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News Item UCLA’s top teachers: Helping students find treasures locked in an equation

The UCLA Academic Senate has awarded UCLA’s highest teaching prize to six Academic Senate members. In an occasional series of stories that will run throughout the summer, UCLA Today will profile these winners of the 2011 Distinguished Teaching Awards. To see the entire list, which includes non-Senate members and teaching assistants, go here.
 
It’s a good bet that each and every student at UCLA knows a lot about cell phones — speed-dialing calls, texting, taking photos, shooting videos, using the latest cool apps. What every student surely doesn’t know is how the transmitter in your cell phone converts your voice into an encoded signal that the antenna transmits to a distant base station via electromagnetic radio waves moving at the speed of light.
 
But students of Electrical Engineering Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii — a recipient of this year’s Distinguished Teaching Award from the Academic Senate — know this and a whole lot more about electrodynamics, wireless communications links and antenna design. And they couldn’t be more thrilled — both about what they’re learning and about the professor who makes learning such a pleasure.  Click here to read the full article.

News Item UCLA HSSEAS and NTU' s Optics Division Joint Seminar

The Electrical Engineering Department of UCLA HSSEAS and National Taiwan University's Optics Division are having a joint seminar to provide linkage for the enhancement of education, research and resources of their faculty and students.  This experience will broaden horizon for both universities with new methods and innovations from the east and the continuous research achievements from the west-side. The combined knowledge and experience from both campuses, will effect to the attainment of new heights in research and cutting-edge inventions for man’s convenience and life preservation.

Professors, students and professionals are invited to join this first initiative.


Speakers:

10:00     Welcome Remarks from the Chairs: M.C. Frank Chang and Wanjiun Liao

11:00     Evolution of Photonic Time Stretch: From Analog to Digital Conversion to Blood Screening    By: Prof. Bahram Jalali, UCLA
 11:15    Toward Low-Cost Solar Cells By: Prof. Ching-Fuh Lin, NTU
 11:30    Surface Science to Device Engineering in Organic Optoelectronics By: Prof. Chih-I Wu, NTU
 11:45    Photothermal Nanoblade for Single Cell Surgery and Cargo Delivery By: Asst. Prof. Eric Chiou, UCLA
 12:00    Nanopillar-based Photonic Crystal Lasers:  A Bottom-up Approach to Photonic Integration  By: Mr. Adam Scofield, UCLA

12:15     Lunch Break
 1:30       Numerical Modeling Work on Nitride Based LEDs and Nanowire Transistors By: Asst. Prof. Yuh-Renn Wu, NTU
 1:45       Investigation of Ultraviolet ZnO Nanostructure Light Emitting Diodes Prof. JianJang (J. J.) Huang, NTU 
 2:00       Lensfree On-Chip Microscopy for Global Health Applications By:Ting-Wei Su (The Ozcan Research Group) UCLA
 2:15       Interdisciplinary Studies on Wide Gap III-Nitrides, SiC, ZnO Semiconductors, Advanced Materials and Quantum/Nano Structures By: Prof. Zhe Chuan Feng, NTU
 2:30       Photovoltaic Devices Employing Nanotechnology for Photon Management By: Prof.  Jr-Hau He, NTU

2:45        Concluding Remarks

3: 00       Lab Tour

                Chair M.-C. Frank Chang

                Professor Bahram Jalali

                Professor Benjamin Williams

                Ting-Wei Su for Professor Ozcan

                Professor Robert Candler

                Dr. Baolai Liang for Professor Diana Huffaker

 

When:  August 19, 2011 at 10am-4pm

Where: UCLA 420 Westwood Plaza, Engineering IV Bldg., Shannon Conference Room 54-134

RSVP to eechair@ee.ucla.edu due to limited seats.v

News Item Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii was presented the 2011 IEEE Technical Field Awards in Electromagnetics

UCLA's Distinguished Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii was honored with The 2011 IEEE Electromagnetics Award and Medal at the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium Banquet in Spokane, Washington, on July 6, 2011. This is one of the most prestigious technical field awards from the IEEE in electromagnetics. The award was presented to Prof. Rahmat-Samii by Dr. Peter Clout, the IEEE Division IV Director. His citation reads "fundamental contributions to reflector antennas, near-field measurements and diagnostics, antenna and human interactions, and optimization algorithms in electromagnetics."

