DEAN'S LETTER
UCLA’s engineering faculty, about 150 tenured and tenure-track members, is a broad group with diverse backgrounds and ideas, but with a common mission – to undertake cutting-edge research and to educate the students of tomorrow. Top-notch scholars, academicians, and researchers, our faculty members make significant contributions to the advancement of engineering worldwide.

We have recently added five outstanding new faculty who will begin their appointments in the fall quarter. Each of them, through their exceptional skills and experience, brings added strength to our School, and I am very pleased to welcome them into our community. You can read more about our new colleagues in the E-Bulletin story below.

I firmly believe that by aggressively recruiting and retaining top teachers and researchers we will continue to meet our mission to be a leader in engineering research and instruction for many years to come.

Likewise, we must look toward broadening recruiting efforts with future students if we are to continue to educate the best and the brightest. The School is launching an innovative new program this fall to tutor high school students in engineering, math, and science. Dubbed the Engineering Science Corps, the volunteer distance-tutoring program will bring together students at UCLA with area high school students via email. Using course material from the high schools, participating UCLA students will be available at their computers at designated times during the week to answer questions, and will work with the younger students to help them understand material that might otherwise discourage them from pursuing careers in engineering, math and science. You will be reading more about our outreach efforts as we progress with this new program.

I’m pleased to report that even with an uncertain economy, public and private funding for the School has reached its highest levels in recent history. More than $85 million was awarded from federal, state and local agencies. In addition, roughly $20.8 million was raised through our industrial affiliates programs, gifts and other fundraising activities.

It’s going to be an exciting new academic year. I look forward to sharing with you in future E-Bulletins all of the wonderful activities, research, and other news happening in the School.

Sincerely,

Vijay K. Dhir
Dean

FEATURE STORIES
Interdisciplinary Team Leads Nanoscale Research in New Materials for Silicon Chips
The integrated circuits in personal computers, cellular phones, electronic games and other consumer electronics have become significantly smaller in the last decade – some have nearly a billion transistors per chip. As the number of transistors on a single tiny chip increases, the materials used in the transistors also must be scaled down in size, and researchers are finding that these elements operate very differently at the nanoscale. Funded by a $1.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation, researchers including materials scientist King-Ning Tu, mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Nasr Ghoniem, and materials science and engineering professor Jenn-Ming Yang are developing methods to strengthen and improve materials used for interconnect and packaging components for high-tech chips. For more information, click here.

UCLA Engineering Recruits Five New Faculty Members
Talented researchers and educators are at the center of any successful university – they are critical to attracting and educating exceptional students, as well as to develop dynamic research programs. This year, the School has successfully recruited five new gifted educators who will continue our tradition of excellence. For more information, click here.

OTHER NEWS
Engineering Faculty Win Awards and Honors
Computer science professor Junghoo (John) Cho and new electrical engineering professor Mihaela van der Schaar have been awarded the 2005 IBM Faculty Award. The award is an annual grant given to select faculty members based on the quality and the importance of their work to the industry related to IBM.

The American Nuclear Society/Thermal Hydraulics Division Honors and Award Committee has selected Dean Vijay K. Dhir as the recipient of the 2005 ANS/THD Technical Achievement Award. The award will be conferred in November. The Technical Achievement Award is the highest award given by the THD, and is given annually in recognition of outstanding past or current technical achievement.

Lutz Mädler, currently a visiting researcher and lecturer in chemical and biomolecular engineering, has been named the recipient of the 2005 Smoluchowski Award in aerosol science. Mäedler received the prestigious award in recognition of his research in aerosol reaction engineering which includes the synthesis of flame made quantum dots, nanoparticles for catalysts and dental fillings and nanostructured films for gas sensors, a field in which he is currently working at UCLA. The Smoluchowski Award, named after the physicist Marian Smoluchowski (1872-1917), is given to a young researcher (under 40 years of age) who has achieved and published new results in aerosol science, which deals with the formation and behavior of small particles in gases.

