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DEAN'S LETTER
On June 19, the School of Engineering will hold
its 40th commencement ceremony and as I prepare to publicly celebrate
this day of recognition and achievement with our great students,
I feel pride at how much our School has grown.
The class of 1947 – the first year we conferred
degrees – consisted of just six students. This year, we
expect to grant over 700 undergraduate degrees alone, along with
several hundred graduate degrees. We have grown from an enrollment
of fewer than 400 students when we first opened our doors for
instruction in 1945, to a thriving population of over 4,000 young
scholars, studying and conducting research in the most advanced
technologies and taught by the most dynamic faculty.
Among those graduating this month will be roughly
40 students who are also program participants in the Center for
Excellence in Engineering and Diversity. Their hard work and academic
achievement has reaffirmed to me the importance of student enrichment
and outreach programs like those at CEED, which help to make higher
education a more accessible and fulfilling experience for a greater
number of Southern Californians.
The School has also announced this month the recipients
of the 2003-2004 School-wide student awards and honors. Almost
30 students will be recognized during the commencement ceremonies
for their academic excellence or service to the School. You can
find out who they are in this issue of the E-Bulletin.
I have great confidence in this year’s graduates.
I know that with the training and education they have received
here, they will excel in whatever they do. I also know them to
be well-rounded. Two weeks ago, our senior class came together
for a special dinner to mark their upcoming graduation, and I
must say I was impressed with the multi-faceted abilities our
students displayed during the evening’s musical program!
As a piece of advice for our graduates, I think
the words of our School’s first dean, Llewellyn Boelter,
which he shared with students in 1963, still ring true today:
“The products of your mind are the most
precious things you own … and you must protect them, and
must not do wrong with them, you must do the right thing. Accept
the responsibility … for yourself and for others.”
Sincerely,
Vijay K. Dhir
Dean
SPECIAL FEATURE
Speak Out: What do you think of UCLA
Engineer magazine?
Do you read the School’s magazine, UCLA Engineer?
We’d like to hear from you! We invite you to complete a
brief, anonymous survey online. http://www.engineeringalum.ucla.edu/magazine/survey.htm.
FEATURE STORIES
Future of Wireless Systems Lies with Next-Gen
Technology called MIMO, Say UCLA Researchers
In homes and offices nationwide demand is growing for reliable
high speed connections that can support high performance wireless
communications, from faster multimedia networks to more reliable
cellular phone connections. Researchers in one UCLA lab, led by
electrical engineering professor Babak Daneshrad, are working
on what could be the best solution yet: a next generation wireless
networking technology known as MIMO.
http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/news/stories_2004/mimo.html
UCLA Engineering Students Win Imagine
Cup 2004
A team of computer science students from UCLA will travel to Sao
Paulo, Brazil next month to compete in the world finals of the
2004 Microsoft Imagine Cup software design invitational. The students
will represent the United States after winning the Team USA title
at a judging exhibition held May 23. UCLA computer science undergraduate
Chris To, and graduate students William So, Tree Li and Alex Chang
won for designing PICKS, a "digital concierge" that
runs on mobile devices and is designed to help users answer lifestyle
questions such as where to eat or what to wear.
http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/news/stories_2004/imagine_cup.html
From Lab to Marketplace: Professor’s
Research Leads to Startup
UCLA materials science and engineering professor Yang Yang has
bridged the gap between the research lab and the marketplace by
co-founding ORFID Corporation, an academia-industry spin-out based
on Yang's work on organic transistors and printable conductive
polymers. Yang’s co-founders are San Fernando-based high-tech
company Precision Dynamics and local venture capital firm Convergent
Ventures.
http://www.research.ucla.edu/whatsbruin/2004/7/orfid/
New Undergraduate Bioengineering Program
Welcomes Freshman Class in Fall
The links between biology and the physical sciences represent
fertile ground for new discoveries, and UCLA’s bioengineering
department is embracing this opportunity with their new curriculum.
