Alkim Akyurtlu.

Alkim Akyurtlu

Professor; Associate Chair for Graduate Studies, Director (UML) Raytheon UMass Lowell Research Institute (RURI), Director Printed Electronics Research Collaborative (PERC)

College
Francis College of Engineering
Department
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Phone
978-934-3336
Office
SAAB Emerging Technologies and Innovation Center, Room 409
Email
Alkim_Akyurtlu@uml.edu
Links

Expertise

Additive Manufacturing for Radio frequency (RF) and Microwave (MW) Applications, Printed Electronics, Additive Packaging of Microelectronics, Metamaterials, Functional Printable Inks, Electromagnetics and RF Devices

Research Interests

Alkim Akyurtlu's research interests include Additive Manufacturing (AM) and Printed Electronics (PE) for RF and Microwave applications including antennas and novel electromagnetic filters, wearables, development and characterization of printable functional inks, and applications of metamaterials.

Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.): Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University - University Park, Pennsylvania
    • Dissertation / Thesis Title: Modeling of Bi-anisotropic Media using the Finite-Difference Time-Domain Method
  • Master of Science (M.S.): Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University - University Park, Pennsylvania
    • Dissertation / Thesis Title: Analysis and Modeling of Sodium in the Upper Atmosphere
  • Bachelor of Science (B.S.): Electrical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University - Blacksburg, Virginia
    • Dissertation / Thesis Title: Fabry-Perot Interferometers for Pressure Detection

Biosketch

Alkim Akyurtlu received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from the Virginia Tech in 1994, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Penn State in 1996 and 2001, respectively. In 2002, she joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UMass Lowell (UML), where she is a Full Professor. She is also the Director of the Printed Electronics Research Collaborative (PERC) and Director from UML of the Raytheon – UMass Lowell Research Institute (RURI). Her research interests are in additive manufacturing for advanced microelectronic packaging; printed electronics for RF and Microwave applications; development of functional materials for printed electronics; and design and application of metamaterials. Prior to coming to UML, Akyurtlu worked at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Lincoln Laboratory with the Systems and Analysis Group as a Technical Specialist conducting research on electromagnetic modeling and statistical analysis of radar systems. She is on the Editorial Board for Flexible and Printed Electronics Journal. She is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). She was selected as a Nextflex Fellow in 2026.

Selected Awards and Honors

  • 2026 - Nextflex Fellow
  • 2026 - “Innovators of the Future” student poster award – Flextech Summit (for Morgan Michael, PhD student)
  • 2026 -  Best Poster Award MRS (for Lucas Unger, PhD student)
  • 2024 - IPC Educational Award (for Emily Lamport, PhD Student)
  • 2023 - Excellence in Teaching Award, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, UML
  • 2016 - FLEXI R&D Award, FlexTech Conference, Monterey, California
  • 2015 - Best paper award at AMTA conference, M. Haghzadeh and Akyurtlu A.
  • 2015 - “RF Measurement Technique for Characterizing Printed Ferroelectric Dielectrics in Antenna Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA) 37th Annual Meeting, Long Beach, California, October 11–16, 2015
  • 2015 - IDTECHX R&D Award, IDTECHX Conference, Santa Clara, California
  • 2011 - Excellence in Teaching Award, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, UML
  • 2007 - Senior Member, IEEE

Selected Publications

  • 2026 - Emily Lamport, Lucas Unger, Sai Avuthu, Si Chen, J. Mapkar, and Alkim Akyurtlu, "Materials and Process Optimizations for Fabricating Digital AM Temperature and Relative Humidity Sensor System Circuits for Use in High Thermal Stress Environments," Flexible and Printed Electronics, accepted 2026.
  • 2025 - Nathaniel D’Agati, Christopher Areias, Andrew Luce and Alkim Akyurtlu, “Fully additive radio frequency front end system using vertical integration for circuit compaction,” Flexible and Printed Electronics, Volume 10, Number 4, Nov. 2025.
  • 2025 - C. Areias, E. Harper, Y. Zhang, S. Trulli and A. Akyurtlu, "Additively Manufactured 3-D Printed Shielded Interconnects for Enhanced Immunity to EMI," in IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, vol. 15, no. 12, pp. 2739-2749, Dec. 2025, doi: 10.1109/TCPMT.2025.3628992.
  • 2025 - C. Areias, A. Luce, E. Harper, Y. Zhang and A. Akyurtlu, "Additive Integration of a Bare Die High-Power Microwave Amplifier Using 3-D Printed Interconnects," IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, May 2025. doi: 10.1109/TMTT.2025.3563113.
  • 2025 - Christopher Areias and Alkim Akyurtlu, “An Examination of Aerosol-Jet Printed Surface Roughness and its Impact on the Performance of High Frequency Electronics,” Advanced Engineering Materials, March 2025, doi: 10.1002/adem.202402715. Selected by journal for May 2025 Front Cover and highlighted as Editors’ Choice.
  • 2025 - Lamport, Emily, Sai G.R. Avuthu, Si Chen, Javed Mapkar, and Alkim Akyurtlu, “Process Optimization of Additively Manufactured Conformal Temperature and Humidity Sensor for High-Temperature Applications.” Journal of Microelectronics and Electronic Packaging 22 (1): 13–20. 2025 doi.org/10.4071/001c.133286.
  • 2025 - Adria Kajenski, Guinevere Strack, Shahriar Khushrushahi and Alkim Akyurtlu, “Printed textile metasurfaces for gain and directivity enhancement,” Flexible and Printed Electronics, Volume 10, Number 1 015002, January 2025. DOI: 10.1088/2058-8585/ada1e1
  • 2024 - Andrew Luce, Christopher Areias, Susan Trulli, Elicia Harper, Yiwen Zhang, Guinevere Strack, John Lovaasen and Alkim Akyurtlu, “Conformally printed additively manufactured RF demonstrator for circuit compaction,” Flexible and Printed Electronics, Volume 9, Number 4, 045007, November 2024. DOI: 10.1088/2058-8585/ad8d64
  • 2023 - Yuri Piro, Chris Aerias, Andrew Luce, Morgan Michael, Priyanka Biswas, Oshadha Ranasingha, James Reuther, Susan Trulli, and Alkim Akyurtlu, “Low Loss Dielectric Ink for Printed RF and mW Devices,” ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, July 26, 2023;15(29):35449-35458. DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c03706.
  • 2023 - Guinevere Strack, Jin Ho Kim, Stephen Giardini, Alkim Akyurtlu, and Richard M. Osgood III, “Application of a Magnetic Field to Ferromagnetic Diodes" MRS Advances, May 2023, Volume 8, Issue 5, p.188-193, DOI: 10.1557/s43580-023-00520-6
  • 2023 - Christopher Aerias, Yuri Piro, Oshadha Ranasingha, and Alkim Akyurtlu, “A New Technique for 3D Printing Dielectric Structures Using Aerosol-Jettable Photopolymers,” Flexible and Printed Electronics, February 2023, 8 015009, DOI: 10.1088/2058-8585/acb3dd
  • 2022 - Yuri Piro, Andrew Luce, Oshadha K. Ranasingha, Craig Armiento, and Alkim Akyurtlu, “Stabilizing the selective laser sintered silver–barium strontium titanate resistors using a UV curable ink,” Journal of Electronic Materials, Vol. 11, 1169, November 2022. doi: 10.1007/s11664-022-10049-3