Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
1999-2000 Annual Report
September 1, 1999 - August 31, 2000
Table of Contents
Department Head’s Cover Memo ………………………………………..
3
Faculty Awards & Honors ……………………………………………….
4
In Memoriam – Dr. Robert G. Quinn ………………………………..….
6
ECE Department Awards & Recognition Dinner ….……………………..
7
Student Awards & Honors ……………………………………………….
9
Faculty Retirement ……………………………………………………….
11
New Faculty Recruitment ………………………………………………..
12
Other Faculty Changes …………………………………………………..
13
Staff Appointments and Promotions ……………………………………..
13
Faculty Appointments, Elections & Sabbaticals ………………………….
13
ECE Faculty Retreat ……………………………………………………..
14
ECE Strategic Planning Retreat ………………………………………….
14
ECE Committee Membership for AY 1999-2000 ………………………..
15
Enrollments & Curriculum ……………………………………………….
17
ECE Ph.D. Degrees Conferred in AY 1999-2000 …………………….…
18
Biomed Ph.D. Degrees Supervised by ECE Faculty……………………..
and Conferred in AY 1999-2000
19
FY 1999-2000 ECE Research Grant Awards & Expenditures ….……….
19
ECE Advisory Council …………………………………………………..
20
Institutional Advancement Activities ……………………………………..
21
Facility/Laboratory Improvements ……………………………………….
22
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National Rankings ……………………………………………………….
23
Other Departmental News ………………………………………………..
23
Major ECE Social Events in AY 1999-2000 ……………………………..
24
Challenges & Goals for the ECE Department in AY 2000-2001 …………
25
Appendix A: ECE Department FY 1999-2000 Research Awards ………..
27
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Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
Memorandum
To:
Constantine Papadakis, President
Richard Astro, Provost
Harvill Eaton, Vice President for Research & Graduate Programs
Barbara Spiro, Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement
George Tsetsekos, Vice Provost/VP Academic Affairs
Selçuk Güçeri, Dean of Engineering
From:
Nihat Bilgutay
Department Head
Date:
October 18, 2000
Re:
ECE Department Annual Report 1999-2000
Enclosed please find the ECE Department Annual Report covering the period September 1,
1999, through August 31, 2000. It is my pleasure to share with you this report, which
briefly highlights the key events and activities in the ECE Department and the outstanding
accomplishments of our faculty, staff, students, and alumni during the past academic year.
I am pleased to note that the ECE Department and its faculty continue to play a key role in
the development and vitality of our University.
cc:
ECE Faculty
ECE Advisory Council
Bill Parshall
Bruce Makous
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Larry Blenner
ECE Department Annual Report
September 1, 1999 - August 31, 2000
Faculty Awards & Honors
• Three ECE faculty members received the National Science Foundation’s CAREER
Award for 2000:
* Dr. Karen Miu, “Electric Power Distribution Systems: Theory, Applications, and
Performance”
* Dr. Dagmar Niebur, “Intelligent Information Processing for Power Systems”
* Dr. Harish Sethu, “Novel Wormhole Switch Architectures for High Performance
with Fairness”
This is a major accomplishment not only for Drs. Miu, Niebur, and Sethu, but also for the
ECE Department. It is a noteworthy achievement for the faculty of a single department to
receive three highly prestigious and competitive NSF awards in one year! In addition, Dr.
Maja Bystrom received a CAREER Award in 1999.
• Dr. Stewart Personick, E. Warren Colehower Professor of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, received the 1999 John Tyndall Award. This is an eminent international
award that is co-sponsored by the Optical Society of America and the Lasers and ElectroOptics Society of IEEE, and it includes a certificate and $2,800. The John Tyndall Award
is named for the nineteenth-century British scientist who was the first person to
demonstrate a phenomenon of internal reflection. First presented in 1987, the Tyndall
Award recognizes an individual who has made pioneering, highly significant, or continuing
technical or leadership contributions to fiber optics technology. Corning Glass Works
endowed the award, and the award itself is a glass sculpture that symbolizes the concept of
total internal reflection. Stu was recognized for his pioneering contributions to the theory
of optical fiber system receiver design and more generally to the theory and applications of
optical fiber transmission systems.
• Dr. Bruce Eisenstein, Arthur Rowland Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
was elected “Delaware Valley Engineer of the Year” for 2000 on November 3, 1999. Dr.
Eisenstein was nominated by the IEEE Philadelphia Section and elected by delegates of
professional engineering organizations from the Philadelphia and South New Jersey areas.
As Engineer of the Year, Dr. Eisenstein chairs the 2000 Engineers Week Council and will
act as the spokesman of the Engineering community in our region during 2000.
Dr. Eisenstein was honored as the “Delaware Valley Engineer of the Year” at two major
events celebrating the 2000 Delaware Valley Engineers Week: Proclamation Luncheon
held at the Union League on February 18, 2000, and the Engineers Week Banquet held at
Temple University on February 26, 2000.
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• Dr. Moshe Kam was awarded the 1999-2000 academic year “Distinguished Professorship
Award.” This is a highly selective and distinguished University-wide award given annually
to two individuals in recognition of their outstanding research record and scholarly
accomplishments. Dr. Oleh Tretiak was the inaugural recipient of this award in the 19961997 academic year.
• Dr. Alex Meystel was awarded the 1999-2000 academic year “Research Achievement
Award.”
• Dr. Afshin Daryoush was awarded the 1999-2000 academic year “Senior Faculty
Teaching Award–Graduate Level.”
• Drexel University has established the Richard B. Beard Named Professorship to
recognize and honor Dr. Beard for his truly outstanding contributions to Drexel University,
in particular to the ECE Department and the Biomedical Engineering Program through
excellence in teaching, research, scholarship, and exemplary service. Based on the
recommendation of the search committee, Dr. Peter A. Lewin has been appointed by
Provost Richard Astro as the first Richard B. Beard Professor of Biomedical Engineering
and Electrical and Computer Engineering.
• Drs. Nihat Bilgutay, Bruce Eisenstein, Peter Herczfeld, Dov Jaron, Moshe Kam, Arye
Rosen, and Hun Sun were among the recipients of the IEEE Third Millennium Medal,
which was given to approximately 2,500 individuals across the world in recognition of
their outstanding contributions in their respective areas of expertise.
• Dr. Arye Rosen was awarded the MTT-S Applications Prize for 2000. MTT-S has four
major awards: Life Time Achievement, Distinguished Educator, Applications, and Pioneer
Awards. Arye received his award in Boston at the IMS 2000.
• Mel Baiada, President and CEO of Bluestone Consulting and Chairman of Bluestone
Software and a leader in the next generation Internet business technology, received the
2000 College of Engineering Alumni Achievement Award. Mel received his BS in
Electrical Engineering from Drexel in 1982. He currently serves on the ECE and COE
Advisory Councils and was recently appointed to the Drexel University Board of Trustees.
• Dr. Athina Petropulu was elected as a member of the IEEE Signal Processing Theory and
Methods Technical Committee.
• Dr. Nihat Bilgutay received the IEEE Philadelphia Section Award for 2000: “For
Exemplary Service to the IEEE Philadelphia Section and Contributions to Engineering
Education in the Philadelphia Area.”
• The ECE Department and Dr. Edwin Gerber were recognized by President Papadakis at
the October 28, 1999 Convocations when they received the 1999 Departmental Teaching
Achievement Award and the Senior Faculty Teaching Award, respectively.
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• Dr. Richard Coren was honored at the Faculty Recognition Awards Ceremony held on
May 17, 2000, in recognition of his retirement after 35 years of dedicated and exemplary
service to the ECE Department and Drexel University. Jim Wilhelmi of Lockheed Martin
was also honored with the Laura S. Campbell Excellence in Teaching Award of the
College of Evening and Professional Studies, where he has been teaching ECE courses for
the past 14 years.
• Drs. Robert Quinn and Kevin Scoles were among the recipients of the College of
Engineering Faculty Achievement Award at the 2000 Honors Day Ceremony on February
23, 2000. Drs. Maja Bystrom and Harish Sethu were recognized with Faculty Research
and Leadership Awards, while Dr. Bruce Eisenstein was recognized for his election as the
“Delaware Valley Engineer of the Year.”
• The 1999 Annual Service Awards were presented to the Drexel faculty and staff at a
ceremony held on October 21, 1999. Dr. Allon Guez was among the faculty recognized for
15 years of service.
