2006 News
The College of Engineering is named "University Innovator" in Green Engineering.
Engineering Progress is the news publication of the College of Engineering, adopting the name of the magazine that served the college for many yearsStudent Life
Davila receives UC Presidential Fellowship
Lilian P. Davila, Ph.D. (CHMS Alumna) was awarded the highly competitive Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship by the University of California to pursue collaborative research projects in the School of Engineering at UC Merced and Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).
The Secret to Her Success
Kristin Bernick is a member of the first graduating class in biomedical engineering. She left campus for graduate school at MIT and a research career. She wants to make a difference in people's lives.
2006 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Medal Awarded to Robert H. Davis '78
The 2006 Medal was awarded to Dr. Robert H. Davis, Dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Colorado. He received his bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering in 1978.
Student Engineers Receive "Special Merit in Research" Awards at 2006 CAMP Statewide Symposium
UC Davis Engineering Alumnus Mentors Students
Student Development and Recruitment receives NSF "Bridge to the Doctorate" Grant
Student Development and Recruitment (SD&R) for the College of Engineering has received a highly competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to support twelve “Bridge to the Doctorate” (BD) graduate students majoring in the sciences, mathematics and engineering fields. The students will begin the program at UC Davis this Fall. The 2006-08 BD program supplements NSF's nationwide Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) programs. Through the BD program, NSF seeks to continue its goal of increasing the number of underrepresented students interested in pursuing doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The BD program will provide a $30,000 stipend, an additional $10,500 for fees, and $2,500 for professional development per year for the first two years of graduate study in science, mathematics or engineering at UC Davis.
Posted: 6/7/06
Faculty
Professor Emeritus Izzat M. Idriss to deliver Ishihara Lecture
Professor Emeritus Izzat M. Idriss will deliver the esteemed Ishihara Lecture at the 4th International Conference on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering (4ICEGE) in Greece in June 2007.
Mukherjee an IEEE Fellow
Professor Biswanath Mukherjee has been elevated to an IEEE Fellow for his contributions to architectures, algorithms, and protocols for optical networks.
Rundle leads New Institute for Hazardous California
John Rundle, interdisciplinary professor of physics, engineering and
geology, and director of the Center for Computational Science and
Engineering at UC Davis,named head of new California Hazards Institute, a
multi-campus research program of the University of California.
Zuhair Munir:
Cold War drove his materials, combustion research
Bruce Hartsough:
A life of cycling, forests, family
$10,000 Dickson Emeriti Professorship to Dick Walters, a professor emeritus of computer science and medical informatics. Walters plans to use the money to continue his workshops on teaching, learning and technology, with an emphasis on pedagogy, or the art and science of teaching.
Research News
Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences
The Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences - home to a state-of-the-art research laboratory, hands-on public museum and college classrooms - officially opened its doors on October 14. The $24 million learning and discovery center also is an Earth-friendly building.
New Center Helps Small Water Systems Succeed
A new UC Davis program aims to help small drinking-water suppliers that are struggling to meet state and federal standards. Supported by a five-year, $2.4 million grant from the California Department of Health Services, the Center for Small Affordable Water Systems will assist suppliers that serve fewer than 3,300 service connections, with a focus on the smallest -- those serving fewer than 200 connections. There are about 5,000 of the latter in California.
Team led by Francois Gygi wins Gordon Bell Prize
Francois Gygi, professor of applied science, led a team of researchers whose paper, "Large-scale Electronic Structure Calculations of High-Z Metals on the BlueGene/L Platform," was awarded the Gordon Bell Prize for Peak Performance.
Energy from Leftovers
The Biogas Energy Project - the first large-scale demonstration in the United States of a new technology developed in the past eight years by Ruihong Zhang, a UC Davis professor of biological and agricultural engineering - commenced operations on October 24, converting tons of table scraps from the Bay Area's finest restaurants into usable energy.
A Window on the Environment
If there is a big idea in environmental science, it is interconnectedness. Air, water, land and the living things on or in them are connected in ways obvious and subtle. But actually seeing and understanding all those connections in context is very hard. That is why environmental and computer scientists at UC Davis are working together to get a "God's-eye view" of a chunk of California, from the ocean off Monterey Bay to Lake Tahoe.
