December 2011

December 14, 2011

During this holiday season, I want to again take the opportunity to thank the numerous people who help UCLA Engineering run smoothly and efficiently on a daily basis. Our staff, whose unwavering dedication and passion for the school and its students, makes vital contributions everyday. I would like to express my gratitude to them for their service and commitment.

Thank you to our

academic counselors who guide our students from their first day as a freshman to graduation.
department and office staff who provide support in all important administrative areas
material services and building services staff who maintain essential equipment and keep our facilities running
staff of the R&D shops who fabricate parts and equipment to enhance the school’s education and research
SEASnet technical staff who continuously update our computer networks and keep them running 24 hours a day, seven days a week
external affairs staff who lead the school’s fundraising, alumni relations and communications endeavors
researchers and engineers who perform advanced experiments
outreach specialists who help K-12 students find their way to an engineering career path

Also, on behalf of the school, I would like to wish all of you a happy holiday season, and a healthy and prosperous new year.

Sincerely,

dhirsig_whitebackground

Vijay K. Dhir
Dean

	Engineering VI: New Anchor for Innovation The school is proposing a bold and ambitious new addition to the UCLA Engineering complex – Engineering VI, to replace Engineering I. The impact of the new building will be multi-fold and will enable opportunities to catalyze new scientific discoveries, new technologies and new areas of education in several critical research areas.
	Ronald and Valerie Sugar Chair in Engineering established at UCLA with $1 million gift The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has announced the establishment of the Ronald and Valerie Sugar Chair in Engineering, made possible by a $1 million gift from UCLA alumni Ronald D. and Valerie Sugar. The endowed chair will support an engineering professor who is not only an accomplished researcher but also an excellent teacher and student mentor.
	UCLA team develops highly efficient method for creating flexible, transparent electrodes Researchers at UCLA report in the journal ACS Nano that they have developed a unique method for producing transparent electrodes that uses silver nanowires in combination with other nanomaterials. The new electrodes are flexible and highly conductive and overcome the limitations associated with indium tin oxide.

	Yeh one of Five UCLA scholars named AAAS Fellow Civil and environmental engineering professor William W-G. Yeh, holder the AECOM Richard G. Newman Chair in Civil Engineering, was named a fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society and the publisher of the journal Science.
	UCLA researchers demonstrate fully printed carbon nanotube transistor circuits for displays Researchers from Aneeve Nanotechnologies, a startup company at UCLA's on-campus technology incubator at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), have used low-cost ink-jet printing to fabricate the first circuits composed of fully printed back-gated and top-gated carbon nanotube–based electronics for use with OLED displays.
	UCLA researchers enhance graphene to enable multicolor photodetection UCLA researchers have found that by coupling graphene, a one-atom thick layer of carbon lattice, with metallic plasmonic nanostructures, they can concentrate, guide or filter light on the nanoscale in sensors and various other devices. The new development could broadly impact a variety of areas, including image sensor arrays, bio-sensing and communications.
	New Engineering Student Mentorship Program helps new students ease into university life UCLA Engineering's new student mentorship program connects freshmen and new transfer students with upperclassmen trained to help guide them through university life. The program complements academic and faculty advising already in place.
	UCLA graduate students take clean energy workshop to high school classrooms Energy takes work. Hard work, and a lot of it, in fact. That’s the starting point in the EnGen Roadshow, a presentation to Los Angeles-area high school science classes created by several UCLA graduate students in engineering and the sciences.
	A centennial education The just released book "UCLA: The First Century" takes readers through nearly 100 years of UCLA history with hundreds of photographs and stories in its 360 pages. The book includes stories on engineering.
	Op-Ed: Save Research From the Chopping Block Dwight C. Streit, professor of materials science and engineering, and director of the school’s Institute for Technology Advancement, encourages America not to cut investments in research as that would have long-lasting negative impacts on national security and jobs for skilled Americans.
	Electrical engineering professor named top mobile health innovator Electrical engineering professor Aydogan Ozcan was named one of the top winners of mHealth Alliance's Innovators Challenge, a first-of-its-kind competition, which recognizes pioneering mobile health (mHealth) professionals who have used mobile technology in innovative ways to improve health systems
	Undergraduate wins first place at national society conference Adam Provinchain, third-year mechanical engineering student, recently took first place in the oral presentation category at the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Fall Regional Conference’s Technical Research Exhibition (TRE).
	Bioengineering graduate student receives the bronze medal in national Collegiate Inventors Competition Bioengineering graduate student Albert Mach received the bronze medal in the national Collegiate Inventors Competition for his process for isolation of rare cancer cells from liquid blood biopsies – which he calls the “centrifuge chip.” Mach is advised by Professor Dino Di Carlo
	Graduate student wins third place at international mechanical engineering conference. UCLA Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Ph.D. student Jin Fang won third place in the Micro & Nano Technology Society-Wide poster competition at the 2011 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. His poster is titled "Thermal Conductivity of Ordered Nanoporous Silicon: Experiments and Molecular Dynamics Study." Fang is advised by Professor Laurent Pilon.
	Graduate student wins third place in best paper contest Henry A. Colorado, a student of mechanical and aerospace engineering, won 3rd Place - Best Paper Award in the 35th International Conference on Advanced Ceramics & Composites (ICACC).
	Computer science professor serves as keynote speaker Jason Cong, Chancellor's Professor of Computer Science, served as keynote speaker at the ASAP 2011 22nd IEEE International Conference on Application-Specific Systems, Architectures and Processors.
	New high school outreach program takes off Los Angeles Computing Circle (LACC) is a new outreach program aimed at promoting careers in electrical and computer engineering among talented high-schoolers. The program combines classroom teaching, hands-on experimental work, challenging programming exercises and independent research projects. The academic year program, to start in late January, is still accepting applications.
	Electrical engineering professor and graduate student win best paper Electrical engineering graduate student Hanseung Lee and his advisor professor Tatsuo Itoh received the Best Paper Award at the Asia Pacific Microwave Conference 2011 for their paper, "Dual Band Isolation Circuits Based on CRLH Transmission Lines for Triplexer Application."
	New associate director of alumni relations William Goodin has accepted the post of associate director of alumni relations at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science after 28 years of dedicated service as a program director at UCLA Extension.

