Randy Ganye, Ph.D. | Senior Software Engineer & Researcher

About Me

Software · Signal Processing · Acoustic Sensing

I am a Senior Software Engineer and Researcher with over 15 years of combined academic research and industry experience in software-hardware integration, sonar and acoustic sensing, data science, acoustic metamaterials, and robotics. I design experimental and computational systems that integrate sensing, signal processing, and machine learning. In my current role, I develop LabVIEW control, measurement, and calibration software and FPGA firmware in VHDL. One calibration utility I developed reduced calibration time by approximately 90%.

Previously, as a Data Science Fellow at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), I built Python, PostgreSQL, and SAS data workflows that supported knowledge discovery from research articles.

My Ph.D. at the University of Maryland focused on acoustic metamaterials and bio-inspired sonar. That work included real-time sonar DSP on a TI C2000 microcontroller and a MATLAB machine learning pipeline for classifying echoes.

I have a strong background in fiber-optic sensing, 3D-printed metamaterial structures, FPGA-based systems, and scientific programming in Python, MATLAB, and C. I am also active in mentoring, teaching, and peer review, with publications in Applied Physics Letters and the ASME IMECE conference proceedings.

15+ years
research & industry
Ph.D.
Mechanical Engineering, UMD
~90%
faster calibration with a utility I developed

Experience

15+ years research & industry

Senior Software Engineer

Engineering R&D firm

Sep 2021 – Present
- Develop software for hardware components, including LabVIEW control, measurement, and calibration applications and custom instrument drivers.
- Design circuit boards in NI Multisim and program FPGA firmware in VHDL using Intel Quartus, which I learned on the job.
- Developed a calibration and reporting utility that reduced calibration time by approximately 90%; colleagues run it and my other LabVIEW tools independently.
- Verify hardware and software behavior with oscilloscopes and spectrum analyzers, and review and validate signal-processing code.
- LabVIEW
- VHDL
- FPGA
- Multisim
- Intel Quartus
- Calibration
- Instrument Control
- Data Acquisition
Data Science Fellow

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), CFSAN, Office of Food Additive Safety

Nov 2020 – Sep 2021
- Contributed to WILEE (Warp Intelligent Learning Engine), a knowledge-discovery initiative for chemical-safety and regulatory assessment.
- Built Python workflows to retrieve, extract, validate, organize, and document information from research articles in support of the WILEE knowledge-discovery initiative.
- Wrote Python data-processing code for literature retrieval and data cleaning, working with PostgreSQL workflows.
- Built SAS visualizations to help researchers explore scientific datasets; contributed WILEE front-end functionality.
- Worked with multidisciplinary contributors to turn research and information-management needs into software capabilities.
- Python
- PostgreSQL
- SAS
- Data Cleaning
Scientific Researcher (Ph.D.) / Postdoctoral Researcher

University of Maryland, Department of Mechanical Engineering (Prof. Miao Yu's group)

Sep 2014 – Aug 2021

Ph.D. research (Sep 2014 – Aug 2020) and postdoctoral research (Dec 2020 – Aug 2021) on high wave vector acoustic metamaterials for sensors, emitters, and bio-inspired sonar.
- Designed and built a bio-inspired acoustic metamaterial sonar, compared it directly against a conventional sonar, and ran the same robot with and without metamaterials to isolate their effect on tracking.
- Built a bio-inspired 40 kHz sonar tracking robot. Real-time sonar DSP on a TI C2000 Delfino (F28379D) microcontroller, combining hand-written C with Simulink-generated code, running an ~80 Hz ping/echo cycle.
- Built a MATLAB ML pipeline to classify sonar echo signals after signal preprocessing and feature engineering.
- Wrote MATLAB signal-processing and analysis tools (FFT/spectral analysis, echo-energy analysis, microphone calibration) for data acquired with automated LabVIEW multichannel measurement setups.
- Ran FEM parametric studies (COMSOL Multiphysics) of a bio-inspired acoustic metamaterial ultrasonic emitter to derive design guidelines for far-field pressure gain and directivity; checked simulations against analysis and measurement.
- Characterized wave physics in acoustic metamaterials with a fiber-optic point detector, calibrated against a B&K reference microphone (first-author paper, Applied Physics Letters, 2016).
- Designed and tested underwater robotic and sonar systems for navigation, tracking, and shellfish-monitoring research.
- Fabricated 3D-printed metamaterial prototypes and used Arduino and C++ for sensing and control on robotic platforms.
- MATLAB
- C
- Signal Processing
- COMSOL Multiphysics
- LabVIEW
- Acoustics
- Machine Learning

Teaching & Mentoring

University of Maryland

2014 – 2017

Co-Instructor, Advanced Fiber Optics (graduate, ENME 611/498R), Fall 2017: laboratory sessions on fiber-optic instrumentation, measurement, data analysis, and technical reporting.
Teaching Assistant, ENME 462 (Vibrations, Controls & Optimization II) and ENME 350 (Electronics & Instrumentation I), Fall 2014 and Fall 2015.
Research Mentor, ESTEEM / SER-Quest summer programs, 2014 and 2015: a sensor-based obstacle-avoidance robot and a multi-DOF robotic hand.