• An interview with Dr. Banu Onaral on Biomedical Engineering appeared in the special
“Technology 2000” issue of the IEEE Spectrum in January 2000.
• Research Day 2000 was held on May 2, 2000. ECE faculty and students were well
represented among those honored for their research achievements, including the following
people:
Research Achievement Award for 2000
Dr. Alex Meystel
106 Club Award
Dr. Eli Fromm
Dr. Bahram Nabet
Dr. Stewart Personick
Dr. Harish Sethu
Best Poster Award at the Graduate Level
Dr. Chika Nwankpa and Saffet Ayasun
Paper Title: Singular Points of Differential-Algebraic Power System Model
Authors: Saffet Ayasun, C. Nwankpa, and H. Kwatny
Research Synergy Grant
Dr. Fernand Cohen
In Memoriam – Dr. Robert G. Quinn (June 14, 1936 – February 1, 2000)
The Drexel community suffered a great loss upon the death of Dr. Robert G. Quinn,
Francis C. Powell Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Drexel University.
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Dr. Quinn died unexpectedly in his sleep, in the early hours of February 1, 2000, during a
golfing vacation in Florida.
Dr. Quinn was an innovator and a national leader in engineering education and a dear
friend to countless colleagues across the campus and the world. Bob was a native of
Beaver Falls, PA, and he spent 37 years in higher education filling a variety of teaching,
research, and administrative roles at the Catholic University of America, Pennsylvania
State University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and since 1984, at his alma mater,
Drexel University.
In 1988, Dr. Quinn co-developed Drexel’s “E4 Program – An Enhanced Educational
Experience for Engineers” and later became its director. Now called the Drexel
Engineering Curriculum, or tDEC, it has been designated as a national model for
undergraduate engineering education by the National Science Foundation. A decade later,
in 1997, Dr. Quinn was honored for his role in developing and implementing the
curriculum when he was chosen for Boeing’s National Outstanding Educator Award. The
award recognizes and rewards educators who have made outstanding contributions to
undergraduate engineering education. At the time of his death, Dr. Quinn was the team
leader of the “Introduction to the Art of Engineering” course, which is the cornerstone of
the Drexel Engineering Curriculum and the course that brought him into close contact with
nearly 700 freshmen.
President Constantine Papadakis made the following remarks in honor of Dr. Quinn:
“Robert Quinn is mourned by his colleagues, the engineering community, and thousands of
students who studied under his tutelage. He played a defining role in how today’s
generation of engineering students are educated to meet the challenges of the workplace.
The success of the curriculum co-developed by Dr. Quinn has led to a complete
restructuring of engineering education programs both nationally and internationally. It is
now being emulated, in whole or in part, by 27 universities in 15 countries.”
A memorial service was held for Dr. Quinn on March 6, 2000. The “Robert G. Quinn
Scholarship Fund” was established to honor Dr. Quinn’s legacy, and it has already reached
the $15,000 level. Also, through Marsh Faber’s efforts, Agilent Technologies has provided
the ASEE with endowment funds to establish the Quinn Award.
ECE Department Awards and Recognition Dinner
The Annual ECE Awards & Recognition Dinner was held at the Faculty Club on April 14,
2000, where the following awards were presented:
Allen Rothwarf Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award: Adam O’Donnell
Adam O’Donnell is an undergraduate student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering
Department, and he expects to receive his BS in June 2001. His course selection emphasizes
the telecommunications field. Mr. O’Donnell has worked on several projects to improve
Drexel’s educational offerings, including the first edition of the Freshman E4 laboratory
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handbook. He was elected by students of the College of Engineering to serve as the Student
Dean of Engineering in the Undergraduate Student Government Association.
During his co-op assignment at Lucent Technologies (RF Hardware Development Group,
Whippany, NJ), Mr. O’Donnell designed and optimized linear PCS-band amplifiers.
Subsequently, he was granted a patent for his work on high-linearity phase shifters.
Mr. O’Donnell has authored several articles on computer and network security, and he has been
asked to consult on Web security by Secure Computing and others in the industry. His current
interests are in computer and information security, parallel computing, and RF hardware design.
The Allen Rothwarf Award was presented to Mr. O’Donnell in recognition of his talents and
efforts and with the best wishes of his teachers and peers for a rewarding professional career.
Allen Rothwarf Outstanding Graduate Student Award: Xueshi Yang
Xueshi Yang received the B.Sc. degree with honors from the Electronic Engineering Department
of Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 1998. Since September of 1998, he has been a
graduate student at Drexel University, studying toward the Doctor of Philosophy degree under
the advisement of Dr. Athina Petropulu. At present, Mr. Yang is a visiting researcher at
Laboratoire des Signaux et Systemes, CNRS-Universite Paris Sud, SUPELEC, France. He
also serves as Vice President of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association at Drexel.
Mr. Yang’s research interests are in the areas of non-Gaussian signal processing for
communications, fractional-order statistics, and modeling and analysis of high-speed network
traffic. His first journal paper “Power-Law Shot Noise and Relationship to Long Memory
Processes” (co-authored with A.P. Petropulu, J-C Pesquet, and Y. Jijun) will appear in 2000
in the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing.
The Rothwarf award was presented to Mr. Yang to express the Faculty’s appreciation of his
originality and productivity and to convey our best wishes for his continued success and
professional development.
ECE Research Achievement Award: Dr. Chikaodinaka Nwankpa
Professor Chikaodinaka Nwankpa was educated at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (Magistr
Engineering Science 1986) and the Illinois Institute of Technology (Ph.D. 1990). He came to
Drexel in 1990, and he presently serves as Associate Professor and Director of the Center for
Electric Power Engineering.
Dr. Nwankpa’s research interests are in power systems and power electronics. He specializes
in applying the theory of stochastic systems to these areas. Additional projects include power
system restoration, voltage stability assessment, and power system load modeling. He also
works on the application of optically-controlled high power switches in distribution systems
and modeling of basic power electronic circuitry.
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Dr. Nwankpa was the recipient of a 1994 Presidential Faculty Fellow Award for “work in
electrical and computer engineering.” Along with the award came a five-year research grant for
studies on deregulation of power system operation and control and the development of a new
optically-controlled high power switch and distribution system. The grant also fostered a new
power engineering curriculum at Drexel. Previously, Dr. Nwankpa received a National
Science Foundation Engineering Research Initiation Award, which supported research on
dynamic security indices for power system contingency selection.
Dr. Nwankpa has published extensively in prestigious journals, such as the IEEE Transactions
on Power Systems and Electron Devices and the Proceedings of the IEEE.
The ECE research award was presented to Dr. Nwankpa in recognition of his contributions to
the analysis of dynamic behavior in large scale nonlinear power systems.
Distinguished ECE Alumnus Award: Dr. Brian Butz
Dr. Brian Butz is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Temple
University, having joined its faculty in 1979. Prior to coming to Temple, Dr. Butz was a
Project Director with Gilbert Associates, Director of the Energy Resource Development
Program in the U.S. Department of Energy (Philadelphia, PA), and Project Director at the
Argonne National Laboratory. During his years at Temple University, he was Chair of the
Graduate Faculty, Director of the Systems Applications Center, and Chair of the
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Among his awards and recognitions
are the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching (1984), Temple University’s Great
Teacher Award (2000), and the Institute of Electrical and Computer Engineering Third
Millenium Medal (2000). Since 1997, Dr. Butz has been an Officer of the IEEE
Philadelphia Section, and in 2000 he serves as the Chair of the 5000-member strong
Section.
In recent years, Dr. Butz’s research has focused on Intelligent Tutoring Systems, and he is
leading a major effort in this field with funding from the National Science Foundation.
The Distinguished Alumnus award was presented to Dr. Butz in recognition of his
professional achievements, commitment to higher education in the Philadelphia area, and
his long-term commitment to the ECE Department at Drexel University.
Student Awards & Honors
• The following ECE students graduated with top honors in June 2000:
1st Honors
2nd Honors
Brian Reardon BS EE, MS EE
Ron Haberman BS EE, MS CS
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• Richard Preston, a Pre-Junior in ECE, has been named as a Gates Millennium Scholar for
the year 2000-2001.