media watch

Science
Electrical Energy Storage for the Grid: A Battery of Choices
Bruce Dunn, professor of materials science and holder of the Nippon Sheet Glass Chair, writes an overview of current energy storage technology research and their future directions in the journal Science.

Nature
Quantum information: The conundrum of secure positioning
Quantum information has been suggested as a means to prove beyond doubt a person's exact spatial position. But it turns out that all attempts to solve this problem using such an approach are doomed to failure. A research group led by computer science professor Rafail Ostrovsky was cited in the article.

Scientific American
The Drone Threat to National Security
The Drone Threat to Privacy
Electrical engineering professor John Villasenor authored a two-part series on unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.

UCLA Today
Retaining science majors a struggle nationwide
Researchers from UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) find many undergraduates interested in majoring in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) lose interest and do not graduate in those fields. Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Adrienne Lavine is quoted. Lavine and colleagues recently received a grant to help high-performing female science majors pursue academic careers.

Los Angeles Times
Idea of civilians using drone aircraft may soon fly with FAA
The Federal Aviation Administration plans to propose new rules for the use of small drones in January, a first step toward clearing the way for police departments, farmers and others to employ the technology. Electrical engineering professor John Villasenor, also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center for Technology Innovation, is quoted.

Los Angeles Times
In Los Angeles, it's back to the future
The city, known for looking forward, has gained a sense of history. Places where artists, architects and engineers influenced the future are being made into monuments and shrines. The recently opened Kleinrock Internet Heritage Site and Archive at UCLA is featured.

New Scientist
Single-molecule nanocar takes its first spin
Made of a single molecule, the "vehicle" has four wheel-like paddles that rotate in the same direction when zapped with a beam of electrons. Paul Weiss, director of the California NanoSystems Institute, who holds a joint appointment in the Materials Science and Engineering Department, was quoted.

The Engineer (U.K)
Scientists use silver nanowires to make LCD screen electrodes
UCLA researchers have developed a new method for producing flexible, transparent electrodes for use in liquid crystal displays and solar cells. Yang Yang, professor of materials science and engineering and the research team’s leader, was quoted.

Encino Patch
Judea Pearl Wins 2011 Harvey Prize
Encino resident Judea Pearl, a computer science professor, has been awarded the 2011 Harvey Prize by the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. The prize "rewards excellence by recognizing breakthroughs in science and technology," Pearl is being recognized for his pioneering work in knowledge representation and reasoning in computer science

PhysOrg
Printed CNT transistor circuits may lead to cheaper OLED displays
The article is on the development by UCLA researchers and colleagues of carbon nanotube circuits that can be produced at low cost using an ink-jet printer and which potentially could be incorporated into displays in cell phones, cameras and other devices. Kos Galatsis, associate adjunct professor of materials science at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, is quoted.

Daily Bruin
Bruins earn honorable mention in Facebook’s national Camp Hackathon finals
A team of UCLA computer science students and alumni received an honorable mention award at Facebook's national hacking competition for their photo-sharing app. The UCLA team qualified for the finals after winning the SoCal Camp Hackathon hosted at UCLA in the spring.

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