FA L L 2 0 0 3
I S S U E N O. 1 0
U C L A Eng ineer
UCLA Researchers Lead New Focus Center
Engineering a New Generation of Nanoscale Devices
Air Hybrid Vehicles
Increasing Efficiency and Reducing
Fuel Costs
Nanoengineered Surfaces
Enabling New Technologies at
the Nanoscale
Undergraduate Research
Education Through Handson Experience
Our students are our greatest resource and, as educators, our
greatest responsibility. As the scientists and engineers of
tomorrow they will change our world in ways we cannot begin
to anticipate.
Many of our graduates will not only change jobs, but also change
careers several times in their professional lives. We are making
substantial revisions to our undergraduate curriculum to better
prepare our students for the challenges they will face in their
careers. One of the key components of the new engineering curriculum is a
three-course minor requirement as a means of building their knowledge in
fields outside their area of specialization to ensure they are equipped to meet
the demands of a rapidly changing workplace.
We are also firmly committed to propagating the concept of multidisciplinary
research at the undergraduate level, and providing our students with an earlier
introduction to research. Many of the faculty in the School are already working
with undergraduates, but we are developing formal summer programs to
increase the opportunities for our students and faculty to work closely on
advanced technologies. We showcase a few of those programs in this issue of
UCLA Engineer.
Our Bioengineering Department has finalized its undergraduate curriculum and
will welcome its first freshman class next fall. UCLA is home to outstanding
schools of both medicine and engineering, ensuring that our new department
will surely become one of the preeminent bioengineering programs in the
country.
Faculty are also developing new courses at both the undergraduate and
graduate levels to further enhance our educational programs. For instance,
we’re offering a class this fall designed to develop and improve technical
communication skills, as well as a graduate level systems engineering course.
Another priority for the School is to increase the number of available scholarships and fellowships. If we hope to continue to attract and retain exemplary
students, we need to offer additional financial support to offset mounting UC
fees. We must ensure that no qualified student is denied a quality engineering
education solely because of financial need.
Our top-tier educational programs are supported by a dedicated faculty, and we
have recruited 14 new faculty this year who offer expertise in several critical
areas of study. Biographical sketches of these faculty are included in this issue.
UCLA HENRY SAMUELI SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE
MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN
UCLAEngineer
Dean
Vijay K. Dhir
Associate Deans
Stephen Jacobsen - Student Affairs
Gregory Pottie - Research and Physical Resources
Department Chairs
Carlo Montemagno - Bioengineering
Vasilios Manousiouthakis - Chemical Engineering
William W. G.Yeh - Civil and Environmental Engineering
Milos Ercegovac - Computer Science
Yahya Rahmat-Samii - Electrical Engineering
King-Ning Tu - Materials Science and Engineering
H.Thomas Hahn - Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
UCLA Engineer is published twice a year by the Office of External Affairs
in the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.
UCLA Engineer Advisory Board
Vijay K. Dhir
Milos Ercegovac
Chih-Ming Ho
Stephen Jacobsen
Yahya Rahmat-Samii
We remain committed to recruiting diverse faculty who are able to conduct
research across disciplines, while preserving individual faculty activities and the
School’s reputation for academic excellence. It is gratifying to note that as we
move into the new year, we have added another highly prestigious multi-million
dollar research center: the MARCO Focus Center on Functional Engineered
Nano Architectonics, which builds on programs already in place in the School.
Please see the article on the Focus Center – the only one awarded by the
Semiconductor Industry Association this year – for more about this exciting
new endeavor.
Sincerely,
External Affairs Communications
Marlys Amundson
Christopher Sutton
Office of External Affairs
6266 Boelter Hall, Los Angeles, California 90095
310.206.0678
310.825.3966 (fax)
www.engineer.ucla.edu
Additional Photography
UCLA Photography
Vijay K. Dhir
Dean
Design
Vince Rini Design
C A L E N DA R O F U P C O M I N G E V E N T S
Wednesday, October 8, 2003
Dean’s Reception - Northern California
5:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Stanford Park Hotel, 100 El Camino Real, Menlo Park
To RSVP for this event, please call 310/206-0678
or send an e-mail to seasalum@ea.ucla.edu.
Friday, October 10, 2003
Center for Embedded Networked Sensing Research Review
Tom Bradley International Center, UCLA
http://www.cens.ucla.edu/Events/ResearchReview.htm
Monday, October 20 and Tuesday, October 21, 2003
Electrical Engineering Research Review
Covel Commons and Engineering Complex, UCLA
http://www.ee.ucla.edu/arr/
Saturday, October 25, 2003
Homecoming – Chancellor’s Pregame Party
Arizona State vs UCLA
Pregame Party - 4:30, Kick-off - 7:00 pm
Rose Bowl – Pasadena, California
http://www.engineeringalum.ucla.edu/tailgate03.asp
C O N T E N T S
Wednesday, October 29 and Thursday, October 30, 2003
2003 Winter Wireless Conference
Covel Commons, UCLA
http://www.wireless.ucla.edu/2003/brochure.htm
Friday, November 7, 2003
Homeland Security Symposium: Safeguarding Civil Infrastructures
9:30 am to 4:30 pm
Korn Convocation Hall, Anderson School Complex, UCLA
Inquiries: 310/825-2938
Friday, November 7, 2003
Engineering Awards Dinner
Reception - 6:30 pm, Dinner - 7:30 pm
Marina Beach Marriott
4100 Admiralty Way, Marina del Rey
http://www.engineeringalum.ucla.edu/awards/dinner.asp
Master Builders of the Nano-Electronics Age
2
Paying Less at the Pump: Air Hybrid Vehicles
4
Nanoengineered Surfaces
6
Undergraduates in the Labs
8
Calendar
1
Faculty
12
New Faculty
14
UCLA Engineering in the News
18
UCLA Engineering News
19
Recruiter’s Column
20
Students
21
Engineering Alumni
23
Class Notes
24
In Memoriam
25
2002-03 Annual Report
26
1
Master Builders
of the Nano-Electronics Age:
New Semiconductor Research Center at UCLA
B Y
C H R I S T O P H E R
S U T T O N
UCLA has been selected to lead a new multimillion-dollar
The Center is part of an initiative by the Semiconductor
research center for semiconductor research. The
Industry Association (SIA), the industry’s largest trade
Functional Engineered Nano Architectonics Focus Center
association, and the Department of Defense to expand
(FENA) was established September 1 in the UCLA Henry
semiconductor research at universities.
Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.
UCLA becomes the fifth site for a Focus Center since the
2
The term “architectonics” is derived from a Greek word
Microelectronics Advanced
meaning master builder – which aptly describes the
(MARCO), a subsidiary of the SIA, together with the
Center’s researchers as they build a new generation of
Department of Defense, launched the Focus Center
nanoscale materials, structures and devices for the
Research Program in 1998. The UCLA center is the only
electronics industry.
new center established this year.
Research
Corporation
Cover photo and photos on pages 2 and 3: Irene Fertik.
Electrical engineering professor Kang
Wang has been named director of the
Focus Center, which involves researchers
from UCLA’s departments of materials
science, chemistry, and mathematics and
from 11 other universities, including MIT,
UC Berkeley and Santa Barbara, and USC.
Wang’s team will explore the challenges
facing the semiconductor industry as the
technology that powers today’s computers
grows ever smaller. With more and more
transistors and other components squeezed
onto a single chip, manufacturers are
rapidly approaching the physical limits
posed by current chip-making processes.
Researchers hope to resolve a number of
challenges related to post-CMOS
technologies that will allow them to
extend semiconductor technology further
into the realm of the nanoscale.
“Our work will be directed at finding new
ways to scale CMOS nanoelectronics to
the ultimate limit and beyond,” said Wang.
“Advances in nanotechnology, molecular
electronics, and quantum computing are
creating the potential for new technology
solutions, and we want to explore them,”
said Wang. “University-based research
collaborations like this Focus Center are
vital to sustaining long-term growth in the
semiconductor industry.”
“We are tremendously excited to be
selected to lead this important research
collaboration,” said Vijay K. Dhir, dean of
the School of Engineering. “Dr.Wang and
his team have the research and administrative experience to address the current state
of knowledge about nanoelectronics
technologies and move it forward in a
tangible way.”
“UCLA has the ideal infrastructure in
place to lead a Center of this kind,” said
Wang, who also established the UCLA
Nanoelectronics Facility in 1989. “We
plan to collaborate with existing centers
like the California NanoSystems Institute,
the Institute for Cell Mimetic Space
Exploration, and the Institute of Pure and
Applied Mathematics.”
Wang has organized an interdisciplinary
team of materials scientists, chemists,
physicists, electrical engineers, mechanical
engineers, chemical engineers, bioengineers and mathematicians.
Bruce Dunn, professor of
materials science and
engineering, is codirector of the new
center, and electrical
engineering professor
Jason Woo is the extramural liaison. Other
UCLA faculty with joint
appointments in the School’s
materials science department, including chemistry professor Fraser Stoddart
and professor of mathematics Russel
Caflisch, will lead two of five research areas
within the Focus Center.
The Semiconductor Industry Association
selected UCLA to lead the new Center
earlier this summer. Contractual negotiations began in August to determine the
exact level of funding the Center will
receive.
3
Reprinted with permission from SAE 2003-01-0038 @ 2003 SAE International.
Paying
Less
at the Pump:
UCLA Engineer Suggests Air Hybrid Car Could Improve Fuel Efficiency
B Y
C H R I S T O P H E R
S U T T O N
Air hybrid cars could bring big fuel savings for city drivers, according to a recent study released by UCLA
engineers. Experiments based on modeling and simulations showed that the air hybrid engine improved fuel
efficiency by 64 percent in city driving and 12 percent in highway driving. The study also suggested that by
adopting the air hybrid approach, car-makers could avoid some of the manufacturing costs associated with the
more common electric hybrid design.
Tsu-Chin Tsao, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering
in the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied
Science, and graduate student Chun Tai have been collaborating
with engineers at Ford Motor Company and consultant Michael
M. Schechter for more than a year on an air hybrid vehicle design
that uses a camless valve train. Tai presented the team’s findings at
the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in March.
4
Like its cousin the electric hybrid, air hybrid vehicles are being
explored as a more fuel-efficient means of traveling the nation’s
roads, especially in urban areas, where stop-and-go traffic leads to a
wasteful use of gas. During a typical day of city driving, fuel energy
used to accelerate the vehicle is partially wasted during deceleration, when kinetic energy is converted into heat in the friction
brakes.
Fuel economy could be greatly improved,
say researchers, if that braking energy could
be captured, stored, and later used to help
the vehicle speed up, for instance.
To make the air hybrid design work, Tsao
introduced a few clever modifications to a
traditional 2.5 liter V6 engine, including a
valve design that allows the engine to not
only burn fuel more efficiently, but to
compress and expand air captured during
braking as well.When it is compressed, air
can store energy that is neither toxic nor
explosive. Once the air is expanded, the
burst of energy that is released can be used
to help accelerate the car.
The additional hardware required to make
it work includes a battery and a supplemental electric motor, which adds weight
to the car and drives up costs. Manufacturers are forced to reduce weight in other
ways.
“Automobile manufacturers are turning to
more expensive lightweight materials like
aluminum to compensate for the added
weight involved with the electric hybrid
approach,” said Tsao. “With an air hybrid
you don’t have to worry about that.”
