E-Bulletin

February 8, 2012

The annual Tech Forum for the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science will be held on Tuesday, March 13, and we have a terrific program to offer.

Last month I mentioned Tech Forum’s distinguished keynote speakers, Henry Samueli, CTO and Co-founder of Broadcom, and Venky Harinarayan, senior vice president, Global eCommerce for Walmart and co-founder of @Walmartlabs. Our focus this year is on entrepreneurship and startups, and certainly these two technology leaders have first-hand experience in starting and growing companies into influential industry leaders.

This month, I would like to highlight the annual Tech Forum student poster competition. Under the direction of our faculty, UCLA Engineering students are conducting cutting-edge research in many areas critical the 21st century. Tech Forum provides a wonderful and unique venue to see first-hand many of the innovations and new ideas that our students – the next generation of engineers – are working on. For our industry representatives in particular, this is a great opportunity to meet our students and talk with them one-on-one about their work. For our students, presenting their findings to a broad and interested audience will be a productive and memorable experience. As this is a competition, students will also have an opportunity to win cash prizes.

The student poster competition is again sponsored by ViaSat. I look forward to seeing many of you here at Tech Forum next month.

Finally, I’m very happy to report that the SEAS Café has reopened in its new location, along the 5th floor breezeway of Boelter Hall, just across from its previous location. This new open space with windows along the entire length of the café and additional tables provides a brighter atmosphere for students to gather and relax or study in. In a few short weeks, it’s already proven to be a popular place for students, faculty and staff.

Some photos of the café have been linked below and I encourage you to stop by the next time you’re on campus.

Sincerely,

dhirsig_whitebackground

Vijay K. Dhir
Dean

	Computer science professor Lixia Zhang named to Jon Postel Chair in Computer Science Lixia Zhang, a professor of computer science, has been named the holder of the school's Jonathan B. Postel Chair in Computer Science. The chair honors the famed computer scientist's lifetime achievements and his contributions to the development and management of the Internet.
	Kleinrock to receive 2012 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal Leonard Kleinrock, distinguished professor of computer science, who is considered one of the fathers of the Internet for his development of packet-switching networks, a key driver of Internet technology, is being honored by IEEE with the 2012 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal. Kleinrock was recognized for pioneering contributions to modeling, analysis and design of packet-switching networks.
	New Café by the SEAS is a big hit In January, Café by the SEAS opened in a new larger and brighter space on Boelter Hall’s 5th floor breezeway, just across from its previous location. The new location has been a hit with students. More tables and outlets for laptops are available to those who need a place to hang out between classes or a place to catch up on some work.

	Professor receives NSF CAREER Award Benjamin Williams, assistant professor of electrical engineering, has been awarded a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation. It is the organization’s most prestigious award for support of junior faculty. The award will support Williams’ research on “widely tunable monolithic THz waveguides, lasers, and arrays.”
	Best scanning electron microscope images by graduate students recognized The Molecular and Nano Archaeology Laboratory (MNA) – a joint venture between the Department of Materials Science and The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, recently held its third annual Best SEM (scanning electron microscope) Image Award ceremony.
	Computer science team wins best paper Computer science professors Leonard Kleinrock and Peter Reiher with former Ph.D. student Nam Nguyen received a 2011 best-paper award from the Conference on Mobile Ubiquitous Computing, Systems, Services and Technologies (UBICOMM) for their paper "The Interaction Analyzer: A Tool for Debugging Ubiquitous Computing Applications."
	UCLA-Peking University summer program emphasizes hands-on research with global perspective For students at UCLA, particularly in engineering and the sciences, two popular options for summer is participating in an undergraduate research program, or a study abroad program. A joint program between UCLA and Peking University (PKU) in China offers the best of both.

media watch

Forbes
30 under 30
Bioengineering graduate student Albert Mach was selected as one of Forbes "30 under 30" in its science and innovation category. The list recognizes "today’s disrupters and tomorrow’s brightest stars. Mach was recognized for his centrifuge on a chip, which could detect cancer via a blood test.

