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E-BULLETIN
UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
March 12, 2008
DEAN'S
LETTER
As our budget from the state has been shrinking in recent years,
we have increasingly turned to private support to remain among
the best engineering schools in the country.
One of the most important ways we can maintain
our excellence is to increase the number of endowed faculty chairs
at the school. An endowed chair helps the UCLA Henry Samueli School
of Engineering and Applied Science strengthen the overall quality
of our teaching and research programs by recruiting and retaining
exceptionally talented scholars. In turn, they help attract the
brightest and most promising students.
In the past few weeks, we have announced the establishment
of five new endowed chairs here at the school, made possible by
generous gifts from alumni and friends.
These five new chairs are:
* The Charles P. Reames Endowed Chair in Electrical Engineering
* The Edward K. and Linda L. Rice Endowed Term Chair in Materials
Science
* The Carol and Lawrence E. Tannas Jr. Endowed Chair in Engineering
* The Wintek Endowed Chair in Electrical Engineering
* The Drs. Jane J. and Tien T. Yang Endowed Term Chair in Electrical
Engineering.
We are deeply grateful for their support and commitment
to keep UCLA Engineering on the forefront of advanced fields for
many years to come. I invite you to read more about them. Please
see the links below.
Sincerely,
Vijay K. Dhir
Dean
FEATURE
STORIES
UCLA
Engineering announces Three New Faculty Chairs
The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
has announced the establishment of three new endowed faculty chairs
— each made possible by a $1 million gift. The new chairs
will help the school strengthen the overall quality of its teaching
and research programs by attracting talented faculty, who in turn
will attract the brightest and most promising students. The new
chairs are the Charles P. Reames Endowed Chair in Electrical Engineering;
the Carol and Lawrence E. Tannas Jr. Endowed Chair in Engineering;
and the Wintek Endowed Chair in Electrical Engineering.
UCLA
announces New Term Chair in Materials Science and Engineering
The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied
Science has received a $500,000 gift from Edward K. and Linda
L. Rice to establish a new endowed faculty term chair in materials
science and engineering. The holder of the Edward K. and Linda
L. Rice Endowed Term Chair in Materials Science will have research
interests in materials science and engineering, specifically in
the field of cementatious materials.
UCLA
Engineering announces New Term Chair in Electrical Engineering
The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
has received a $500,000 gift from Drs. Jane J, PhD '71 and Tien
T. Yang, PhD '68, to establish a new endowed faculty term chair
in electrical engineering. The holder of the Yang chair will have
research interests in electrical engineering, with a specialized
focus in photonic technologies.
UCLA
solution to Chemical Mystery could yield More Efficient Hydrogen
Cars
Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and
Applied Science, using molecular dynamics simulations, have solved
a decade-old mystery, and their findings could eventually lead
to commercially practical designs of storage materials for use
in hydrogen vehicles.
OTHER
NEWS
Ali H. Sayed, professor and chair
of the electrical engineering department, has been elected to
serve as Vice President-Publications of the IEEE Signal Processing
Society, one of the largest societies within IEEE. The Vice President-Publications
is a voting member of the Society's Board of Governors and of
the Executive Committee, and chairs the Society's Publications
Board.
Electrical engineering professor William Kaiser
and computer science professor Majid Sarrafzadeh,
along with collaborators from the UCLA Medical School and the
Veteran’s Administration, have been awarded the Best Paper
Award at BodyNets 2008 for their paper entitled: “The SmartCane
System: An Assistive Device for Geriatrics.” BodyNets is
an annual conference focused on the topic of sensor networks applied
to biomedical monitoring. The Smart
Cane system developed by Kaiser and Sarrafzadeh has also been
selected to be presented as a demonstration at the Microsoft TechFest
2008, which is hosted by Microsoft Research. Very few teams outside
of Microsoft are invited to this event.
Jonathan P. Stewart, professor
and vice chair of civil and environmental engineering has been
awarded the 2008 Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize.
Stewart was recognized for his research in geotechnical earthquake
engineering, with emphasis on soil-structure interaction, site
effects on earthquake ground motions, and seismic ground failure
of unsaturated soil.
Tom Sabol,
Adjunct associate professor of civil and environmental engineering
has received the 2008 George Winter Award from the American Society
of Civil Engineers. Tom is being recognized for his contributions
as a practitioner, code developer and educator in the area of
seismic design of steel structures and his effort to improve the
community through church activities.
MEDIA
WATCH: UCLA ENGINEERING IN THE NEWS
ASCE
Civil Engineering magazine
Monitoring Vibrations in the Interest of Archeology
The Remains of a 32 acre Native American Village —
inhabited for approximately 1,350 years — lie partially
beneath a road widening project on Interstate 5 in California's
Central Valley. To begin compiling data on the effects that construction
had on the archeological remains, the California Department of
Transportation funded a study. Researchers at the University of
California, Los Angeles' Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation
(NEES) program conducted the study, which was directed by Scott
Brandenberg, an assistant professor of civil and environmental
engineering, and Robert Nigbor, a research professor
who also manages the NEES facility. The article starts on page
32.
Fuel
Cell Today
Discovery paves way for affordable and environmentally-friendly
hydrogen vehicle
The findings of a study conducted by researchers at the UCLA Henry
Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science could one day
lead to commercially practical designs of storage materials for
use in hydrogen gas fuelled vehicles, it has been claimed. The
study, which appeared on the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences (PNAS) web site on February 27th, expands on the finding
in 1997 that adding titanium to sodium alanate not only lowers
the temperature of hydrogen release from the material but also
allows for an easy refueling and storage of high density hydrogen
at reasonable pressures and temperatures.
The
Daily Bruin
Alum dies in crash: Air Force pilot, remembered for being
amiable and generous, ‘always had a passion for flying’
On Feb. 20, Air Force 1st Lt. and UCLA alumnus Ali Jivanjee died
after his F-15 crashed into another plane during routine training
exercises. He was 26 years old. Jivanjee was from San Dimas, Calif.,
and graduated from San Dimas High School in 1999. He graduated
from UCLA in 2004 with a degree in electrical engineering and
Russian language and literature. He was a member of the ROTC and
went on to receive specialized undergraduate pilot training at
Laughlin Air Force Base in 2006.
CALENDAR
April 2
UCLA
Division of Physical Sciences, Annual Research Colloquium
"Next Generation Biofuels" James Liao, professor of
chemical and biomolecular engineering
4 p.m., April 2
room 1425, Physics & Astronomy Building
May 1
Jon
Postel Distinguished Lecture Series
"Data Management for New Applications" Stan Zdonik,
Brown University
4:15 p.m., 3400 Boelter Hall
May 6
Jon
Postel Distinguished Lecture Series
"An Ultimate Type System" John Gregory Morisett, Harvard
University
4:15 p.m., 3400 Boelter Hall
May 7
UCLA WINMEC
2008
Web 2.0 on Mobile - Convergence in Advertisement, Media
Content and Enterprise Services
Covel Commons, UCLA
May 23
Ken
Nobe Lecture in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
"Metabolic Engineering: Enabling technology for
the biological production of Fuels and Chemicals" Gregory
Stephanopoulos, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1:30 p.m., main lecture hall, CNSI Building
May 27
UCLA Engineering Technology Forum
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
De Neve Commons, UCLA Campus
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