Thanks to Tsao’s innovative valve design,
the air hybrid can achieve similar fuel efficiencies but needs only an air storage unit
weighing less than 70 pounds.
“The air hybrid does not require a second
propulsion system,” said Tsao. “This
approach allows for significant improvements in fuel economy without the added
complexity of the electric hybrid model.”
Professor Tsu-Chin Tsao (l) and graduate student
K. Krishnamoorthy in the lab.Tsao’s group is testing
modifications on an engine donated by Ford Motor Co.
The concept is closely tied to that of electric hybrid vehicles, which are becoming
an increasingly well-known alternative to
traditional automobiles and have already
proven capable of reusing braking energy.
While still fueled by gasoline, the electric
hybrid vehicle’s engine and transmission
combination is augmented by an energy
conversion and storage system housed in a
black box under the car’s hood. This collection of sophisticated electronic components captures brake energy, stores it as
electricity and then releases it when it is
needed.
The UCLA researchers avoid the need for
an additional motor by introducing greater
functionality into the engine’s valve system. During conventional combustion
engine operation, the camshaft causes the
intake and exhaust valves to open and close
in a synchronized fashion to let in air and
fuel and to let out exhaust.The camshaft is
designed to perform in a predictable and
fixed way. The same operation occurs over
and over — nothing more.
Tsao’s industrial collaborators designed an
electrohydraulic camless valvetrain system
that allows for more variable valve operation, with greater control over when a
valve opens and for how long.Tsao developed methods to precisely control the
valve operation over a wide temperature
range. This, in turn, makes it possible for
the traditional engine to do more than just
burn fuel.
“We wanted the engine to compress air
and charge the compressed air back to the
engine,” said Tsao. “So we replaced the
cam shaft with an electronically-controlled
valve system.”
Tsao’s proposed valve system allows the
engine to operate in four different modes.
When a vehicle decelerates, the engine is
used as an air compressor to absorb the
braking energy and store it into the air
tank. Whenever the vehicle stops, at a red
light for example, the engine is shut down.
Once the light turns green and the driver
touches the accelerator pedal, the engine is
started by compressed air.As the car speeds
up, the engine is used as an air motor to
drive the vehicle until the compressed air
is depleted, at which point the engine is
switched to conventional combustion
mode and begins burning fuel.
The concept of driving a vehicle with
compressed air is not new. In fact, a compact version of an air-powered car was
introduced at the Paris Auto Show in late
2002. That car had a four-cylinder piston
engine powered only by compressed air
that is stored in an on-board air tank.
Road tests are needed to prove Tsao’s concept, and other challenges need to be
addressed before air hybrid vehicles
become widely accepted. “We want to
optimize the size of the air storage tank,
and begin testing the air hybrid operation
using a diesel engine,” said Tsao.
As consumer demand grows for more
environmentally friendly road vehicles,
drivers may one day find themselves riding
on air.
For additional information on Tsao’s
research, please visit http://www.seas.ucla.
edu/%7Ettsao/index.htm.
5
Image appears courtesy of Chang-Jin Kim
Nanoengineered Surfaces:
Enabling Nanotechnologies
B Y
M A R L Y S
A M U N D S O N
A team of UCLA researchers has reduced the amount of pressure needed to move liquids through
channels by 30 to 40 percent. In a field where even a five percent reduction is significant, the
breakthrough will enable entirely new applications, including in the field of microfluidics.
Led by Chang-Jin (CJ) Kim, a mechanical
and aerospace engineering professor in the
UCLA Henry Samueli School of
Engineering and Applied Science, the
multidisciplinary group has designed and
manufactured a surface with significantly
less drag for liquid flows.
“Despite the explosive growth in
microfluidics – especially for high-profile
applications such as biochips and lab-on-achip – transport of liquids through long,
nano- and microscale channels incurs losses too great to be practical,” notes Kim. “It
takes a disproportionately high pressure to
move liquid through microchannels, limiting the feasibility of building a miniaturized lab-on-a-chip.”
6
Microfluidics is concerned with the
physics and performance of fluids and
fluidic systems at the microscale. Unlike
macrofluidic systems, these systems are
significantly affected by surface tension,
energy dissipation, and electrokinetics.
Microfluidics has applications in lab-on-achip technologies and micro-propulsion
and micro-thermal devices.
Kim and mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Chih-Ming Ho are
collaborating with professors Fred Wudl
and Robin L. Garrell in the chemistry and
biochemistry department to design and
create a nanomachined surface that allows
liquids to move more easily though
microchannels.
The team manufactured a structure that
creates a gap between the liquid and the
channel surface, reducing the amount of
pressure needed to move the fluid through
the tubes. Their solution was inspired in
part by the lotus leaf.
“A lotus leaf has microstructures on its
surface, as well as a natural coating of wax
that prevents mud and water from sticking
to the plant,” explains Kim. “By recreating
that in the lab we were able to manufacture a surface with considerably less drag.”
The nano-size gaps on the surface of the
new material decrease the interface area
between the surface and the liquid, which
reduces the drag, allowing the liquid to
move more easily. The tiny size of the
gaps, as well as the hydrophobic coating on
the posts, prevents the liquid from sinking
down and filling the holes.
“Typically, a drop of water sits on a surface
like Teflon with contact angle as high as
120 degrees,” says Kim. “But on our nanoengineered surface a drop of water sits at
an almost 180 degree angle, decreasing the
surface area that is touching the structure
to almost none.”
Indeed, the nano-engineered surface was
so slippery that graduate student Joonwon
Kim was not able to keep the droplet
stationary even on the most leveled surface
Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor
Chang-Jin (CJ) Kim (center) with graduate students
Chang-Hwan Choi and Shih-Kang Fan in Kim’s
Micromanufacturing Laboratory.
he could prepare. A droplet moves on this
surface with less than one percent of the
drag a regular flat surface would impose.
A ninety nine percent reduction in drag
for a droplet rolling on a surface is
amazing, but the real impact is the 30 to 40
percent reduction of required pressure to
ensure a continuous flow in tubes, according to Kim. “My logic had suggested we
might get a reduction of this magnitude,
but I am still in awe we are actually getting
it,” says Kim.
Their work is funded in part by a
$1,000,000 grant from the National
Science Foundation.
Another group in Kim’s lab has developed
programmable arrays that support lab-ona-chip technology for microfluidics. The
new technology brings researchers significantly closer to being able to recreate on a
micro scale the things a lab technician can
do with a pipette.
“Our goal is to be able to mimic typical
biological or chemical lab practices on a
chip,” says Kim. “Our goal is a setup that
allows for complicated lab-on-a-chip
functions with minimal wait and energy
consumption.”
Kim’s digital microfluidics system uses surface tension and electrical signals to move
the tiny droplets, and can move them
either in a north-south or east-west direction. Signals from electronics embedded in
the chip determine the path of the fluids,
which are not constrained to pre-determined channels. The user can also create,
cut, and mix drops of the chemical
solutions. Mixing tiny amounts of fluid in
current systems is a fairly complicated
process. Kim’s system mixes fluids evenly
and quickly by moving a merged droplet
around in the chip.
The fluidic functions can be programmed
on a PDA and wirelessly downloaded to
the chip, making the system entirely
reconfigurable.
The group’s first successful demonstration
was a two-dimensional checkerboard layout. They are closer now to a multiple
droplet system that places biological and
chemical samples on one grid and reagents
on another grid. The prototype circuit
board developed by graduate student ShihKang Fan is slightly larger than a PDA, and
houses the electronics, drivers, a microprocessor, and a battery.
Eventually, Kim hopes to shrink the system
enough to enable applications such as a
system on a Band-Aid that can sense an
infection, synthesize a solution, and apply
it to the surface of the cut.
Kim’s digital microfluidics were introduced on National Geographic TV as a
promising technology to combat bioterrorism. The team is currently developing a
digital microfluidics demonstration unit
for the Boston Museum of Science.
For more about Kim’s lab, please see
http://cjmems.seas.ucla.edu/.
By altering the surface tension with
voltage to move the droplets, Kim’s system
bypasses the fabrication, power, and pressure constraints encountered by traditional
lab-on-a-chip set-ups.
“We’re able to develop it as a battery operated system, since power consumption is so
low,” notes Kim. “Because there are no
channels, the user is able to move the
chemical solutions along any paths, giving
the operator much greater flexibility. They
determine which drops mix with which
and in what ratio.”
7
Undergraduates in the Labs
New Programs Offer Expanded Research Opportunities
B Y
M A R LY S
A M U N D S O N
Azim Laiwalla, CMISE
CMISE undergraduate interns
Ting Chen (above),Viviana Vargas
(middle), and Jennifer Wise (right).
“Compared to alternatives like an internship or summer school, the opportunity was simply too good to pass
up,” notes electrical engineering undergraduate ShingWa Wong. “The [initial] learning process was overwhelming, but everything started to come together with assistance from graduate students on the team and as
I gained programming experience.”
Last summer, Wong tested different spacetime coding schemes for mobile wireless
communication under the supervision of
Professor Michael P. Fitz. Wong was selected to work in Fitz’s lab as part of an eightweek program at UCLA that paired
exceptional undergraduates with faculty
and graduate student mentors. The electrical engineering department’s new
undergraduate research program was initiated by Professor Ali H. Sayed, vice chairman of undergraduate affairs.
8
It was one of several new programs
designed to enhance the undergraduate
educational experience through hands-on
research and the opportunity to work
closely with faculty and graduate students.
Two major interdisciplinary research centers in the School – the Center for
Embedded Networked Sensing and the
Institute for Cell Mimetic Space
Exploration – also implemented new
undergraduate research programs this year.
Many engineering faculty members
already work with individual undergraduate students through the Student Research
Program (SRP), which allows undergraduates to participate in research early in their
academic careers under the direction of a
faculty mentor.
“Like others, I have worked with several
undergraduates in my lab through SRP,
and have found their contributions valuable,” notes Vijay K. Dhir, dean of the
UCLA Henry Samueli School of
Engineering and Applied Science. “I was
very pleased with the results of this summer’s undergraduate research programs,
and look forward to other departments and
centers creating similar opportunities in
the future.”
time coding, location, power and rate control in sensor networks, and several aspects
of wireless network research. The faculty
who participated in the first year of the
program are Elliott Brown, Babak
Daneshrad, Fitz, Tatsuo Itoh, Greg Pottie,
Izhak Rubin, and Sayed.
Established and directed by Sayed with the
support of fellow faculty and department
chairman Yahya Rahmat-Samii, the new
electrical engineering undergraduate
research program is designed to expose
undergraduate students to research earlier
in their academic careers and to broaden
their experiences beyond the classroom. It
also gives them an opportunity to become
familiar with graduate programs at UCLA,
working closely with current PhD students
in the laboratory.
Electrical engineering undergraduate SaiWang (Rocco) Tam, who worked with
Itoh in his Microwave Electronics Lab,
comments, “I found it helpful to experience new approaches to problem solving.
When I ran into a problem, I consulted
with the graduate students in my lab who
“We admitted less than half of the students
who applied to ensure they could closely
interact with the faculty and graduate students working on the projects,” notes
Sayed. “We want to provide a quality
experience for the students who are
involved – that’s more important to us than
developing a large program.”
