Goldwater scholar explores microchips of the future

A University of Cincinnati student is on a quest to make a better microchip.

Greg Muha, an electrical engineering undergraduate in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science, is exploring how ferroelectric materials might improve computer performance. Muha said the technology also shows promise for improving data storage.

“They’re useful in transistors and computer processing applications,” he said. “My research has been on the device side.”

The Goldwater Foundation recognized Muha and his research by naming him a 2023 recipient of a prestigious Goldwater scholarship. The Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation was established by Congress in 1986 to honor the lifetime work of the late U.S. senator for which it’s named. The scholarships this year were granted to 413 sophomores or juniors across the country who intend to pursue careers in the natural sciences, mathematics or engineering.

Muha works in Professor Rashmi Jha’s lab where he is learning about the latest microchip fabrication techniques.

As a UC engineering student, Muha has participated in the cooperative education program required of all students in the college. They divide their year between dedicated classroom work and full-time employment with companies or organizations in their chosen field.
UC’s long-established co-op program is a big reason he enrolled here, he said.

“The co-op program was definitely a benefit,” Muha said. “I wanted to come to a public school. You meet a lot of people from different backgrounds. It’s an awesome campus. Students are active and passionate about what they do here.”

Muha had co-ops with NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and the Air Force Research Lab at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base just outside Dayton, Ohio.

At NASA, Muha worked on software and hardware for a ground station that captures and sends data to satellites in orbit.

But these days he is most interested in microchips.

Professor Jha noted that intelligent computing and high-density data storage is a growth industry, estimated to be valued at $193 billion by 2026. These computer systems are ubiquitous in the Internet of Things, autonomous systems, wearable electronics and communications, among many others she said.

Muha’s work has been supported by the Protégé program at UC, National Science Foundation awards to Jha’s lab and the Center for Hardware and Embedded Systems Security and Trust along with the NSF’s Industry-University Research Cooperative Research Centers.

“When I joined Dr. Jha’s lab, I was surprised to learn how much you could do as a student — how much autonomy you could have to choose what you wanted to work on,” Muha said.

And in UC Associate Professor Tao Li’s microfabrication class, he got firsthand experience working in the Mantei Center Cleanroom, where students learn the fundamentals of fabricating microchips in tightly controlled spaces designed to prevent contaminants and dust from fouling sensitive electronics.

“Wearing the ‘bunny suit’ is a little surreal. It feels like science fiction,”  Muha said.

He was excited about being named a Goldwater scholar.

“I was just really happy and surprised,” he said. “I felt like I was on the right path. I knew I wanted a research career on the engineering side of things. And being able to come to UC and start accomplishing that dream was fulfilling for me.”