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DEAN'S LETTER

On November 7, UCLA's School of Engineering will host a very special symposium called Homeland Security: Safeguarding Civil Infrastructures. The Department of Homeland Security's Undersecretary for Technology, Dr. Parney Albright, will deliver the keynote address for this event. He will be joined by key representatives from Boeing, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman, who will offer timely perspectives on technology development and the alliance between industry and the university. Michael Wermuth, the director of domestic counter-terrorism programs at the Santa-Monica-based think tank, RAND, will assess the nation's progress on homeland security so far. A number of faculty from the School will offer presentations on the role that pervasive, mobile technologies play in safeguarding our infrastructure.

Our symposium comes at an opportune time, as the School launches what may be the most expansive university effort in the country to focus on the protection of our civil infrastructure. The UCLA Center for Homeland Security draws together the skills and dedication of engineers and scientists from the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Public Health, and the School of Public Policy and Social Research, and involves leading researchers from the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, the Institute for Cell Mimetic Space Exploration, the Center for Public Health and Disasters and the California NanoSystems Institute.

This research center will address the technological, environmental, ethical and economic issues involved in the protection of our infrastructure. We will focus on finding the most efficient means to protect against natural, accidental and deliberate threats to our transportation systems, energy generation, buildings, bridges and roadways, as well as our water and food supply.

Engineers have always played an important role in bringing innovation to society, through the industrial age to the information age, and today this role has never been more significant. As engineers, we hold a responsibility to offer solutions that will maintain our way of life and ensure the continued stability of the civil infrastructure we depend upon. UCLA's Center for Homeland Security is an important step toward fulfilling that responsibility, and I look forward to informing you of its progress as the Center moves forward.

I also wish to congratulate mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Xiang Zhang, who will direct the new NSF-funded Center for Scalable and Integrated Nano-Manufacturing. This new center, which you can read about later in this E-Bulletin, is the fifth extramurally-funded research center to be established at our School in just two years.

Sincerely,

Vijay K. Dhir
Dean

FEATURE STORIES

Nano-Manufacturing Research Center Established at UCLA
The National Science Foundation has awarded UCLA a grant worth up to $40 million over ten years to bring some of the most exciting nano-scientific discoveries out of the research lab onto the factory floor. The promise that nanotechnology holds for industries ranging from semiconductors to health care to national defense has largely been held back by the lack of manufacturing platforms that allow complex nano-engineered products and systems to be adopted on a mass scale. The new Center for Scalable and Integrated Nano-Manufacturing could change all that.
http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/stories/2003/sinam.htm

Center for Homeland Security Will Study the Protection of the Nation's Civil Infrastructure
UCLA researchers from the Schools of Engineering and Public Health are looking for more efficient ways to protect our nation's infrastructure against natural, accidental and deliberate threats -- everything from hurricanes to cyber attacks. Electrical engineering professor Bill Kaiser has been named director of the Center. A symposium takes place November 7 that will highlight the Engineering School's research efforts, and offer perspectives from political, industrial and academic experts.
http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/symposium.htm

Embedding the Internet: Center for Embedded Networked Sensing Marks First Year Since Its Establishment With Public Review
Researchers at the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), who for the past year have been applying the revolutionary technology of embedded networked sensing systems to critical scientific and social applications, will provide an overview of the center's research at its first public research review from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, October 10, at the Tom Bradley International Center on the UCLA campus. http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/stories/2003/cens_year_one.htm

Technology Reigns in the Treetops
Researchers at UCLA and partner universities have developed a new class of aerial, suspended robotic sensors able to monitor their own performance as they move themselves along a network of cables. The technology, known as networked infomechanical systems (NIMS) can be used to monitor a mountain stream ecosystem from the ground to the treetops for global change indicators, or observe coastal wetlands and urban rivers for biological pathogens. The same technologies could one day be applied to securing and monitoring public spaces such as ports and bridges.
http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/stories/2003/nims.htm

Order More Lab Coats: Engineering Students Gain Greater Research Opportunities
Last summer, electrical engineering undergraduate ShingWa Wong tested different space-time coding schemes for mobile wireless communication with Professor Michael Fitz. Wong was selected to work in Fitz's lab as part of an eight-week program at UCLA that paired exceptional undergraduates with faculty and graduate student mentors. It was one of several new programs begun this year that are designed to enhance the undergraduate educational experience.
http://www.engineer.ucla.edu/magazine/studentresearch.html

MEDIA WATCH: UCLA ENGINEERING IN THE NEWS

Business Users Falling in Love with Handhelds
Rajit Gadh, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and director of the Wireless Internet for Mobile Enterprise Consortium (WINMEC), told attendees at a recent emerging technology conference that enterprises investing in wireless and mobile applications are improving business agility and productivity. According to Gadh, wireless technology is rapidly taking hold in the enterprise because business users are falling in love with the technology.
http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid40_gci922581,00.html

'Brilliant 10' Rise to the Top of the 'Popular' List
UCLA Computer Science professor Deborah Estrin was among ten scientists selected by Popular Science editors who scoured the halls of academia for young thinkers whose work is most admired by colleagues. The story, which originally appeared in Popular Science magazine, was picked up by USA Today on September 10 (not available online).

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

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