The first year of the program was open to
juniors and seniors at UCLA, and they
have plans to open admission to students at
other universities in the future. Sayed
would like to be able to develop the program so that UCLA becomes a destination
Scott Quintard, UCLA Photography
Zhang Liu, who worked with Sayed, was
studying power and rate control in wireless
sensor networks. Using Matlab software to
simulate a sensor network, Zhang implemented and compared algorithms developed by graduate students on the project
to determine if they will improve network
performance.
“Although I planned to go on to graduate
school, I didn’t really know if it would fit
my career goals. I thought this summer
research experience would help me decide
my future, and now I know I will definitely go to graduate school,” says Liu. “This
program really shows that the electrical
engineering department cares about its
undergraduates.”
provided different approaches and points
of view. The research program also gave
me a chance to apply techniques learned in
the classroom to a real-world project.”
Seven electrical engineering faculty participated in the inaugural program, working
with fourteen students on such projects as
retrodirective noise correlating radar,
microwave electronics, MIMO OFDM for
WLAN, sensor diversity simulation, space
The program provided a way for the faculty to interact more closely with talented
undergraduate students, while providing
the students with hands-on experience on
advanced projects, research at the forefront
of its field.
Electrical engineering research program participants (l to r) Zhang Liu, Daniel Xing, Rocco (Sai-Wang) Tam, ShingWa Wong,
Jonathan Chan, Daniel N. Liu, and Meng Jing with Professor Ali Sayed. (Not pictured:Timothy Jin, Alena Kwok, Matthew
Nguyen, Derek Prothro, Angelo Umali, Scott Wright, and Thomas Zhu.)
for undergraduates who are interested in
electrical engineering research experience.
“I am impressed with the proactive
approach the UCLA electrical engineering
department has taken,” comments Dr.
Kishan Baheti, a program director in the
Division of Electrical and Communications Systems at the National Science
Foundation. “This can be a model for the
nation.”
9
Photo appears courtesy of CENS.
deployment kit for the Networked
Infomechanical Systems (NIMS) project.
Researchers on this project are designing
the elements that will enable tethered,
mobile nodes to sense and relay significant
data in a challenging environment.
CENS undergraduate interns Oluseyi Akanni (far left) and Clifton Watson (far right) with graduate student mentors
Hugh Luo and Sridhar Vemuri.
10
The program’s dynamic web site showcases a little of the electrical engineering life
at UCLA. Sayed explains that through the
site they “wanted to introduce undergraduates to the people who are conducting
the research projects.” The project results,
which the students were required to
present to their peers, are also available on
the site (http://www.ugres.ee.ucla.edu/
index.php).
(CARE), the Center for Embedded
Networked Sensing (CENS) and the
Institute for Cell Mimetic Space
Exploration (CMISE) offered summer
research programs for undergraduates at
UCLA and other top tier universities.
Weekly professional development and
technical seminars, a GRE prep course,
and a variety of social events were also
available to participants.
Program funding is provided in part
through National Science Foundation
Research Experiences for Undergraduate
Supplements. REU Supplements are
supported by the various disciplinary and
educational research programs throughout
the NSF, and typically provide research
experience support for one or two undergraduate students.
The CENS interns conducted advanced
research in embedded systems projects,
working closely with faculty and graduate
students in the labs. Iman Ahmadi, a recent
graduate of UC Berkeley, had the opportunity to survey a number of research programs as a scholar in the UC Leadership
Excellence through Advanced Degrees
program.
Other undergraduates gained hands-on
research experience, as well as the opportunity to improve their teamwork,
communication, and problem solving skills
through programs sponsored by major
multidisciplinary research centers in the
School. Working with the Center for
Academic and Research Excellence
“I was really interested in UCLA,” explains
Ahmadi, “and Professor Kaiser’s robotic
wireless sensor project caught my attention, (and) I was excited about joining his
research group.”
Ahmadi worked with Kaiser and graduate
student Richard Pon on a pan tilt head and
Seven of the twelve participants were
UCLA students, the others coming from
Stanford, Xavier, and UC Berkeley, and
more than half of the participants were
women. Their fields included biomedical
engineering, chemical engineering, computer science, and electrical engineering,
and they ranged in class year from freshman to senior.
Lisa Shirachi also worked on the NIMS
project, investigating methods of implementing solar panels to provide energy for
a battery bank that will power the node’s
operation. The node includes a computer
and camera that is able to collect data from
the environment and compare and analyze
the images.
“The opportunity to participate in this
program offered an excellent and rare
chance for hands-on experience in the
engineering field to apply what I’ve
learned in class,” notes Shirachi. “It also
seemed to be a chance to affect the world
at a level that doesn’t often seem possible at
the undergraduate level.”
The CENS program is designed to involve
women and members of underrepresented
groups in research and encourage them to
go on to graduate school. CENS administrators worked closely with CARE and the
Center for Excellence in Engineering and
Diversity to promote the program, which
is restricted to United States citizens, and
had very good results.
“In our first year we received 52 applications from undergraduates who were
interested in participating,” notes Dr. Sara
Terheggen, education director. “Next year,
we are looking forward to increasing the
pool of applicants and involving even more
undergraduates.”
The Center was recently awarded a
National Science Foundation Gender
Diversity in Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics Education
grant, and will receive $900,000 over three
years.
“We plan to design a model undergraduate
research experience that integrates features
and components of other undergraduate
research programs proven most effective in
promoting women’s longer-term commitment to science and engineering,” says
Terheggen.
CMISE’s undergraduate program is
designed to train the next generation of
scientists and engineers for careers in space
exploration, and the organizers hope that
some of the summer program participants
will go on to careers at NASA.
Michael (MJ) Fields, a senior majoring in
aerospace engineering with an emphasis in
spacecraft design, felt the program offered
him a chance to “try out” different fields
within mechanical and aerospace engineering before focusing on a single topic
for graduate studies.
Fields worked in Professor Chih-Ming
Ho’s laboratory on optimization of a micro
mixing chamber for biological applications, research that is part of a larger scale
lab-on-a-chip project involving several
departments on campus. Early in the
summer he was responsible for altering the
surface of the chamber so the particles
being mixed could be better observed.
Once that issue was resolved, he designed
and tested approaches for optimal mixing
at very low speeds using an existing
chamber design.
“I really love this experience so far!” notes
Fields. “The lab environment here is very
friendly and Dr. Ho has been very gracious
in making sure that I get as much training
in as many aspects of this field as possible.
Things that would not be available to a
regular undergraduate working in a lab
have been available to me.”
Each of the five undergraduate students
was paired with a faculty member and a
graduate student for laboratory research.
These projects focused on completely new
ways to characterize the environment in
space and monitor astronaut health.
Several of the students worked on developing low power, reconfigurable microfluidic devices that can be used to monitor
the spaceship environment. Others studied
atomic force microscopy to measure
acoustic profiles of cells to characterize
their type and metabolic status. Three of
the students interned with faculty in engineering, one in the School of Medicine,
and one in chemistry with Professor
Robin Garrell.
Notes Garrell, “In addition to the five
undergraduate students in this year’s program, we were able to involve five outstanding high school students in UCLA
laboratories, and also placed additional students with Raytheon and the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. Several of the
undergraduates will continue their
research projects with CMISE throughout
the coming academic year.”
receiving support for undergraduate
research from General Motors, plans to
have two to three students working in his
lab each year. Last spring two students
from the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers – James Sharp and Greg Glenn
– began working with Tsao through an
independent study course to build a single
cylinder camless engine.
Tsao explains, “I would like to use their
undergraduate research project as a basis
for subsequent graduate research on valve
timing control and developing a means to
remove the crankshaft for a free piston
engine.”
Both students had internships at General
Motors over the summer, but will continue their work with Tsao in the fall. The
team is building a working engine that can
be instrumented and used to study engine
control issues.
“Smart motivated students get a lot
accomplished and are pleasant to work
with,” says Tsao. “The students working in
my lab gain research experience and help
move the project forward.”
Please see http://www.ugres.ee.ucla.edu/
for more information on the electrical
engineering undergraduate research
program. For additional information about
activities in CMISE, please visit
http://www.cmise.ucla.edu/. For more
about programs in CENS, please see
http://www.cens.ucla.edu/. Additional
information on Tsao’s work is available at
http://www.seas.ucla.edu/%7Ettsao/index.htm.
Individual faculty are also committed to
introducing students to research earlier in
their academic careers. Mechanical engineering professor Tsu-Chin Tsao, who is
11
F A C U LT Y FAC U LT Y
Computer Science
Professor Leonard Kleinrock
Elected to the American
Academy of Arts and
Sciences
School. “His election to the Academy is a
testament to his strong record of personal
achievement and his extraordinary contributions to the field of computer science.”
The 2003 Academy class includes four college presidents, three Nobel Prize winners,
and four Pulitzer Prize winners. Three
other scholars from UCLA were elected
this year, bringing the total number of
members at UCLA to 82.
Leonard Kleinrock, professor of computer
science in the UCLA Henry Samueli
School of Engineering and Applied
Science, has been elected to the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Kleinrock is one of two members of the
School’s faculty elected to the Academy.
Chancellor Albert Carnesale, who is also a
member of the mechanical and aerospace
engineering department, was elected to
the Academy in 1996.
While a graduate student at MIT,
Kleinrock created the basic principles of
packet switching, the technology underpinning the Internet and still used today.
Kleinrock’s host computer at UCLA
became the first node of the Internet in fall
1969, when he directed the transmission of
the first message ever to pass over the
Internet. Kleinrock is also a pioneer in the
emerging field of nomadic computing, the
technology that provides access to and use
of Internet services anywhere at anytime.
“Professor Kleinrock is truly deserving of
this honor,” said Vijay K. Dhir, dean of the
12
Kleinrock received his PhD from MIT in
1963 and has served as a professor of
computer science at the UCLA since then.
He was president and co-founder of
Linkabit, and is founder and chairman of
Nomadix, Inc., a high-tech firm located in
Southern California. He is also founder
and chairman of TTI/Vanguard, an
advanced technology forum organization
based in Santa Monica, California.
Kleinrock is a member of the National
Academy of Engineering, an IEEE fellow,
an ACM fellow and a founding member of
the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National
Research Council. He is the recipient of
the CCNY Townsend Harris Medal, the
CCNY Electrical Engineering Award,
the Marconi Award, the L.M. Ericsson
Prize, the NAE Charles Stark Draper
Prize, the Okawa Prize, the IEEE Internet
Millennium Award, the UCLA Outstanding Teacher Award, the Lanchester Prize,
the ACM SIGCOMM Award, the Sigma
Xi Monie Ferst Award, the INFORMS
President’s Award and the IEEE Harry
Goode Award.
The American Academy of Arts and
Sciences was founded in 1780 by John
Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock,
and other scholar-patriots “to cultivate
every art and science which may tend to
advance the interest, honor, dignity, and
happiness of a free, independent, and
virtuous people.”
UCLA Engineering
Professor Named Holder of
the Nippon Sheet Glass
Company Chair in Materials
Science
UCLA Professor Bruce Dunn has been
named holder of the Nippon Sheet Glass
Company Chair in Materials Science.
“Bruce is a very deserving choice whose
contributions to the materials science field
are extraordinary,” notes Vijay K. Dhir,
dean of the UCLA Henry Samueli School
of Engineering and Applied Science.“This
endowment enables us to continue our
tradition of pursuing cutting-edge scientific inquiry in this area.”