• ECE graduate students Li Bai and Shilpa Patil have received the 2000 Teaching Assistant
Excellence Award. Once again two ECE TAs have been recognized with this important
award in a single year. This award is presented annually to the top teaching assistants at
Drexel University who are nominated by students and faculty in recognition of their
excellence as teaching assistants. The following ECE TAs were also nominated for this
award: Henry (Chip) Heyser, Jian Kang, Mohammed-Reza Tofighi, David Romig, and
Qiliang Zhang.
• Henry (Chip) Heyser (INRANGE Technologies Corporation) and Melissa A. Miehling
(Burns Engineering, Inc.) received the “Outstanding Co-operative Education Senior
Award.” This award recognizes seniors for their exceptional efforts in fulfilling the goals
and ideals of co-operative education. Sixty-one members of the Class of 2000 were
nominated by their co-op employers, and the Awards Committee of the General Alumni
Association Board of Governors selected fourteen to receive the award.
• The following projects received the 2000 ECE Senior Design Awards:
First Place: ECE-7 “Talking Book”
Students: David Brouda (EE) and Kevin Lenhart (EE)
Advisor: Dr. Maja Bystrom
Second Place: ECE-26 “A Method and Apparatus for the Detection of Counterfeit U.S.
Currency”
Students: David Bryce (EE) and Andrew Dunigan (EE)
Advisor: Dr. Moshe Kam
Third Place: ECE-28 “OptiDesign”
Students: Dan Kalowsky (CS), Anahi Santiago (CE), Rob Thompson (CE), MikeWeathers
(EE), Tony Dominick (CE)
Advisor: Dr. Stewart Personick
The following ECE awards were divided equally among the team members: $500 for first
prize, $300 for second prize, and $200 for each of the third prize teams. The top three ECE
Senior Design teams participated in the COE Senior Project Design Competition. ECE-26:
“A Method and Apparatus for the Detection of Counterfeit U.S. Currency,” represented by
David Bryce and Andrew Dunigan and advised by Dr. Moshe Kam, received the First
Place Award and a $2,000 prize. The remaining two ECE teams were “Runners-Up,” with
each team receiving a $300 prize.
• The annual Dietrich W. Botstiber Engineering Entrepreneurial Design Competition and
Workshop was held in February 2000. The competition aims to support and encourage
entrepreneurial studies and initiatives in engineering. Funds from the Dietrich W.
Botstiber Foundation are used to provide cash awards to the winners of the competition.
Funds from the Drexel Family Fund in Entrepreneurial Studies are used to support
scholarships for students in the College of Engineering. The ECE projects and students
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dominated the competition this year with the vast majority of the student participants and
award winners coming from the ECE Department.
The projects were selected by the judges based on their probability of success as an
entrepreneurial enterprise. Each group will share a $1,000 award. The winners of the
Drexel Family Award competition for 1999/2000 are listed below:
The Talking Book
Autonomous Mobile Robot
Kevin Lenhart, David Brouda
Matthew Ciprich, Scott Davidson,
Christopher Goheen, Daniel Kalowsky,
Ronald Kralik, William Zotter
Intelligent Bio-mimic Systems
Ethan Hackett, Ajay Patel, John Lafferty,
Bert Archer, Gus Anderson
E-mail Authentication
Brian Le, Khoa Nguyen, Proshanta Saha,
Marat Shkolnik
DSP for Musical Instruments
Jonathan Clark
Smart Vehicle Devices
Mihir Shah, Tom Santangelo, Seen Sai
Yang, M. Fakhereddin
Voice Activated Car Remote
Peter Lenker, Jeffrey Wright, Matthew
Schuman,Vanessa Cueva
Bicycle Anti-theft System (BATS)
Wai To, Adams Tong, Luong Nhu, Long
Duong
Multi Function ASIC for Telecommunications Chung Lee, Vishal Mehta, Binal Amin,
Abayomi Olasinde
• A number of ECE students were recognized at the 1999-00 Honors Day Ceremony, which
was held on February 23, 2000. The University awarded $40,000 in scholarship funds to
our returning students at the pre-junior and junior levels. In addition, the new Lockheed
Martin Scholarships provide $3,000 each for two students, which commits the students to
work at Lockheed Martin for at least one co-op cycle. This year’s award recipients include:
Blasi Family Annual Award
Ray Dunlap Scholarship
Robert Fischl Annual Prize
Arnold H. Kaplan Scholarship
Lester Kraus Award
Lockheed Martin Scholarships
Thomas W. Moore Scholarship
Harry E. Muchnic Scholarship
NACME Engineering Vanguard Program
Scholarships
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Michael Miraglia
Keith Christman, John Lafferty, Douglas
Szperka, Nhut Vo
Stephen Carulo
Michael Kuchera
David Brouda
Michael Galloway
Kenneth Hoyt
Edward Dobeck, David Goldberg, Phillip
Leithead, Amy Mason, Anthony Nasuti,
Prameeda Philip, Dhruv Ramesh, Sudeep
Thazhmon, Shiju Vadakot
Herbert C. Hauls, Morris C. Martin,
Trishna Shah, Mark A. WhitemanCallaham, Mahasin A. Hunter
Milton Rosenberg Scholarships
Herman Schaevitz Memorial Scholarship
Arthur W. and Blanche Garroway Vanaman
Scholarships
John Raymond Vollmar Scholarship
Alvin W. Wene Engineering Scholarship
Julia Andrusenko, Andrew Fitting, Aniket
Hirebet, Susan McGill, Lori Swanson,
Chayil Timmerman
Michael Gardy, Jay Mathew, Richard
Preston, Irwinder Singh
Eric Gallo, James Lacoyara, Tho
Nguyen, Ashish Patel
David Rittel
Adam O’Donnell, Chanh Vuong
• ECE students advised by Dr. Karen Miu placed first in the 1999 North American Power
Symposium Student Paper Contest, which was held in October 1999. The winning paper
was authored by R. Delp Jr., W. D. Bradley, S. J. Waller, J. Sauer, C. Kwoka, C. J. Dafis,
T. Hover, W. Ruggeri, A. DiBartolo, C. Mason, K. Miu, and R. Fischl, “An Educational
Hardware and Software Platform for Sub-Transmission and Distribution Systems,”
Proceedings of the 31st North American Power Symposium, San Luis Obispo, CA, Oct. 1012, 1999. The contents of the paper and the student presentations are the key criteria for
judging the winners. The work combined parts of two past ECE Senior Design projects
from 1996 and 1999.
• David Tack, a BS/MS ECE student advised by Dr. Moshe Kam, won the first prize in the
IEEE Philadelphia Section 2000 Student Writing Contest for his paper entitled: “Design of
New Instrumentation to Detect and Diagnose Spine Pathology.” David entered the IEEE
Region 2 Contest with this paper and on April 8 won the IEEE Region 2 First Prize Award.
• Mohammed Reza “Soheil” Tofighi won the first place award in the IEEE 2000 Sarnoff
Symposium Paper Contest for “Design and Analysis of a 20 GHz Test Fixture for
Characterization of Biological Tissues Using the Microstrip Transmission Line” (M. R.
Tofighi and A. S. Daryoush). Soheil is a Ph.D. student in ECE supervised by Dr. Afshin
Daryoush. The paper contest included submissions from Villanova, Drexel, Lehigh,
Lafayette College, NJIT, and The College of NJ.
• Ron Kralik and William Zotter, BS/MS students from the Data Fusion Laboratory in
ECE, were the winners of an IEEE AT&T Lab Student Enterprise Award. The award was
given to Ron and Bill for their project, “The Design of Rocky, a Second Generation
Wheeled Robot,” and it carries a cash prize of $1000.
Faculty Retirement
Dr. Richard Coren retired this past academic year effective January 1, 2000, after 35 years
of service. We congratulate Dick and extend our heartfelt thanks to him on behalf of the
ECE community for his career-long and exceptionally dedicated and successful service to
the ECE Department and Drexel University. A Retirement Party was held for Dr. Richard
Coren on April 7, 2000, at the Pyramid Club to celebrate and recognize Dick’s 35 years of
dedicated and exemplary service to the ECE Department and Drexel University. Many of
Dick’s colleagues, friends, and former Ph.D. students attended the party.
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Although it is difficult to capture all of Dick’s special contributions to our department and
the university, I wanted to share with you some unique aspects that many of you may not
have known.
