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E-BULLETIN
UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
January 11,
2006
DEAN'S
LETTER
I hope all of you enjoyed the holidays with family
and friends and are feeling refreshed and ready for an exciting
new year.
"Change creates opportunity" is no doubt
a familiar phase to many and it is very much the situation for
engineering schools across the country. Today, engineering is
as enthralling as it has ever been. Many important breakthroughs,
innovations, and new knowledge are occurring with collaborations
that cross traditional disciplines.
As we have grown into one of the top engineering
programs in the country, we have changed in many ways, but we
have not wavered from Dean Boelter’s early vision of an
engineering program with imagination and integrity.
Our continued emphasis on interdisciplinary research
and course work, encouraging our graduates to achieve both a breadth
and depth of knowledge, ensures that they – like those before
them – will continue to be leaders and visionaries in both
academia and industry.
Our strong history of relationships with industry
partners through student internships, research projects, the establishment
of research centers, and the sharing of knowledge and know-how
have established the School as a first-rate institution that is
truly helping to engineer the future of Southern California, the
United States, and the world.
These are indeed exciting times for the School,
its students, faculty, alumni and our many friends. Our new 100,000
square foot Phase I engineering replacement building has begun
to take shape along Portola Way. The five-story structure is expected
to be completed in late fall of this year and will house state-of-the
art laboratory space, faculty offices, common meeting areas, and
space for our graduate and postdoctoral students. These new additions
will ensure that we remain competitive with other top-tier schools
in attracting and retaining the best faculty and students. Planning
already is well underway for a Phase II Engineering building that
will house sophisticated new laboratories, new interdisciplinary
research centers, a distance learning center, and additional space
for faculty and students.
We have much to celebrate and look forward to
as we grow and build upon our achievements.
We want to be sure to continue to engage and inform
you about the many things happening at the School. Based on the
popularity of the lectures and events we offered last year, we
will present a variety of interesting events and opportunities
for our alumni and friends to visit us on campus throughout the
upcoming year. I hope that while you are visiting you will take
a stroll through the School, chat with our faculty, and also take
a walk past the new building along Portola Way – it is a
very visible sign of the success you have helped us to create.
Sincerely,
Vijay K. Dhir
Dean
FEATURE
STORIES
UCLA School of Engineering New Home of the Western Institute
of Nanoelectronics
The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
is teaming up with leading nanoelectronics researchers across
California to launch what will be one of the world’s largest
joint research programs focusing on the pioneering new technology
called “spintronics.” The Western Institute of Nanoelectronics
(WIN), with starting grants of $18.2 million, will be headquartered
at UCLA Engineering, and led by electrical engineering professor
Kang Wang. The Institute will initially partner with three University
of California campuses – Los Angeles, Berkeley, and Santa
Barbara – as well as Stanford, and will draw on nearly 30
eminent researchers to explore critically-needed innovations in
semiconductor technology.
A New Way to See the World
Vision is among the most powerful ways we have to sense the world
around us. However, because of excessive power demands embedded
sensor networks have been unable to leverage imaging to monitor
an environment in detail—until now. UCLA researchers have
developed a system in which large numbers of sensor nodes could
be deployed to detect and reveal information, including the presence
of an intruder in a secure area, movements of people on public
transit, or changes in the natural environment. Click
here to read more.
OTHER NEWS
Computer Science Professor Wins Oscar Nod
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has named computer
science and engineering professor Demetri Terzopoulos as the recipient
of an Academy Award for Technical Achievement. The award, which
Terzopoulos shares with colleagues at both Pixar and Microsoft,
was given for his "pioneering work in physically accurate
techniques to simulate realistic cloth for motion pictures."
Unlike other Academy Awards, achievements receiving scientific
and technical awards do not have to have been developed and introduced
during 2005. Devices are only considered if they have a proven
track record of continued successful use in the film industry.
The award will be presented to Terzopoulos on Saturday, February
18.
Italian and US Researchers Explore Collaborative
Wireless Projects
Italian and US researchers attended a collaborative program on
Wireless and Mobile Communications Networks hosted by UCLA Engineering
in early December to talk about research activities on environmental
monitoring and homeland security proposed by the Data Acquisition
and Management in a Sensing and Communicating environment (DAMASCO)
project. The three-year program targets the use of sensor equipped
vehicles and urban infrastructure such as traffic lights, freeway
monitors, etc., for monitoring the urban environment and alerting
law enforcement agents about potential hazards.
Engineering Faculty Win Awards and Honors
Chemical engineering professor Yoram Cohen has
been elected as Vice-Chair of the AIChE Separations Division.
He also has been invited to be keynote speaker on “High
Recovery RO Desalination of Brackish Water” at the 4th Eastern
Mediterranean Chemical Engineering Conference to be held in January
2006 in Israel. Professor Cohen is part of an NSF-invited U.S.
delegation to the conference.