Research funding hits $544M
UC Davis received a record $543,983,761 in research funds in the recently
completed 2005-06 fiscal year. That figure represents a more than $38
million increase over the previous year's figure, which was itself a record
$505 million, in 2004-05.
Grants for Advanced Computing Awarded
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded two grants, worth $1.6 million and $1.2 million per year for five years, to projects in advanced computing led by researchers at UC Davis.
Biotech Training Grant funds Innovative Graduate Student Research
To advance biotechnology and nurture young researchers, UC awards training grants to graduate students and faculty mentors.
New Vulnerabilities in Cellular Communications
Computer Science Professor Hao Chen and grad students Denys Ma and Radmilo Racic have discovered new, serious vulnerabilities in cellular data services. Hackers could disrupt communications by disabling battery power.
Egghead is a new blog that brings together news, context and commentary about research at UC Davis.
The Little Picture
Machines that can image mice are ushering in a new era for research that depends on animal models of cancer
Small-animal models of human diseases — particularly genetically engineered mice — are increasingly recognized as powerful discovery tools in cancer research. But their potential has yet to be fully realized.
One major limitation: Because imaging equipment designed for humans isn't sensitive enough for creatures as small as mice, researchers have been unable to observe the growth of a cancer, or the activity of an anti-cancer drug, in the living body of a laboratory mouse.
Enter Simon Cherry. Cherry, a professor of biomedical engineering and director of the UC Davis Center for Molecular and Genomic Imaging, has scaled state-of-the-art medical imaging machines down to mouse size. He invented the first mouse PET machine while at UCLA more than a decade ago. Two years ago, he introduced the MicroPET II, now the smallest commercially available PET scanner on the market, with eight times the resolution of his first machine. Cherry has also helped to create a micro CT and micro PET-CT, and is working to develop a lowercost micro PET that would be affordable to more research laboratories around the country. - Synthesis, Volume 8, Number 2, Fall/Winter.
Read the story: http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/synthesis/Archives/fall_winter_06/features/campus_connection.html
Posted: 3/20/06
Grant For Ultrafast Optical Communications
Ben Yoo, professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the UC Davis Center for Information Technology Research in the Interests of Society, is co-principal investigator for a study funded by a $9.5 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). More: http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=7597
Posted: 1/20/06
A new UC Davis study of post-9/11 air travelers found that patience with
delays varies according to gender and income.Awards & Honors
Professor Emeritus Izzat M. Idriss to deliver Ishihara Lecture
Professor Emeritus Izzat M. Idriss will deliver the esteemed Ishihara Lecture at the 4th International Conference on Earthquake Geotechnical Engineering (4ICEGE) in Greece in June 2007.
Four Faculty receive 2006 NSF Career Awards
Four College of Engineering faculty received National Science Foundation's prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards in 2005-2006.
Simon Cherry receives Edward Hoffman Award
Simon Cherry is the inaugural recipient of the Edward Hoffman Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Computer and Instrumentation in Nuclear Medicine from the Computer and Instrumentation Council. Dr. Cherry was mentored for many years by Dr. Edward Hoffman and was the unanimous choice to receive the premiere award after Dr. Hoffman's untimely death in 2004. He is being honored for his contributions in the field, particularly in small animal imaging. At the business meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine held in Toronto, Dr. Cherry accepted the award and shared some of his recollections from working with Dr. Hoffman as a postdoc fellow at UCLA. In his acceptance speech, Dr. Cherry paid homage to his mentor and friend of 15 years saying he had instilled principles to guide researchers daily: to enjoy what we do, work with integrity, and do it with an appropriate balance of inspiration and perspiration.
Dr. Hoffman's career spanned 30 years in the field of nuclear medicine.
Bruce Gates Honored by Council for Chemical Research
Bruce Gates, distinguished professor in the department of chemical engineering and materials science, has received the 2006 Malcolm E. Pruitt Award by the Council for Chemical Research. The award is given annually to recognize outstanding contributions to research progress in the chemical-based sciences and engineering through mutually beneficial interactions among the industrial, academic and government research worlds.
Posted: 3/21/06
Dewey Ryu receives Enzyme Engineering Award
Dr. Dewey Ryu has been awarded the 2005 Enzyme Engineering Award from the International Enzyme Engineering Conferences and the Engineering Foundation.