Professor J. D. Mackenzie, who last held the
Chair, led a search committee that selected
Dunn from an international group of 16
applicants. Dunn is considered a preeminent scholar in the field of sol-gel
technologies and their use in synthesizing
electronic and opto-electronic materials.
Dunn earned both his MS (’72) and PhD
(’74) at UCLA. He was a staff scientist at
the General Electric Corporate Research
and Development Center before joining
the UCLA materials science and engineering faculty in 1980. Dunn has published
more than 200 papers in scientific journals
and has been awarded 13 patents.
He has received a Fulbright Fellowship,
several awards from the Department of
Energy for outstanding research, and has
held invited professorships at the
University of Paris and the University of
Bordeaux. He is a fellow of the American
Ceramic Society and currently serves on
the editorial boards of four scientific
journals.
The Nippon Sheet Glass Company Chair
is devoted to the field of ceramics and glass
science, an area of vital interest to the
continued progress and development of
electronics, computer and aerospace
technologies.
The Nippon Sheet Glass Company was
established in 1918. Its headquarters are
located in Osaka, Japan. The company
produces flat and safety glass, fine glass,
electronic products for hard disk drives and
telecom equipment and automotive
products.
UCLA Electrical
Engineering Professor
Elected to National
Academy of Sciences
Eli Yablonovitch, professor of electrical
engineering in the UCLA Henry Samueli
School of Engineering and Applied
Science, was elected to the prestigious
National Academy of Sciences. He is currently the only person in the School to
hold membership in the NAS.
Election to membership in the Academy is
considered one of the highest honors that
can be accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer. Earlier this year, Yablonovitch was
one of three UCLA engineering professors
to be elected to the National Academy of
Engineering for introducing photonic
band-gap engineering and applying semiconductor concepts to electromagnetic
waves in artificial periodic structures.
“I am tremendously proud of Professor
Yablonovitch’s achievement,”said Vijay K.
Dhir, dean of the School. “His contributions to our School are extraordinary and
his overall contribution to scientific
inquiry is immense.”
plasma interaction, infrared laser chemistry,
photovoltaic energy conversion, strainedquantum-well lasers and chemical modification of semiconductor surfaces. His
current interests are in optoelectronics,
high-speed optical communications, highefficiency light-emitting diodes and nanocavity lasers, photonic crystals at optical
and microwave frequencies, quantum
computing, and quantum communication.
He also heads UCLA’s portion of the
Center for Nanoscience Innovation for
Defense, a $20 million, multi-campus
project sponsored by the Defense
Advanced Research Project Agency and
Defense MicroElectronics Activity. The
purpose of the project is to facilitate the
rapid transition of research innovations in
the nanosciences into applications for the
defense sector.
Yablonovitch graduated with a PhD in
applied physics from Harvard University in
1972. He is a Fellow of the Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the
Optical Society of America and the
American Physical Society, and a life
member of Eta Kappa Nu.
The National Academy of Sciences is a
private organization of scientists and
engineers dedicated to advancing science
and its use for the general welfare. It was
established in 1863 by a congressional act
of incorporation, signed by Abraham
Lincoln, which calls on the Academy to act
as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of
science or technology. There are 32
Academy members at UCLA.
Yablonovitch joined the UCLA faculty in
1992. His work has covered a broad variety
of topics including nonlinear optics, laser-
13
N E W F A C U LT Y N E W FAC U LT Y
Fourteen Exceptional New Faculty Join Engineering School
Bioengineering Department
Daniel T. Kamei - Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Systems-level, engineering analysis of cellular processes, molecular modeling of
ligand-receptor complexes, and quantitative experimental cell biology.
PhD: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2001
Dr. Kamei was most recently a Sloan Foundation/DOE postdoctoral research fellow in computational molecular biology at MIT. His research program at UCLA expands upon his postdoctoral work and is in the area
of molecular cell bioengineering. Specifically, his research group develops and employs quantitative design
principles obtained from a cell-level context to engineer more effective molecular therapeutics. The tools
involved in rationally designing these therapeutics include molecular modeling and quantitative experiments.
Jacob J. Schmidt - Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Protein-based devices, molecular motors, and self-assembly, hybrid microsystems.
PhD: University of Minnesota, 1999
Dr. Schmidt joined the Bioengineering Department in 2001 as a visiting assistant researcher and lecturer
before being appointed an adjunct professor last year. His research in nanobiotechnology includes molecular
motor-powered devices, measurement and manipulation of biomolecular motors, and membrane protein
device engineering.
Chemical Engineering Department
Gerassimos Orkoulas - Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Development of theoretical and molecular-based computer simulation techniques for
the study of complex fluids and materials.
PhD: Cornell University, 1998
Most recently, Dr. Orkoulas held a postdoctoral research associate position in chemical engineering
at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Prior to that, he held postdoc positions at Pennsylvania State University
and the University of Maryland. Orkoulas’s research is centered on simulation techniques for the study of
complex fluids, particularly phase transitions and critical phenomena in ionic fluids and mixtures.
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department
Terri S. Hogue - Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Surface hydrology, hydroclimatology, rainfall-runoff modeling, operational flood forecasting,
and land-atmosphere interactions in semi-arid regions.
PhD: University of Arizona, 2003
Dr. Hogue comes to UCLA from the University of Arizona, where she received her PhD in hydrology and
water resources. Her research background includes investigation and application of optimization techniques to
rainfall-runoff and land-surface modeling, and application and integration of these methods into operational
flood forecasting. She is also interested in land-atmosphere interactions in semi-arid climates, with special
emphasis on modeling surface fluxes in these regions.This research provides insight into the hydrologic cycle
and possible response of the cycle to climate change, critical to planning future requirements of water
resources.
14
Computer Science Department
Rafail Ostrovsky - Professor
Research Interests: Theory of computation, especially in cryptography and distributed algorithms,
efficiency of secure multiparty computation, algorithms for high-dimensional geometric problems
such as clustering and nearest-neighbor search, and routing and flow control in communication
networks.
PhD: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1992
Dr. Ostrovsky comes to UCLA from Telcordia Technologies (previously Bell Communications Research),
where he was a senior research scientist in the Math Sciences Research Center of Information and
Computer Sciences Applied Research organization. Prior to beginning his career at Telcordia, he was an
NSF Mathematical Sciences postdoctoral research fellow at UC Berkeley. His research centers on various
issues in theoretical computer science, with primary interest in computer security, cryptography, distributed algorithms, and high-dimensional search problems. Ostrovsky is a winner of the 1993 Henry Taub
Prize, and three-time winner of the best published work of the year (1999, 2001, 2002) at SAIC in
computer science and mathematics (SAIC is Telcordia’s parent company with over 40,000 engineers and
scientists). He holds seven patents in the field.
Jens Palsberg - Professor
Research Interests: Compilers, embedded systems, programming languages, software engineering,
and information security.
PhD: University of Aarhus, Denmark, 1992
Prior to joining UCLA, Dr. Palsberg was a professor and associate head of Computer Science at Purdue
University. The goal of most of his research is the discovery of principles and techniques that enable easier
writing and understanding of programs, more reliable reasoning about the correctness and safety of programs, and faster and more portable implementations of programs. He received an NSF CAREER Award
in 1998, and a Purdue University Faculty Scholar Award in 1999. In 2001, he was named one of the
Ten Best Teachers of Undergraduates in the School of Science at Purdue.
Eddie Kohler - Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Systems, networks, programming languages, and software engineering.
PhD: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000
Most recently, Dr. Kohler held a postdoctoral fellow and researcher position at the ICSI Center for
Internet Research. He is also chief scientist and cofounder of Mazu Networks, a network security
company whose first product was based on his Click modular router. His research interests include
systems, networks, programming languages, and software engineering — or, more generally, readable
systems: building fast component systems that are more flexible and correct because they are more fun to
program. In another life, he wrote several short plays and composed music for MIT campus theater.
He will join the UCLA faculty in January 2004.
15
N E W F A C U LT Y N E W FAC U LT Y
Rupak Majumdar - Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Software verification and program analysis, computer-aided verification and control of
reactive, real-time, hybrid, and probabilistic systems, and logic and automata theory.
PhD: University of California, Berkeley, 2003
Dr. Majumdar was most recently part of the Electronic Systems Design group at UC Berkeley. He is interested in formal verification, specifically developing new methods of model checking that can be applied to
software and embedded systems. He received his Bachelor’s of Technology in Computer Science from the
Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur.
He will join the UCLA faculty in January 2004.
Todd Millstein - Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Programming language design and implementation, formal methods, and database
systems.
PhD: University of Washington, 2003
Dr. Millstein was a member of the University of Washington’s Cecil group, which focuses on constructing
practical languages and tools that make software systems easier to write, maintain, and understand. He was also
an intern in the SLAM group at Microsoft Research and the Extended Static Checking group at the former
Compaq Systems Research Center. As an undergraduate at Brown University, Millstein received both the
William Gaston Premium Scholarship for Excellence in Computer Science and the William Weston Prize
for Excellence in Instrumental Music.
He will join the UCLA faculty in January 2004.
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department
Yong Chen - Professor
Research Interests: Nanofabrication, nanoscale electronic materials, devices, and circuits, micron-nano
electronic/optical/bio/mechanical systems, and ultra-scale spatial and temporal characterization.
PhD: University of California, Berkeley, 1996
Dr. Chen was a master scientist in Quantum Science Research at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories before joining
the UCLA faculty. While at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories he fabricated the world’s highest density
(40Gbits/inch2) electronic memory circuits. His research is focused on nanoscale science and engineering for
nanofabrication methods, nanoscale memory and logic materials, devices, and circuits, optical and bio MEMS,
and NEMS. In 2002, he was named as one of Scientific American’s top 50 science and technology visionaries.
16
Jeff D. Eldredge - Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Fluid mechanics and acoustics, interaction of fluid flow and sound, and particle-based
computational techniques.
PhD: California Institute of Technology, 2002
Dr. Eldredge most recently held a postdoctoral research position in the Cambridge University
Department of Engineering where he investigated the damping of acoustic waves using perforated liners
and other damping devices, which are of importance to the performance of industrial gas turbines and
jet engines. For his PhD thesis, he developed the first Lagrangian numerical method for solving the full
compressible Navier-Stokes equations, providing a new perspective for learning how sound is generated
by fluid flows.
Yongho “Sungtaek” Ju - Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Micro- and nanoscale thermal and fluidic phenomena, and nanofabrication.
PhD: Stanford University, 1999
Dr. Ju was a research staff member at IBM before joining the UCLA faculty. His research projects
included thermal characterization and engineering of micro- and nanoscale devices for information
processing, storage, and communication applications; development and characterization of ultrathin films
for thermal, magnetic, and biological devices; and novel processing techniques and materials for nanodevice fabrication.
H. Pirouz Kavehpour - Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Microfluidics and biofluidics, micro- and nano-heat guides, complex fluids, and nonisothermal flows.
PhD: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003
Dr. Kavehpour previously held a joint post doctoral associate position at MIT’s Hatsopoulos Microfluids
Laboratory and the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University, researching
lubricity and rheology of complex fluids in microfluidic devices and high speed fiber coating processes.
He is also interested in developing noninvasive measurement methods, transport phenomena in microand nanoscale systems, and physics of contact line phenomena in complex fluids.