News Item Wireless Health Technology for Stroke Patient Rehabilitation

UCLA’s Wireless Health Institute headed by Co-Director Dr. Bruce Dobkin with Co-Director Prof. William Kaiser and the institute’s Research Manager Dr. Maxim Batalin have received funding from UC’s Center for Health Quality and Innovation for a new program intended to speed stroke patient rehabilitation through wireless health technology.  The program has developed a novel, low cost exercise device that may be fitted in a bed or on the floor and uses wireless sensor and Android technology.  The program will enable health professionals to remotely monitor the patient’s activity at home or in the hospital, provide instant feedback to the patient and design a more effective exercise program.  The UCLA Wireless Health Institute has developed sensors with accelerometers that can be worn comfortably in the body in which sensor signal processing algorithms are processed to determine the type, quantity and quality of daily activities.

News Item Professor John Villasenor appointed as a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Insitution

The Brookings Institution, which is one of the nation's most highly respected policy think tanks, has appointed Prof. John Villasenor as a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Governance Studies Program and the Center for Technology Innovation. This appointment is in recognition of Prof. Villasenor's work addressing the technology and policy aspects of information technology.

http://www.brookings.edu/experts/villasenorj.aspx/

News Item Professors Asad Abidi and Mihaela van der Schaar have been named as Chancellor's Professor

Professors Asad Abidi and Mihaela van der Schaar have been named as Chancellor's Professor by the Dean of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. This award recognizes faculty members who have achieved national and international distinction in research or creative activity, teaching and mentoring of graduate students.

News Item Professor Behzad Razavi Elected to Receive 2012 IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award

IEEEDonaldOPedersonAwardSolid-StateCircuits.jpgIEEE has bestowed upon Prof. Behzad Razavi one of its most prestigious technical field awards, the 2012 IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State Circuits for his pioneering contributions to the design of high speed and high frequency CMOS communication circuits. Prof. Razavi's research has played an instrumental role in the development of today's wireline and wireless CMOS circuits, for example, those used in high-speed optical communication systems. 

As part of IEEE's mission in advancing technology for humanity, the society for nearly a century now has been acknowledging technical professionals who have contributed exceptional achievements that have made a lasting positive effect on society and in the engineering world. Prior to Professor Razavi, Professor Asad Abidi of UCLA was the recipient of the 2008 IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award.

News Item Prof. Candler and 2 Undergrads Goes to DC

Professor Rob Candler together with his two undergrads, Neal Shah and Carlo Paredes, traveled to Washington DC to present their 2-year research work at the Posters on the Hill program.  Shah and Paredes were among the 60 nationwide participants who went to Capitol Hill, and who impressed the audience with their project.  The group presented their microfluidic research wherein they developed customizable components to make the transfer of fluids to lab-on-a-chip devices much easier, more consistent, as well as less expensive.  The group also personally met some legislators.  Here is the link of the Full Story.

News Item 2011 IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Darlington Award

Prof. Lei He, Prof. Mihaela Van Der Schaar and their students Zhen Cao and Brian Foo received the 2011 IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Darlington Award for paper titled "Optimality and Improvement of

Dynamic Voltage Scaling Algorithms for Multimedia Applications," published at IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers, Volume 57 Issue 3, pp. 681-690, March 2010.

 

News Item Prof. Abeer Alwan Selected as Fellow of the Int’l. Speech communication Association

Professor Abeer Alwan has been selected a Fellow of the International Speech Communication Association (ISCA) in 2011 for her significant contributions to the field of speech communication science and technology. This is a highly competitive program limited to less than .4 percent of the total number of ISCA members; only 6 Fellows were announced in 2010 and 2009, and 12 Fellows in 2008.