The Enzyme Engineering Award was established in 1982 to recognize exceptional achievements in enzyme engineering research and applications. It recognizes new discoveries, research, process or device developments in enzyme engineering, and outstanding contributions of a scientific or engineering nature in the design, operation, and management of facilities, processes, or devices based primarily on enzyme engineering.
Posted: 3/20/06
Choo Wins Council of Transportation Centers Award
Sangho Choo was honored by the Council of Transportation Centers (CUTC) for THE BEST PhD dissertation on transportation planning and policy in the US in 2004-05. The title of his dissertation was Aggregate Relationships between Telecommunications and Travel: Structural Equation Modeling of Time Series Data. His mentor was Pat Mokhtarian. Sangho was given the award at CUTC's annual meeting in Washington, D.C. on January 21.
Posted: 3/20/06
Patrice Koehl receives 2006 Sloan Research Fellowship
Patrice Koehl, associate professor in the department of computer science, has received a 2006 Sloan Research Fellowship. Koehl's research focuses his research on understanding protein structures, characterizing their shapes and using that information to improve the understanding of their stability. He is involved in the development of new algorithms for predicting the structure of a protein. Koehl also is a faculty member in the Genome Center.
Sloan Research Fellowships are designed to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise. These highly competitive fellowships identify those researchers who show the most outstanding promise of making fundamental contributions to new knowledge. The funds are less restricted than many research project grants, giving talented researchers support for a wide variety of uses in pursuing the lines of inquiry that are most compelling and interesting to them.
Aside from the valuable financial support they provide, the Sloan Research Fellowships offer important intangible benefits, according to past recipients. The early recognition of distinguished performance that the fellowships confer, after years of arduous preparation, stimulates further personal and career development. Thirty-two Sloan Fellows have won Nobel Prizes later in their careers, and hundreds have received other honors.
Posted: 2/23/06
Rajeevan Amirtharajah Receives NSF CAREER Award
Rajeevan Amirtharajah, assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering, has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award.
Amirtharajah's research focuses on powering electronic systems from environmental sources by harvesting energy from solar radiation or mechanical vibration. The goal is to reduce battery size and volume, decrease system maintenance costs and increase operating lifetime for portable or wearable electronics or wireless sensors.
The NSF Career Award supports the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization. Such activities build a firm foundation for a lifetime of integrated contributions to research and education.
Research under the new grant will include the exploration of circuit styles and signal processing architectures for energy harvesting sensors, enabling a trade off between system performance and available power. It will open new possibilities in long-lifetime sensors for monitoring critical infrastructure, health care and security applications.
Posted: 2/23/06
Zhendong Su Receives 2005-2006 NSF Early Career Award
Zhendong Su, assistant professor in the department of computer science, has received the 2005-2006 National Science Foundation Career Award, based on his proposal for an analysis framework that would improve reliability and security of national information system infrastructures.
Database and web applications contain critical faults that undermine their security and reliability. Many of these errors occur because of complex, dynamic interactions with outside environments. No tool or technique currently exists to prevent the introduction of errors, leaving applications susceptible to serious failure and security threats.
Zhendong Su's proposal - "Reliability and Security of Database and Web Applications" - describes a novel systematic analysis framework that would address these database and web application vulnerabilities and have positive impact on both industry and academia.
The NSF Career Award supports the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization.
Posted: 2/13/06
Munir Honored by Davis Academic Senate
Zuhair Munir, Distinguished Professor in the department of chemical engineering and materials science, has been awarded the Faculty Research Lectureship, the highest honor that the Davis Division of the Academic Senate accords its members.
The award recognizes Munir for the distinction of his research, for outstanding scholarship and as a recognized leader in his discipline, both nationally and internationally. Each year the Faculty Research Lecturer gives a public lecture under the auspices of the Chancellor and the Chair of the Davis Division of the Academic Senate.
Previous awardees include Joe Smith, professor emeriti and the founding chair of the department of chemical engineering and materials science.
Posted: 2/8/06
Harry A. Dwyer, Marshall Miller and College of Engineering Alumni Receive SAE Vincent Bendix Automotive Electronics Engineering Award
Harry Dwyer, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and Marshal Miller, a senior development engineer at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies (ITS-Davis), along with four engineering professionals and UC Davis alumni, have received the SAE Vincent Bendix Automotive Electronics Engineering Award.