The Fusion Power Associates Board of Directors has selected mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Neil Morley to receive the 2005 Excellence in Fusion Engineering Award. Given in memory of Professor David J. Rose of MIT, the award is presented to individuals in the early part of their careers who have shown both technical accomplishment and potential for becoming exceptionally influential leaders in the fusion field. Morley was selected for his outstanding technical contributions to fusion development in areas such as high heat flux components, liquid walls and MHD fluid flow and heat transfer, as well as his leadership qualities in such areas as the US program for the ITER Test Blanket Module and the liquid surface divertor module on the NSTX facility at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory.

MEDIA WATCH: UCLA ENGINEERING IN THE NEWS
Time Magazine
Rebuilding A Dream; How do you put back a city and a region so devastated?
The first step in rebuilding New Orleans will be simply to draw off the water that covers 80% of the city. Most pumps around the levees are submerged and inoperable, explains Jonathan Stewart, a professor of civil engineering at UCLA who has been tracking the situation closely. "They'll have to bring in other pumps from around the country on barges and just keep them pumping," he says. "The Army Corps of Engineers estimates they can remove a foot every day."

KTLA Channel 5 Morning News
New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina
UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science professor John Wallace was interviewed in studio on the KTLA 5 Morning News by anchors Carlos Amezcua and Michaela Pereira. Wallace talked about the problems that structures face in hurricanes, particularly in New Orleans, and discussed the levee system in the city.

The New York Times and The International Herald Tribune
Early Look at Research Project to Re-engineer the Internet
A new network test bed for experimentation would allow scientists to make measurements and test design ideas in ways that are not possible with the current Internet, said Leonard Kleinrock, a computer scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles who was involved in developing the Arpanet, the network that preceded the modern Internet. Kleinrock also said it would be possible to design a network that would be better able to handle traffic from the edge of the network, at the level of individual users. In the next decade, computer researchers expect an explosion of data from mobile and wireless devices as well as sensors that will vastly outnumber current personal computers.

Investor's Business Daily
Computer Character Lia Schools Girls in Tech; Seeks to Spark Interest, UCLA Students on a Mission to Change Girls' Attitudes Toward Tech Studies
“Elsewhere, college students look to draft more girls into high tech. That's the aim of students at UCLA. They're on a mission to change girls' attitudes toward tech studies -- in particular, engineering. Baley Fong is the impetus behind an outreach program to let middle and high school students -- especially girls -- know that engineering is, well, cool.”

UCLA Today
Summer in the city: Kids of all ages flock to camps on campus
On campus for a six-week math and science program were 11th and 12th graders who were guests of the UCLA Center for Excellence in Engineering and Diversity. Administered by the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, the program was aimed at students from communities traditionally underrepresented in “STEM careers,” that is, careers in science, technology, engineering and math.”

The Los Angeles Business Journal
The Next Big Thing
Innovation, it seems, is a constant in the still-young history of L.A. Ben Wu, a bioengineering professor at the UCLA School of Engineering who, along with orthodontics professor Eric Ting, is developing a protein that can be used to repair fractured bones. Wu, Ting and several other partners have each put in tens of thousands of dollars of their own money into the effort. “I enjoy the open, collaborative spirit here at UCLA that enables us to solve all the little scientific problems that crop up,” Wu said.

Chip Design
Manage Complexity in Nanometer SoC Designs
The rapid increase in design complexity has become a serious limiting factor in nanometer system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs. This sharp increase is driven by two factors. One is the exponential rise in the number of devices integrated in a single chip. Another factor is actually due to many new issues, such as the interconnect, noise, power, and thermal limitations that are associated with technology scaling. As a result, a gap is widening between the silicon capacity and the design productivity, says computer science chair Jason Cong.

The History Channel
Modern Marvels, “Wiring America”
Without wires, America would grind to a halt. But the next generation of power may be able to travel beyond the grid. The hardwiring of America is a story that is nearly two centuries old. And though satellites and wireless systems may be challenging the wire, it's not dead. Wires will be with us well into the next century. UCLA computer Science professor Leonard Kleinrock comments.

Metro Radio Networks (supplies content for major radio networks)
Reporter Russ Spears interviewed mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Ann Karagozian on NASA and the space shuttle landing, which aired on ABC and several other stations in the area on August 10.

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