A PhD candidate at Dr. Raluca Ilie's Heliophysics Research and Applications Group (HeRA) in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), my research focuses on the impact of energetic heavy ions on the Earth's magnetospheric dynamics and the use of virtual reality in undergraduate electromagnetics education. Currently, I serve as the 2022–2024 Student Representative at NSF Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM), and recently, I have been selected as a NASA FINESST-21 awardee in the Heliophysics Division. I received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and M.S. degree in Communication Engineering from National Taiwan University (NTU) in 2017 and 2020, respectively. My previous research at Dr. Shih-Yuan Chen's Advanced Antenna Laboratory (AAL) in NTU spans from polarization-agile patch antenna arrays to experimental electromagnetics in education. My CV
Lin, M.-Y., Chen, H., & Golecki, H. M. (2023). HUG Initiative: Overcoming roadblocks on a research career roadmap of individuals from historically marginalized or underrepresented genders. Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, 10. [frontiers]
Chen, H., & Ilie, R. (2023, July). Multifluid MHD Approach for Global Magnetosphere Simulations of Current and Early Earth–like Conditions. International Space Science Institute Team How Heavy Elements Escape the Earth: Past, Present, and Implications to Habitability, Bern, Switzerland.
Chen, H. (2022, June 19). What's in the Dark: Magnetotail & Plasma Sheet. Geospace Environment Modeling 2022 Summer Workshop Student Day Tutorial, Honolulu, HI.
Lin, M.-Y., Chen, H., Kulkarni, M., Huang, A., Golecki, H., Espenhahn, L., & Raftery, E. M. (2023). Supporting students with minoritized gender identities in research: The design and assessment of an initiative in electrical and computer engineering. 2023 ASEE Annual Conference.
Chen, H., Kulkarni, M., Huang, A., Lin, M.-Y., Golecki, H., & Cusick, R. D. (2023). Connecting motivations for graduate school with learning experiences of engineering undergraduates: A gender perspective. 2023 ASEE IL-IN Section Conference.
Ilie, R., Shaffer, E., D'Angelo, C. M., Cermak, D., Lin, M.-Y., & Chen, H. (2021). Virtual reality laboratory experiences for electricity and magnetism courses. 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access. [asee] [pdf]
Chen, H., & Chen, S.-Y. (2020). Polarization-reconfigurable patch antenna-on-package for millimeter-wave operations with dc bias circuit design. 2020 14th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP). [ieee] [pdf]
Chen, H., & Chen, S.-Y. (2020). Brewster angle and vanishing polarization of wave reflected by conductor-backed water slab. 2020 14th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP). [ieee] [pdf] [video]
Chen, H., Chen, S.-Y., & Bernhard, J. T. (2019). Coupling effects on polarization-agile patch antenna arrays. 2019 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting, 1771–1772. [ieee] [pdf]
Chen, H., & Chen, S.-Y. (2018). A polarization-agile stub-loaded square patch antenna with proximity coupled feed. 2018 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting, 859–860. [ieee] [pdf]
Chen, H., & Ilie, R. (2022, June 11–16). Impact of Plasma Mass Density on the Magnetosphere Configuration [Poster presentation]. Geospace Environment Modeling 2023 Summer Workshop, San Diego, CA. [poster]
Chen, H., Ilie, R., Kulkarni, M., & Lin, M.-Y. (2023, June 11–16). Old Dog New Tricks: A New Look at OGO 6 Data [Poster presentation]. Geospace Environment Modeling 2022 Summer Workshop, San Diego, CA. [poster]
Chen, H., & Ilie, R. (2022, December 12–16). See you on the other side: The impact of N+/O+ composition on heavy ion transport and magnetosphere dynamics in multifluid modeling [Poster presentation]. AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL. [poster]
Chen, H., Lin., M.-Y., Kulkarni, M., Huang, A., Golecki, H., & Cusick, R. D. (2022, December 12–16). HUG Initiative: Promoting research careers for ciswomen, transgender and nonbinary people [Poster presentation]. AGU Fall Meeting 2022, Chicago, IL.
Chen, H., & Ilie, R. (2022, June 19–24). The Role of N+ in the Magnetosphere Dynamics: A Multifluid MHD Study [Poster presentation]. Geospace Environment Modeling 2022 Summer Workshop, Honolulu, HI. [poster]
Ilie, R., Ball, C., Cermak, D., Fisher, J., Kudeki, E., Shaffer, E., Kuo, J., & Chen, H. (2022, June 19–24). Learning Electrodynamics in Virtual Reality [Poster presentation]. Geospace Environment Modeling 2022 Summer Workshop, Honolulu, HI. [poster]
Kulkarni, M., Ilie, R., Lin, M.-Y., & Chen, H. (2022, June 19–24). Variations in Heavy Ion Composition with Geomagnetic Activity and Season [Poster presentation]. Geospace Environment Modeling 2022 Summer Workshop, Honolulu, HI. [poster]
Ilie, R., Ball, C., Cermak, D., Fisher, J., Kudeki, E., Shaffer, E., Chen, H., & Kuo, J. (2022, April 15). Using Virtual Reality for Electricity and Magnetism Education [Poster presentation]. 2022 AE3 Celebration of Teaching, Urbana, IL.
