UCLA Engineering: UCLA Engineer Magazine

Jason Cong and Ali H. Sayed Appointed Chairs of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Professor Jason Cong

Professors Jason Cong and Ali H. Sayed were appointed as chairmen of the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Departments, respectively, effective July 1, 2005.

“I am confident that both departments will continue to thrive under their active leadership,” said Vijay. K. Dhir, dean of the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. “Both bring dynamic new ideas and energy to the positions.”

Cong received his PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and joined the UCLA computer science faculty in 1990.

His research interests include computer-aided design of VLSI circuits and systems, reconfigurable architecture and computing, and design and analysis of algorithms. He has over 200 research publications in these areas, including three best paper awards. Cong also has received the Semiconductor Research Corporation’s Inventor Recognition Award and Technical Excellence Award, and was elected a Fellow of IEEE in 2000.

Cong is co-director of the VLSI CAD Laboratory and founder of Aplus Design Technologies, Inc., which was acquired by Magma Design Automation in 2003.

“I value the opportunity to serve as the chair of the UCLA Computer Science Department, which has contributed a great deal to the advancement of the information technologies, including being the birthplace of the Internet,” says Cong. “The department has added more than 10 faculty members in the past few years under the leadership of past chair Milos Ercegovac, bringing in much needed new energy and excitement. I would like to work closely with the faculty to seize this unique opportunity to greatly extend our current strength, to build new centers of excellence, and to reach out to other parts of the campus to explore emerging multidisciplinary areas, so that we can bring the department to a new level of success.”

Professor Ali H. Sayed

Sayed has been a member of the electrical engineering faculty since 1996 and was previously vice-chair of undergraduate student affairs for the department. He received his PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1992.

He directs the UCLA Adaptive Systems Laboratory, which supports interdisciplinary research into the analysis and design of adaptive systems, especially in signal processing, communications, biomedicine, and control. With a team of students under his direction, he developed the EEweb tool, which is a sophisticated online course interface and the foundation of the School’s CourseWeb.

Sayed received the 2005 Terman Award for the publication of an influential textbook on adaptive filtering and the 2003 Kuwait Prize for Basic Sciences for his extensive research contributions in the area of adaptive systems, including the publication of four books. He was elected a fellow of IEEE in 2001 and serves as a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Signal Processing Society and as editor-in-chief of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing. His journal and conference publications have been recognized with several best paper awards.

“It is with a great sense of responsibility and challenge that I assume the duties of Chairman of the Electrical Engineering Department at UCLA,” said Sayed. “We are looking forward to supporting and maintaining a vibrant academic environment of the highest standards and to pushing the department into new strategic areas of fundamental significance to the future of electrical engineering. Our field is at a significant crossroads, where interactions between the various disciplines of electrical engineering, basic sciences, biology, and information technology are converging on each other. Success will depend on strengthening multidisciplinary efforts, encouraging research and educational directions that help define our discipline, and engaging all our constituencies: faculty, lecturers, students, staff, industry, and alumni.”

-Marlys Amundson