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E-BULLETIN
UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
July 9, 2008
DEAN'S
LETTER
As a world-class public university, UCLA is committed to reaching
out to the best and brightest students from all backgrounds. And
as university fees continue to climb, it is critical to ensure
that talented engineering students from low- and middle-income
families can still attend UCLA.
In April, the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering
and Applied Science received a $1.3 million endowment gift to
fund scholarships for financially needy undergraduates. The School
has leveraged the anonymous gift, offering to match donations
of $25,000 or more to create new $50,000 endowed scholarships.
Together with matching donations, this gift will allow UCLA Engineering
to establish 48 new scholarships.
Already, several endowed scholarships have been
established through this new matching program. More are on the
way and I anticipate this gift will continue to spur the creation
of new scholarships for engineering students with the greatest
financial need.
This is part of our Enhancing Engineering Excellence initiative,
which includes raising $5 million to create 100 new endowed engineering
scholarships. Along with other recently created scholarships,
we will be three-fourths of the way to this goal when this matching
gift program is completed.
This year the School was able to offer more than
170 scholarships, and I am looking forward to seeing this number
continuously increase thanks to the vision and generosity of our
alumni, friends and industry partners. If we are to continue to
attract the most promising students, we must strive to make a
UCLA Engineering education affordable for all.
Sincerely,
Vijay K. Dhir
Dean
FEATURE
STORIES
UCLA
Researchers Create Personal Environmental Impact Reports Using
Cell Phones as Sensors
UCLA researchers unveiled a new tool this week to help people
understand their relationship with the environment. The Personal
Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) lets users see online how their
daily choices affect the environment and how the environment affects
them, by providing personalized, daily estimates of measures like
particulate matter exposure on roadways and carbon emissions due
to driving. PEIR was developed by the Center for Embedded
Networked Sensing (CENS) at the UCLA Henry Samueli School
of Engineering and Applied Science in collaboration with the Nokia
Research Center, Palo Alto.
OTHER
NEWS
Electrical engineering professor Kung
Yao, along with co-authors Aliazam Abbasfar of Rambus,
Inc., and Dariush Divsalar of the Jet Propulsion Lab won the 2008
IEEE Communications Society/Information Theory Society Joint Paper
Award. Their paper was titled "Accumulate-Repeat-Accumulate
Codes" and was published in the April 2007 issue of the journal
IEEE Transactions on Communications.
Todd Millstein, assistant professor
of computer science and Mihaela van der Schaar,
associate professor of electrical engineering, are among
the recipients of the 2008 IBM Faculty Awards. The competitive
worldwide program is intended to
foster collaboration between researchers at leading universities
worldwide and those in IBM research, development and services
organizations; and to promote courseware and curriculum innovation
to stimulate growth in disciplines and geographies that are strategic
to IBM.
Computer Science professor Majid Sarrafzadeh
and students Foad Dabiri, Alireza Vahdatpour,
Hyduke Noshadi and Hagop Hagopian
won a best paper award at the 2nd ACM International Workshop on
Systems and Network Support for Healthcare and assisted Living
Environments. Their paper "Ubiquitous Personal Assistive
System for Neuropathy," is on the development of wireless
electronic orthotics composed of lightweight embedded systems
and non-invasive sensors which can be used by diabetic patients
suffering from peripheral neuropathy (loss of sensation in the
foot.)
The June 2008 issue of Medical Device & Diagnostic
Industry magazine named Bioengineering professor Warren
Grundfest as one of the 100 notable people in the medical
device industry. Grundfest was recognized for his pioneering work
on pulse ultraviolet excimer lasers for biomedical applications.
MEDIA
WATCH: UCLA ENGINEERING IN THE NEWS
UCLA
Magazine
Sling Shot
The university's magazine features an interview with computer
science alumnus Blake Krikorian '90, CEO of Sling
Media. The company is best known for Sling Box, a place-shifting
device allowing users to watch their home television feed anywhere
in the world via the Internet.
UCLA
Magazine
Quick Takes: Muscle Heal Thyself
It's too early to think about bulking up with the
artificial muscles that scientists like Qibing Pei
of UCLA's Materials Science and Engineering Department in the
Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have been
working on for years. But researchers are fantasizing that the
rubber-like material, called electroactive polymers, may one day
power small, energy-efficient robots, turn your shoes into power
generators that can keep your iPod or cell phone going, power
your car windows and adjust your car seats, and help keep a weak
heart pumping.
UCLA
Magazine
Quick Takes: IPhone Home
Jonathan Zweig was 7 years old when he had an
Einstein moment. One day he spotted an Atari gaming system in
the trash. Zweig reacted to the battered machine with the same
wonder that Einstein famously experienced when, at age 5, he saw
his first magnetic compass. "I would play computer games
after school and dream about making them," recalls Zweig
'00, who majored in computer science and engineering. He did eventually
make casual entertainment games — from brain teasers to
mobile arcade games — and posted them on his Web site, Jirbo.com,
where they could be downloaded for free. But he never imagined
that his creations would change his whole life.
Daily
Bruin
Orientation Issue 2008
UCLA researchers forecast how new scientific findings
will advance society and create new directions for research in
years to come. Mohamed Abdou,
distinguished professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering;
and James Liao, chancellor's professor of chemical
and biomolecular engineering, are among the UCLA faculty members
featured.
CALENDAR
July 24-26
CS4HS
workshop
Explorations in Computer Science for High School Teachers
CENS
4760 Boelter Hall
December 12-13
Water Resources
Systems Analysis Symposium: The Contributions of William Yeh
UCLA Campus
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