News and Announcements

2025

October

• • Castro Lab was well represented by Gustavo in the SMDP MedTech Program. A highly competitive career mentoring program serving high potential, future leaders who have demonstrated academic excellence. More info:

https://smdp.icpdprograms.org

August

• • IEEE officially published our research article coming form the work presented in Transducers 25 Conference. Great job Yamilet! More info:

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11110272

• • Dr. Castro attended the IEEE Biosensors 2025 Conference held in San Diego, CA where he connected with experts and withnessed recent advances in the field. More info:

https://2025.ieee-biosensors.org

July

• • Dr. Castro had the pleasure to serve as judge in the annual COURI Sympossium held at UTEP where undergrad students of different areas meet to present their research. More info:

https://www.utep.edu/couri/dept/for-ug-researchers/symposia/

• • Castro Lab welcomes three new members to the group: Mamun (incoming PhD student in ECE), Antonio (incoming PhD student in ECE), and Jose (incoming visiting researcher from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez). More info:

https://www.utep.edu/engineering/castrolab/people/

June

• Dr. Castro served as part of the Technical Program Committee and Session Chair (Cellular Systems) in the IEEE Transducers 2025 Conference, held in Orlando, FL. More info:

https://www.transducers2025.org/about/program_committee.html

• Yamilet presented her research about impedance modeling for mithocondrial bioenergetics studies in the IEEE Transducers 2025 Conference, held in Orlando, FL. Congrats Yamilet! More info:

https://www.transducers2025.org

• Three members of Castro Lab secured internship positions for this summer. Best of luck in this amazing experience!...Gustavo @ Texas Instruments, Yamilet @ Microsoft, and Paulina @ Los Alamos National Laboratory

May

• Castro Lab is growing fast: Carlos Ramirez (ECE Undergrad), Allan Chavarin (ECE Master student) and Steven Sanchez (BME Master student) are joining this Summer. Welcome to the team!

• Congratulations to our graduating students in the group: Heber got his Master in Biomedical Engineering, and Gustavo got his Bachelor in Electrical Engineering this Spring from the College of Engineering at UTEP. Congrats to you both!. More info:

https://www.utep.edu/commencement/spring-commencement/education-engineering-stream/

April

• Gustavo received the Best Senior award in the ECE Awards Ceremony - Spring 2025. His outstanding academic journey during his bachelor was recognized there along other graduates, their families, staff and faculty. Congrats Gustavo!. More info:

https://www.facebook.com/UtepElectricalAndComputerEngineering/

• Castro Lab welcomes two new members: Paulina Olivas and Luis Rodriguez (ECE Undergrads) Welcome to the group!

• Gustavo led the ECE team representing UTEP in the Raytheon Drone Competition 2025 held in UT Arlington. Each participant university was responsible in designing and developing high performance autonomous vehicles to complete a series of pre-defined tasks. Go Miners!. More info:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2svf2RDuL2o

• Gustavo was recognized in the 2025 Honors Convocation at UTEP. This event celebrates both the outstanding academic achievements of our students and the distinguished teaching and scholarship of our faculty. Way to go Gustavo! More info:

https://www.utep.edu/honors-convocation/

March

• Yamilet participated in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association (ECEDHA) conference and IEC Networking and Outreach Workshop in Nortfolk, VA. She gained invaluable experience and made meaningful connections with talented individuals in our profession". More info:

https://www.ecedha.org/2025Conference-ECExpo

January

• New patent is officialy granted with Dr. Castro in the list of inventors. "3D printed, high-throughput microelectrode array". More info:

https://patents.google.com/patent/US12195718B2/en

2024

December

• New paper published at the IEEE Sensors Journal. "Handheld, Biomimetic, Phase-Change Microsystems for Breath Condensate-Based Point-of-Use Diagnostic Assays". More info:

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10720692

November

• Dr. Castro is highlighted in the CHARGED Magazine, The Magazine of the UCF Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Fall Issue, 2024. More info:

https://www.cecs.ucf.edu/web/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/CHARGED-2024-web-accessible.pdf

• Dr. Castro delivered a talk about his work in electrochemical biosensors development focusing in materials processing and system integration in the prestigious AVS70 International Symposium. More info:

https://avs70.avs.org

• Dr. Castro is accepted into the 2024-2025 Steps Toward Advancing Research (STAR) @ UTEP Program, wich is designed to enhance grant-writing skills and increase the competitiveness of proposals for major funding agencies like NIH and NSF. More info:

https://www.utep.edu/research/proposal-development/star-utep.html

• Dr. Castro is awarded the prestigious Rising STARs award from the University of Texas System. The Rising STARs Program provides funding opportunities for institutions to attract up-and-coming research faculty who are recruited in a tenure-track position. More info:

https://www.utsystem.edu/offices/health-affairs/initiatives-and-departments/facility-science-and-technology-acquisition-and-retention-stars-program

October

• Castro Lab welcomes a new member: Yamilet Garcia-Rocha (ECE Undergrad) Welcome Yamilet!

• Castro Lab welcomes three members to the group: Gustavo Medina (ECE Undergrad), Heber Moya (BME Master student), and Kevin Moreno (BME Ph.D. student). Welcome you all!

September

• Dr. Castro started as reviewer in the IEEE Sensors Journal. More info:

https://ieee-sensors.org/ieee-sensors-journal/

• Dr. Castro is highlighted in the Research & Innovation Updates section, "Meet our Featured PI: Dr. Jorge Manrique Castro” of the Research & Innovation Newsletter at UTEP, Fall Issue, 2024.

• Dr. Castro is appointed as Faculty Associate for Biomedical Engineering (BME) at the College of Engineering. More info:

https://www.utep.edu/engineering/mmbme/people/faculty-associates-for-bme.html

• Dr. Castro attended the Advanced Packaging Co-Design/EDA Technical Symposium organized by Texas A&M Semiconductor Institute. More info:

https://chips.tamus.edu/2024-eda-technical-symposium/

• Castro Lab website is approved by UTEP MarkComm and officially launched!

https://www.utep.edu/engineering/castrolab/

August

• Dr. Castro started as reviewer in the IEEE Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems. More info:

https://eds.ieee.org/publications/journal-of-microelectromechanical-systems

• Castro Lab space is established in the Engineering Building (Room E-306). PI's Office is also assigned (Room E-307).

• Dr. Jorge Manrique Castro started as Assistant Professor (Tenure-Track) in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department at UTEP. More info:

https://www.utep.edu/newsfeed/2024/august/utep-welcomes-new-faculty-members.html

https://www.utep.edu/provost/faculty/new-faculty-profiles-2024-2025.html

https://www.utep.edu/engineering/ece/people/faculty.html