Co-Op Engineer

Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE)

Jun 2011 – Dec 2013

Analyzed utility outage data with SQL to identify reporting anomalies and produced CAIDI reliability reports.
Developed a system for collecting and analyzing Dissolved Gas Analysis data used in equipment-condition assessment and fault identification.
Performed ground-resistance testing on transmission poles and interpreted the field data.

Research & Publications

Doctoral research · University of Maryland

High wave vector acoustic metamaterials and bio-inspired sonar

My doctoral work studied acoustic metamaterials that support wave propagation with high wave vector values, and used their energy confinement and radiation enhancement to improve acoustic emission and reception.

A low-dimensional fiber optic probe for measuring fields inside deep-subwavelength metamaterial cavities.
Metamaterial receivers with passive signal amplification, frequency filtering, and active tuning.
A metamaterial-enhanced ultrasonic emitter, with FEM parametric studies for design guidelines.
A combined metamaterial sonar on a robotic platform that tracked targets markedly better than a conventional sonar.

Publications

Ph.D. dissertation · 2020
High Wave Vector Acoustic Metamaterials: Fundamental Studies and Applications

R. Ganye. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park, 2020.

DOI: 10.13016/93jk-oew8
Applied Physics Letters · 2020
Ultrasound beam steering with flattened acoustic metamaterial Luneburg lens

L. Zhao, E. Laredo, O. Ryan, A. Yazdkhasti, H.-T. Kim, R. Ganye, T. Horiuchi, M. Yu. Applied Physics Letters 116, 071902 (2020).

DOI: 10.1063/1.5140467
Applied Physics Letters · 2016
Characterization of wave physics in acoustic metamaterials using a fiber optic point detector First author

R. Ganye, Y. Chen, H. Liu, H. Bae, Z. Wen, M. Yu. Applied Physics Letters 108, 261906 (2016).

DOI: 10.1063/1.4955058
ASME IMECE · 2011
Smart Fasteners and Their Application in Flanged Joints

B. Eslami, R. Ganye, C. Bunai, C. Thamire. Proceedings of the ASME 2011 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2011), Vol. 3, pp. 707–714.

DOI: 10.1115/IMECE2011-64214

Talks & Service

Invited talk, State of the Art Review (SOAR-9): bio-inspired acoustic metamaterial sonar, May 2018.
Talk, UMD Robotics Students Seminar: metamaterial-enhanced robotic navigation, March 2019.
Conference presentations: Society of Engineering Science (SES) 2016; ASME IMECE 2017 and 2018.
Peer reviewer: Neural Computing and Applications (Springer) and ASME journals.

My Skills

Software, FPGA, signal processing, acoustics, and data science

Software & Programming

Python
LabVIEW
MATLAB
C
C++
SQL
PostgreSQL
SAS
Simulink
Jupyter
Git
Linux

FPGA & Embedded

FPGA
VHDL
Verilog (working knowledge)
Intel Quartus Prime
NI Multisim
Circuit Design
Embedded Systems
Microcontrollers
TI C2000
Arduino

Signal Processing & Measurement

Signal Processing
Digital Signal Processing
Data Acquisition
Test & Measurement
Instrument Control
Calibration
Oscilloscope
Spectrum Analyzer

Acoustics & Physical Modeling

Acoustics
Ultrasonics
Sonar
Metamaterials
Fiber Optic Sensors
COMSOL Multiphysics
Finite Element Analysis
Structural Analysis
Thermal Analysis
SolidWorks

Data Science & ML

Machine Learning
Feature Engineering
Data Analysis
Data Cleaning
Data Science

Research & Communication

Research & Development
Robotics
Technical Writing
Teaching & Mentoring
English
French (professional)

Education

University of Maryland, College Park

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering
University of Maryland, College Park
Dissertation: High Wave Vector Acoustic Metamaterials: Fundamental Studies and Applications. Advisor: Prof. Miao Yu. Member, UMD Future Faculty Program.
2020
M.Sc., Mechanical Engineering
University of Maryland, College Park
2017
B.Sc., Mechanical Engineering
University of Maryland, College Park
Hillman Entrepreneurs Scholarship Program (2008–2012); McNair Scholars Program (2010–2012). Senior capstone: self-adjusting vehicle mirror system, 3rd place in the design competition (team co-leader).
2012

Randy Ganye

High wave vector acoustic metamaterials and bio-inspired sonar

Publications

Talks & Service

Software & Programming

FPGA & Embedded

Signal Processing & Measurement

Acoustics & Physical Modeling

Data Science & ML

Research & Communication

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering

M.Sc., Mechanical Engineering

B.Sc., Mechanical Engineering

Contact