The award annually recognizes the author(s) of the best paper(s) relating to automotive electronics engineering presented at a meeting of the Society or any of its sections, or it may recognize an individual for distinguished accomplishment in automotive electronics engineering. Material or development forming the subject matter of the paper must be based on personal work. In the event of recognition of individual achievement, the individual may be requested to present a Vincent Bendix Memorial Lecture at a designated meeting of the Society.
In addition to Dwyer and Miller, the awardees include:
Dr. David J. Grupp, who works in research and product development at Altergy Systems, focusing on fuel cell systems design. He was recently granted his doctorate degree from the Institute of Transportation Studies at the UC Davis.
Dr. Christie-Joy Brodrick, assistant professor at James Madison University and co-director of the university's Alternative Fuels Program. Broderick also is a research engineer at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California-Davis. She earned a master's degree in environmental engineering and a doctorate degree in transportation technology and policy from the University of California-Davis.
Matthew E. Forrest, a senior mechanical engineer at DaimlerChrysler RTNA, Inc., working in the F-Cell vehicle development program. He received his master's degree in transportation technology and policy from the University of California-Davis.
Pippin G.L. Mader, an air resources engineer for the California Air Resources Board, received his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of California-Davis.
The six authors will be presented with the award during the SAE World Congress in Detroit, Mich., April 3-6, 2006.
http://www.sae.org
Posted: 2/8/06
M. Saif Islam Wins NSF 'Early Career' Award
M. Saif Islam, assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering, received the NSF award to study Nanomanufacturing of Nanowire Based Devices and Circuits.
For more: http://www.ece.ucdavis.edu/news/
Posted: 1/31/06
Dan Chang Receives the Lyman A. Ripperton Environmental Educator Award
Dan Chang, Ray B. Krone Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, received the Lyman A. Ripperton Environmental Educator Award from the Air & Waste Management Association in June. The Lyman A. Ripperton Award is awarded for distinguished achievement as an educator in some field of air pollution control. It is awarded to an individual, who by precept and example, has inspired students to achieve excellence in all their professional and social endeavors.
Posted: 1/31/06
Navrotsky Awarded Hess Medal
Dr. Alexandra Navrotsky, a professor of chemical engineering and materials science who holds the Edward Roessler Chair in Mathematical and Physical Sciences, recently was awarded the American Geophysical Union's 2006 Henry H. Hess Medal for outstanding achievements in research of the constitution and evolution of Earth and other planets. The presentation was made at an honors ceremony at the 2006 AGU Fall Meeting in December in San Francisco.
Navrotsky is the first woman to receive the Henry H. Hess Medal.
Posted: 1/9/06
The College of Engineering is named "University Innovator" in Green Engineering.
Aggie aircraft soars in Aero Design West Competition
The Aggie Micro Aeronautics Team placed fourth among 49 competitors in the Aero Design West Competition.
