E-BULLETIN
UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
April 12, 2006

DEAN'S LETTER
When I envision the future of our School, I feel a great sense of excitement and optimism about the extraordinary work being undertaken by both our faculty and students. With this month’s E-Bulletin, I’d like to invite all of you back to campus to share in this sense of excitement for yourselves.

If you are interested in learning more about the innovative research we are pursuing, I’d like to encourage you to attend our upcoming 2006 UCLA Engineering Research Review on “Multidisciplinary Engineering for the 21st Century.” To be held on Friday, May 5, sessions offered throughout the day will be an excellent way to get an up-close and personal perspective on the cutting-edge research happening across many of the School’s disciplines. Take a look at out our upcoming events section on this website for the full research review schedule and a link to the online registration page.

Recently, UCLA Engineering hosted the 2006 Pacific Southwest Regional Conference of the American Society of Civil Engineers, where students from across the southwest and Hawaii had the chance to test out their scale-model dormitory buildings at the School of Engineering’s newly completed “Shake Lab.” The results were instructive as well as fun, and the design created by our students provided a glimpse of their future potential.

As I learn from students about their projects, I am continually reminded that these young people represent the next generation of engineers, technologists, and scientists. With an engineering degree from UCLA, they have the opportunity and the know-how to make important contributions to our society.

I invite you to enjoy this kind of student-driven event for yourself during Engineers Week, held now through April 14, during which a wide array of exhibitions and demonstrations showcase the value of engineering in a fun, lighthearted way.

I’m also pleased to share the news that the School has been ranked ninth among public schools and 15th among all graduate engineering schools in the country, according to the 2007 U.S. News & World Report rankings. It’s always wonderful when our good work is recognized by others. However, our focus remains upon the things that make us truly successful – the innovative work done by our exceptionally talented students, faculty, and staff; our pioneering collaborations with other top institutions, industry, and government. It is these ongoing endeavors that continue to make us one of the best engineering schools in the country. We can all be proud of the success we are accomplishing together!

I look forward to seeing you on campus.

Sincerely,

Vijay K. Dhir
Dean


FEATURE STORIES
UCLA Engineering Shakes Things Up for Student Seismic Design Challenge
On March 31, an earthquake measuring magnitude 6.7 on the Richter scale shook student dormitories in Los Angeles. And if the building architects found the shuddering eerily reminiscent of 1994’s Northridge temblor, that’s because the movements from this simulated quake were exactly the same as that frightening natural disaster. During the 2006 Pacific Southwest Regional Conference of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), students had the chance to test out their scale-model dormitory buildings against the Northridge quake — as replicated by the recently completed “Shake Lab” at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. To read more, click here.

OTHER NEWS
UCLA Engineering Among Top 15 Engineering Schools Nationally in U.S. News and World Report
The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science is among the top 15 graduate engineering schools in the country, according to the latest annual U.S. News & World Report rankings. Among public institutions the School ranks ninth. To read more, click here.

Annual UCLA E-Week Showcases Value of Engineering in Everyday Life
Coordinated by the Engineering Society of the University of California (ESUC), E-Week showcases the value of engineering in an accessible way, with activities open to everyone on campus. Egg dropping contests share space with water filtration systems that can be set up in remote locations, and robots are contrasted with a pie-eating contest and a scavenger hunt. To read more, click here.

Shaping UCLA: Academic Senate Leadership
UCLA Engineering faculty members have long helped shape the focus and direction of the campus. This year, faculty from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have assumed several key leadership roles in the Academic Senate. To read more, click here.

New Faculty Join Engineering
Three new faculty have joined UCLA Engineering in civil and environmental engineering, computer science and materials science and engineering. The School welcomes Scott Brandenberg, Demetri Terzopoulos, and Yu Huang. To read more, click here.