William S. Klug - Assistant Professor
Research Interests: Computational structural and solid mechanics, computational biomechanics, and
micro/nanomechanics of biological systems.
PhD: California Institute of Technology, 2003
Dr. Klug, who received his Master’s in Civil Engineering from UCLA, was most recently part of the
Graduate Aeronautical Laboratories at Caltech. His research focuses on theoretical and computational
modeling of the structural mechanics of biological systems. His research interests include methods of
obtaining coarse-grained mechanical descriptions of proteins and nucleic acids, continuum modeling of
DNA, and nonlinear analysis of thin shells.
17
UCLA ENGINEERING IN THE NEWS
2002-03
The New York Times focused on a team of
researchers led by computer science
professor Mario Gerla who are designing a
wireless network — an Internet in the Sky
— that can allow thousands of unmanned
vehicles to communicate during combat
missions. The article appeared July 11,
2002.
The Los Angeles Business Journal wrote
about electrical engineering professor Jack
Judy and his design of a MEMS magnetometer capable of detecting the presence
of military equipment such as tanks, trucks,
or even a soldier with a rifle, to depths of
100 feet below ground. The article
appeared in June 2002.
A front-page article in the Los Angeles
Times’ Business section featured the
Institute for Cell Mimetic Space
Exploration, a new multidisciplinary
research center led by Associate Vice
Chancellor for Research Chih-Ming Ho
and Bioengineering Chair Carlo
Montemagno. The article appeared
February 5, 2003.
A special episode of The History Channel’s This Week in History, focusing on the
world’s greatest inventors, was filmed on
location at the UCLA Henry Samueli
School of Engineering and Applied
Science. Between inventor profiles,
viewers were shown the School’s new bioengineering research facilities and the
computer that computer science Professor
Leonard Kleinrock used to transmit the
first message sent over the Internet. The
program aired December 27, 2002.
Professor C.J. Kim’s lab was featured in a
National Geographic Explorer/MSNBC
production, Secret Weapons, which
focused on animals and plants that have
evolved to be nature’s warriors. Kim, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, has been developing microdevices inspired by the insects that flourish
in the miniature world.The program aired
several times during March 2003.
Deborah Estrin, professor of computer science and director of the UCLA Center for
Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS),
was featured in Forbes in an article about
miniature sensor networks that will allow
the monitoring of everything from patient
health to structural flaws in buildings. The
article appeared in the October 2002 issue.
Articles on CENS have also appeared in
Science Magazine, ZD Net, and MIT
Technology Review, among other publications in the past year.
18
Mechanical and aerospace engineering
professor Rajit Gadh wrote about the
benefits and potential pitfalls for Wi-Fi
applications in Computerworld, the first of
an occasional series of columns. The
column ran in the February 2003 issue.
Computer science professor Petros
Faloutsos appeared on The Discovery
Channel’s Daily Planet program for a
special episode about his virtual stuntman,
a computer-generated simulation that uses
a combination of physics-based and kinematic techniques to accurately perform
dangerous movie stunts. The program
aired in November 2002. Faloutsos also
appeared on CNN, BBC World Service,
and local television in 2002 and on Gamer
TV in January 2003.
Electrical engineering professor Vwani
Roychowdhury was interviewed on BBC
Radio about the results of a study
conducted with colleague Mikhail Simkin,
which suggested that many of the
references cited in scientific papers have
not been read by the authors citing them,
according to an analysis of how errors in
citations propagate through the literature.
The interview aired May 30, 2003.
Articles on the study also appeared in The
Guardian and Nature.
Professor Thomas Hahn, chair of the
mechanical and aerospace engineering
department, was on the air during ABC
Sports coverage of the Stanley Cup hockey finals between the Anaheim Mighty
Ducks and the New Jersey Devils. Hahn
lightheartedly speculated on the added
power of the game’s newest composite
material hockey sticks during two special
segments that aired during games five and
six of the tournament. The segments aired
June 7 and 9, 2003.
Image appears courtesy of Chih-Ming Ho
UCLA ENGINEERING NEWS NEWS
By Christopher Sutton
Earlier this year, the UCLA Henry Samueli
School of Engineering and Applied
Science concluded a license agreement
with Samsung Electronics covering nine
patents in the area of multimedia communications.
The patents are the result of several years of
collaboration between UCLA electrical
engineering professor John Villasenor’s
Image Communications Laboratory and
Samsung’s Digital Media R&D Center in
Suwon, South Korea. The patents cover
ways to efficiently and accurately transmit
images and video sequences using wireless
devices such as next-generation cellular
telephones and computers connected to
wireless local area networks.
“These technologies are at the junction of
two very important frontiers — wireless
communications and digital imagery,”
notes Villasenor. “We are already seeing a
dramatic growth in the image transmission
capabilities of mobile phone networks,
particularly in the overseas markets.
Companies that are able to offer high
quality multimedia services to their
customers will distinguish themselves from
the competition.”
Villasenor’s Image Communications Lab
conducts theoretical and applied research
in source coding, channel coding, and
system-level solutions to enable lowpower, robust, and efficient multimedia
communications and computing. The lab
includes 10 graduate students, several
undergraduate researchers, and several full
time research and development engineers.
“These patents and the research that led to
them represent the kind of significant
work our faculty are conducting here at
UCLA,” says Vijay K. Dhir, dean of the
UCLA Henry Samueli School of
Engineering and Applied Science. “It is
rigorous, academically groundbreaking
research, and is not only of great value and
interest to the world’s leading technology
companies, but will impact the way we live
our lives.”
Emily Loughran, director of licensing at
the UCLA Office of Intellectual Property
Administration, noted that the licensing
agreement represents a win-win situation
for the University of California and for
Samsung.
“We have been aware for some time that
these were potentially valuable patents,”
explains Loughran.“While we were confident in our ability to license the patents,
our first preference was to license them to
Samsung since they were our collaborators
in the research that led to the innovations.”
UCLA’s licensing activity helps move
nascent technologies to the marketplace
for the public benefit and returns $10
million a year in royalty and fee income,
which is shared with inventors, their labs,
and research programs at UCLA.
“We are very pleased with this exclusive
license agreement by which Samsung
scales up its IP portfolio,” says Min-Hyung
Chung, vice president and head of the
Technical Planning Team at the Digital
Media R&D Center of Samsung
Electronics.“We believe Samsung will have
a more robust position in the fields of
wireless communication and digital
imagery.”
Senior Dinner
Professor John Villasenor (third from left) was voted
Professor of the Year by the Engineering Society, UCLA.
He is standing with several of the students who performed
at the School's inaugural Senior Dinner. Held in May, the
Senior Dinner was attended by more than 300 engineering
seniors.
Commencement
Partnering with Industry:
Electrical Engineering
Professor’s Work Licensed
by Samsung Electronics
Second generation UCLA engineers
Phillip Bonilla (l) and Matt Green (r)
with their fathers, Len Bonilla '70 and
Bob Green '72.
2002 Alumnus of the Year
Dr. Dwight Streit MS '83, PhD '86 with
Dean Vijay K. Dhir prior to the
ceremonies. Dr. Streit presented the
2003 commencement address.
19
RECRUITER’S COLUMN
Dr. Ray Haynes
Director, University Alliances and
Development
Ms. Jennifer Van Iersel
College Relations Manager
Northrop Grumman
http://www.northgrum.com/
Q&
Why does Northrop Grumman
choose to recruit engineering and
computer science graduates from
UCLA?
UCLA is our hometown UC and has
served us well for nearly 50 years; great
faculty and students at a top tier research
school in a local setting, what more could
we ask? Key graduates have included our
three UCLA Alumnus of the Year
recipients, Pete Staudhammer (recently
retired), Ron Sugar (current CEO) and
Dwight Streit (VP of Microelectronics), all
with PhDs from UCLA.
What do you see as the strengths of
UCLA’s graduates in engineering
and computer science?
UCLA graduates are well-schooled in the
fundamentals of their discipline, often do
internships at Northrop Grumman local
sites, and work closely with faculty doing
research with Northrop Grumman. As a
familiar local company, we share many of
the same educational norms and the
Southern California lifestyle is not a
cultural shock for graduates.
20
How do employees who are alumni
of UCLA compare to your other
employees?
UCLA graduates are in the top ten schools
relative to performance rankings on the
job over the past seven years, plus many
have distinguished themselves by joining
our technical fellow ranks and/or moving
into senior management positions.
How many students from UCLA’s
Samueli School of Engineering has
Northrop Grumman hired in the
last three years?
A
In the last three years, Northrop Grumman
has hired 52 UCLA alumni who hold
graduate degrees in engineering, and 48
who hold undergraduate degrees from the
UCLA Henry Samueli School of
Engineering and Applied Science.
What types of positions have these
graduates been hired to fill?
Over the years, UCLA engineering alumni
have been hired into the following
positions:
Antenna RF Engineer
Communication Systems Engineer
Mission/Systems Engineer
Software Test Engineer
Electrical Engineer - Digital Products
Electrical Engineer - Mixed Signal
Electrical Engineer - Power & Controls
Electrical Engineer - RF Products
Electrical Engineer - Microelectronic
Processing
Electrical Engineer - Electrical Design
Integration
Electrical Engineer - Cable and Harness
Engineering
Electrical Engineer - Physicist
Electronic Fabric Generalist
Structural Dynamics Analyst
Aerospace Engineer
Hardware Engineer
Manufacturing Engineer
Mechanical Engineer
Mechanical Test Engineer
Subcontract Manager/Administrator
Quality Assurance Engineer
Software Engineer
Thermal Analyst
Physicist
Material & Processes Engineer
STUDENTS STUDENTS
Bringing Student Projects
into the Classroom
UCLA IEEE project members (back row, l to r) Huy Le,
Samarth Pal, Professor Ken Yang, Hassan Sharghi, Jae-Ho
Jeon, Wai-Yan Wong, and (bottom row, l to r) Gigi Lau,
Li-Hseng Tai,Tracy Liu. (Not pictured: Chee Chai,
Edmond Chung, Kevin Gabayan, Rex Lorenzo, James
Morcos, Stephen Ng, Kenneth Ngan, Zeeshawn
Shameem, and William Wong.)
Last summer, UCLA’s electrical engineering department offered an independent
study course taught by Professor Ken Yang
that focused on student projects sponsored
by the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE).
“I wanted to expand the opportunities
available for students to conduct independent, project-oriented activities,” notes
Yang. “As advisor to the UCLA chapter of
IEEE, I was aware of their projects and the
work they put into them each year.”
Students submitted proposals with timelines, goals, and budgets that were reviewed
by Yang and department chairman Yayha
Rahmat-Samii. During the eight-week
course, the students worked on LaserTag
and NatCar projects, both of which
continued into the fall and winter quarters.
“He asks a lot of his students, but the
course provided us with very valuable
experience,” notes Gigi Lau, president of
IEEE and one of the students in the class.
“We were given advice and assistance by
Professor Yang and other faculty in the
department, and we learned that a critical
part of any project is knowing when you
need to consult with an expert.”
project who worked on design and
construction,” says Lau. “Next year’s teams
are going to be even better prepared for
the competition.”
LaserTag is a role-playing combat system
in which players are equipped with
infrared guns and score points by shooting
each other. (Despite the name there are no
lasers in LaserTag.)
The students who worked on the NatCar
and LaserTag projects presented their work
at the 2002 Electrical Engineering
Research Review last October.
