Dean's Letter • Feature Stories • Media Watch • Archive

DEAN'S LETTER

With the passage of Proposition 47 on the November 5 ballot, the Engineering School has come a step closer to realizing an important goal -- rebuilding our Engineering I building as a state-of-art facility capable of supporting the School's mission of teaching, research and service.

The Engineering I building, constructed in 1950, has become an outdated facility increasingly unable to support modern lab equipment and provide a quality learning environment for our students. Damaged by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the building also poses a seismic safety hazard.

The ballot measure, called the Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act, will provide the School with $24.9 million for a phased demolition and replacement of the existing building with a new complex housing modern research labs, functional instruction areas, office space and important safety and seismic upgrades. Additional funds necessary to complete the project will be raised in part through a capital campaign.

We expect construction to begin in December 2003, with the replacement of the old facility's east wing, called Unit 1B, which should be completed by December 2005. A second wing will then replace the remaining Unit 1A and in the final phase a third wing will be constructed.

The current occupants of Unit IB will be relocated by this spring, and arrangements are being made to accommodate them elsewhere. Unit IA continues to house instruction, research and support programs of the departments of chemical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, and materials science and engineering.

As a research and teaching institution, the Engineering School's facilities must support the work of its faculty, staff and students with the most modern research and instructional space possible. I am excited to report that plans for a new engineering facility are moving forward. The building will make an important addition to our existing state-of-art facilities in Boelter Hall and Engineering IV.

I wish you and yours a safe and happy holiday season.

Sincerely,

Vijay K. Dhir
Interim Dean

FEATURE STORIES

BATTERY POWER: Though many people have never heard of them, the emerging realm of micro-scale devices -- called microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS -- could completely change the medical, automotive and aerospace industries, except for one thing. No battery yet exists that will provide long-lasting power and still fit inside devices smaller than the width of a human hair. One team of researchers led by materials science professor Bruce Dunn is doing something about it.
"New Battery Design Could be the Answer to Powering the World's Smallest Devices"
http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/stories/2002/membat.htm.

SEE THE LIGHT: A research group led by electrical engineering professor Bahram Jalali has found a way to generate light from silicon -- and the results could revolutionize chip and Internet technologies.
"New Research Brings Scientists Closer to More Powerful Computers and Faster Internet with First-Ever Observation of Raman Light Emission from Silicon Light Wires."
http://www.opticsexpress.org/abstract.cfm?URI=OPEX-10-22-1305.

NEW FACULTY

Yuanxun Wang has joined our School's faculty in the electrical engineering
department. He begins his appointment in the winter term. Find out more
about him at http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/bulletin/12-02/ywang.htm.

AWARDS AND HONORS

Computer science professor Stefano Soatto has been appointed Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence. The journal is published by the IEEE Computer Society and is designed to inform readers on the state of the art in the field of computing. Learn more about Stefano Soatto's research at http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~soatto/.

Chemical engineering graduate student Lin Sha received the Coburn-Winters award at this year's National American Vacuum Society conference. A $1,000 prize was awarded to Sha by the Plasma Science and Technology Division for best student presentation. Sha is a member of professor Jane Chang's research group. Learn more about the research group at http://www.seas.ucla.edu/Chang/.

ENGINEERING ON CAMPUS

ENDOWMENT: The UCLA School of Engineering and long-time supporter Edward K. Rice have established a $75,000 endowment to fund three annual awards for engineering students. The Edward K. Rice Student Awards for Excellence will be given each year to undergraduate and graduate students, beginning in Fall, 2003. Rice's involvement with the Engineering School began in 1951 as a lecturer. He strongly supports engineering student projects, particularly the UCLA chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and is Chairman of CTS Cement Manufacturing Company.

ON THE WEB

The School has established a new online giving form for donors who wish to give to the Engineering Annual Fund, the Alumni Fund for Student Projects, the Engineering Parents Fund or to support one of the School's departmental programs.
http://www.seasalum.ucla.edu/gift.cfm

MEDIA WATCH: UCLA ENGINEERING IN THE NEWS

BLOOD CONNECTION: James C. Liao, UCLA professor of chemical engineering, was quoted in an Associated Press story regarding the causes of pain in people with sickle-cell disease.
"Link Found Between Sickle-cell Pain, Blood Cells" http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2002-11-10-sickle-cell-pain_x.htm

HONEST BROKER: When Torrance residents found their soil had been contaminated with DDT, chemical engineering professor Yoram Cohen helped this community in crisis. Read this UCLA Today article to find out how.
"He Wins Public's Trust Over Toxic Soil" http://www.today.ucla.edu/html/021119public_trust.html

MOTOR CONTROL: Researchers have modified a naturally occurring protein to create a tiny, biomolecular-driven motor that they can turn on and off at will, bringing scientists one step closer to using such devices to repair cellular damage, manufacture medicines and attack cancer cells.
"Biotechnology Advances Allow Control of Protein Activity" http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?ID=21803

MEDICAL ADVANCE: A future trip to the dentist may just save your life thanks to a tiny silicon chip UCLA researchers are developing that could detect oral cancer. Article published in UCLA Today.
"New Chip Technology Could Save Lives"
(UCLA Today link not yet available)

WEARABLE COMPUTING: Computer science professor Majid Sarrafzadeh commented in a recent tech journal about a Belgian lab's efforts to design technologies you can wear.
"Thought Control"
http://www.thefeature.com/article.jsp?pageid=25931

GEOMETRY: Electrical engineering chair Yahya Rahmat-Samii and student John Gianvittorio are using fractals, mathematical models normally used to define curves and surfaces, to design smaller, more diverse antennas. Read more in UCLA Daily Bruin. "Fractals Used to Optimize Antennas"
http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?ID=21804

SET THE VCR: The Engineering School was used to film a special episode of "This Week in History," which focused on inventors. It will air on The History Channel December 27 at 8:00 pm. See if you recognize where the show's host is being filmed!

Read more UCLA Engineering news at http://www.engineer.ucla.edu

The E-Bulletin is produced by the Office of External Affairs in the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.

If you have comments or a story you think our subscribers would like to read, tell the E-Bulletin about it at media@ea.ucla.edu.

View past e-Bulletins: