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E-BULLETIN
UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
April 9, 2008
DEAN'S
LETTER
Next month, two special events are happening that I think will
be of interest to many of the alumni and friends of the UCLA Henry
Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Saturday, May 17 is UCLA day, a campus-wide event
that will allow alumni to reconnect with UCLA. There are many
programs planned throughout the campus. Here at UCLA Engineering,
to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the UCLA Engineering Alumni
Association, we are holding a kick-off luncheon on the Engineering
IV building patio.
On Tuesday, May 27, we will hold the 2008 UCLA
Engineering Technology Forum. This annual program is our chance
to showcase the advanced research being conducted throughout all
our departments and interdisciplinary research centers. The program’s
keynote speaker is Raymond L. Orbach, Under Secretary for Science
at the U.S. Department of Energy. Dr. Orbach will deliver the
first L.M.K. Boelter Distinguished Lecture titled “Transformational
Research and our Energy Future.”
I hope to see many of you at both of these programs.
Please see the links below in the calendar section for details.
Also, the latest U.S. News rankings of graduate
engineering programs place UCLA Engineering 13th overall and tied
for eighth among public schools. This ranking is our highest in
several years and is great news that alumni, students, faculty,
staff and friends can take great pride in. At the same time, we
must stay focused on our most important goals: excellence in education,
research and service. Our accomplishments in these areas are what
we are most proud of.
Sincerely,
Vijay K. Dhir
Dean
FEATURE
STORIES
UCLA
Engineering Professor wins 2008 Franklin Medal
Judea Pearl, professor of computer science and
director of the Cognitive Science Laboratory has won the 2008
Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science. The
Medal is being presented in recognition of Pearl's work in creating
the first general algorithms for computing and reasoning with
uncertain evidence, allowing computers to uncover associations
and causal connections hidden within millions of observations.
UCLA
Engineering Professor wins Rosenfield Distinguished Community
Partnership Award
Yoram Cohen, professor of chemical and biomolecular
engineering, was named a 2008 recipient of the Ann C. Rosenfield
Distinguished Community Partnership Prize. The program honors
outstanding examples of engaged scholarship in which UCLA faculty
or staff have collaborated with Los Angeles non-profit organizations
to address issues of community concern.
Researchers
develop method to rapidly identify optimal drug cocktails
New scheme holds promise for treating cancer, other diseases
UCLA researchers have developed a feedback control scheme that
can search for the most effective drug combinations to treat a
variety of conditions, including cancers and infections. The discovery
could play a significant role in facilitating new clinical drug-cocktail
trials.
UCLA
Engineering Obtains a Dual-Beam Focused Ion Beam/Scanning Electron
Microscope System
Advanced scientific instrument allows nanofabrication
and characterization
The UCLA Department of Materials Science and Engineering has obtained
a dual-beam focused ion beam (FIB) - scanning electron microscope
(SEM) system – a very advanced imaging and nanomanufacturing
instrument that can create, modify, and image complex structures
that are a few tens of nanometers in size.
UCLA’s Center for Scalable and Integrated Nanomanufacturing
(SINAM) Reaches out to Young Minds to Replenish the Engineering
Workforce
The Center for Scalable and Integrated
Nanomanufacturing (SINAM), which focuses on developing cost-effective
nanomanufacturing technologies by working closely with industry,
also offers an on-campus program geared toward middle and high
school students. Using a nanotechnology lab experiment, the program
is designed to highlight nanotechnology materials, methods and
applications, and inspire young students to think about a high-tech
career path.
Computer Science Department’s CS130 Course Brings
the World to Its Classroom
When Paul Eggert began teaching software
development in his CS 130 course for the computer science department
in 2003 at UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied
Science, he immediately noticed a difference between what is taught
in academia and what is learned in the “real world.”
OTHER NEWS
Rajit Gadh,
professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering has been awarded
the William Mong Visiting Research Fellowship in Engineering.
He will visit the University of Hong Kong for research collaboration
with G.Q. Huang for two weeks in summer 2008.
Greg Carman, professor of mechanical and aerospace
engineering and postdoctoral student Chia-Ming (Gavin)
Chang received the best paper award in materials for
2007 from the Adaptive Structures and Material Systems Committee
of the Aerospace Division of ASME. This particular award selects
the best paper published in either a journal or conference proceedings
during a given year. Carman has won this award previously. Their
paper, "Experimental evidence
of end effects in magneto-electric laminate composites" was
published in the Journal of Applied Physics.