MEDIA WATCH: UCLA ENGINEERING IN THE NEWS
CNN Headline News (National News)
Students Designs Put to Earthquake Test [Link unavailable]
At UCLA Engineering, models of dorms got a big jolt in the seismic challenge, one of a series of competitions during the American Society of Civil Engineers for the Pacific Southwest region annual conference.

NBC 4 Network - "Nightly News with Brian Williams"
March Madness + Webcasts = lost productivity [Link no longer available]
For the next 19 days, American workers will be distracted by NCAA basketball. In addition to all those betting pools, now for the first time, every single game is on the Internet, live and free of charge. UCLA Engineering’s Leonard Kleinrock, computer science professor, talked with NBC 4 about March Madness and its effect on Internet bandwidth with increased viewers watching the NCAA games online.

USA Today
Chicago runway too slick at crash
The runway at Chicago's Midway International Airport was much slicker than pilots were led to believe on the snowy December night that a Southwest Airlines jet skidded through a fence and killed a 6-year-old boy, according to a USA TODAY analysis. The physics formula used in the newspaper's analysis was validated by two prominent researchers: Vijay Gupta, a professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at UCLA, and Mark Drela, an aeronautics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Daily Breeze
Students put their designs to quake test
At UCLA Engineering, models of dorms got a big jolt in the seismic challenge, one of a series of student competitions during the American Society of Civil Engineers for the Pacific Southwest region annual conference.

San Diego Union Tribune
Future engineers seek to hold up to simulated 'quake
A “seismic design challenge” held Friday at UCLA Engineering was part of a larger engineering competition sponsored by the American Society of Civil Engineers for the Pacific Southwest region. A total of 17 schools competed in event categories that ranged from the seismic challenge to concrete canoes, concrete Frisbees, model bridges and a “Jeopardy!”-like quiz game.

The Seattle Times
Microsoft researcher honored as computer-graphics pioneer (Free registration required)
Realistic-looking fabric has long been a bugaboo for animators, said Demetri Terzopoulos, who collaborated with Platt and shared in the award. Cinderella's ball gown in the classic 1950 Disney film merely hints at draped silk, because it is nearly impossible to draw by hand all the folds, wrinkles and swaying motions of real cloth. "It takes an enormous amount of time," said Terzopoulos, now Chancellor's Professor of computer science at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Electronic Engineering Times
Details emerge on western U.S. nanotech effort
UCLA and UC-Santa Barbara are two of the four California schools teaming up to launch joint research into pioneering technology called "spintronics," it was announced Thursday. The research will be done at the newly formed Western Institute of Nanoelectronics' headquarters at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering.

KCBS 2 (aired in LA, San Diego, and Bakersfield markets)
Future Engineers Put Designs to Quake Test [Link unavailable]
At UCLA Engineering, models of dorms got a big jolt in the seismic challenge, one of a series of student competitions during the American Society of Civil Engineers for the Pacific Southwest region annual conference. NEES lab director Bob Nigbor and student ASCE seismic design captain Jerry Lee interviewed. Aired on Friday, March 31, at 5 pm.

NBC (aired in Monterey-Salinas, CA)
Future Engineers Put Designs to Quake Test [Link unavailable]
At UCLA Engineering, models of dorms got a big jolt in the seismic challenge, one of a series of student competitions during the American Society of Civil Engineers for the Pacific Southwest region annual conference. NEES lab director Bob Nigbor and student ASCE seismic design captain Jerry Lee interviewed. Aired on Friday, March 31, on KTLA Prime News at 10 pm.

KTLA 5 (aired in LA and New York, NY markets)
Future Engineers Put Designs to Quake Test [Link unavailable]
At UCLA Engineering, models of dorms got a big jolt in the seismic challenge, one of a series of student competitions during the American Society of Civil Engineers for the Pacific Southwest region annual conference. NEES lab director Bob Nigbor and student ASCE seismic design captain Jerry Lee interviewed. Aired on Friday, March 31, on KTLA Prime News at 10 pm.