Lau explains that the UCLA LaserTag
system “uses infrared wavelength sensors
and a microcontroller to track user data
such as infrared pulses, player health, and
ammunition. Hits by opposing teams are
recorded by sensors embedded in hats
worn by the participants.”
The objective of the NatCar competition
– sponsored by National Semiconductor –
is to build an autonomous electronic
racecar that can follow a track quickly and
accurately. This requires the effective use
of an RC car chassis, with a DC motor and
servo. A microcontroller with onboard
sensors analyzes and correctly controls the
speed and direction of the car.
Although the team put together a very
competitive car, “they blew out its motor
drive circuits minutes before competition
was scheduled to begin,” says Yang.
In addition to the LaserTag and NatCar
projects, Dr. Mike Briggs – advisor to the
UCLA chapter of IEEE and Student
Activities Chair of the Coastal Los Angeles
Section – encouraged student interest in
the MicroMouse project. IEEE teams
worked on four micromice projects prior
to the spring competition, but no one
successfully transversed the maze.
“We were able to bring in a lot of younger
undergraduates on the MicroMouse
“Traditionally, only graduate students are
asked to present their work at the
Review,” says Lau, “so it meant a lot to us
that we were given the opportunity to
showcase our work as undergraduates.”
“The students [in the UCLA chapter of
IEEE] built up momentum in the projects,
and increased the number of students who
were involved with the projects,” says Yang.
“They are a motivated, wonderful group of
students and the independent study course
gave them another opportunity to shine
outside of class.”
The electrical engineering department is
developing additional programs to encourage undergraduate research. (Please see
article on page 8.) Eventually,Yang hopes
to formalize the IEEE research projects as
a course.
“It’s important for our students to have
both the educational and research aspects
in their coursework,” adds Yang. “Their
independent interests are not always
reflected directly in their GPA, but they do
make a difference in their education.”
The students received support from the
Science and Engineering Library for both
the LaserTag and NatCar projects. They
also received funding from the electrical
engineering department, the UCLA
Engineering Alumni Association, and the
national chapter of IEEE.
21
STUDENTS STUDENTS
Last spring, the UCLA Alumni
Association recognized three outstanding seniors, one of whom was a
civil engineering major — and the
first engineering recipient since
1993.
Emily Guglielmo, who finished with a
GPA close to 4.0, was honored for her
scholastic achievements, her research, and
her dedication to engineering student
organizations and the Special Olympics.
Guglielmo worked closely with Professor
Jonathan Stewart and a graduate student
on a soil liquefaction project analyzing
ground failure incidents in Taiwan. A 1999
earthquake caused hundreds of structures
in Taiwan to settle, tilt, and collapse due in
part to liquefaction and ground softening.
As a junior, Guglielmo was asked to design
and implement a web site for the project,
and analyze test data.
Civil engineering professor Stewart
explains, “She continued her work on the
project in the field, performing data collection in Taiwan and working with our local
collaborators. There are very few students
who I would feel comfortable sending to a
foreign country to perform important
research, and Emily is that rare student.”
22
Working in Stewart’s lab gave Guglielmo
the opportunity to conduct independent
research.
exam program, recruiting faculty members
to lecture on areas covered by the exam.
She was also vice president of ASCE her
senior year.
“It was a wonderful opportunity to take a
subject we had studied in class – soil liquefaction – and learn more about it in
depth,” she says. “The phenomena of
earthquakes has always been of interest to
me, so it was an ideal match.”
“I am really glad that I became more
involved with the organizations – it gave
me the opportunity to meet a lot of people from industry and to meet students
outside of class,” notes Guglielmo.
Guglielmo notes that working with
Stewart not only bettered her understanding of the research process, but also enabled
her to “[learn] a lot about academia, which
was helpful in deciding if I should go on to
graduate school. ”
“The highlight of my time at UCLA,
though,” adds Guglielmo,“was my involvement in the Special Olympics. I saw my
first event the day I moved into the dorms,
and have learned so much from the organization and the people.”
She will begin her graduate studies at UC
Berkeley in the fall in structural engineering, mechanics, and materials. Guglielmo,
who is from Marin County, welcomed the
chance to return home.
She was a program director at the UCLA
Special Olympics for three years, and
helped organize yearly tournaments. The
organization works with students and
families from South Central Los Angeles in
eight different sports, including basketball,
tennis, and soccer.
Although she was committed to the
research project and her studies, Guglielmo
also made time for outside activities such as
the UCLA chapters of the American
Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and
Chi Epsilon, the civil engineering honor
society.
As vice president of Chi Epsilon she
coordinated the Engineers in Training
In addition to her selection as an
Outstanding Senior, Guglielmo was named
the civil and environmental engineering
department’s
2002-03
Outstanding
Bachelor of Science Degree Recipient, as
well as a Star Student by CE News. She
was also selected as a 2003 Edward K. Rice
Outstanding Undergraduate Student.
Lockheed Martin Skunkworks
UCLA engineering students
and staff outside Lockheed
Martin Skunkworks in Palmdale,
California. A select group of
aerospace students were given
the opportunity to tour the
facility earlier this year.
ENGINEERING ALUMNI ALUMNI
2003
Engineering Awards
Dinner
Friday, November 7
Marina Beach Marriott
Marina del Rey, California
You are cordially invited to attend the 2003 Engineering Awards Dinner honoring
the extraordinary accomplishments of our alumni, students, faculty and friends.
Reception – 6:30 pm
Dinner – 7:30 pm
Cost per person - $250
Alumni rate - $60
Corporate sponsorship - $2,500 per table
Register online at
http://www.engineeringalum.ucla.edu/
awards/dinner.asp
Inquiries: 310/206-0678 or
seasalum@ea.ucla.edu
We are pleased to announce the Engineering Award recipients for 2003:
Alumnus of the Year
Vinton G. Cerf MS ’70, PhD ’72
Senior Vice President,
Architecture and Technology, MCI Corp.
Edward K. Rice Student Award
Oustanding Doctoral Students
Jeremy Elson PhD ’03
Computer Science
Engineering Service Award
Richard Gay ’73, MS ’73, PhD ’76
Arthur Torosyan MS ’01, PhD ’03
Electrical Engineering
Lifetime Contribution Award
William Van Vorst PhD ’53
Professor Emeritus, Chemical Engineering
Edward K. Rice Student Award
Outstanding Undergraduate Students
Emily Guglielmo ’03
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Robert Lobbia ’03
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
2003 UCLA Homecoming Celebration – Saturday, October 25
You are invited to attend the Chancellor’s Pregame Party. Join fellow members of the Engineering
Alumni Association and cheer on the Bruins as they take on the Arizona State Sun Devils at the
Rose Bowl!
The Chancellor’s Pregame Party begins at 4:30 pm. Kick-off is at 7:00 pm.
Pregame Party - $40 per person
Game tickets - $21 per person
Reservations must be received by Friday, October 10.
Additional information: http://www.engineeringalum.ucla.edu/tailgate03.asp
Inquiries: Engineering Office of External Affairs – 310/206-0678
23
CLASS NOTES FALL 2003
Richard G. Glickman ’48 received a 2002
John A. Bonner medal from the Academy
of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences for
“longstanding support of and service to
the Academy and the motion picture
industry.”
Gracie E. Davis ’66, MS ’70, PhD ’79 was
elected a 2003 IEEE Fellow “for contributions to the development of radiation-hard
electronic components for military and
space applications.” Dr. Davis is retired and
living in the California desert.
Asad M. Madni ’69, MS ’72 received the
2003 George Washington Engineer of the
Year Award, the highest recognition given
by the Los Angeles Council of Engineers
and Scientists (LACES). The award was
presented in Long Beach, California
during National Engineers Week.
Craig F. Smith ’71, PhD ’75 was named
Fellow of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS) at earlier
this year. He was cited for his “distinguished contributions to the advancement
of nuclear science and technology.”
Josephine Cheng ’75, MS ’77 was named
the Asian American Engineer of the Year
by the Chinese Institute of Engineers for
her contributions to the profession.
Roubik Gregorian MS ’75, PhD ’77 was
promoted to Chief Operating Officer of
Exar Corporation, a leading provider of
high-performance, mixed-signal silicon
solutions for communications.
Soroosh Sorooshian MS ’73 PhD ’78 was
elected to the National Academy of
Engineering for the development of floodforecasting models used worldwide in
hydrologic services.
Kathryn McCarthy MS ’86, PhD ’89 was
named Director of Nuclear Science and
Engineering at the Idaho National
Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL).
EEP Reunion
Reunion
Friday, November 7
Engineering Awards Dinner /
EEP Reunion Reception
Marina Beach Marriott
Marina del Rey, California
6:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Join your UCLA engineering colleagues as we honor
excellence in engineering at the 2003 Engineering Awards
Dinner.The EEP Reunion Reception offers a chance to mingle
with your classmates prior to the general reception.
For additional information on the Engineering Awards Dinner,
24
Tza-Huei (Jeff) Wang PhD ’02, assistant
professor at John Hopkins, was featured in
the 2003 Whiting School of Engineering’s
research centers publication. Wang’s
groundbreaking work in developing micro
bio sensors and his future research plans at
John Hopkins were highlighted.
Heidi Shyu MS ’81, Eng ’82, vice president
of Unmanned and Reconnaissance
Systems for Raytheon, was named Vice
Chair of the Air Force Scientific Advisory
Board, effective October, 2003.
Engineering Executive Program
please turn to page 23 or call 310/206-0678.
Michele Tesciuba ’93 received the Society
of Women Engineers 2003 Distinguished
New Engineer Award “for her commitment to exploration and production by
guiding young women on the journey of
career exploration; serving SWE through
leadership, with production of results; and
developing highly sophisticated equipment
for the E&P industry.”
Every Gift Makes a Difference
Through the UCLA Engineering Annual Fund, alumni
and other friends of the School have the opportunity
to guarantee that our future is as bright as our past.
Your gift to the Engineering Annual Fund not only augments
the School’s operating budget, it also has a direct impact on
our educational and research programs. By making a gift,
you are choosing to take an active role in the life of the
UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied
Science.
Every gift to the School counts toward increasing our
participation rate, which is critical to our ability to leverage
additional financial support from outside resources. Many
foundations and other organizations that rank colleges and
universities consider alumni giving as the sole indicator of
the satisfaction of former students with their education.
Every gift – no matter what size – makes a difference. The
Engineering Annual Fund is your opportunity to remain
involved and make a difference in the School’s future.
IN MEMORIAM MEMORIAM
William C. Meecham,
UCLA Engineering
Professor and Activist
Against Airport Noise
mortality rates, mental hospital admissions
and other adverse community health
effects. He was a consultant for dozens of
companies and government agencies
including TRW, General Electric, Boeing,
Lockheed-Martin, Rand Corp. and
NASA.
“Bill was a very public-spirited individual,”
said professor and dean emeritus Russell
O’Neill, “especially in the area of airport
noise. He was always in the middle of the
fray.”
William C. Meecham, UCLA professor of
mechanical and aerospace engineering and
an outspoken authority on the effects of
airport noise, died March 11 from heart
failure. He was 77.
“We were saddened to learn of the death
of our friend and colleague,” said Vijay K.
