E-BULLETIN
UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
December 14, 2005

DEAN'S LETTER
As the year comes to a close and we look back on all we have accomplished, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the many important contributions of the School’s staff members. Their efforts help us meet the School’s mission of education and research, forge stronger links with the community, raise public awareness of the School’s research, and make our School an accessible and inviting place.

There are about 210 full-time staff who work on behalf of the School, from the student affairs and admissions people who guide our students’ academic careers, to the Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity staff, who conduct programs designed to raise interest in engineering, math and science among students of all backgrounds.

Our building and equipment managers ensure that our facilities function well and that our students are able to learn and work in a healthy and safe environment, while the R&D shops develop experimental systems for faculty and students, providing necessary tools for research projects, classroom and lab assignments and extracurricular activities.

Our administrative support staff help faculty prepare proposals and manage contracts and budgets, as well as accounting, payroll, and fund management. Our computer network personnel keep the School, its faculty and students connected to one another, the UCLA community, and to the world. The research engineers and lab technicians help advance the frontiers of technology, and External Affairs helps us raise money for capital and research projects, publicizes the School and the work of our faculty, and connects us with our alumni through events, publications, and other outreach efforts.

Aside from their other duties, many staff in the School also willingly volunteer to help plan and assist with annual events such as commencement, research reviews, forums and symposia.

For all that they do, I am proud to acknowledge the dedication and professionalism of our staff, and to thank them for another year of hard work with extraordinary results. We also owe our thanks to all of you who support the School in numerous ways throughout the year. We could not have achieved such continued success without your help.

For another wonderful year of achievements, cheers!

My best wishes to all of you and your families for a safe and happy holiday season, and a prosperous and healthy New Year.

Sincerely,

Vijay K. Dhir
Dean

FEATURE STORIES
Harnessing the Power of the Sun for Embedded Sensor Networks
In use around the world, solar technologies provide a number of valuable resources, including light, electricity, and cooling. Now thanks to breakthrough research at UCLA, solar energy also can power a class of tiny, environmental sensors. To read more, click here.

UCLA Research Team Develops Revolutionary Wireless Communications Technology
A research group in the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has developed a revolutionary integrated circuits chip for wireless communications that could lead to more reliable broadband Internet connections and crisper cellular phone calls. To read more, click here.

OTHER NEWS
Sixty Years of Engineering Excellence
The School of Engineering celebrates sixty years of excellence and an incredibly bright future with a new video highlighting its key accomplishments and initiatives. To visit the site where you may view the video, click here.

UCLA Engineering Joins Indo-US Network to Promote Collaborative Education and Research
The School of Engineering has joined a new initiative launched by Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam called the Indo-US Inter-University Collaborative Initiative in Higher Education and Research. The project seeks to build an active partnership between US and Indian educators in advanced technology areas such as computer science, information technology, materials science, bio and nanotechnology, and health sciences, as well as in teaching and research. Other participating US institutions include Princeton, Purdue, Yale, Georgia Tech, U-Mass Amherst and UC Santa Cruz.

UCLA computer science alumnus Vinton Cerf receives Presidential Medal of Freedom
In a White House ceremony in November, Internet pioneer and UCLA computer science alumnus Vinton Cerf (Ph.D. 1972) was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civil award. The award also was presented to Robert Kahn. The pair was honored for their design of the software code used to transmit data over the Internet. The award noted that they have been at the forefront of the digital revolution that has transformed global commerce, communication, and entertainment. Cerf is currently a vice president for Google.

Engineering Faculty Win Awards and Honors
Electrical engineering professor Frank Chang has been selected as the 2006 recipient of the IEEE David Sarnoff Award for “development of HBT power amplifiers leading to their commercialization in wireless communications.”

American Nuclear Society’s Thermal Hydraulics Division has presented its 2005 Technical Achievement Award to Dean Vijay K. Dhir for “his outstanding contributions to phase change heat and mass transfer, two phase flow and thermal hydraulics of nuclear systems through the study of hydrodynamic theory of the peak heat flux in boiling, two phase flow in porous media and coolability of heat generating porous beds, the quenching of Zircaloy clad rod bundles, the modeling of reflood heat transfer phase of the large LOCA design base accident, the stratification in sodium cooled fast reactors, and the modeling of nucleate boiling and developing numerical analyses to describe the complex processes occurring at the surface.” The award was presented in November.

Computer science professor Gerald Estrin has received the Israeli Software Industry Pioneer Award, presented by the Israeli high-tech industry “in recognition of the entrepreneurship, leadership, hard work and outstanding achievements put forth in creating the first computer in Israel.” This award also recognizes Professor Estrin for his integral role in the establishment of the Israeli high-tech industry and the strengthening of Israel’s economy, security, and scientific capabilities.