The principle of ISCA is the promotion of activities and exchanges in all fields related to speech communication science and technology.  In 1988 when it started, they were operating only in Europe but in 1999 at the Eurospeech Conference in Budapest, they went global and became a self-supporting international association.

 

News Item Prof. Lara Dolecek Receives UCLA Hellman Fellows Program Grant

Professor Lara Dolecek is a recipient of an award through the UCLA Hellman Fellows Program. The UCLA Hellman Fellows Program was established through the kind generosity of the Hellman Family Foundation to help promising young professors take their research and creative endeavors to a higher level. In this inaugural year in UCLA many applications from faculty in various disciplines across campus were received.  Only twelve fellows have been selected from this year's talented pool based on the quality of proposed research, potential for great distinction and financial need. 

News Item Prof. Tatsuo Itoh Receives the IEEE/MTT-S Microwave Career Award

UCLA’s Prof. Tatsuo Itoh was honored with a Microwave Career Award at IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium in Baltimore on June 8, 2011.  This is the premier award from the Society for Prof. Itoh’s distinguished career of meritorious achievement and outstanding technical contribution in the field of microwave theory and techniques.  His citation reads "For a Career of Leadership, Meritorious Achievement, Creativity and Outstanding Technical Contributions in the Field of Microwave Theory and Techniques.”

 

News Item Prof. Yao's Acoustic Beam-forming Project Application Commended in Journal of Applied Ecology

A paper entitled Acoustic Monitoring in Terrestrial Environments using Microphone Arrays: Applications, Technological Considerations and Prospectus collaborated by Dan Blumstein, Professor and Chair of the Dept. of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and PI of a NSF grant together with Prof. Kung Yao (EE) and 10 other co-authors of bio-complexity ecologists researchers was featured in the May 2011 issue of Journal of Applied Ecology. The paper won the Editor's Choice award for the issue on Technological Development and Their Associated Opportunities in Animal Ecology: Microphone Arrays as an Example.

Prof. Yao and Dr. Ralph E. Hudson have been working on the acoustic beam-forming and its implementation on multiple platforms for 15 years. A recent project under NSF grant with PhD students Andreas Ali and Lew Girod working together with animal ecologists, allows them to a non-invasive research in hostile environment to collect useful bio-complexity data with the use of the bio-acoustic monitoring equipment. The results would help ecologists understand animal movement and density in the global environmental change.

News Item Prof. Kaiser Addressed the Media at Ford Motor Company

Professor William Kaiser (UCLA Wireless Health Institute Co-Director) provided the keynote address at the announcement media event by Ford Motor Company of its new Connected Health initiative on May 18, 2011 in Dearborn, Michigan. This is intended to provide Wireless Health support in Ford vehicles with wireless sensing and also with driver and passenger guidance services.

News Item Keisuke Goda is a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Awardee

Postdoctoral researcher, Keisuke Goda (Prof. Jalali, advisor) has won the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award. The Award provides a financial support to bridge advanced postdoctoral training and the first 3 years of faculty service. Keisuke is being recognized for his pioneering work on STEAM technology, new imaging modality that exploits photonic time stretch and fiber-optic technologies, and its application to blood screening. Last year, Keisuke won the UCLA Chancellor's Award for Postdoctoral Research.

News Item UCLA Team Awesome wins IEEE Region 6 Southern Area MircoMouse Contest

The UCLA Team Awesome won the official IEEE Region 6 Southern Area MicroMouse contest held at CSU Long Beach on May 7, 2011. The MicroMouse is an autonomous robot that solves mazes without human guidance. Team Awesome's mouse found the maze center several times; its best time was 26 seconds.