Dhir, dean of the UCLA Henry Samueli
School of Engineering and Applied
Science. “Bill was an extremely collegial
man known worldwide for his knowledge
of acoustics, fluid mechanics and turbulence theory. It is a tremendous loss for his
family and for the School.”
Meecham joined the faculty at UCLA in
1967, and was soon appointed chair of
what is now known as the mechanical and
aerospace engineering (MAE) department.
He served in that capacity from 1969 to
1970.
He frequently acted as an expert legal
witness on the effects of jet noise on
“Bill was a champion of liberal causes of all
types,” said Ivan Catton, an MAE professor
who knew Meecham since his arrival at
UCLA. “When noise from the aircraft
landing at LAX became a big issue, Bill was
a major participant in the battle that
eventually led to the schools beneath the
flight path being moved.”
A 1982 investigation by Meecham found a
higher rate of cardiovascular deaths,
strokes, suicides and murder among
200,000 people who lived in a flight-path
corridor near Los Angeles International
Airport than in the rest of the city, which
was partly attributable to the effects of
prolonged exposure to loud noise.
Since 1987 he was a member of the West
Los Angeles chapter of the No-Noise
Committee, part of the Acoustical Society
of America. From 1990 to 1992 he was a
member of the Citizens Advisory
Committee of the Los Angeles Airport
Commission.
engineering department at UCLA. “He
was friendly, easygoing and full of energy.
A number of his former students owe him
their successful professional careers.”
Meecham earned his BS and MS degrees
in 1948, and his PhD in mathematical
physics in 1954, all from the University of
Michigan.
Before joining the faculty at UCLA’s
engineering school in 1967, he was an
assistant professor at the University of
Michigan; a visiting scientist at the Scripps
Institute of Oceanography, University of
California; professor at the University of
Minnesota; and a senior research scientist
at Lockheed Research Laboratories.
In 1972 he was the founding member of
the Institute of Noise Control
Engineering. He was also a member of
Tau Beta Pi, (the honorary engineering
society), Phi Kappa Phi (the honorary
journalism society), Sigma Xi and the
American Physical Society. He was a fellow
of the Acoustical Society of America,
associate fellow of the American Institute
of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a
member of the New York Academy of
Science.
Meecham is survived by his wife, son and
daughter. Donations in his honor can be
made to CALPIRG, (The California
Public Interest Research Group), 1107
Ninth St., Suite 601, Sacramento, CA
95814.
Meecham was a respected researcher and
teacher, according to colleagues.“Bill was a
brilliant analyst with a sense of humor and
love of peace, and we are going to miss him
dearly,” said H. Thomas Hahn, professor
and chair of the mechanical and aerospace
25
ANNUAL REPORT 2002-03 HIGHLIGHTS
The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science is a leader in several emerging
technologies, including bioengineering, nanoengineering and science, and information technology. Our faculty
not only excel in their chosen disciplines, but across traditional boundaries in both research and education. Our
location allows us to leverage the considerable resources at UCLA and surrounding educational institutes to
create breakthroughs in emerging fields.
Funding from outside agencies for research in the School increased to more than $468,000 per faculty member
last year. The research projects in the School will touch every aspect of our lives – from cleaner environments
to new medical options to improved methods for space exploration to safer living at home and abroad.
Undergraduate Education
In the last year, we renewed our commitment to comprehensive undergraduate
educational programs designed to prepare
our graduates for the rapidly evolving
work place. We are revising the curriculum to include a three-course minor
requirement to ensure a breadth of knowledge, as well as depth. And the summer
marked the first year of three new undergraduate research programs that provide
our undergraduates with the opportunity
to work closely with faculty and graduate
students in the labs on technically
advanced projects.
The Focus Center joins three multidisciplinary research institutes established in the
School last year – the Center for
Nanoscience Innovation for Defense, the
Institute for Cell Mimetic Space
Exploration, and the Center for Embedded
Networked Sensing.
Led by electrical engineering professor
Kang Wang, researchers in this new Center
will address the challenges posed by the
decreasing size of components for semiconductor chips.
Manufacturers are
constrained by the physical limits of
current techniques, limits that researchers
in the Center will seek to surmount. The
interdisciplinary team will be exploring
new methods and materials to create
nanoscale devices.
Publications
The scholarly work of UCLA engineering
faculty in 2002-03 included more than
450 articles in conference proceedings, 350
articles published in journals, 28 chapters
in books, and 16 books.
Copyright by David Scharf, 2003.
Growth
Despite the current economic crisis, the
School is continuing to grow. We successfully recruited 14 exceptional faculty
members who will begin teaching in the
2003-04 academic year. They are experts
in such diverse fields as molecular bioengineering, software verification, network
security, and nanofabrication. (For more
on these faculty, please see pages 14 to 17.)
Multidisciplinary Research Centers
The School was awarded a new multimillion-dollar research center – the MARCO
Focus Center on Functional Engineered
Nano Architectonics – funded by the
Semiconductor Industry Association and
the Department of Defense.
Fiber Optic Waveguide Switch, fabricated by Ming-Chang (Mark) Lee in Professor Ming Wu’s
Integrated Photonics Laboratory.
26
2002-03 HIGHLIGHTS
UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
2002-03 Statistics
Full-time Faculty
G I F T S TO T H E S C H O O L
B Y D E S I G N AT E D P U R P O S E
142
PhD Students/Faculty Ratio
Faculty
5:1
Students
Contracts and Grants
Gifts to the School
1.4%
5.1%
$63,552,826
$9,257,951
31.7%
Enrollment (2002-03)
Undergraduate
Graduate
Research
2,680
1,345
Degrees conferred (2002)
Undergraduate
Graduate
Discretionary
53.4%
645
346
8.4%
Departments
Bioengineering
Chemical Engineering
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Computer Science
Electrical Engineering
Materials Science and Engineering
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Capital
Programs
SELECT BOOKS
Chen, F.F. and Chang, J.P. (2002). Principles of Plasma
Processing. New York: Kluwer/Plenum.
Christofides, P.D. (2003). Model-Based Control of Particulate
Processes, Particle Technology Series. Dordrecht: Kluwer
Academic Publishers.
Cong, J. and Shinnerl, J.R. (Eds.). (2003). Multilevel
Optimization in VLSICAD. Boston: Kluwer Academic
Publishers.
Gilman, J. (2003). Electronic Basis of the Strength of Materials.
CONTRACTS AND GRANTS
Institute for Cell Mimetic
Space Exploration
Center for Embedded
Network Sensing
1.4%
6.1%
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Elliott, R.S. (2003). Antenna Theory and Design (Classics
Series). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Bioengineering
Chemical Engineering
5.8%
Civil and Environmental
Engineering
3.5%
3.4%
12.8%
Mechanical and
Aerospace
Engineering
Computer
Science
22%
Ercegovac, M.D. and Lang,T. (2003). Digital Arithmetic. San
Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann.
Karagozian, A.R., Cortelezzi, L., and Soldati, A. (Eds.).
(2003). Manipulation and Control of Transverse Jets, CISM
Courses and Lectures No. 439. New York: Springer-Wein.
Ma, Y., Soatto, S., Kosecka, J., and Sastry, S. (2003). An
Invitation to 3D Vision. Heidelberg: Springer Verlag.
Oxtoby, D.W., Gillis, H.P., and Nachtrieb, N.H. (2002).
2.2%
Dean's Office
Principles of Modern Chemistry (5th ed.). San Francisco:
Thompson Learning.
Razavi, B. (2003). Phase-Locking in High-Performance
Systems: From Devices to Architecture. New York: John Wiley
& Sons.
6.7%
Materials Science
and Engineering
36%
Electrical
Engineering
Sarrafzadeh, M.,Wang, M.,Yang, X., and Phalen, R. (2003).
Modern Placement Techniques. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic
Publishers.
Sayed,A.H. (2003). Fundamentals of Adaptive Filtering. New
York: John Wiley & Sons.
27
2002-03 HIGHLIGHTS
Recognizing Excellence in Research and Education - 2002-03 Faculty Awards and Honors
Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor
Mohamed Abdou was appointed as a member of
the US Department of Energy (DOE), Fusion
Energy Advisory Committee’s Development Path
Panel, tasked with developing a plan for fusion
energy in response to President Bush’s initiative.
He is also a member of the DOE’s Basic Energy
Science Advisory Committee.
mation research.The Okawa Foundation promotes
study and analysis in the fields of information and
telecommunications.
Electrical engineering professor Asad Abidi was
named among the top contributors to the
International Solid-State Circuits Conference, the
most prestigious design conference in the semiconductor industry.
Computer science professor Mario Gerla was
elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Electronic
and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) for his contributions to ad hoc wireless networks.
Hassan Babaie, a lecturer in electrical engineering,
received the 2002 Henry Samueli Excellence in
Teaching Award from the department.
Greg Carman, professor of mechanical and aero-
space engineering, was elected as a Fellow of the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The
fellow grade recognizes significant engineering
achievements and contributions to the engineering
profession.
Jane P. Chang, professor of chemical engineering,
has been named an Office of Naval Research
(ONR) Young Investigator for 2003 for her proposal titled “Atomic Scale Engineering of
Dielectric Thin Films on Wide Band Gap
Semiconductors.”
Jiun-Shyan Chen, civil and environmental engi-
neering professor, was elected as the At Large
member of the US Association for Computational
Mechanics. He also sat on the Scientific
Committee of the 7th US National Congress on
Computational Mechanics.
Chemical engineering professor Yoram Cohen was
awarded the 2003 Lawrence K. Cecil Award from
the Environmental Division of the American
Institute of Chemical Engineers in recognition of
his “pioneering contributions to research and education in multimedia environmental systems and
helping shape the modern approach to environmental protection from a multimedia perspective.”
Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor
Nasr Ghoniem was one of two UCLA professors
awarded a 2003 Faculty/Staff Partnership Award by
the UCLA Staff Assembly for demonstrating a
“commitment to the values of collaboration and
collegiality as demonstrated by developing partnerships with staff.”
Behzad Razavi, professor of electrical engineering,
science and engineering, was elected to the rank of
Fellow in the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS). The honor is
based on Gilman’s contributions to dislocation
behavior of ceramics, disclination behavior of
polymers and leadership in the development and
production of metal glasses.
Electrical engineering professor Henry Samueli
was elected to the National Academy of
Engineering in 2003 for pioneering contributions
to academic research and technology entrepreneurship in the broadband communications
system-on-a-chip industry.
Electrical engineering professor Tatsuo Itoh was
elected to the National Academy of Engineering in
2003 for advances in electromagnetic engineering
for microwave and wireless components, circuits
and systems.
Jack Judy, professor of electrical engineering,
received a 2002 Okawa Research Grant from the
Okawa Foundation for his research on neural-electronic interfaces.
named to the Nippon Sheet Glass Chair in
Materials Science and Engineering.
Chang-Jin (CJ) Kim, professor of mechanical and
The UCLA Emeriti Association selected electrical
engineering professor emeritus Robert S. Elliott as
2002 Emeritus of the Year, noting that he is “a
model of gracious leadership and continuing dedication to emeriti, university, and public interests.”
aerospace engineering, received the 2002 ALA
Achievement Award from the Association for
Laboratory Automation for contributions to the
development of a programmable digital microfluidic circuit chip as a new paradigm in the manipulation of liquids.
Petros Faloutsos, computer science professor,
received a 2002 Okawa Foundation Research
Grant for his work in computer graphics and ani-
Computer science professor Judea Pearl became a
Corresponding Member of the Spanish Academy
of Engineering.