Dr. Coren came to Drexel on April 1, 1965, following several years at Philco and Univac
Corporations. He arrived at a time when Drexel was beginning its transition from a
teaching institution to a research institution. Shortly after coming to Drexel, Dick was
awarded the largest government research contract received to-date at Drexel. It was for a
study of the optical and electrical properties of ferromagnetic films and their oxides.
Thanks to the efforts of dedicated individuals like Dick, Drexel now enjoys a strong
national reputation not only in engineering education but also in research. It is interesting
to note that the ECE faculty continue to hold the record Dick established nearly 35 years
ago for obtaining the “largest research contract to-date!”
Dick jokingly claims that he is the “Thomas Jefferson” and “George Washington” of the
Institute’s faculty governance. Shortly after arriving he was appointed to a committee to
consider the role of faculty governance. He wrote the By-Laws for faculty government that
were adopted and used for 19 years until a new structure became necessary. He was
subsequently elected as the first Chairman of the new Faculty Council and became the first
University Ombudsman. During this time, he participated in negotiations with neighboring
communities about Drexel’s expansion (some things never change) and participated in the
conversion from Drexel Institute of Technology to Drexel University.
Dick remained very active in both academic and community affairs throughout his career,
heading the Philadelphia Free University between 1973-76 and organizing and
coordinating the Philadelphia Area section of the American Academic Association for
Peace in the Middle East during 1976-77. Dick initiated the successful Drexel mode of
off-campus education in which faculty members taught regular post-graduate courses at
industrial sites. He directed that program for 12 years, during which time it grew to
involve a dozen faculty members and up to a half million dollars per year in tuition
revenues. He is the recipient of department, university, and faculty group awards for
outstanding service. For many years, he was on the administrative and management
committees of the annual and international conferences on magnetism of APS and IEEE.
Dick’s specialty research areas are magnetism and electromagnetism, including
microwaves, antenna design, and magnetic shielding. In recent years, he has been doing
research in Cybernetic theories of evolution. He is the author of 70 professional research
papers and two books. The first of these is a textbook, Basic Engineering
Electromagnetics: An Applied Approach (Prentice Hall Publisher, 1989). His most recent
publication is the book, The Evolutionary Trajectory: The Growth of Information in the
History and Future of Earth (Gordon and Breach Publishers, 1998). He is presently
writing an undergraduate textbook on The Charge-Potential-Momentum Method of
Electromagnetics (EM), in collaboration with Dr. C. John Carpenter, the originator of the
method.
I’m happy to say that as Dick makes this important transition in his career he will remain
an active member of the department as Professor Emeritus and continue his valuable
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contributions. I look forward to working with Dick in his new capacity and ask you to join
me in congratulating him for achieving this important milestone in his professional career.
New Faculty Recruitment
The AY 1999-2000 recruitment effort has been very intense. We have received and
reviewed over 100 applications, invited 15 candidates for on-campus interviews, which
resulted in seven formal offers and one verbal offer, of which two were accepted. The two
new faculty members who will be joining us as Assistant Professors in Fall 2000 are Dr.
Birsen Yazici and Dr. Ruifeng Zhang.
Dr. Yazici received her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University in 1994
and has six years of highly successful industrial experience at the GE Corporate Research
and Development Center, which is one of the world’s largest and most diversified
industrial R&D laboratories. Dr. Yazici’s research interests are in signal processing,
imaging, network traffic modeling, and the general systems area.
Dr. Zhang received his Ph.D. in May 2000 from Stevens Institute of Technology. His
research interests are in multi-user communications networks, digital communications, and
signal processing.
Drs. Yazici and Zhang will be excellent addition to our faculty, complementing and
strengthening key areas in our department, and they will be a great asset to our department,
the College of Engineering, and Drexel University.
Other Faculty Changes
Dr. Dong Wei has resigned his position as Assistant Professor in the ECE Department for
personal reasons. His resignation will be effective September 30, 2000. He has relocated
with his family to Austin, Texas, to pursue other professional opportunities there. Dr. Wei
has been a member of the ECE faculty since September 1, 1998.
With the resignation of Dr. Wei, the retirement of Dr. Coren, and the death of Dr. Quinn
we have lost three tenure-track faculty during AY 1999-2000. With the two new hires,
Drs. Yazici and Zhang, we have a net loss of one faculty member, and we will start AY
2000-2001 with 30 tenure-track faculty. We hope to have a big recruitment year in AY
2000-2001, resulting in a net increase of at least several faculty.
Staff Appointments and Promotions
• A new administrative position was approved for the ECE Department, Research and
Development Coordinator. The purpose of this position is to provide professional support
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to the faculty to enhance the ECE’s research and institutional development activities; to
identify and inform faculty of emerging research opportunities; to coordinate and assist in
the preparation of large, multi-institutional proposals; to assist departmental development
and fundraising efforts; and to coordinate departmental publications and publicity
activities. Susan Hall was appointed as the ECE Department’s first Research and
Development Coordinator, effective August 1, 2000. Susan received her BA in English in
1997 from Washington and Lee University and her MA in English in June 2000 from the
University of Auckland, New Zealand, where she was a Fulbright Scholar.
• We reorganized and upgraded the secretarial positions by reducing the total number of
positions from five to four. The resulting funds were used to upgrade the two classified
positions to administrative positions and to re-classify the administrative secretary position
as Administrative Assistant position. Kathy Bryant was promoted from Administrative
Secretary to Administrative Assistant position. Two new administrative secretaries were
hired, Phyllis Iorio and P. Delores Watson, to replace the three secretaries that left the
department to pursue new opportunities, Sandra Burgess, Carla Workman, and Alyce
Tyrrell. Also, one of the co-op positions was upgraded to a technician position to provide
the technical support needed for our expanding undergraduate laboratories.
Faculty Appointments, Elections & Sabbaticals
• Dr. Bahram Nabet served as the Faculty Senate Vice-Chair in AY 1999-2000.
• Dr. Mohana Shankar replaced Dr. Bahram Nabet as the Graduate Advisor and Assistant
Department Head for Graduate Affairs. This relieved Dr. Nabet to assume his
responsibilities as Vice-Chair of the Faculty Senate.
• Dr. Karen Moxon, who joined the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science, and
Health Systems from MCP-Hahnemann as Assistant Professor, was appointed as Affiliated
Faculty in the ECE Department.
• Dr. Muzeyyen Saritas joined the ECE faculty in the Winter 2000 term as a Visiting
Professor during her sabbatical leave as Professor of Electrical Engineering from the
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Gazi University in Ankara,
Turkey.
• Drs. Allon Guez, Peter Herczfeld, and Lazar Trachtenberg were granted sabbatical leaves
for AY 2000-2001. Dr. Bahram Nabet will also be taking his sabbatical leave during AY
2000-2001, which was approved last year.
• Dr. Athina Petropulu was on sabbatical leave during AY 1999-2000 at the Laboratoire
des Signaux et Systemes, CNRS - Universite Paris Sud, Ecole Superieure d’Electric.
• Drs. Paul Kalata and Chika Nwankpa were elected to the Faculty Senate as College of
Engineering representatives for the AY 2000-2001.
- 16 -
• Dr. Oleh Tretiak stepped down as the Director of the Imaging and Computer Vision
Center (ICVC) after serving for 17 years. Upon the recommendation of Dr. Tretiak, Dr.
Fernand Cohen was appointed as the new director of ICVC. Dr. Tretiak’s many years of
hard work and dedicated service has made the ICVC a nationally recognized center with
steady funding that has continuously supported a large professional staff for many years.
The department and the university have benefited greatly from the Center’s past successes,
and we are confident that Dr. Cohen will provide the necessary leadership for its continued
successes.
ECE Faculty Retreat
The Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Retreat was held on September 17, 1999.
A report was prepared and distributed to the faculty, the ECE Advisory Council, and the
administration, summarizing the presentations and the action items from the individual
sessions. This will be a memorable retreat not only because it was a highly successful
meeting attended by 25 faculty members, but one that we can appropriately name as
“Retreat Floyd” after the hurricane that reached the Philadelphia area on the previous day.
The retreat was very productive and gave us a sense of direction that will guide us as we
build our new strategic plan with a clear vision of where we want to take the ECE
Department as we enter the 21st century.
