is caused by treatable conditions such as cataracts, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Available treatments can slow and even stop the progression of vision loss when these conditions are caught early enough.

But for those in remote areas — rural populations, boat crews and military service personnel, for example — eye exams are not readily available, and patients who do reach medical centers often arrive too late.

Team’s ingenious use of bicycle dynamo light principle improves gas pipeline inspection robots.

College students often have several months to prepare for national competitions. The UA chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers, or NSBE, had only two — and the team went on to win the 2014 NSBE Undergraduate Technical Research Competition in March at the NSBE 40th Annual Convention in Nashville, Tenn.

UA beat two teams from the University of California, Merced, in the first such contest hosted by the Pacific Gas & Electric Co./NSBE Network. The winning team earned $2,000 and invaluable exposure to industry leaders… Continue reading.

The next time a NASA rover blasts off to explore Mars or some other planet, it might be equipped with a new type of “do-it-all” camera developed by an engineering team at the University of Arizona.

The prototype of the “Astrobiological Imager” – described in a research paper featured on the cover of a recent issue of the journal Astrobiology – consists of an off-the-shelf digital point-and-shoot camera with some surprisingly simple modifications. A slightly more sophisticated version, mounted on a rover, could do what even NASA’s latest and greatest Mars rover, Curiosity, can’t: identify, photograph and even analyze patches of soil or rocks from afar and in extreme close-up, all with the same camera.

The team figured out how to take advantage of different lens adapters that can be mounted in front of a single camera to enable it to take images ranging from a macroscopic scale – think landscape – all the way down to a microscopic scale – think cells and bacteria – thus spanning at least six orders of magnitude.
“For each scale, there is of course one or even several imagers that are superior to our instrument for that particular scale,” said Wolfgang Fink, an associate professor in the UA Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering who led the project. “However, there is no instrument out there that can go across several orders of magnitude.”

Fink explained: “Think of the world’s best decathlete as opposed to the world record holders in each individual discipline. That’s the best analogy. Our camera is the best decathlete.”

Retinal implants have not lived up to their potential, argues a joint UA-German research team, until now.
Researchers at the University of Arizona and University of Tübingen have made a breakthrough in retinal implant technology that could help people who have lost their sight see more than just light and vague shapes.

Wolfgang Fink, an associate professor in the UA departments of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering, is researching new implant design and methods of electrical stimulation of the retina that will enable implants to produce much clearer images.

Fink conducted the research jointly with Erich Schmid, professor emeritus of theoretical atomic and nuclear physics at the University of Tübingen, Germany. Fink will present the team’s findings in San Diego during the Nov. 6-8, 2013 IEEE International Conference on Neural Engineering, organized by the Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society.

Only a handful of companies and research institutions worldwide are developing retinal implants, which stimulate surviving retinal cells in people who have lost their sight due to common degenerative diseases such as macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. Implant patients can usually detect the presence of light, but the images they perceive are very low resolution.

“Current technologies and methods are far behind what can be done,” said Fink, who is working with Tech Launch Arizona to patent the new technology and license it to retinal implant developers.

Ask someone to picture a robotic roving vehicle, and chances are they’ll think of something with wheels, like the Mars Rover. If an alien civilization were sending a craft to explore Earth, however, they might be better off using a boat – after all, the majority of our planet’s surface is covered with water. Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, similarly has a pretty wet surface, as it contains lakes of liquid hydrocarbon. Wolfgang Fink, an engineer with the University of Arizona, has designed an aquatic rover for exploring those lakes.

It might be a long ways off from breaking any world records, but the Tucson Explorer II could help pave the way for exploring bodies of liquid on other planets, and usher in a new era of robotic teamwork. Developed by University of Arizona professor Wolfgang Fink, TEX II is a prototype of an autonomous pontoon boat, and is equipped with a myriad of sensors and cameras to record and relay data. Nothing we haven’t really seen before in an autonomous bot, but Fink has grander plans for the seafaring data collector.

Wolfgang Fink of the University of Arizona department of electrical and computer engineering has developed an autonomous robotic lake lander that could be used to explore this planet and others.

Fink unveiled the lake lander, named Tucson Explorer II, or TEX II, in a paper titled “Robotic Lake Lander Test Bed for Autonomous Surface and Subsurface Exploration of Titan Lakes,” which he presented March 8 at an aerospace conference organized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in Big Sky, Mont.

Fink presented TEX II as an autonomous exploration vehicle that potentially could be used to explore the lakes of liquid hydrocarbon known to exist on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.

Connections. University of Arizona physicist Wolfgang Fink, Ph.D., constantly makes them as he pursues research in medicine, space exploration and robotics.

The energetic associate professor embraces connections that enhance investigations into his varied interests. He enthusiastically pursues private- and public-sector connections that can turn his discoveries into marketable products.

The down-to-earth Fink, 43, is director of the UA Visual and Autonomous Exploration Systems Research Laboratory. He holds the Edward & Maria Keonjian Endowed Chair in Microelectronics.

He has joint appointments in the UA College of Engineering departments that deal with biomedical, electrical and computer, and systems and industrial engineering, as well as ophthalmology and vision science.

The spectacled German native is a visiting associate in physics at the California Institute of Technology and holds professorships in ophthalmology and neurological surgery at the University of Southern California.

His research passion lies in autonomous robotics for space exploration with an assist from work in artificial retinas for humans.

Science magazine recently published an article featuring UA professor Wolfgang Fink’s research on using intelligent robots for planetary exploration.

Science was founded in 1880 using seed money provided by Thomas Edison, and has grown into the world’s most widely read general science journal, with more than a million readers worldwide.

The main thrust of the July 30 Science article, “Making Smarter, Savvier Robots” by Sam Kean, was that “robots are pretty dumb” and must rely on scientists back on Earth to control their exploratory missions. Kean pointed out that only a few dozen scientists are developing robots with true high-level independence that enables them to avoid danger while investigating planetary features of their own choosing.

One of those scientists is Wolfgang Fink, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering, who holds the Edward and Maria Keonjian Endowed Chair in the College of Engineering, and directs the Visual and Autonomous Exploration Systems Research Laboratory. He also has a joint appointment in the UA department of ophthalmology and vision science.

Edward Keonjian, the “father of microelectronics,” would have been 100 years old on Aug. 14, 2009.

To mark his centennial, the University of Arizona College of Engineering has announced the establishment of the Edward and Maria Keonjian Distinguished Professorship in Microelectronics, the result of a million-dollar endowment by Keonjian and his wife Maria. The first person named to the new post is Wolfgang Fink, who will move to UA from the California Institute of Technology.

Fink is a senior researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the founder and director of the Visual and Autonomous Exploration Systems Research Laboratory at Caltech where he is a visiting associate in physics in the division of physics, mathematics and astronomy. He also holds concurrent appointments as visiting research associate professor of ophthalmology and neurological surgery at the University of Southern California.

Fink’s interest in human-machine interfaces, autonomous/reasoning systems and evolutionary optimization has focused his research programs on biomimetic, or implantable, systems, biomedical sensor development, autonomous robotics, cognitive/reasoning system, artificial vision, computer-optimized design and autonomous space exploration.

Fink graduated summa cum laude in 1997 with a doctoral degree in theoretical physics from the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the Eberhard-Karls-University in Tübingen, Germany. He graduated with a bachelor’s and a master’s degrees in physics from the Georg-August-University in Göttingen, Germany.