With a long history of excellence, the ElectroScience Laboratory at Ohio State is charging forward with a new look and new research.

The ESL laboratory was established in 1942 and has since been in the forefront of electromagnetic and radio frequency technology development. Since its inception, the lab has helped produce 320 Ph.Ds and over 500 master’s degrees.

During the past year the laboratory has shifted its customer base from mostly government to a balance between government and industry.

A $700,000 renovation is one of the future plans for the building. Public spaces are scheduled to be renovated, including the front entry, restrooms and offices. The infrastructure, especially the electrical system, is scheduled for a renovation as well.

“The architect’s office keep giving us different answers; we are hoping it will go out for bid soon,” said associate director John Young.

He hopes the project will be underway by fall.

A second building is also in the works for a laboratory expansion. Young said the difficulty has been figuring out ways to fund the project.

John Volakis is the new director of the ElectroScience laboratory on Kinnear Road. He was hired in January from the University of Michigan. Volakis received his doctorate from Ohio State in 1982.

“His ideas make a lot of sense,” said Betty Lise Anderson, associate professor of electrosciences.

The ESL department is involved in the development of electromagnetic and radio frequency technologies including antenna engineering, remote sensing and signal processing. The ESL laboratory, a part of the electrical engineering department, is one of the largest of its type in the United States.

“We have two very important strengths,” Volakis said. “We have very good computational tools we created for many years for design purposes. This means we can come up with designs no one else can. Second, we have our own experimental facilities which allows us to very quickly measure and test how something performs.”

Anderson and Stuart Collins Jr., members of the faculty of the ESL laboratory, are producing true-time delays for phased radar delays, a system that utilizes multiple antennas with multiple frequencies in order to scan an area. Previous uses of TTD electricity were rather cumbersome because of the extensive amount of wire needed to produce the delays.

Anderson and Collins are working to develop a system that will provide a large number of time delays for a large number of antennas in a phased array radar. The new design will incorporate optics, a laser sent through a modulator, to increase the speed and capacity of information received. The frequency is sent by light wave, rather than through a jumble of wires, therefore minimizing hardware.

Anderson has been with the ESL laboratory for about five years. Her enthusiasm for the research is overwhelmingly apparent to many in the program.

“This stuff is so cool,” Anderson said.

Collins and Anderson make an excellent team, said Carolyn Warnky, a post-doctoral researcher.