ECE Strategic Planning Retreat
During the AY 1999-2000, the ECE Department embarked on a mission to devise a new
strategic plan, which had been last updated in 1996. The ECE Planning and Development
Committee prepared the first draft under the Chairmanship of Dr. Oleh Tretiak and with
the full participation of the ECE faculty, students, and Advisory Council members. The
capstone event was a two-day Faculty Retreat facilitated by Mel Hensey, a consultant. The
ECE Strategic Planning Retreat, which spanned two days beginning Friday noon, May 5,
and continuing all day Saturday, May 6, was a great success thanks to the enthusiastic
faculty participation, excellent advance preparation by the Planning and Development
Committee under Dr. Oleh Tretiak’s leadership, and the superb skills of our facilitator Mel
Hensey. We had 26 participants at the Retreat on Friday and 20 on Saturday. Based on the
input received from the participants at the retreat, the Planning and Development
Committee prepared a new draft of the ECE Strategic Plan, which was distributed to the
upper administration, the Dean, members of the Advisory Council, ECE Planning and
Development Committee, and the ECE faculty for further feedback.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Fred Palmer (Chair) and Barry Stein
(Co-Chair) of the ECE Advisory Council as well as our students, Adam O’Donnell
(undergraduate) and Xueshi Yang (graduate), for their valuable contributions to the
Strategic Planning process and for their participation in the retreat.
- 17 -
The Strategic Plan will be completed during the Summer 2000 Quarter, and its
implementation will begin in September with the commencement of AY 2000-2001.
ECE Committee Membership for AY 1999-2000
* ECE Faculty Advisory Committee
Richard Coren
Ed Gerber
Moshe Kam
Mohana Shankar
Kevin Scoles
Oleh Tretiak
* ECE Graduate Affairs Committee
Afshin Daryoush, Electro-Physics
Alex Meystel, Systems
Dagmar Niebur, Systems
Stu Personick, Systems
Mohana Shankar, Electro-Physics (Chair)
Harish Sethu, Computers
Oleh Tretiak, Computers
* ECE Undergraduate Affairs Committee
Ed Gerber, Electro-Physics
Paul Kalata, Systems
Stan Kesler, Systems
Karen Miu, Systems
Prawat Nagvajara, Computers
Kevin Scoles, Electro-Physics (Chair)
* ECE Planning and Development Committee
Bill Freedman, Computers
Allon Guez, Systems
Peter Herczfeld, Electro-Physics
Wayne Hill, ECE Technical Staff
Kambiz Pourrezaei, Electro-Physics
Harish Sethu, Computers
Mohana Shankar, Systems
Oleh Tretiak, Systems (Chair)
* ECE Faculty Recruitment Committee
Nihat Bilgutay, Ex Officio
Maja Bystrom, Systems
Moshe Kam, Systems (Chair)
Constantine Katsinis, Computers
Peter Lewin, Electro-Physics
- 18 -
Chika Nwankpa, Systems
Kambiz Pourrezaei, Electro-Physics
Lazar Trachtenberg, Computers
* ECE Promotion and Recognition Committee
Promotion Sub-Committee
Richard Coren, Chair
Bruce Eisenstein, Systems
Alex Meystel, Computers
Banu Onaral, Systems
Bob Quinn, Electro-Physics
Awards, Nomination and Recognition Sub-Committee
Afshin Daryoush, Chair
Richard Coren
Moshe Kam
New Committees Appointed in AY 1999-2000
* ECE ABET Steering Committee
Nihat Bilgutay, Co-Chair
Wayne Hill
Moshe Kam
Karen Miu
Prawat Nagvajara
Kevin Scoles, Co-Chair
Mohana Shankar
* Senior Design Committee
Maja Bystrom (Chair)
Bruce Eisenstein
Wayne Hill
Leon Hrebien
Moshe Kam
Kevin Scoles
Dong Wei
Nihat Bilgutay, Ex Officio
* Named Professor Nominating Committee
Bruce Eisenstein (Chair)
Peter Herczfeld
Stu Personick
Oleh Tretiak
- 19 -
Enrollments & Curriculum
• Fall 2000 FT Freshman enrollment based on confirmed ECE students is 195 (54 EE and
141 CE), which constitutes approximately 45.4% of the COE freshman with designated
majors. There are also approximately 146 engineering freshman with undeclared majors,
and we expect approximately 90 of these students to eventually choose EE or CE as their
majors, which translates to an effective ECE freshman class of 285 for Fall 2000. 72.3% of
incoming ECE students are choosing CE versus EE. While official data on student
enrollment is not yet available, provisional statistics as of October 2000 indicate that the
number of new ECE graduate students arriving in Fall 2000 is 37 and that the total number
of ECE graduate students in Fall 2000 is 139 (FT and PT). Again, provisional statistics
reveal that ECE currently constitutes 33% of the COE FTE undergraduate students and
about 30% of the graduate students.
• The following number of ECE degrees were granted at the June 2000 commencement
(totals for the past four quarters, ending with Spring 2000): 104 BS EE, 19 BS CE, 51 MS
EE, 8 MS EE/Telecommunications, and 5 Ph.D. (versus 125 BS EE, 5 BS CE, 51 MS EE,
2 MS EE/Telecommunications, and 8 Ph.D. at the June 1999 commencement). This will be
our smallest graduating class in recent times, reflecting the lowest point in our freshman
enrollments, which occurred in the Fall of 1995. The size of the graduating ECE class is
expected to increase in the coming years, reflecting the steady growth in our freshman class
since 1995. Our BS graduating class received 3 offers on the average, with an average
starting salary of over $51,000 for EEs and $48,300 for CEs (salary range of job offers:
$34.1-72.5 thousand).
• The Senate Committee on Academic Affairs (SCAA) approved the MS Computer
Engineering degree proposal unanimously at its meeting on October 12, 1999.
Subsequently, the Faculty Senate approved the proposed MS Computer Engineering degree
program with a vote of 15-0-1, with one abstention. This was a process that took over a
year to complete, beginning with the appointment of the Ad-hoc Committee in November
1998 to develop a proposal for an MS degree program in Computer Engineering. The
Committee members consist of: Constantine Katsinsis, Spiros Mancoridis (Math and
Computer Science Department), Alex Meystel, Prawat Nagvajara (Chair), Harish Sethu,
Lazar Trachtenberg, and Oleh Tretiak. The MSCE program will be a major catalyst in the
development of research and graduate programs in computer engineering in the ECE
Department, and it will address a compelling national need for such a program.
• Dr. Mohana Shankar spearheaded the development of a proposal for a University-wide
Bachelor’s of Science degree in Software Engineering. This will be a BS degree program
offered by the ECE Department, MCS Department, and the College of Information and
Science and Technology. The proposal has been approved by the ECE faculty and the
COE Curriculum Committee and will be voted on at the next COE faculty meeting in Fall
2000.
• The ECE Department has been leading the College of Engineering as well as the
University in implementing outcomes-based course assessment. The COE Assessment
Committee, co-chaired by Drs. Bilgutay and Scoles, piloted the new course assessment
process on the Web across the COE for the first time in the Spring 1999 term. During the
- 20 -
Summer 1999 term, the process was extended to the majority of the courses taught in the
COE. As a result of these efforts, the COE instituted a Web-based course assessment
process in all undergraduate and many graduate courses by the Fall 1999 term.
Furthermore, the COE Faculty approved the course assessment process and the posting of
the numeric results of the surveys on the Web at its October 6, 1999, meeting. By January
2000, the COE had finalized the Program Educational Objectives for every major and the
course objectives for nearly all undergraduate courses and many graduate courses, and the
COE was conducting Web-based surveys on a regular basis for each term in every course
taught in the college. A unique feature of the assessment process is the feedback obtained
from the faculty using the “Faculty Response Form.” This gives the faculty the
opportunity to provide direct feedback on the students, such as their level of preparation,
and make recommendations for course related improvements. Along with the course
surveys, we are now conducting ABET (a-k) survey and the Senior Exit Survey on a
regular basis.
The COE Assessment Committee has also been working with the Institutional Research
Office to revise and update two major surveys in order to meet the ECE 2000 outcomes
based assessment needs: Co-operative Education Surveys (employer and student surveys)
and the Alumni Survey. The revised surveys will be implemented for the first time during
the Summer 2000 Term (the Alumni Survey in July and the Co-op Surveys in September).
This was a major accomplishment in the institutionalization of the assessment process in
the COE, essentially moving from a faculty-driven, non-uniform, and voluntary in-class
course surveys to a well-organized, uniform, regularly conducted and archived,
comprehensive Web-based assessment process. Of special note is the organization of the
assessment instrument with linkage to OSIR’s student database, the automatic report
generation feature, e-mailing of evaluation reports to instructors and department heads, and
the automatic Web-posting and archiving of the assessment data.
