Three UCSB Teams Receive IEE Seed Funding for Energy Efficiency Research

Tuesday, October 14, 2025

by Cameron Walker

This month, three UCSB projects received awards from the Institute of Energy Efficiency (IEE). The IEE’s Research Seed and Software Impact Seed Programs provide critical introductory funding to launch new research projects that promote energy efficiency in areas ranging from computing and communications to infrastructure. 

"IEE seed funding empowers our researchers to advance innovative ideas that are still in the early stages of development but hold tremendous potential to improve energy efficiency,” said Steven DenBaars, director of IEE and a professor of materials and electrical and computer engineering. “These projects often serve as launchpads for securing additional external funding, extending their impact from the laboratory to commercial products and broader societal benefits.”

The IEE Research Seed program began in 2019 to fund promising energy-efficiency research each year, while supporting new faculty members and novel collaborations across disciplines and departments. In 2022, IEE added the annual Investment Group of Santa Barbara (IGSB) Software Impact Grant to bolster software projects that lead to significant advances or risk reduction, and are likely to result in commercial products that can have a positive effect on society.

Since the two IEE seed programs began, UCSB faculty members have received a total of $1.4 million in funding, said Mark Abel, executive director of IEE. The money comes entirely from private donations. “The IEE seed programs recognize innovative projects that have the potential to make a real impact on energy efficiency,” he said. “These awards have enrolled more than twenty new faculty members in IEE who have gone on to successfully apply for external grants or start new commercial ventures building on their seed projects.”

 “This year’s seed projects explore critical gaps in the current energy-efficiency landscape through new collaborations and cutting-edge technology,” said emeritus professor of electrical and computer engineering John Bowers, who served as inaugural IEE director until his retirement last spring.  “These researchers are continuing the tradition of excellence in scientific discovery that IEE is known for, and we are looking forward to see the directions and the impact of their work on the wider community.”

Cryogenic Optical Modulators for Electro-optic Transduction

The second IEE Seed Grant tackles important work related to energy efficiency in quantum computing conducted by professor Galan Moody and project scientist Paolo Pintus, both based in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

In recent years, quantum computing has excited both scientists and the public for its promise to revolutionize research and to perform complex computational work faster and more efficiently than energy-hungry classical computing. But future quantum computers will need ways to transfer data at extremely low temperatures, close to zero Kelvin. And current superconducting quantum computers in development have relied on coaxial cables for data input and output, which are both bulky and introduce heat into the cryogenic computer. 

“The energy cost of moving information is one of the biggest challenges in scaling quantum computers,” said Moody. “By re-imagining how we connect cryogenic quantum processors to room-temperature electronics, we hope to reduce power consumption and enable architectures that are more efficient and more scalable.”

To address this, Moody and Pintus want to investigate the potential for replacing these cables with optical fibers, which can transmit data via light, or optical, signals. Optical fibers can transmit signals at the speed of light over long distances, Pintus said, “and optical fibers are tiny, so you can pack tons of them in the same space and transmit more data.”

A quantum computer using optical fibers will need an optical modulator. An optical modulator converts electrical signals from a quantum computer to light and can provide a link between the cryogenic quantum computing temperature and the room-temperature devices that read the data the quantum computer produces.

With the seed grant, the team will conduct modeling and design work for cryogenic optical modulators, with a goal of developing a modulator that needs very little power while successfully transmitting the amount of data that a quantum computer can produce. They have also begun collaborating with Google Quantum AI and Raytheon BBN Technologies, and hope that, if they find a feasible model, they can use this grant as a springboard to additional support for hardware fabrication.

“I’m excited that this seed grant gives us the opportunity to explore new device concepts that sit at the intersection of quantum physics, materials science, and integrated photonics,” Moody said. “It’s a chance to take bold steps toward optical interconnects that could help accelerate scalable quantum computers.”