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Jason Amsden

Associate Research Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Electrical and Computer Engineering

Research Interests


My area of interest is in the application of computational and compressive techniques to improve spectroscopic instrument design. Spectroscopic measurements are a convolution of the instrument response and the desired spectrum. Conventional spectroscopic instruments are designed such that the instrument response is a delta function and the measurements are essentially the desired spectrum. However, this design approach can limit the spectrometer performance. I use a different approach by designing the system response to maximize parameters of interest such as throughput and resolution, and then computationally deconvolve the system response from the measurements to achieve a spectrum – thus improving instrument performance.

Selected Grants


Virtual-Slit Cycloidal Mass Spectrometry

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Savannah River National Laboratory · 2022 - 2026

Underwater coded aperture miniature mass spectrometer (UW-CAMMS)

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Science Foundation · 2021 - 2025

Virtual-Slit Cycloidal Mass Spectrometer for portable rapid ultra-trace isotope ratio analysis of actinides

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Department of Energy · 2022 - 2025

A high-resolution, large mass range cycloidal sector coded aperture miniature mass spectrometer for planetary exploration

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Aeronautics and Space Administration · 2019 - 2023

Miniature Electrochemically Actuated Li-ion Reserve Batteries

ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by Faraday Technology Corporation · 2022 - 2022

Isotope Ratio Coded Aperture Miniature Mass Spectrometer

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by North Carolina Biotechnology Center · 2019 - 2021

Portable Single Particle Analysis Machine (Portable-SPAM)

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity · 2019 - 2021

Radiation survivability of MEMS microelectronic circuits with carbon nanotube field emitters

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Defense Threat Reduction Agency · 2015 - 2019

An Autonomous Coded Aperture Mini Mass Spectrometer (AUTOCAMMS) Based Methane Sensing System

ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy · 2015 - 2019

Investigation of anode embodiments for a field emission heat engine

ResearchCo-Principal Investigator · Awarded by Modern Electron, Inc. · 2014 - 2016

Energy Harvesting Options to Enhance Energy Neutrality in an Enahnced Waste Management System for the Developing World

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Research Triangle Institute · 2014 - 2015

External Relationships


  • Rocky Mountain Scientific
  • Savanna River National Laboratory

This faculty member (or a member of their immediate family) has reported outside activities with the companies, institutions, or organizations listed above. This information is available to institutional leadership and, when appropriate, management plans are in place to address potential conflicts of interest.