KABC 7 Eyewitness News (aired in LA, San Diego, Bakersfield, Las Vegas, NV, Syracuse, NY, markets)
Future Engineers Put Designs to Quake Test [Link unavailable]
At UCLA Engineering, models of dorms got a big jolt in the seismic challenge, one of a series of student competitions during the American Society of Civil Engineers for the Pacific Southwest region annual conference. Professor Scott Brandenburg and student ASCE seismic design captain Jerry Lee interviewed. Aired on Friday, March 31, at 6 pm and 11 pm.

KCAL 9 (LA)
Future Engineers Put Designs to Quake Test [Link unavailable]
At UCLA Engineering, models of dorms got a big jolt in the seismic challenge, one of a series of student competitions during the American Society of Civil Engineers for the Pacific Southwest region annual conference. NEES lab director Bob Nigbor, student ASCE seismic design captain Jerry Lee and professor Scott Brandenburg interviewed. Aired on Friday, March 31, at 12pm, 2pm, and 10pm.

KTTV Fox 11 and news partner UPN 13 (aired in LA, Bakersfield, Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo, and Phoenix, AZ markets)
Future Engineers Put Designs to Quake Test [Link unavailable]
At UCLA Engineering, models of dorms got a big jolt in the seismic challenge, one of a series of student competitions during the American Society of Civil Engineers for the Pacific Southwest region annual conference. Professor Scott Brandenberg, NEES lab director Bob Nigbor and student ASCE seismic design captain Jerry Lee interviewed. Also talked with civil and environmental engineering professor Jon Stewart and alumnus Alex Nazarchuk. Aired Friday, March 31, during 10pm news.

LA 18-TV (Asian market TV station)
Future engineers put designs to quake test [Link unavailable]
At UCLA Engineering, models of dorms got a big jolt in the seismic challenge, one of a series of student competitions during the American Society of Civil Engineers for the Pacific Southwest region annual conference. NEES lab director Bob Nigbor and student ASCE seismic design captain Jerry Lee interviewed, among others. Aired on Friday, March 31, at 6 pm.

KAZA TV 54 (Spanish language TV station)
Future engineers put designs to quake test [Link unavailable]
At UCLA Engineering, models of dorms got a big jolt in the seismic challenge, one of a series of student competitions during the American Society of Civil Engineers for the Pacific Southwest region annual conference. Aired Friday, March 31, at 6 pm.

Science News Daily
Four universities join to establish Western Institute of Nanoelectronics
The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science; the University of California, Santa Barbara; the University of California, Berkeley; and Stanford are teaming up to launch what will be one of the world's largest joint research programs focusing on the pioneering technology called "spintronics."

Los Angeles Business (bizjournals.com)
Local schools form 'spintronics' research program
UCLA and UC-Santa Barbara are two of the four California schools teaming up to launch joint research into pioneering technology called "spintronics.” The research will be done at the newly formed Western Institute of Nanoelectronics' administrative headquarters at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering.

The Daily Bruin
Institute Puts Spin on Science
The recent launch of a new nanoelectronics institute at UCLA marks the beginning of one of the world's largest joint-research programs dealing with the emerging field of spintronics, in which researchers hope to find ways to make everyday electronics require significantly less power to operate. The institute, called the Western Institute of Nanoelectronics, is to be headquartered at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, with other facilities at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara and Stanford University.

Millimeter
Oscar's New Clothes [Link unavailable]
While CG clothes once resembled rubber suits, or appeared to be painted on a character, today's computer-simulated clothing is convincing enough to work in a wide variety of films. So it's not surprising that the Academy has honored the technical "tailors" behind this trend. But what might surprise some is that these honors were almost 20 years in coming. Pioneering research led the Academy to honor Demetri Terzopoulos and John Platt with Technical Achievement Awards decades later. "It is surprising after 20 years," says Terzopoulos, now the Chancellor's Professor of Computer Science at UCLA Engineering. "But on the other hand, I have seen how cloth simulation technology has evolved in motion pictures, so I know that our work has had an impact."