Built from the ground up, the UCLA bioengineering curriculum includes
20 new, innovative courses developed specifically for the new
major. The department introduces the new curriculum this fall
when it welcomes its first freshman class.
http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/magazine/bioeng.html
Stand and be Recognized: Students Gain
Acclaim
The School of Engineering has announced the winners of this year’s
academic awards. Roughly 30 students will be recognized during
commencement ceremonies June 19 for their academic excellence
or service to the School. A complete list of this year’s
honorees is online.
http://www.seasoasa.ucla.edu/Commencement/all_awards_04.html
UCLA School of Engineering Recognizes
Three Professors with Teaching Honors
Three members of the faculty have been awarded for their quality
classroom teaching and high professional and personal standards.
Bioengineering Professor Benjamin Wu and Computer Science Professor
Glenn Reinman have been given the Northrop Grumman Teaching Award
and Computer Science Professor Joseph DiStefano III has received
the Excellence in Teaching Award sponsored by Lockheed Martin.
http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/news/stories_2004/teach_awards.html
Professor Jonathan Stewart Receives Fulbright
Award
Civil and environmental engineering associate professor Jonathan
P. Stewart will travel to Italy early next year as part of the
2004-2005 J. William Fulbright Scholarship program. Stewart will
spend four months lecturing at the Department of Structural and
Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Rome "La Sapienza."
During his lectureship, Stewart hopes to learn more about Italian
tectonics and seismicity and he intends to familiarize Italian
colleagues and their graduate students with the state-of-the-art
practices and technologies associated with Performance-Based Earthquake
Engineering (PBEE). The knowledge exchange should lead to the
formation of long-term collaborative relationships between U.S.
and Italian earthquake engineers.
Learn more about Stewart’s Fulbright Award at http://www.cee.ucla.edu/news/news_20040518_01.html.
Computer Science Professor Junghoo Cho
Receives NSF CAREER Award
Professor Junghoo “John” Cho will enable researchers
to study the "digital trace" of human activity by building
the scientific foundation for archiving the history and evolution
of the Web: tracking changes, storing multiple versions of Web
pages, and providing the stored pages to users through an easy-to-access
interface. Cho’s project will be supported by an award from
the National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development
(CAREER) Program, which supports the early career-development
activities of teacher-scholars who are most likely to become future
academic leaders.
Learn more about Cho’s research at http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~cho/.
MEDIA WATCH: UCLA ENGINEERING
IN THE NEWS
Henry Samueli to Co-Chair Chancellor’s
Newly Formed Competitiveness Council
UCLA has launched a $250 million fund-raising initiative to recruit
and retain the best professors and graduate students, and bolster
its position as a leading research university. Samueli, founder
of Broadcom and a three-time alumnus of the Engineering School
that now bears his name, will co-chair the chancellor’s
Competitiveness Council, an advisory and advocacy group of community
and industry leaders.
Read the UCLA press release at http://newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?RelNum=5249
Read the Los Angeles Times report at http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ucla3jun03,1,1871722.story?coll=la-headlines-california
Scientists Use Google to Measure Fame
vs. Merit
UCLA electrical engineering professor Vwani Roychowdhury has studied
the dynamics of peer-to-peer networks to examine the proliferation
of citation misprints, to more effectively filter spam from other
email, and he has even used Google to catalog the fame of World
War I pilot aces, sparking what some are calling a “cottage
research industry” through his work on information propagation
in networked systems. Roychowdhury and UCLA researcher Mikhail
Simkin are featured in this news item from Newsfactor.
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=24133
Engineering Professor Sees the Light
Known by his peers as the father of photonic crystals, electrical
engineering professor Eli Yablonovitch spoke with UCLA Today about
research that could lead to the next revolution in information
and telecommunications.
http://www.today.ucla.edu/2004/040525people_engineer.html
Students Share Electric Optimism for Contest
Twenty electrical engineering students have spent months and many
sleepless nights tweaking algorithms for complex bundles of circuits
and sensors on wheels. The fruits of their labor are Natcars,
miniature racecars powered by a single battery and capable of
running autonomously along a track. The students traveled to Santa
Clara on May 26 to compete in the Natcar competition, but before
they went, the UCLA Daily Bruin caught up to them to talk about
their chances. http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?ID=29212
For results of the Natcar contest, check periodically at the IEEE
web site at http://www.ee.ucla.edu/~ieee/home.htm.
Read more UCLA Engineering news at http://www.engineer.ucla.edu
The E-Bulletin is produced by the Office of External
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