E-BULLETIN
UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
November 9, 2005

DEAN'S LETTER

Sixty years ago, the UCLA College of Engineering welcomed its first engineering students to the campus.

Early programs envisioned by Dean Llewellyn M. K. Boelter gained the College a strong reputation for innovative thinking and advanced research. Boelter urged his faculty to focus on three areas he viewed as integral to the future of the University and the future of California: pollution, transportation, and water. A mere fifteen years after the College opened its doors, researchers developed and successfully tested the first reverse osmosis membrane for desalination. Nine years later, the College – renamed the UCLA School of Engineering and Applied Science – became home to the first node of the Internet.

As the School marks each successive anniversary, we continue to set new standards for engineering excellence. Every year, exceptional faculty members join the School, in turn attracting undergraduate and graduate students who are among the best and brightest in the world. Innovative research programs in micro and nano technology and devices, wireless networking and communications, embedded systems, and water resources and technology have made the School a leader in the cutting-edge research of tomorrow.

This month’s E-Bulletin is a celebration of our wonderful past and our incredibly bright future. You can glimpse a bit of our past by reading through a series of interviews about the School's early history with the people who were there. I encourage you to read how professor Yang Yang is creating affordable alternative energy solutions, how our students are improving the learning experience for their peers with a new instant messaging tool, and how our faculty continue to garner impressive awards in their fields.

I also invite you to read about the School’s Annual Engineering Awards Dinner, held on November 4 to honor the extraordinary accomplishments of alumni, students, and faculty. With more than 400 colleagues and friends in attendance at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel ballroom, awards were presented to 11 outstanding individuals. KNBC 4 reporter and UCLA Engineering alumnus Patrick Healy emceed the event, and Broadcom co-founder Henry Nicholas was honored as Alumnus of the Year. It was a truly wonderful evening.

As we fête our 60th Anniversary, commemorated this month by the Awards Dinner, there can be no doubt that the School, our faculty, and our students will continue to play a major role in shaping the future of California and the world. We are delighted that you are sharing this remarkable journey with us.

Sincerely,

Vijay K. Dhir
Dean

FEATURE STORIES

Engineers Pioneer Affordable Alternative Energy Resource — Solar Energy Cells Made of Everyday Plastic
With oil and gas prices in the United States hovering at an all-time high, interest in renewable energy alternatives is again heating up. Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science hope to meet the growing demand with a new and more affordable way to harness the sun’s rays: using solar cell panels made out of everyday plastics. In research published in Nature Materials magazine, UCLA engineering professor Yang Yang, postdoctoral researcher Gang Li and graduate student Vishal Shrotriya showcase their work on an innovative new plastic (or polymer) solar cell they hope eventually can be produced at a mere 10 percent to 20 percent of the current cost of traditional cells, making the technology more widely available. For more information, click here.

Students Create Open Source Instant Messaging Tool – CourseChat Expands UCLA Engineering Course Management System
A team of UCLA engineering students has developed an open source instant messaging tool called CourseChat that offers classmates a new way to enhance their communications with each other and their instructors outside of the classroom. To read more, click here.

OTHER NEWS
UCLA Engineering Awards Dinner Honors Contributions
The School of Engineering celebrated the remarkable accomplishments of our alumni, students, faculty and friends at this year's UCLA Engineering Awards Dinner, held on November 4. Awards were presented to 11 individuals, including Henry Nicholas, co-founder of Broadcom, as Alumnus of the Year. To read more, click here.

Sensing the World: Engineering’s Center for Embedded Networked Sensing Holds Public Review
The Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) gave an overview of its work from the past year at its third annual public research review on Friday, October 28. An interdisciplinary and multi-institutional venture, CENS researchers are working to build an infrastructure resource for society that monitors and collects information on such diverse subjects as plankton colonies, endangered species, soil and air contaminants, medical patients, and buildings, bridges, and other man-made structures to reveal previously unobservable phenomena. For more information, click here.