ECE Ph.D. Degrees Conferred in AY 1999-2000
Walid S. Ibrahim Ali
Dissertation Title: A 3-D Geometric Surface-Based Technique for Surface Alignment with
Application to Brain Mapping
Supervising Professor: Dr. Fernand Cohen
Francisco Castro Calvo
Dissertation Title: Optical Absorption Mechanism in Heterdimensional Photodetectors
Supervising Professor: Dr. Bahram Nabet
Yiqiao Liang
Dissertation Title: Multilevel Voltage Source Inverters with Phase Shift SPWM and their
Applications in STATCOM and Power Line Conditioners
Supervising Professor: Dr. Chika Nwankpa
Joseph Paul Mesko
- 21 -
Dissertation Title: General Input Balancing and Model Reduction
Supervising Professor: Dr. Bahram Nabet
Chongzhen Zhang
Dissertation Title: 3-D Structure Estimation from Images with Applications in Object
Tracking and Recognition
Supervising Professor: Dr. Fernand Cohen
- 22 -
Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. Degrees Supervised by ECE Faculty and Conferred in
AY 1999-2000
Min Chih Chou
Dissertation Title: Measurement and Analysis of Electrical Impedance in Simplified
Dermal Surrogate Model (SDSM) with Ultrasound and Chemical Stimuli
Supervising Professor: Dr. Peter Lewin
Chuchart Pintavirooj
Dissertation Title: Invariant Surface Alignment in the Presence of Affine and Some
Nonlinear Transformations with the Application in Inter-subject and/or Inter-modality
Image Registration
Supervising Professor: Dr. Fernand Cohen
Han-Chool Ryoo
Dissertation Title: Multi-Sensor Fusion System Using Wavelet-Based Detection Algorithm
with Special Application to Physiological State Monitoring Under High-G Environment
Supervising Professors: Dr. Hun Sun and Dr. Leonid Hrebien
FY 1999-2000 ECE Research Grant Awards and Expenditures
• A regional research consortium led by Drexel University, and including the University of
Pennsylvania, the City College of New York, Princeton University, Lucent Technologies,
and Bell Atlantic has been awarded a $7.5 million contract by the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to conduct research on key enabling technologies to
foster the realization of the next generation Internet and to demonstrate its power through
networked applications in bio-complexity and bio-informatics. The consortium is led by
Dr. Stewart Personick, E. Warren Colehower Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, and the Director of Drexel’s Center for Telecommunications and Information
Networking. The Pegasus Project will be the largest two-year research award in Drexel’s
history.
The next generation Internet will operate at data rates that are 100-1000 times faster than
today’s Internet, and it will also support 10-100 times the number of users and applications
that are supported by today’s Internet. The Drexel co-principal investigators for this large
program are: Professor Banu Onaral (bio-informatics), Professor Harish Sethu (computer
networking), Professor Bahram Nabet (opto-electronic devices), Professor Jonathan
Nissanov (bio-informatics), and Professor J. Yasha Kresh (bio-informatics MCP
Hahnemann). In addition, the program activities will be supported and enabled by Drexel’s
own corporate telecommunications and networking team led by IRT Vice President John
Bielec, IRT Senior Analyst Kenneth Blackney, and Drexel’s Office of Research.
• The combined ECE Grant Awards (Research, Educational Services, and Academic
Development) for FY 1999-00 (1 July 1999 to 30 June 2000) totaled $9,040,071. This
shows an increase of 200.3% from FY 1998-99. Please note that this reflects the total grant
budgets received in FY 1999-00, including the multi-year awards in accordance with the
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new reporting procedure used by the VPR’s Office. However, even with the multi-year
budgets adjusted to reflect the FY ’00 levels, the net increase from FY 1998-99 would be
approximately 100%. The ECE total corresponds to 61.5% of the COE and 28.1% of the
University totals for the same period. A list of the individual ECE research grant awards
for FY 1999-00 is attached to the report (Appendix A).
FY
96-97
97-98
98-99
99-00
Total ECE Awards
% of COE Awards
$2,252,137
$2,247,896
$3,010,375
$9,040,071
35.5%
33.7%
31.5%
61.5%
% of DU Awards
15.0%
12.1%
14.3%
28.1%
• The combined ECE Grant Expenditures (Research, Educational Services, and
Institutional Grants) for FY 1999-00 (1 July 1999 to 30 June 2000) totaled $2,860,793,
showing an increase of 7.3% from FY 1998-99. The ECE total corresponds to 30.2% of
the COE and 15.7% of the University totals for the same period. Note that for FY ’99-00,
the total COE expenditures include $2,722,859. for the Educational R&D Office, which
was administratively moved back to COE.
FY
Total ECE Exp.
96-97
97-98
98-99
99-00
$2,817,939
$2,406,672
$2,665,461
$2,860,793
% of COE Exp.
37.6%
37.1%
39.7%
30.2%
% of DU Exp.
15.9%
15.7 %
15.0%
15.7%
ECE Advisory Council
The ECE Advisory Council met on December 13, 1999, and recommended the following
actions:

Mutually define the role of the council and develop a mission statement.

Restructure the meetings to focus on issues and outcomes. Present a small set of
focused issues at the outset of the meeting. More time should be allocated for council
discussion.

Set action items and report on progress.

Define metrics to measure the department’s success.
- 24 -

Present trend analyses, rather than raw data. This would assist the council in
recommending strategic direction.

Allow time for a concluding session with the Dean and Department Chair.

There should be an ECE Advisory Council member on the College of Engineering’s
ADCOM.

Advisory Council members would appreciate more communication between meetings.
For instance, the distribution of critical material, newsletters, and other information to
members.

Invite Council members to important departmental gatherings, such as the Faculty
Retreat.
Two new Advisory Council members were appointed during the summer of 2000:
1. Dr. Myron Holinko, Associate Director for Integration, CECOM Research,
Development, and Engineering Center (RDEC).
2. Mr. Walter Butsick, Location Manager, Honeywell, Ft. Washington.
Institutional Advancement Activities
• Kevin O’Hara, an ECE alumnus, agreed to donate to the College of Engineering $1
million for an endowed scholarship fund primarily to support Electrical and Computer
Engineering undergraduate students.
• PECO has donated $750,000 to establish an endowed professorship in Power
Engineering. The initial donation of $250,000 was made this year, and the remaining two
payments will be received in 2001 and 2002. This is the largest gift to-date that PECO has
committed to a university.
• Frank Seaman ECE ’33 has donated $157,000 to establish the Frank and Agnes Seaman
Endowed Fellowship Fund to support ECE graduate students.
• The Orthlip Foundation has donated $200,000 for the establishment of the Harry F. Ortlip
Systems Laboratory. The initial payment of $80,000 was received and used to obtain a
$40,000 match from the Pennsylvania Engineering School Equipment Program.
• The following list summarizes ECE related industry visits, meetings, and Institutional
Advancement/fundraising efforts by the Department Head in AY 1999-00:
Date
September 15, 1999
Company
Contact
PECO
Joe Grimes
- 25 -
October 7, 1999
October 8, 1999
February 11, 2000
February 17, 2000
April 20, 2000
May 9, 2000
June 9, 2000
June 23, 2000
Exxon
General Instruments
Andersen Consulting
BAE Systems
American Competitiveness Inst.
Formation, Inc.
Orthlip Foundation
Lockheed Martin, Moorestown
August 2, 2000
Formation, Inc., Moorestown
- 26 -
Dick Brown
Frank Gonzalez
Sanjay Bhasin
Jerry Wood
Alan Chriswell
Nim Evatt
James Marsh
Carl Bannar
Jim Wilhelmi
Nim Evatt
Facility/Laboratory Improvements
Renovation of Research Lab, room 503
The Center for Microwave-Lightwave Engineering, directed by Dr. Peter Herczfeld, was
completely renovated with new lighting, paint, flooring, and furniture. This renovation
was accomplished with funds from the ECE Department, College of Engineering, Vice
President for Research, and Dr. Herczfeld’s research funds.
Renovation and Furnishing of Peter Herczfeld’s Office, room 517
Along with the renovation of his laboratory, Dr. Herczfeld’s office was also refurbished.