Ralph M. Parsons Professor of Chemical Engineering
Sheldon Friedlander delivered the keynote address
on “Aerosol Science and Technology: An Enabling Discipline”
at the meeting of the Asian Aerosol Conference in Bombay, India,
in December. Friedlander also gave the lead talk on “Modern
Developments in Nanoparticle Aerosol Science and Technology”
at a workshop preceding the conference and held at the Indian
Institute of Technology in Bombay. The workshop was attended by
IIT students and faculty and the Secretary of the Indian Department
of Science and Technology. Participation by U.S. scientists was
supported in part by the U.S. National Research Council.
Computer science adjunct professor Boris
Kogan was honored for his pioneering work in analog computing
with a special session at the 2005 American Control Conference.
The December 2005 issue of the IEEE Control Systems Magazine featured
Kogan and his most recent accomplishment.
Mechanical and aerospace engineering lecturer
and alumna Julie Asfia (PhD ’95) has received
the 2005 Woman of Achievement Award from the Amelia Earhart Society
of the Boeing Company. The award is presented to women who have
proven track records of significant achievements and accomplishments.
MEDIA
WATCH: UCLA ENGINEERING IN THE NEWS
R&D
Plastic Solar Cells Gain Ground [Link not available]
Researchers at UCLA have reported significant efficiency gains
for plastic solar cells. Led by UCLA Engineering professor Yang
Yang, the UCLA team has created a new polymer solar cell with
an efficiency of 4.4%. Independent tests by the nation's only
authoritative certification organization for solar technology,
the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colo., has helped
the UCLA team ensure the accuracy of its efficiency numbers. According
to Yang, the 4.4% efficiency is the highest number yet published
for plastic solar cells.
Daily Bruin
Program
Sorts Terrorism Data
Computer science Professor Rafail Ostrovsky and graduate student
William Skeith have developed a computer code that may make it
easier and more cost effective for intelligence agencies to track
terrorist activity on the Internet.
The Statesman (India - Global News Wire,
Asia Africa Intelligence Wire)
Now, Get the Best of American Faculty [Link not available]
Fifteen leading American universities have joined hands with the
Indian Space Research Organization and the Department of Science
and Technology to enhance higher education and research in India.
The universities of Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Massachusetts, Washington,
Texas, Illinois and the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and
Applied Science at the University of California at Los Angeles
are part of the initiative.
EE Times
Consortium
Seeks to Ramp Nanoelectronics Research
Seeking to accelerate nanoelectronics research in the United States,
a consortium of companies has announced its first research grants
under the Semiconductor Industry Association's new Nanoelectronics
Research Initiative (NRI). The first new research center is called
the Western Institute of Nanoelectronics (WIN). Headquartered
at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science,
WIN participants will come from three University of California
campuses — including Los Angeles, Berkeley, and Santa Barbara
— as well as Stanford University.
Electronic News (San Jose, Calif.)
Nanoelectronics
Research Grants Awarded to US Universities
Following increasing noise about the fear of U.S. semiconductor
research falling behind, nanoelectronics research at U.S. universities
is getting a boost thanks to the first research grants under the
Semiconductor Industry Association’s (SIA) new Nanoelectronics
Research Initiative (NRI), meant to benefit the long term needs
of the semiconductor industry. The first of the new research centers
the Western Institute of Nanoelectronics (WIN), based at the UCLA
Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science in Calif.
WIN participants will come from University of California campuses
in Los Angeles, Berkeley, and Santa Barbara as well as from Stanford
University.
KCRW 89.9 FM (National Public Radio affiliate)
Nanoelectronics Research [Link not available]
Nanoelectronics research at U.S. universities is getting a boost
thanks to the first research grants under the Semiconductor Industry
Association’s (SIA) new Nanoelectronics Research Initiative
(NRI), meant to benefit the long term needs of the semiconductor
industry. The first of the new research centers the Western Institute
of Nanoelectronics (WIN), based at the UCLA Henry Samueli School
of Engineering and Applied Science in California.
Ventura County Star
Honing Technical Skills Vital for Success [Link not available]
For workers who grumbled over the past decade that the boss was
tightening the leash by staying in constant contact using cell
phones, e-mail, instant messaging and personal digital assistants,
they had better brace for more. Rajit Gadh, a professor at the
UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science,
directs the school's Wireless Internet for Mobile Enterprise Consortium.
He predicts that businesses in a few years will be using radio
frequency identification (RFID) technology to instantly and surreptitiously
find workers anywhere in large plants. Beyond that, he says businesses
will use RFID in a few years to instantly identify a worker entering
a room and enable him or her to log on to a computer. It's envisioned
that the worker's personal computer settings would pop up immediately
on any desktop, thereby eliminating the need for carrying around
a laptop. "Literally speaking, an entire laptop could possibly
fit on a small chip that's sitting in my pocket communicating
with an RFID tag to a screen hanging on a wall, and all there
is is just a keyboard sitting in the room and that screen,"
Gadh said. "There is no end, I think, to how people will
keep innovating."
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