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DEAN'S LETTER
When I meet with students to learn about their projects, I always feel a sense of great optimism about the extraordinary potential our students hold. They represent the next generation of engineers, technologists and scientists. With an engineering degree from UCLA, our students have the opportunity and know-how to make an impact on our society.

I invite all of you to catch a glimpse of that potential during UCLA's Engineers Week or E-Week for short, held from April 11-15. During that time, a wide array of exhibitions and demonstrations will showcase the value of engineering in an accessible, lighthearted way. Find out what E-Week organizers have planned by reading this month’s E-Bulletin, or by visiting the School’s website at www.ucla.engineer.edu.

This month I’m also happy to share the news that the School has risen to number fifteen among the top graduate engineering schools in the country, according to the annual U.S. News & World Report rankings out April 1. Among public institutions the School ranks ninth, up one position from last year.

We are committed to the continued enhancement of our School and our programs. We have many faculty who are members of the National Academy of Engineering; numerous prestigious awards have been won by many of our faculty over the past year alone (some mentioned below in the E-Bulletin); and major honors such as the Turing Prize, the highest award of distinction in computer science, has been garnered by both our faculty and alumni.

The exceptional dedication of our students, faculty and staff, and our collaborations with other institutions, industry, and government ensure that the School is well situated to succeed as we continue to grow to meet tomorrow’s challenges. We should all be proud of the many successes we are accomplishing together.

Sincerely,

Vijay K. Dhir
Dean


FEATURE STORIES
Engineering Faculty First to Capture Elusive Lightning-Quick Waveforms
Researchers at UCLA have for the first time been able to capture and digitize electrical signals at the rate of 1 trillion times per second, a discovery that eventually may help scientists develop defenses against high-powered microwave weapons attacks and allow physicists to peer into the fundamental building blocks of nature. Professor Bahram Jalali and graduate researcher Yan Han at UCLA’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have developed a revolutionary one-tera-sample-per-second single-shot digitizer that will allow scientists to see, analyze and understand lightning-quick pulses. To read more, click here.

Students Advance Sensor Network Technology through Gaming System
An interdisciplinary team of graduate student researchers in electrical engineering professor Mani Srivastava's Networked Embedded Systems Lab have designed and built a team of robots and reconfigurable terrain for a mobile gaming system that addresses many questions common to embedded sensor networks. For additional information about the Ragobot project, read the story in the spring edition of UCLA Engineer by clicking here, or visit http://www.ragobot.com.

OTHER NEWS
Annual Rankings Released; UCLA Engineering Ninth Among Public Universities
The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science rose to number 15 in the graduate School rankings published this month by U.S. News & World Report. Among public institutions the School ranked ninth. For more information, click here.

Commencement Speaker Announced
On June 18, the School of Engineering will hold its 41st commencement ceremony. School of Engineering commencement speaker John H. Marburger, III, is the Science Adviser to the President of the United States and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. As a public-minded scientist and administrator, Marburger has served local, state and federal governments in a variety of capacities. He is often credited with bringing a reasoned approach to contentious issues where science intersects with the needs and concerns of society. Watch the School’s web page for upcoming details – www.engineer.ucla.edu.

E-Week Information
Join the engineering students of UCLA for concrete bowling, liquid nitrogen ice cream, firefighting robots, a tug-of-war between faculty, staff and students, and a mix of many other educational and fun demonstrations during Engineers Week, to be held on campus from April 11-15. For more information and a schedule of activities, click here.

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Professor Elected SPIE Fellow
Ajit K. Mal, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, was elected as a Fellow of the International Society for Optical Engineering for “specific achievements in the area of wave propagation with applications in nondestructive evaluation (NDE) and structural health monitoring (SHM).” During the last three years, Mal has been one of the most active researchers in SHM in the world. One of his major recent contributions is the development of a conceptual structural health monitoring system that can detect and characterize existing and emerging defects in structural components with minimum operator involvement. Mal and his group also have developed analytical methods to calculate the wave field generated by various types of sources including impact, fatigue crack initiation, and acoustic loading in structural components. For more about Mal’s research, click here.

Professor Receives Distinguished Teaching Award
Civil and environmental engineering professor Keith Stolzenbach has been selected by the Academic Senate Committee on Teaching to receive the Distinguished Teaching Award, one of only six awarded on campus. All recipients, chosen for the excellence of their teaching and outstanding contributions, will be honored at the annual Andrea. L. Rich Night to Honor Teaching ceremony in early fall quarter, as well as at the Alumni Association’s Alumni Awards in May. For more about the recipients, click here.

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Professor Receives NSF CAREER Award
Laurent Pilon received an NSF CAREER Award to support research in “Synthesis, Characterization and Modeling of Closed-Cell Nanoporous Media.” His research will address outstanding technical and scientific issues related to energy conversion and efficiency as well as material synthesis for emerging technologies. It proposes to tune electrical, thermal, and optical properties of dense material by introducing nanoscale pores. The new nanoporous media could be used in various applications, including thermoelectric conversion devices, high temperature fuel cells, thermal barrier coatings, energy efficiency of integrated circuits and manufacturing of optoelectronic systems. For more about Pilon’s research, click here.

Computer Scientist Receives IEEE Technical Achievement Award
Wesley Chu, computer science professor, will receive the IEEE Computer Society 2003 Technical Achievement Award “for contributions to Intelligent Information Systems.” The award is presented to individuals whose professional work has been outstanding and innovative in the fields of computer and information science and engineering within the past fifteen years. For more on Chu’s research, click here.

Researcher Receives Chancellor's Award for Postdoctoral Research
Dr. Ozdal Boyraz, a member of electrical engineering professor Bahram Jalali's laboratory, has won the Chancellor's Postdoc Award for demonstration of the first silicon laser. Daniel Cremers, a member of computer science professor Stefano Soatto's laboratory also has won the Chancellor's Postdoc Award for his work in computer vision, enforcing shape information in image processing, with applications for medical imaging, security and tracking. Cremers is now a member of the technical staff at Siemens Corporate Research in Princeton. The Chancellor's Award for Postdoctoral Research honors especially accomplished UCLA postdoctoral fellows for their outstanding research. This prize was established in 1998 to acknowledge the remarkable contributions and integral role of our postdoctoral fellows to the research mission of the university. For more information on the Chancellor’s Award for Postdoctoral Research, click here.

Professor Files Patent Application for New Reverse Osmosis Membrane
Assistant professor Eric M.V. Hoek of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has filed a provisional patent application for a new hydrophilic and antimicrobial reverse osmosis membrane intended for use in desalination and water purification processes. For more about his work, click here.

MEDIA WATCH: UCLA ENGINEERING IN THE NEWS
Chemical and Engineering News
Engineering Cell-Based Factories
Some experts predict that biotechnology will produce 20% of industrial chemicals by 2010. Advances in basic knowledge and technology are moving biotechnology in this direction; however, the challenges of commercialization are complex and formidable. Chemical engineering professor James Liao talks about these challenges - click here to read more.

The Daily Bruin
Building Up Future Engineers
In the rooms of Ackerman Union, groups of high school students design and assemble their own circuits. Others learn the basics of computer programming or nanotechnology. UCLA engineering students at all levels – from undergraduates to post-doctorate researchers to alumni – stand by ready to answer questions. Click here to read more.

ON THE WEB
The spring 2005 edition of UCLA Engineer, the School's magazine, is now online! Read about muscle-powered micro devices, the first silicon laser, improved event-driven software systems and the School's 60th anniversary. There also are articles on our faculty and students, research highlights and alumni news. Look for the print version in your mailbox soon, or click here to view the magazine online.