Renovation of Research Center, room 305, for Stewart Personick
Because of the delay of CAT 189 becoming available for the Telecommunications and
Information Networking Center, a research area was designated for Dr. Personick in 7-305.
The renovation of this space included a hallway window, new lighting, paint, and flooring.
Conference Room on the 5th floor lobby
The need for a small conference room was addressed with the creation of this new space.
The lobby area was formerly used as graduate student space and was in poor condition.
The new meeting space has a permanent wall with a hallway window. New furniture,
carpet, and blinds were purchased for this space.
Renovation of Undergraduate Lab, room 208
Instrumentation was removed and stored for reuse. The existing furniture, light fixtures,
blackboards, ceiling tiles, and HVAC unit were removed and the room was painted. A
decorative hallway window was installed along with new electrical service, networking,
recessed lighting, ceiling tiles, white board, HVAC Unit, floors, and new laboratory
furniture. The renovation work was performed by Facilities Management. New
instrumentation, donated by Hewlett Packard (now known as Agilent Technologies), was
installed in equipment racks and new computer systems, purchased from Dell, will be
interfaced to the instrumentation. The Dell systems were purchased with a Flat LCD
display on a movable arm to provide flexibility in the use of the work surface space and to
reduce the heat load in the room.
Renovation of Undergraduate Lab, room 206
Same description and equipment as in room 208. In addition, the service counter in the
room will be removed and bricked up. Students coming to the service counter are
disruptive to the class working in the room. The service counter will be moved to the
hallway and will be better equipped to serve all the labs.
Renovation of Undergraduate Lab, room 205
This room is used to service and issue equipment to the other labs. Renovation will
include removing a major portion of the hallway wall. Building a counter space recessed in
three feet from the hallway. A motorized security door with small windows will be
installed over the counter for securing the room when not in use. Monitors will be installed
with a feed from the security cameras in the labs so that activity can be observed by
personnel in room 206.
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Renovation of Undergraduate Lab, room 204
Same description and equipment as in room 206.
Xilinx Software
In order to support the course work in ECE-200, we purchased a 10 seat license for Xilinx
software. Xilinx is used for FPGA design.
Power Distribution Display System in Randell-048 Machines Lab
General Electric donated a large display power system to the ECE Department for the
Power and Machines Labs. The display required the construction of a frame and lighting
system.
New Faculty Offices
Three offices will be painted, cleaned, and furnished with new furniture to accommodate
the new faculty.
Office Upgrade Bulletin Boards and Equipment
The ECE Department Office equipment was upgraded. A new copier, FAX machine, and
printers were purchased and installed. Also, a new web development computer system was
installed with a color printer and scanning system.
Emory Long Labs Equipment Upgrade
The Emory Long Labs are computer rooms that provide access to student seven days a
week, twenty-four hours a day. The department access system is programmed to give
students access to these rooms via their Drexel ID cards. This year we purchased and
installed eight new x-terminals, which the students utilize for UNIX based programs. We
also purchased and installed four new Apple G4s and 6 new Dell PCs
Harry F. Ortlip Systems Laboratory
Through a gift from the Ortlip Foundation for $80,000 and a $40,000 match from the State
Engineering School Equipment Program, the department will establish the Harry F. Ortlip
Systems Laboratory in the Controls and Systems Laboratory in Commonwealth Hall, room
210. These funds were used to purchase equipment for the new laboratory. The new
laboratory will have three stations for Servo Control that will include experiments in motor
characteristics, closed loop frequency response, and measurements of motor constants and
velocity errors. There will be three stations for power/machines for experiments in
thyristor control principles and dc motor control. There will also be three Inverted
Pendulum systems on a seesaw module interfaced to a computer that will make up three
more stations. At these stations, complex controls experiments can be performed by the
students. Two stations with a magnetic levitation system and computers will provide the
necessary equipment for the concluding controls experiments. Renovation costs will be
covered by the ECE Department and the COE and will include new lighting, new HVAC, a
hallway window, and flooring.
National Rankings
- 28 -
• The September 1999 issue of U.S. News & World Report ranked Drexel’s undergraduate
engineering program 46th out of about 340 engineering programs in the nation, which was
up from 50th ranking previously received. In U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s
Best Graduate Schools” for 2000, Drexel’s College of Engineering was ranked 68th.
• Drexel University was ranked 16th in “America’s Most Wired Universities and Research
Schools” by Yahoo Internet Life Magazine.
Other Departmental News
• Dr. Kemal and Mrs. Zennur Fidanboylu had a baby boy, Mehmet Fidanboylu, on
November 11, 1999. Our sincere congratulations to Zennur and Kemal and warm wishes
for a happy, healthy, and long life for Mehmet.
• Drs. Prawat and Gina Nagvajara had a baby boy, Nathan Wattana Nagvajara, on the night
of December 29, 1999. Our sincere congratulations to Gina and Prawat and warm wishes
for a happy, healthy, and long life for Nathan.
• Drs. Bruce and Toby Eisenstein became grandparents on June 15, 2000, with the birth of
Eli Bernard Eisenstein. Our congratulations to the parents, Andy and Ricki Eisenstein, and
the entire Eisenstein family and warm wishes for a happy, healthy, and long life for Eli.
• The ECE Web page (www.ece.drexel.edu ) was completely redesigned and updated to
improve its accessibility, appearance, and ease of use. Dr. Shankar led this major effort,
along with Phyllis Iorio from our office and Martha Ankeny, Director of Web
Communications in University Relations, and Kyle Whelliston (systemfactory.com).
Please visit the new ECE Web page and carefully review its contents. If you have any
suggestions for further improvements, enhancements, or updates to any aspect of the Web
page, please inform us.
• Our inaugural “ECEngineer Newsletter” was published in June 2000 and distributed to
our alumni, ECE Advisory Council members, ECE faculty, and members of the Drexel
administration. We plan to prepare and distribute the “ECEngineer Newsletter” annually
henceforth. Special thanks go to Dr. Mohana Shankar for his hard work and many
contributions in making the newsletter a reality.
• A pizza lunch was held on June 5, 2000, for the 40 graduating ECE MS and 5 ECE Ph.D.
students.
• 15 of the graduating students are receiving dual BS/MS degrees.
• A Fireside Chat was held with ECE students on July 25, 2000, and was attended by Drs.
Bilgutay and Scoles. There were 40 highly interested and actively participating students
present at the meeting, which lasted for two hours. Students were very enthusiastic about
the ECE Department and voiced their opinions openly with numerous suggestions for
improving courses and other aspects of the department and programs.
- 29 -
• Colehower Ph.D. Fellowships were established with funds from the E. Warren Colehower
Scholarship Fund. These will be the first graduate fellowships in the ECE Department.
Recruitment of two Colehower Fellowship students was initiated and announcements of
the availability of the fellowships were mailed nationally to all ECE Department Heads and
posted on the Web.
• The Applied Communications and Information Networking (ACIN) Program was listed
in the Congressional Record on 7/17/00 with $12.5 million earmarked for its
establishment. Dr. Stewart Personick has been an active participant in the effort to realize
this initiative, which was spearheaded by the VPR’s Office.
Major ECE Social Events in AY 1999-2000
• ECE Department Annual Holiday Dinner (December 12, 1999)
• ECE Department International Holiday Party (December 16, 1999)
• Annual Faculty Roast (June 2000)
• ECE Spring Party at the Scoles’ residence (June 17, 2000)
- 30 -
Challenges & Goals for the ECE Department in AY 2000-2001
Hiring computer engineering faculty continues to be the top priority for the ECE
Department. This is an area that is expanding dramatically, both at Drexel and across the
nation. We need to continue building our department and strengthening the critical
curricular and research areas that are rapidly growing, particularly in computer engineering
and telecommunications. In order to meet the challenges and maximize the vast
opportunities available to us, the ECE Department must continue hiring and developing
research facilities in these critical areas. We believe our department has an excellent
opportunity to increase its national and international visibility and to raise its rankings to
even greater heights through sustained growth and continued excellence in teaching,
research, and professional service. The new ECE Strategic Plan for 2000 will focus on
achieving these key goals.
Our key goals are to:
• Provide a strong supportive environment for our new and established faculty alike and to
facilitate their continuous professional development and success. We must strive to
develop and maintain state-of-the-art facilities combined with academic, research, and
general administrative support to ensure that our faculty have the means to successfully
compete for external funding opportunities and to reach their professional potential in both
teaching and research.