Computer science professor Mario Gerla, along with PhD students Claudio Enrico Palazzi and Giovanni Pau, recently won the Best Full Paper Award at the 3rd ACM International Conference in Computer Game Design and Technology. The paper is coauthored with Stefano Ferretti and Marco Roccetti from University of Bologna (Italy) and is titled “FILA, a Holistic Approach to Massive Online Gaming: Algorithm Comparison and Performance Analysis.”

Electrical engineering’s Bahram Jalali and Ozdal Boyraz have been named among Scientific American’s prestigious annual “Scientific American 50” list for their innovative work with silicon lasers. The list recognizes key science and technology contributions.

Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Ann Karagozian has been selected to chair a new, high level study for the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board on the subject of Technology Options for Improved Air Vehicle Fuel Efficiency. The study was commissioned by the White House and Department of Defense through the Acting Secretary of the Air Force, Pete Geren, and the Under Secretary of the Air Force, Ronald Sega.

The NASA Inventions and Contributions Board has awarded electrical engineering professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii a NASA Board Award for “Fan Beam Patterns Radiated from a Parabolic Reflector Antenna.” Awards are given in recognition of contributions to the National Space Program, and to the mission of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Computer science professor Lixia Zhang has been elected as an IEEE Fellow “for contributions to the architecture and signaling protocols in packet switched networks.”


MEDIA WATCH: UCLA ENGINEERING IN THE NEWS
Chronicle of Higher Education
Enrollment of Foreign Students Falls For a 2nd Year, But Recent Surveys Suggest the Decline Could End Soon
Vijay K. Dhir, dean of the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, believes that the difficulties foreign students have faced coming into the country since September 11, 2001, have led to fewer students applying. “We are in a critical situation in the country,” says Dhir, “and if we don't correct it we are going to be worsening it at a faster and faster rate.”

The Daily Bruin
A Breath of Fresh Exhaust
People may one day be drinking water out of their car exhaust pipes. Showcasing a new DaimlerChrysler F-Cell hydrogen car, chemical and biomolecular engineering chair Vasilios Manousiouthakis said that the only by-product produced by hydrogen-powered cars is water vapor, which may be clean enough to drink.

Dow Jones Newswire (The Wall Street Journal)
Fringe Energy Sources Going Mainstream [Link unavailable]
Record oil and natural gas prices, environmental concerns and legislation that makes renewable energy more profitable have industrial giants such as General Electric Co. (GE) and Siemens AG (SI) looking at green technologies like solar, wind and biomass as growth platforms. Yang Yang, a professor of engineering at the University of California Los Angeles, last month published a paper reporting that heat created a plastic solar cell that converted 4.4% of solar energy that hit it into electricity -the highest efficiency recorded so far with plastic. (Silicon cells are about 15% efficient.) A plastic solar cell can be made for about a quarter of the cost of a silicon cell, and those economics spurred interest from big players.

The New York Times
Control the Internet? A Futile Pursuit, Some Say [Free registration required]
Working with Pentagon funds in the 1960s and 1970s, a small group of designers created a pioneering research network called the Arpanet and a software framework that could let an unlimited number of computers exchange data. UCLA Engineering professor Leonard Kleinrock was among these pioneers.

The Daily Bruin
The Math of the Collective Consciousness
John Lienhard, a professor, author and radio personality, gave a talk presenting his theory as part of the 60th Anniversary of UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. The focus of the presentation was on the "arc of invention," a theory developed by Lienhard that explains the sudden exponential growth of invention as a result of the cumulative effect of many smaller ideas and innovations.

Fox 11 (KTTV) Evening News
Sony Music CDs Sparks Embedded Spyware Controversy [Link unavailable]
Computer science professor John Cho was interviewed by reporter Phil Shuman for the 11pm evening news on the spyware embedded by Sony on all of its new music CDs in an effort to combat piracy.

World Talk Radio
Science & Society
Professor and chair of Bioengineering Carlo Montemagno talks about the application of nanotechnology to biological systems on World Talk Radio.

Line 56 News
DoD's RFID Progress
Professor Rajit Gadh of UCLA Engineering likes to emphasize you have to put a lot of engineering know-how into RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) system design in order to improve its performance.

Business Intelligence Pipeline
RFID Classes Hit Business Schools
Business schools across the country are taking an academic interest in RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). The University of California, Los Angeles, hosts classes within its engineering school. Rajit Gadh, a professor at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science who researches RFID technology, also is in charge of the Wireless Internet for Mobile Enterprise Consortium known as WINMEC.

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