UCLA Engineering Documents Its History
The Oral History program at the School of Engineering began in 1993, when a series of interviews with distinguished alumni, faculty, and staff from the School's early history were recorded to help preserve the School's legacy for future generations. The project documents the considerable influence of the School's first Dean, L.M.K. Boelter, a portrait of several notable scientific breakthroughs, as well as the engineers and scientists who shaped the School's research and educational programs. Nineteen of these interviews are available online as transcripts, with additional interviews to follow in the months ahead. To browse these interviews, click here.

The Arc of Invention
As part of the School’s 60th Anniversary celebration, UCLA Engineering will host Dr. John H. Lienhard, the author and voice of National Public Radio's “The Engines of Our Ingenuity” at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, November 16, in Kerckhoff Grand Salon. Lienhard will discuss how scattered inventions accumulate, merge into identifiable technologies, and then improve in a disturbingly inexorable, exponential way. A reception will follow the lecture. For more information on Lienhard, click here. To attend the event, please RSVP by clicking here.

Engineering Faculty Win Awards and Honors
Chemical engineering and materials science professor Nael El-Farra and chemical and biomolecular engineering professor Panagiotis Christofides have recently published a new book entitled Control of Nonlinear and Hybrid Process Systems that presents general, practical methods for the synthesis of nonlinear feedback control systems for chemical processes described by nonlinear and hybrid systems.

Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Nasr Ghoniem has been selected as one of five members of the International Advisory Oversight Committee for the European Project "PERFECT: for Prediction of Irradiation Damage Effects on Reactor Components. PERFECT is developing predictive tools for reactor pressure vessels and internal structures.

Computer science professor Leonard Kleinrock has been awarded the prestigious Computer and Communications Prize from Nippon Electronics Corporation, along with co-winners Robert E. Kahn and Lawrence G. Roberts. NEC's C&C Prize recognizes pioneers in the fields of computing and communications technologies. Past winners include: Alan Kay, Andrew Viterbi, and Vint Cerf, among other well-known innovators. Kleinrock will accept the prize in Tokyo in December.

Kleinrock also has been awarded an honoris causa degree of “Honorary Laurea Specialistica in Ingegneria Telematica” from the Politecnico di Torino. This is the first such honorary degree awarded in this specialty of Internet technology. The degree was conferred in Turin, Italy, at the Politecnico di Torino in October.

Electrical engineering professor Fernando Paganini recently became a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Membership requires at least ten years in professional practice and significant performance over a period of at least five of those years.

Civil and environmental engineering professor Michael Stenstrom has been awarded the 2005 Water Quality Award from the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board for his study, Alternative Approaches to Stormwater Quality Control. The Water Quality Awards honor individuals, organizations, businesses and public agencies that have worked tirelessly and successfully to protect or restore water quality in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Foundation has announced the winners of its 2004/2005 Student Design Competitions and UCLA Engineering’s KABOOM team (Chris Covell, Natasha Barra, Patrick Greene, Cassandra Guess, Kenneth Parker, Harshil Shah) garnered first place in “Undergraduate Team Space—Mission to Rendezvous with and Divert an Incoming Asteroid.” Administered by AIAA’s Student Programs Department, the competition recognizes excellence in aerospace engineering study at both the undergraduate and graduate level, and are judged by members of AIAA Technical Committees.

MEDIA WATCH: UCLA ENGINEERING IN THE NEWS
ABC News online (National)
Could Plastic Help Produce Cheaper Solar Power?
With record-high prices of petroleum and natural gas and growing demand for electricity, the interest in alternative and renewable energy sources — such as wind and solar power — is once again bubbling to the surface. One team of researchers at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of California in Los Angeles has made strides toward making photovoltaic solar cells that are both cheap and efficient.

National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered”
UCLA Engineering Develops Plastic Solar Cell [Link unavailable]
Host Shirley Jahad interviewed UCLA Engineering's Professor Yang Yang on his plastic solar cell research on Monday, October 10, and aired pieces of the interview throughout the morning and afternoon newscasts and on NPR's "All Things Considered" during evening drive time.