• Continue the development of the “Center for Telecommunications and Information
Networking” under the leadership of Dr. Stewart Personick. This is essential to guarantee
the success of the Center as a nationally recognized laboratory. We will also target the
development of other major national research centers in the ECE Department to reflect
existing and emerging strengths of the department, such as the Center for MicrowaveLightwave Engineering, Center for Electric Power Engineering, and Imaging and Computer
Vision Center.
• Maintain and further strengthen the close ties that have been established with the newly
reconstituted ECE Advisory Council through regular council meetings and
communications with individual members. As we enter a rapid growth period where
enrollments, faculty size, and research activity will continue to expand, the role of the ECE
Advisory Council will be increasingly critical in providing us with guidance, feedback, and
assistance to reach our full potential. The close ties established with the ECE Advisory
Council have been very helpful in creating the new ECE Strategic Plan because we have
had the full and active participation of the council members.
• The graduate and research programs have seen significant decline during the period of
shrinking faculty size in the early ’90s. Although the decline in undergraduate enrollments
have now been reversed dramatically by significant increases in freshman enrollments
during the past three years (particularly with increasing enrollments in Computer
Engineering), the same trend has not occurred in graduate enrollments. The ECE faculty
feels it is time to concentrate similar efforts on rebuilding the graduate enrollments and
research grant activity.
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• Continue to strengthen the newly established MS programs in Telecommunications
Engineering, Software Engineering, and Computer Engineering.
• The newly established MS degree program in Computer Engineering will be the key to
increasing graduate enrollments and strengthening the research and graduate programs of
the ECE Department. The new BS Computer Engineering program has been received with
great enthusiasm on the part of our undergraduates. The recently approved MS degree
program in Computer Engineering will complement this effort and provide our department
with greater opportunity and national visibility. We will take advantage of the tremendous
demand for computer engineers to build and strengthen our undergraduate and graduate
programs in computer engineering and to recruit faculty in this area commensurate with the
growth we are experiencing.
• Continue the aggressive and pro-active student recruitment at the undergraduate level
with a focus on improving the student quality rather than increasing the class size. The
overall student quality and level of preparation is a growing concern, and the ECE faculty
would like to see a careful and serious examination of the underlying causes and the
development of effective responses to this situation.
• Renovation of Commonwealth Hall will continue to be a top priority for the ECE
Department. We will pursue all opportunities to accomplish the renovation of
Commonwealth Hall. We are hopeful that the President’s initiatives last fall with the
Governor of Pennsylvania will yield state resources to address this longstanding need.
• Concentrate on fundraising for sustained “quality of life” improvements for the faculty
and students and for the enrichment of the educational programs and facilities in ECE.
• Enhance and expand the off-campus programs, while maintaining parity in quality with
the on-campus programs. Proactively aim to create new opportunities through Web-based
delivery modes. This is an area that is rapidly developing and growing, and we must make
every effort to be an active player on the national scene.
• Over the past year, we have made great strides in developing an ABET 2000 outcomesbased assessment process and instruments. We have established an outcomes-based course
assessment, ABET (a-k) Survey, and the Senior Exit Survey, all implemented via the Web
and across the COE. We have also worked with the Institutional Research Office to revise
the Co-op Surveys and the Alumni Survey, which now reflect the new ABET requirements.
These efforts must persist and intensify as we begin our final preparations for the next
ABET visit scheduled for Fall 2001, with particular focus on Continuous Quality
Improvement (CQI) and institutionalization aspects of the newly established Web-based
assessment surveys.
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Appendix A: ECE Department FY 1999-2000 Research Awards
Summer
Research and Education in Video Coding and Wireless Communications
National Science Foundation
Bystrom, M. E.
$58,000.
Multi-Rate Signal Processing in Precoding and Equalization
Phase Space Company
Wei, D.
$36,208.
Test Site Integration Support: Database Access via Web Page
U.S. Army (Aberdeen Proving Ground)
Pourrezzaei, K.
$72,000.
Mechatronics Interactive Lab Research Experiment and Curriculum Development
Intelitek, Inc.
Guez, A.
$33,909.
Modeling of Planning Execution Processes in an Autonomous Vehicle
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Meystel, A. M.
$30,000.
Fall
Design and Development of Large, Complex, Intelligent Architectures
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Meystel, A. M.
$54,500.
Rate Variability Analysis
U.S. Navy Research Laboratory
Hrebien, L.
Modeling Ultrasound B-Scan Images of the Breast
National Cancer Institute
Cohen, F. S.
$30,000.
$66,918.
Ultrasonic Image Enhancement and Tissue Characterization Using Scaling Concepts
National Cancer Institute
Bilgutay, N. M.
$92,893.
Signal Processing for Enhanced Tissue Imaging
National Cancer Institute
Shankar, P. M.
$96,614.
Modeling the Ultrasound RF Echo Using Symmetric Alpha Stable Distributions
National Cancer Institute
Petropulu, A. P.
$62,975.
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Tissue Scatterer Analysis with Spectral Redundancy
National Cancer Institute
Bilgutay, N. M.
$83,393.
Handwriting Examination Methods
UT/Battelle LLC
Kam, M.
$13,485.
Large Area, High Speed, Photodiode Using a Metal-Semiconductor-Metal (MSM) Device
F&H Applied Science Associates
Nabet, B.
$10,000.
Ultra-High Capacity Networking Enabled by Optical Technologies
U.S. Air Force Material Command Research Laboratory
Personick, S.
$5,764,014.
Research and Education in Video Coding and Wireless Communications (CAREER)
National Science Foundation
Bystrom, M. E.
$150,000.
Microwave Engineering Education Using Web Based Instruction
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
Daryoush, A. S.
$15,000.
High Speed Optical Transmitter and Receiver Development for Lidar and Communications
Office of Naval Research
Herczfeld, P. R.
$150,000.
Winter
Trustworthy Network: Portal Site Project
U.S. West Advanced Technologies
Personick, S.
$20,000.
Prototype Development of the Simultaneous Optical Multiprocessor Exchange Bus Computer
National Science Foundation
Katsinis, C.
$76,440.
Smart Integrated Pilot State Monitor
Naval Air Warfare Center (Patuxent River)
Sun, H. H.
Hrebien, L.
$44,970.
Twelve Digitizer Feasibility Study
Naval Air Warfare Center (Patuxent River)
Herczfeld, P. R.
$6,995.
Power System Monitoring and Control for Autonomous Naval Shipboard Electric Power
Distribution Systems
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Office of Naval Research
Niebur, D.
Twelve Digitizer Feasibility Study
Naval Air Warfare Center (Patuxent River)
Herczfeld, P. R.
$240,000.
$6,995.
Spring
Methodologies for Reliable Certificate Revocation
U.S. Air Force Material Command Research Laboratory
Kam, M.
Heart Rate Variability Analysis
INS - Information Network Systems, Inc (A Sytex Company)
Hrebien, L.
$241,919.
$7,500.
Twelve Digitizer Feasibility Study
Chase Scientific Co.
Herczfeld, P. R.
Heart Rate Variability Analysis
INS - Information Network Systems, Inc (A Sytex Company)
Hrebien, L.
$6,995.
$7,500.
Electric Power Distribution Systems: Theory, Applications, and Performance
National Science Foundation
Miu, K.
$200,000.
Intelligent Information Processing for Power Systems
National Science Foundation
Niebur, D.
$199,848.
Signal Reconstruction and Applications to Communications, Ultrasound Image Processing,
and Earthquake Engineering
National Science Foundation
Petropulu, A. P.
$100,000.
Novel Wormhole Switch Architectures for High Performance with Fairness
National Science Foundation
Sethu, H.
$230,000.
Hybrid Fiberoptic/Wireless System for High Capacity Military Communication
Office of Naval Research
Herczfeld, P. R.
$700,000.
Power Distribution Systems Curriculum
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National Science Foundation
Miu, K.
$10,000.
Development of a Low-Latency High-Throughput Network Switch for Cluster Computing
U.S. Department of the Navy
Katsinis, C.
$100,000.
Novel Hetrodimensional Sensors
Photonics Laboratories, Inc.
Nabet, B.
$21,000.
Electrical & Computer Engineering Total:
$9,040,071.
College of Engineering Total:
$14,609,579.
Drexel University Total:
$32,136,482.
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