Yahoo! News
Math Formula May Explain Why Serial Killers Kill
Electrical engineering professor Vwani Roychowdhury and researcher Mikhail Simkin have discovered that the seemingly erratic behavior of the "Rostov Ripper," a prolific serial killer active in the 1980s, conformed to the same mathematical pattern obeyed by earthquakes, avalanches, stock market crashes and many other sporadic events.
The news was also carried in several other news outlets, including:
Forbes; Fox News: MSNBC: The Daily Mail (U.K.): and Discovery News.

Fast Company
Who owns your personal history?
In an era when nearly everything we do is recorded, we have less control over what we choose to remember, and perhaps more crucially, what to forget. Electrical engineering professor John Villasenor is the author.

Scientific American
Why the Supreme Court GPS Decision Won't Stop Warrantless Digital Surveillance
Villasenor also has a blog on Scientific American regarding the future of digital location tracking following the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, United States v. Jones.

PhysOrg
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
A team of UCLA researchers, including mechanical and aerospace engineering professor C.J. Kim, has developed an all-electronic digital microfluidic device for microscale chemical synthesis in organic solvents, which overcomes several limitations of previous technologies.

HP Input Output
A New Mathematics for Computing
The Silicon Valley giant HP features computer science professor Amit Sahai on its Input Output blog. The article is on researchers looking to build upon Claude Shannon's foundational work in communication theory.

Fast Company
WalmartLabs Brings "Two Pizza Teams," Startup Culture To Walmart Empire
Fast Company profiles @WalmartLabs, co-founded by alumnus Venky Harinarayan MS ’90, and its innovations for the retail giant’s mobile and online sales efforts.

Wall Street Journal
Andreessen's Firm Raises $1.5 Billion
The Wall Street Journal reports that Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, co-founded by alum Ben Horowitz MS ’90, has raised more than $1.5 billion in two new funds.

KCET SoCal Connected
Military goes Green
The L.A. public television's news and current affairs magazine recently aired a story on the military's adoption of green technologies. Professor Ann Karagozian was interviewed for the piece.

Daily Bruin
Students create software projects for disabled persons in Code for a Cause competition
A team of UCLA students took first place in a competition to create software for disabled persons with a modified Sudoku game for the visually impaired.

Daily Bruin
Not so simple
The engineering honor society, held its 2nd annual Rube Goldberg competition. A team of students from IEEE wins top prize with an apparatus built around the issue of income inequality.

CNET
At RockMelt, engineers pound out features at light speed
Computer science alumnus Devon Rifkin '10 is profiled in CNET's Day on the Job series. Rifkin is a front-end engineer for Mountain View, Calif.-based RockMelt, which offers a new Web browser integrated and optimized for social media such as Twitter and Facebook.

Curbed Los Angeles
The 10 Most Popular Curbed LA Stories of 2011
The Curbed L.A. blog named its story on the Kleinrock Internet Heritage Site in Boelter Hall as one of its most popular stories of 2011.

Science
New Lease for Leftover Light (subscription required)
UCLA Engineering researchers reported at the fall Materials Research Society meeting that they've devised polarizing filters made from organic solar cells that recycle some of the absorbed light from liquid crystal displays.

Panchabuta-Renewable Energy & Cleantech (India)
India needs to partner with early innovators across the globe for SmartGrid success
Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Rajit Gadh, director of the UCLA Smart Grid Energy Research Center, was interviewed about smart grid technology development around the world as it relates to India.

Daily Bruin
UCLA's 'Beatboxing Rhino' of the night
The Daily Bruin's series on UCLA at night profiles first-year mechanical engineering student Moonsoo Jo, who practices his beatboxing at Wilson Plaza at the base of Janss Steps. The article also includes a short video.

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