M.I.T. Technology Review
Making a Soft Cell
By rearranging the polymers and buckyballs, several research teams – led by physicist David Carroll from Wake Forest; Alan Heeger, a co-founder and chief scientist of Konarka and a Nobel Laureate at the University of California at Santa Barbara; and Yang Yang of the University of California at Los Angeles – have improved the flow of electricity, approximately doubling the material's ability to convert light into electricity. If researchers can get the performance to double again, the material will be efficient enough to compete with traditional solar technologies.

Associated Press
Two hours of battery life got you down? Get some sun. To go.
Portable seems not quite so portable when you have to plug in every couple of hours. Scientists and inventors around the globe may have a solution: solar power using panels made from durable, flexible materials – even plastic. Once researchers find the right combination, the possibilities are rich. UCLA engineering professor Yang Yang, who recently developed plastic cells with 4.4 percent efficiency, envisions high-rise buildings coated in tinted plastic panels for shade.

*Articles on Professor Yang Yang’s plastic solar cell research also appeared this month in Red Herring, La Repubblica (Rome, Italy), Deccan Herald (India), Inovacaotecnologica (Brazil), European Plastics News/Plastics & Rubber Weekly (United Kingdom), and the UCLA Daily Bruin, among many others.

National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered”
Language Computer
Affiliate KPCC Radio 89.3 FM’s Roger Rudick reports on a computer program developed by UCLA engineering professor Abeer Alwan that helps teach English to Spanish-speaking students.

Yahoo! News
UCLA-WINMEC Demonstrates RFID
Radio frequency identification technology is being applied to a variety of applications from supply chain inventory management to warehousing to asset management. The Wireless Internet for the Mobile Consortium (WINMEC) at the University of California hosts an industry forum to discuss business applications and successes and failures. Professor of engineering and WINMEC Director Rajit Gadh comments.

BBC News
Robotic Racers Achieve Milestone
The Golem Group, returning for a second attempt and now partnered with UCLA, began after team founder Richard Mason won $50,000 (£28,400) on the US Quiz show Jeopardy. He decided to invest his winnings in entering the Grand Challenge. After a creditable showing last year they are back.

The Orange County Register
Runoff Goes Into The Ozone [Link unavailable]
A new water-disinfecting system targeting Salt Creek and Monarch Beach has city officials and environmentalists bubbling in excitement. UCLA civil and environmental engineering professor Michael Stenstrom comments.

UCLA Today
A Guard Against Digital Theft?
Researchers led by Professor Rajit Gadh from the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science are working on a breakthrough technology, the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to protect DVD content against unauthorized use. If successful, it could save the U.S. film industry losses totaling more than $3 billion in potential worldwide revenues annually.

KNBC Channel 4, 11 pm evening news [Broadcast link unavailable]
DARPA Grand Challenge
UCLA Engineering Vision Lab Director Stefano Soatto was interviewed for story on UCLA's DARPA Grand Challenge Entry. The station also used UCLA engineering’s footage of UCLA’s vehicle at the DARPA trials.

UCLA Daily Bruin
Priceless Crash Ends UCLA Team's $2M Quest Across Desert
With team members from UCLA's Computer Vision Lab present, The Golem Group was among about 20 others who raced their vehicles on a 131-mile course underneath the desert skies in the Defense Advanced Projects Agency Grand Challenge put on by the Department of Defense.

The Los Angeles Times (Also appeared on KTLA 5 website)
Racers, Start Your Software, and May the Best Robot Win [Link unavailable]
The DARPA Grand Challenge is scheduled to start and finish in Primm, Nev. Twenty contestants will try to complete the course of up to 175 miles to win a $2-million prize, twice as large as last year's. The robotic vehicles have 10 hours to complete the course, using only their own sensors and computer brains. UCLA's team comments on the race.

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