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DEAN'S LETTER

This week our alumni and friends will join faculty and students in discussing some of the emerging technologies shaping our future, at a symposium and dinner October 11.

The event showcases the role our School plays on the national level in the fields of nanotechnology, bioengineering and information technology. Advances in these areas have the potential to change the worlds of manufacturing, medicine and communications, and will influence the way all of us work and play.

We have invited a number of leaders in the scientific community to join us. Raymond Orbach, director of the Office of Science, Department of Energy will provide insight on high-end computation and scientific discovery. Carol Lucas, biomedical engineering program director at the National Science Foundation will explore opportunities in bioengineering. Tim Krabach, from the Center for Space Microelectronics Technology at the Jet Propulsion Lab will describe recent initiatives.

Our own faculty will share their research and discuss how our School is contributing to the world's newest technologies. In the future we will expand the theme of the symposium and it will become an annual event.

These events allow us to better appreciate the impact the School has through its research, teaching and service to the community. For more information about our symposium, visit http://www.seasalum.ucla.edu/future.cfm. I hope to see many of you there!

Sincerely,

Vijay K. Dhir
Interim Dean

FEATURE STORIES

DENTIST: Early detection of oral cancer and other diseases may become less invasive and more effective using a tiny, silicon "lab-on-a-chip" device being developed by UCLA researchers. It could be the next step in patient care.
"Small Chip Could Test for Oral Cancer While You Wait to See the Dentist"
http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/stories/2002/dental.htm.

FAREWELL: Chand Viswanathan, UCLA electrical engineering professor and former Chair of the University of California's Legislative Assembly, offered farewell remarks at the Board of Regents meeting July 18, marking the end of his term as Faculty Representative with the Regents. Responses from the Regents were also recorded.
http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/bulletin/10-02/chand.htm.

To learn more about Viswanathan's 45 year-relationship with UCLA as student, teacher and administrator, read a September 2001 story at http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/stories/vis.htm.

ACHIEVEMENT: Undergraduate aerospace engineering student Robert Lobbia recently received a special scholarship award from The Next Century of Flight (NCF) education and leadership initiative, a global, multimedia initiative dedicated to helping the aerospace industry capitalize on the 100th anniversary of manned, powered flight. The award was the first of its kind. Lobbia also recently won an AIAA Foundation undergraduate scholarship, one of only 30 given nationwide.
"Parker Hannifin Presents Its First Next Century of Flight Scholarship To UCLA Engineering Undergrad Robert Lobbia"
http://www.aviationnow.com/content/ncof/press_13.htm.

AWARDS AND HONORS

Vijay Dhir, interim dean and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, was a keynote speaker at the International Heat Transfer Conference in Grenoble, France. He lectured on the subject of boiling in microgravity.
For more information about Dhir's Boiling Heat Transfer Lab visit http://boiling.seas.ucla.edu/boiling/.

Petros Faloutsos, computer science professor, won the 2001 Best Paper award for his work, "The Virtual Stuntman: Dynamic Characters with a Repertoire of Autonomous Motor Skills," which was published in Computer and Graphics magazine.
Learn more about Faloutsos' research at http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~pfal/.

Ali Sayed, professor of electrical engineering, has been appointed by the Executive Committee of the IEEE Signal Processing Society to serve as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing starting January 1, 2003. The magazine is a leading source for papers on signal processing research and applications.
Learn more at http://www.ieee.org/organizations/pubs/magazines/sp.htm.

Asad Abidi, professor of electrical engineering, and student Sohrab Samadian won a Low Power Design Contest Award for the paper "Demodulators for a Zero IF Receiver for Bluetooth" at the 2002 International Symposium on Low-Power Electronics and Design.
Learn more about Abidi's research at http://www.icsl.ucla.edu/aagroup/.

George Sines, professor of materials science, and student Ling Ma will coauthor an entry in the Encyclopedia of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering about implanted mechanical heart valves. Learn more about Sines' research at
http://www.seas.ucla.edu/ms/faculty1/sines.html.

Two teams of undergraduate mechanical and aerospace engineering students placed in the 2001-2 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Foundation Undergraduate Team Space Competition. UCLA teams placed first and third.
Read who won at http://www.mae.ucla.edu/.

ENGINEERING ON CAMPUS

A new 53-seat SEASnet computer lab was officially opened at a ribbon cutting ceremony Sept. 26, attended by students, faculty and representatives from Microsoft Corporation. The School's largest and best-equipped lab to date has 1.7GHz computers that run the Windows XP system and have 15-inch flat panel screens. Microsoft Research, which is part of Microsoft Corporation, donated all the hardware worth $70,000. Read more in the current issue of UCLA Engineer magazine.
http://www.seasalum.ucla.edu/seasnet.cfm.

UCLA QUICK FACTS

In 2001-02, aside from patents, UCLA engineering faculty and students have written and published more than 425 papers in archival journals, about 500 papers in proceedings of conferences, 30 chapters in books and seven books. That translates into more than two works being published every day of the year!

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY NEWS FLASH

A group of engineers and biologists has solved the long-standing mystery of how geckos stick to walls and has created the first artificial adhesive based on the lizard's sticky secret. It's another example of scientists turning to nature to solve engineering problems or invent materials.
Read more at http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/Dailynews/gecko060800.html.

MEDIA WATCH: UCLA ENGINEERING IN THE NEWS

THREAT DETECTION: Deborah Estrin, computer science professor and director of the NSF-funded Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, comments on how densely distributed collections of smart sensors and actuators embedded in the physical world can protect our environment from a host of threats -- including intentional attacks.
"Tiny Silicon Spies to Sniff Terror"
http://sci.newsfactor.com/perl/story/19325.html%20%0D.

NEW RELEVANCE: Research projects that have been under way for some time at the Engineering School have taken on new significance after the events of September 11. UCLA Today looks at some of them.
"UC, UCLA Respond to Terrorism, Attacks"
http://www.today.ucla.edu/html/020924terrorism.html.

SAFER INTERNET: UCLA Engineering School computer scientist Peter Reiher is developing a new tool that could prevent network operators from becoming unwitting hosts for a particularly harmful Internet-based threat: the distributed denial of service attack.
"Proposed Computer Defense System Could Protect Networks From Becoming Launch Pads For Crippling Internet Attacks"
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/09/020924072621.htm.

Read more UCLA Engineering news at http://www.engineer.ucla.edu

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