Chen, H., & Ilie, R. (2021, July 25–30). N+: Journey to the Dark Side [Poster presentation]. Geospace Environment Modeling 2021 Virtual Summer Workshop, Virtual Meeting. [poster]
With nO+ > nN+ at the inner boundary of BATS-R-US while keeping the total ion density the same, the magnetic topology is altered and magnetotail shortened. There is a larger pressure along nightside closed field lines during main phase, and a smaller pressure in the lobes during main phase and in northern open field lines in the nightside at L ≈ 30 during recovery phase.
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Preliminary results based on multi-fluid simulations that solve for the transport of N+ in addition to that of O+ and H+, indicate that under steady convection, N+ and O+ ions tend to follow similar pathways as they are transported from the inner boundary (2.5 RE) down-tail but diverge during increased dynamics in solar wind density.
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Using our proposed novel polarization-agile antenna structure, we realized the element design on psudo-packaging material at 28 GHz, and designed an antenna array with modified sequential feed at 1.575 GHz for GNSS applications.
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Brewster angle is the incident angle where parallel polarized incident wave fully trasmits into another dielectric. In this experiment, we used a PEC-backed water pool and realized near-total transmission of parallel wave.
Learn morePre-doctoral Fellow @ University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA. (Jan 2023 – present)
Graduate Research Assistant @ University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA. (Aug 2020 – Dec 2022)
Fields & Waves Virtual Reality Lab Teaching Assistant @ University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA. (Jan 2021 – Dec 2022)
Immersive Learning Lab Coordinator @ University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA. (Aug 2021 – present)
Graduate Research Assistant @ National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. (Aug 2019 – Jul 2020)
Antenna Graduate Teaching Assistant @ National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. (Mar – Jun 2020)
Complex Analysis Graduate Teaching Assistant @ National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. (Sep 2019 – Jan 2020)
Graduate Research Assistant @ National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. (Aug 2017 – Jul 2018)
RF IC Design Intern @ MediaTek, Hsinchu, Taiwan. (Jul – Aug 2017)
2022 AGU Michael H. Freilich Student Visualization Competition Runner-Up, AGU, USA. (Dec 2022)
NASA FINESST-21 Heliophysics Division "Past the Point of No Return: The Journey of Heavy Ions throughout the Earth's Magnetosphere," NASA, USA. (Jan 2023 – Dec 2025)
2022 Boulder Space Weather Summer School Travel Grant, UCAR, Boulder, CO, USA. (Jun 2022)
2022 GIANT Project "HUG Initiative: Research Career Roadmap for Historically Marginalized or Underrepresented Genders," Institute for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Access (IDEA) Institute & IBM–Illinois Discovery Accelerator Institute (IIDAI), The Grainger College of Engineering, Urbana, IL, USA. (Apr 2022 – Dec 2023)
’22–’24 Student Representative @ NSF Geospace Environment Modeling (GEM), USA. (Jun 2022 – Jun 2024)
’19 Vice President @ UIUC Busey-Evans Book Club, Urbana, IL, USA. (Sep 2018 – May 2019)
’18–’19 Historian @ UIUC Women on a Mission at Busey-Evans Hall, Urbana, IL, USA. (Aug 2018 – May 2019)
’16–’17 Vice Captain & ’15–’16 Treasurer @ NTU Varsity Softball, Taipei, Taiwan. (Jan 2015 – Feb 2018)
Information Center Volunteer @ 2019 Taiwan LGBT Pride, Taipei, Taiwan. (Sep – Oct 2019)
Volunteer Parade Route Marshal @ 2019 LA Pride, West Hollywood, CA, USA. (May – Jun 2019)
Volunteer Student Usher @ Krannert Center for Performing Arts, Urbana, IL, USA. (Sep 2018 – May 2019)
Medical & Foreign Language Volunteer @ 2017 Taipei Universiade, Taipei, Taiwan. (Jul 2015 – Aug 2017)
Volunteer Tutor @ Taiwan Fund for Children and Families, New Taipei, Taiwan. (Sep 2014 – Jun 2015)
Computer & Markdown Languages: Python 3, MATLAB, Fortran 90, Mathematica, C++, LabVIEW, LaTeX
Technical Software: Space Weather Modeling Framwork (SWMF), Tecplot 360, ANSYS HFSS, Agilent ADS
Languages: English (bilingual), Mandarin / Traditional Chinese (native), Taiwanese (intermediate)