Team Awesome originated in EE184D course of Fall 2010 comprising of Danny Chhay, Johnny Yam, Shannon Lin, Richard Mayne and Mike Briggs the team's adviser. They continued developing their entry after the end of the course, with further help from the EE Department plus assistance from the IEEE Student Branch at UCLA.

News Item Niusha Sarkhosh is an Endeavour Postdoctoral Awardee

Postdoctoral researcher, Niusha Sarkhosh (Prof. Jalali, advisor) won the Endeavour Postdoctoral Award. Niusha is being recognized for her work on photonic implementation of an Instantaneous Frequency Measurement (IFM) receiver and its biomedical application. The Award provides financial assistance to postdoctoral training for a year.

News Item Prof. Bahram Jalali is Elected Fellow to the American Physical Society

Prof. Bahram Jalali has been elected a Fellow to the American Physical Society (APS) for his significant and innovative contribution to the application of physics in science and technology and advances in knowledge through research. The 112-year old society was established with a mission to advance and diffuse the knowledge of physics. Electrical Engineering professors who are fellows of the society are: Prof. Chandrashekar Joshi, Prof. Warren Mori and Pro. Jia-Ming Lui. Recently, Prof. Jalali has also been appointed the Northrop Grumman Endowed Chair in Optoelectronics.

News Item UCLA Public Safety Network Systems Laboratory

Raytheon Company has given seed funding of $1 million for three years to UCLA for its partnership to create a new Public Safety Network Systems Laboratory. The mission of this Laboratory is to bring together academia, industry, and public safety agencies to provide technical leadership to perform collaborative research and to establish standards for public safety networks based on the 4G LTE standards. Other public and private organizations that meet the membership requirements of UCLA will also be invited to join the Laboratory. The co-directors of the Laboratory are Distinguished Professor Kung Yao and Distinguished Professor Izhak Rubin of the Electrical Engineering Department in the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science (HSSEAS). This Laboratory is affiliated with the Institute for Technology Advancement (ITA) in the HSSEAS of UCLA.

News Item Alum Dr. Michael Jensen takes helm at IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation

Michael Allen Jensen (Ph.D. '95) commenced his tenure as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation in August 2010. This peer-reviewed journal ranks 2nd among IEEE journals in terms of number of downloads. 

Dr. Jensen received his PhD in Electrical Engineering under the guidance of Prof. Yahya Rahmat-Samii and minored in Quantum Electronics and Circuits & Signal Processing. He was awarded best PhD by the UCLA School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Following his graduation, Dr. Jensen joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Brigham Young University where he is currently a Professor and Department Chairman. He has founded/co-founded three companies and actively serves on IEEE editorial boards and conference committees. Dr. Jensen was elevated to IEEE Fellow in 2008 for contributions to antennas and propagation for mobile devices and multi-antenna wireless communications systems.

 

News Item Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii has been selected to receive the 2010-2011 Distinguished Teaching Award by the UCLA Academic Senate

This award, established in 1961, honors individuals who bring respect and admiration to the scholarship of teaching. Only six awards are made each year. Prior to this teaching award, Prof. Rahmat-Samii also received the 2007 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society Chen-to Tai Distinguished Educator Award and the 2010 UCLA School of Engineering and Applied Science Lockheed Martin Excellence in Teaching Award.

News Item Assistant Professor Chi On Chui receives 2011 CAFA Robert T. Poe Faculty Development Award

Professor Chi On Chui has been awarded the Chinese American Faculty Association (CAFA) Robert T. Poe Faculty Development Award for his proposal entitled "Highly Sensitive and Rapid Diagnostic Devices for Cardiovascular Disease". The proposed research project aims to develop point-of-care devices for highly sensitive and real-time diagnosis of cardiovascular disease such as acute myocardial infarction. The transformative amplifying nanowire field-effect transistor sensor concept (invented in his Nanostructure Devices and Technology Laboratory) will maximize the intrinsic detection sensitivity with minimal noise contribution. The Award Presentation Ceremony was held on February 26th in Montebello, CA

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