John J. Gilman, adjunct professor of materials
Bruce Dunn, professor of materials science, was
Computer science chair Milos Ercegovac was
elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Electronic
and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) for his contributions to the theory and practice of digital arithmetic.
Electrical engineering professor H. John Orchard
received the 2003 IEEE Circuits and Systems
Society Technical Achievement Award, which
recognizes outstanding technical contributions
over a period of years.
was recognized by the IEEE International SolidState Circuits Conference, the premier conference
in the area of microelectronic circuits, as one of the
top 10 authors in the 50-year history of the
conference.
Ann Karagozian, professor of mechanical and
aerospace engineering, had her membership on the
Air Force Scientific Advisory Board approved by
the White House for a four-year term. The
Secretary of the Air Force selected 13 from a field
of 119 nominees for this honor. She also was
appointed chair of the Air Force SAB Panel on
Long Range Strike Targets and Effects, and chair,
External Advisory Board, Sandia National Labs’
Grand Challenge: Laboratory Director’s R&D
Project on Near-Real Time Sensing for Hard and
Deeply Buried Target (HDBT) Defeat.
Computer science professor Joseph DiStefano III
received the 2003 UCLA Harvey Eby Award for
the Art of Teaching.
28
Chemical engineering professor Sheldon K.
Friedlander chaired the Emerging Issues in
Nanoparticle Aerosol Science and Technology
Workshop, held in June 2003 at UCLA.
Mechanical and aerospace engineering professors
Adrienne Lavine and Robert M’Closkey received
2003 Henry and Susan Samueli Teaching Awards
for outstanding contributions to the teaching
mission of the mechanical and aerospace engineering department.
Computer science professor Leonard Kleinrock
was elected to the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. He also received a 2002 INFORMS
Fellow Award in November. The Fellow Awards,
presented by the Institute for Operations Research
and the Management Sciences, recognize
outstanding achievement in OR/MS research,
practice, management, education and service.
Ali Sayed, professor of electrical engineering, was
appointed by the Executive Committee of the
IEEE Signal Processing Society to serve as Editorin-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Signal
Processing. The publication is a leading source for
information in the signal processing field.
Jonathan P. Stewart, professor of civil and environmental engineering, received a 2003 Northrop
Grumman Teaching Award for professionalism and
demonstrating outstanding teaching capabilities
inside and outside of the classroom.
Materials science professor King-Ning Tu was a
recipient of the 2003 Founder’s Award – Ions at
Caltech, 1967-76 for contributions to scientific
advancement on the subjects of ion implantation,
silicide formation, and solid phase epitaxy in
microelectronic devices.
Electrical engineering professor Alan Willson
received the Mac VanValkenburg Award from the
IEEE Circuits and Systems Society for “major contributions to theory, design methods, and hardware
implementation of nonlinear circuits and digital
signal processing algorithms, to graduate education, and for leadership in the CAS Society.” It is
the top award granted by the Society.
Chih-Kong Ken Yang, electrical engineering professor, was a 2003 Northrop Grumman Teaching
Award recipient for professionalism and demonstrating outstanding teaching capabilities inside and
outside of the classroom.
Eli Yablonovitch, professor of electrical engineering, was elected to the National Academy of
Sciences and the National Academy of
Engineering for introducing band-gap engineering
and applying semiconductor concepts to electromagnetic waves in artificial periodic structures.
2002-03 HIGHLIGHTS
Best Paper/Design Awards
Asad Abidi, professor of electrical engineering, and
student Sohrab Samadian won a Low Power
Design Contest Award for their paper on
“Demodulators for a Zero IF Receiver for
Bluetooth” at the 2002 International Symposium
on Low-Power Electronics and Design.
Electrical engineering professor Asad Abidi gave a
keynote speech at the Symposium of VLSI Circuits
in Kyoto, Japan. The presentation – RF CMOS
Comes of Age – addressed technology developed
by his team at UCLA, which has now become an
industry.
Ming Wu, professor of electrical engineering, was
jointly awarded a patent for a method and apparatus for mode locking of external cavity semiconductor lasers with saturable Bragg reflectors
enabling a high-power integrated semiconductor
laser.
Two students working with chemical engineering
professor Panagiotis Christofides received Best
Presentation in Session Awards at the American
Control Conference. Nael El-Farra spoke on
“Hybrid Predictive Control of Nonlinear Systems
with Guaranteed Stability Region” and Dong Ni
on “A Method for Real-Time Control of Thin
Film Composition Using OES and XPS.”
Panagiotis Christofides, professor of chemical
Materials science and engineering professor YaHong Xie was awarded a patent for heterointegration of dissimilar semiconductor materials.
Enver Cavus and electrical engineering professor
Babak Daneshrad placed first in the Operational
Category at the 2003 DAC/ISSCC Student
Design Contest for “A Computationally Efficient
ASIC Implementation for the Decoding of SpaceTime Block Codes.”
Petros Faloutsos, computer science professor, won
a 2001 Best Paper Award for his work,“The Virtual
Stuntman: Dynamic Characters with a Repertoire
of Autonomous Motor Skills,” which was published in Computer and Graphics magazine.
Professor Bahram Jalali’s OECS group received
the DARPA Best Paper Award for Data
Conversion at the IEEE Measurement and
Instrumentation Technology Conference (IMTC
2003) for the paper “Ultra-wideband Microwavephotonic Arbitrary Waveform Generator” (J. Chou,
Y. Han and B. Jalali).
The International Society for Optical Engineering
awarded the Best Paper Award 2002 to mechanical
and aerospace engineering professor Ajit Mal, his
student Feng Feng, professors Michael Kabo and
Jeffrey Wang from UCLA Orthopedic Surgery, and
Yoseph Bar-Cohen from the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory. The paper was titled “Interaction of
Focused Ultrasound with Biological Materials.”
Electrical engineering professor Yahya RahmatSamii’s student Natanan P. Sakungew received the
Antenna Measurement Techniques Association
2002 Student Paper Award for “On the Question
of Planar Holographic Imaging of the Interior
Fields of a Luneberg Lens.”
engineering, gave the plenary talk in the Workshop
on Modeling, Simulation and Design in Process
Engineering at the University of Stuttgart,
Germany.
Computer science professor Jason Cong presented
a keynote talk on “Architecture and Synthesis for
Multi-Cycle On-Chip Communication” at the
International Rapid System Prototyping Workshop
in San Diego, California. (The presentation was
co-authored by Y. Fan, G. Han, X. Yang and Z.
Zhang.)
Yang Yang, materials science and engineering
professor, was awarded a patent for a process for
fabricating organic semiconductor devices using
ink-jet printing technology and device and system
employing same, and another for organic semiconductor devices using ink-jet printing technology
and device and system employing same.
Alumni Academic Appointments
Vijay Dhir, dean and professor of mechanical and
aerospace engineering, was a keynote speaker at
the International Heat Transfer Conference in
Grenoble, France. He spoke on the subject of boiling in microgravity.
Antonios Armaou PhD ’01 (Chemical Engineering) Pennsylvania State University
Elaheh Bozorgzadeh PhD ’03 (Computer Science)
University of California, Irvine
Ann Karagozian, mechanical and aerospace engi-
neering professor, presented a keynote address –
Numerical Simulations of Reactive and NonReactive Flows Relevant to Engine Environments
– at the Society for Industrial and Applied
Mathematics 50th Anniversary meeting in
Philadelphia.
Fang-Chung Chen PhD ’03 (Institute of Display
Technology) National Chiao Tung University,
Taiwan
Electrical engineering professor and chair Yahya
Rahmat-Samii was the plenary session speaker at
the 2003 Applied Computational Electromagnetic
(ACES) symposium held in Monterey, California.
He spoke on “The Marvels of Electromagnetic
Band Gap Structures.”
Murali Mani PhD ’03 (Computer Science)
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Tzung-Fang Guo PhD ’02 (Optoelectronics Institute) National Cheng Kung University,Taiwan
Seda O. Memik PhD ’03 (Electrical and Computer
Engineering) Northwestern University
Jelena Mirkovic PhD ’03 (Electrical and Computer
Engineering) University of Delaware
Patents
Chemical engineering professor Yoram Cohen
was awarded a patent for ceramic-supported polymer (CSP) pervaporation membrane. The CSP
membrane is a new class of hybrid ceramic-polymer membranes for the separation of volatile
organics from aqueous and organic mixtures.
David Zhigang Pan PhD ’00 (Computer
Engineering) University of Texas at Austin
Jenna Rickus PhD ’03 (Agricultural and Biological
Engineering) Purdue University
Andreas Savvides PhD ’03 (Electrical Engineer-
ing) Yale University
Tatsuo Itoh, professor of electrical engineering,
Ali Sayed, professor of electrical engineering, and
his former student V. H. Nascimento were awarded
a 2002 Best Paper Award from the IEEE Signal
Processing Society for the paper “On the Learning
Mechanism of Adaptive Filters,” which appeared in
IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing in June
2000.
Keynotes
Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor
Mohamed Abdou was a keynote speaker at the 6th
International Symposium on Fusion Nuclear
Technology in San Diego. He spoke on “Recent
Advances in Chamber Science and Technology.”
He was also the keynote speaker at the
International Symposium on SiC/SiC Composite
Materials R&D and Its Applications to Advanced
Energy Systems in Kyoto, Japan.
was jointly awarded a patent for a low-profile cavity-backed slot antenna using a uniplanar compact
photonic band-gap substrate.
Curt Schurgers PhD ’02 (Electrical and Computer
Engineering) University of California, San Diego
Sciortino PhD ’00 (Civil and
Environmental Engineering) California State
University, Long Beach
Antonella
Computer science professor Majid Sarrafzadeh
was awarded a patent for a placement method for
integrated circuit design using topo-clustering.
Jason L. Speyer, mechanical and aerospace engi-
Frank T-C.Tsai PhD ’02 (Civil and Environmental
Engineering) Louisiana State University
neering professor, was jointly awarded a patent for
attitude determination using a global positioning
system.
An-I (Andy) Wang MS, ’98, PhD ’03 (Electrical and
Computer Engineering) Florida State University
Electrical engineering professor John Villasenor
was jointly awarded a patent for a motion vector
prediction method.
Alan Willson, Jr., electrical engineering professor,
was jointly awarded a patent for low-power pulseshaping digital filters.
PhD ’99 (Computer
University of North Carolina
Wei Wang
Science)
Da-Jeng (Jeffrey) Yao PhD ’02 (Institute of
Microelectromechanical Systems) National Tsing
Hua University,Taiwan
29
Homeland Security Symposium –
Safeguarding Civil Infrastructures
Friday, November 7
9:30 am to 4:30 pm
Korn Convocation Hall
Anderson School Complex, UCLA
Dr. Penrose Albright, Undersecretary for Technology, Department of Homeland Security
will deliver the keynote address.
The Symposium will also present industry perspectives on homeland security technologies
and university alliances with representatives from Boeing, Northrop Grumman and
Raytheon.
A representative from RAND will provide an assessment of progress on homeland security,
followed by select UCLA faculty presentations highlighting their research in the field.
To register for this event, please call 310/825-2938 or send an e-mail to
symposia@ea.ucla.edu.
For more information, please visit http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/symposium.htm
Office of External Affairs
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