UCLA electrical engineering assistant professor and Samueli Fellow
Benjamin Williams has been selected to receive
a prestigious Young Faculty Award (YFA) from the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the central research and development
agency for the U.S. Department of Defense. The YFA program supports
revolutionary research ideas proposed by young non-tenured faculty
members. The ideas are expected to be of critical value for future
technology developments by the Microsystems Technology Office
at DARPA. Williams received the award for his research entitled
“Nanowire Heterostructure Intersublevel Optoelectronics.”
An interdisciplinary team
of researchers led by UCLA professor of mechanical and aerospace
engineering Sungtaek Ju recently received a $3.8
million award from the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency
(DARPA) to conduct innovative research and development in the
area of electronics cooling for the next three years. Other
UCLA Engineering participants include Ivan Catton,
professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and Bruce
Dunn professor of materials science and engineering.
The team also includes Massoud Kaviany, professor of mechanical
engineering at the University of Michigan, and engineers from
Advanced Cooling Technologies, Inc. To read more, click
here.
UCLA AIChE, the school's student chapter of the
American Institute of Chemical Engineers will host the 2008 Western
Regional Conference on Saturday, April 12, 2008. The conference
will include a best research paper competition, tours of UCLA
Engineering labs, the Chem-E-Car competition, and industry speakers.
To read more, click
here.
MEDIA
WATCH: UCLA ENGINEERING IN THE NEWS
Discovery
Channel online
Artificial Muscle Heals Itself, Charges IPod
March 19, 2008 -- Researchers in California have created an artificial
muscle that heals itself and generates electricity. The
research, parts of which are already being used in Japan to generate
electricity from ocean waves, could be used to make walking robots,
develop better prosthetics, or even charge your iPod. "We've
made an artificial muscle that, when you apply electricity to
it, it expands" more than 200 percent, said Qibing Pei, UCLA
professor of materials science and engineering and study author.
"The motion and energy is a lot like human muscles."
Forbes
Beyond Ethanol
A handful of small companies, including Pasadena, Calif.-based
start-up Gevo, are scrambling to commercialize second-generation
biofuels such as butanol that they believe will be cheap and clean
enough to put ethanol out of business. These new fuels are even
designed to be produced by the same refineries that are cranking
out ethanol now. (The work of chemical and biomolecular engineering
professor James Liao featured)
CALENDAR
April 14
Electrical
Engineering Seminar, Physical and Wave Electronics
"Silicon Spintronics"
Ian Appelbaum, University of Delaware
1 p.m., 54-134 Engineering IV
April 15
Environmental
& Water Resources Engineering Seminar
"Microbial source tracking in the San Pablo Bay and Los Angeles
River." Stefan Wuertz, UC Davis
11 a.m., 4275 Boelter Hall
April 18
Thermo/Fluids
Research Seminar
Series
"The Flight of Birds, Bats and Other Small-Scale
Flying Machines" Geoff Spalding, USC
Noon, 38-138 Engineering IV
April 21
Electrical
Engineering Seminar, Physical and Wave Electronics
"Clocks, Combs and Optical Arbitrary Waveforms" Erich
P. Ippen, MIT
1 p.m., 54-134 Engineering IV
April 29
Environmental
& Water Resources Engineering Seminar
"Microbial Interactions with Fullerenes and Other
Engineered Nanoparticles: Environmental Applications and Implications"
Pedro J. Alvarez, Rice University
11 a.m., 4275 Boelter Hall
May 1
Jon
Postel Distinguished Lecture Series
"Data Management for New Applications" Stan Zdonik,
Brown University
4:15 p.m., 3400 Boelter Hall
May 6
Jon
Postel Distinguished Lecture Series
"An Ultimate Type System" John Gregory Morisett, Harvard
University
4:15 p.m., 3400 Boelter Hall
May 7
UCLA WINMEC
2008
Web 2.0 on Mobile - Convergence in Advertisement, Media
Content and Enterprise Services
Covel Commons, UCLA
May 17
UCLA Day
UCLA
Engineering Kickoff
Noon, Engineering IV Patio
May 23
Ken
Nobe Lecture in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
"Metabolic Engineering: Enabling technology for
the biological production of Fuels and Chemicals" Gregory
Stephanopoulos, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1:30 p.m., main lecture hall, CNSI Building
May 27
UCLA
Engineering Technology Forum
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
De Neve Commons, UCLA campus
June 14
UCLA
Engineering Commencement
12:30 p.m.
Pauley Pavilion, UCLA campus
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