William Kaiser wins 2007 UCLA Gold Shield Faculty Prize
William Kaiser, an electrical engineering professor
at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science,
has received the 2007 Gold Shield Faculty Prize from the UCLA Gold
Shield Alumnae.
The annual prize is awarded to a full professor
with extraordinary promise and accomplishment in research or creative
activity, and an outstanding record in teaching, especially of
undergraduates. Equal weight is given to each.
Prof. William Kaiser |
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Kaiser’s research has concentrated on the development of distributed
networked, embedded computing for linking the Internet to the physical
world. The applications for this technology that his group has pursued
include distributed sensor systems for environmental monitoring
with applications to water resources as well as forest ecosystems.
His research also includes sensor network systems for biomedical
applications, security, and defense.
The broad applications of Kaiser’s research
across several different fields played a significant role in his
selection, said Joan Maxwell, chair of the prize’s selection
committee. But his efforts to improve the educational experience
for undergraduates also stood out.
“The 3i program he created to provide support
for undergraduates in the gateway courses was viewed as very positive,”
Maxwell said.
“Individualized, Interactive Instruction”
or “3i” is a new online tool that employs networked
computing to create a student-centered learning method. The online
tool has been developed over several years in collaboration with
undergraduate and graduate students of Kaiser’s group and
Dr. Gregory Chung, of the Graduate School of Education & Information
Studies. It provides a private and anonymous feedback link between
individual students in a lecture or discussion session and their
instructor. For the instructor, 3i directly displays each student’s
progress on specific problem-solving tasks, which helps reveal
understanding of instructional topics.
The Gold Shield Faculty Prize was first awarded
in 1986 and was given out once every two years. Starting in 2006,
the prize has been given out annually, alternating between North
and South Campus. Preference is given to candidates who are in
the middle years of their academic careers.
The 2007 prize was announced at the June meeting
of the Academic Senate. This is the first time that a faculty
member from UCLA Engineering has won the award.
The award carries a $30,000 cash prize. Kaiser
plans to use the prize to fund stipends for his undergraduate
research group.
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- M. Chin
07.06.07
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