In the News
Rising Gas Prices vs. Consumption
Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune, 12.8.2006
"Editorial: Cruising for a bruising: Gas prices went up; consumption barely went down"
AAA-ITS Hybrid Study
KRNV.com - KRNV News 4 (NBC), Reno, Nev., 11.15.2006
"AAA and UC Davis Study finds hybrids will be very beneficial if more people drive them"
Honda Fuel Cell Car
San Jose Mercury News, 11.16.2006
"Honda shows off newer, sleeker hydrogen-powered car"
San Francisco Chronicle, 11.15.2006
"Honda's vision of the future -- a car powered by hydrogen"
Plug-in Hybrids
U.S. News & World Report, 10.2.2006
"A Plug for Hybrids: 100-mpg prototypes are on the road. Needed: safe, cheap batteries"
Biogas Energy Project
Voice of America, 11.2.2006,
"Food Waste Powers New Energy Plant"
GreenBiz.com,10.30.2006,
"New Technology turns Food Leftovers into Electricity, Vehicle Fuels"
Daily Democrat, 10.25.2006,
“High-Quality Leftovers used as fuel; Biogas Project will Process 8 Tons of Leftovers a Day”
San Francisco Chronicle, 10.25.2006,
“When Kitchen Waste Isn't Wasted”
The Associated Press,10.24.2006,
“From Table Scraps to Energy”
KGO-TV (Ch. 7, ABC, San Francisco), 10.24.2006,
“Turning Restaurant Food Scraps in Fuel”
KPIX-TV (Ch. 5, CBS, San Francisco), 10.24.2006,
" UC Davis Starts Biogas Power Plant: Plant to Convert Table Scraps from SF Restaurants into Renewable Energy”
KQED-FM (Nat'l Public Radio affiliate, San Francisco), 10.24.2006,
“Organic Waste Fuels New UC Davis Power Plant”
KCRA-TV (Ch. 3, NBC, Sacramento), 10.24.2006,
“Table Scraps to Energy”
KOVR-TV (Ch. 13, CBS, Sacramento), 10.24.2006,
“Leftover Food to Fuel New UC Davis Energy Project”
United Press International, 10.24.2006,
“Newstrack - Science: Plant Produces Energy from Bacteria”
The Vacaville Reporter, 10.25.2006,
“Turning Food into Fuel; Restaurant Scraps become Biogas”
KXTV Channel 10 (ABC), 10.25.2006,
“UC Davis installs Methane-Capture System to Produce Electricity"
CentralValleyBusinessTimes.com (online), 10.24.2006,
“Biogas: Don't Eat Your Veggies - Run Your Car with Them Instead”
The Sacramento Bee, 10.24.2006,
“Power Lunch: Bacterial turn Leftovers to Energy”
Davis Enterprise, 10.24.2006,
“Powerful Leftovers”
Chevron Biofuel Grant
Cox News Service, 11.11.2006
"Biofuel Buff"
Design News, 11.6.2006
"Chevron and UC Davis Research Future Biofuels"
International Business Times (ibtimes.com), 10.4.2006
"Chevron, U.S. Gov't to Partner on Fuel Research"
Environment News Service, 9.22.2006
"Chevron Splashes Cash for Biofuel Research"
The Sacramento Bee, 9.20.2006
"UC Davis, Chevron hook up on biofuel"
Davis Enterprise, 9.19.2006
"UCD gets $25M for biofuels"
Houston Chronicle online (chron.com), 9.19.2006
"Chevron, UC Davis to Research Biofuels"
KXJZ-FM (Nat'l Public Radio affiliate, Sacramento, 9.19.2006
"Chevron Funds Local Research on New Fuels"
Sacramento Business Journal (online), 9.19.2006
"UC Davis get $25M biofuel grant from Chevron"
Dedication of Shiloh Wind Power Plant
Daily Democrat, 11.16.2006
"New electricity is blowing in Solano's winds"
Nanotechnology
KXTV Channel 10 (ABC), 11.9.2006
"Nanotechnology -- A Rapidly Shrinking Future"
Wireless Sensor Networks
The Sacramento Bee, 12.6.2006
"Startup targets simpler sensors: Folsom-based SynapSense announces first product"
Cell Phone Vulnerabilities
Redding.com (online), 10.31.2006
"Professor finds cell phones vulnerable to attack"
High-Tech Immigration
San Francisco Chronicle, 12.7.2006
"Should the U.S. increase its H-1B visa program? CON: Wages belie claims of a labor shortage"
San Francisco Chronicle, 11.15.2006
"Tech leaders, immigrants want change: Drive to let companies hire more foreign-born workers"
Voting Machines
Davis Enterprise, 11.8.2006
"Long Ballot, Slow Counting Make for Late Results"
Daily Democrat, 11.8.2006
"It's Your Turn to be Counted"
KTXL-TV (Ch. 40, FOX online), 11.2.2006
"Election Glitches"
New York Times, 10.19.2006,
“New Laws and Machines may spell Voting Woes”
Bond Measure Analysis
Daily Democrat, 11.3.2006
"UCD analyzes bond measures"
Regional Nuclear Battle can affect Global Climate
The Sacramento Bee, 12.12.2006
"Stark scenarios of regional atomic warfare: 'Nuclear winter' scientists say even a limited conflict would hurt global climate"
Tahoe Environmental Research Center
Sierra Sun (Truckee and Tahoe City), 11.2.2006,
"New AmeriCorps program to focus on environment"
The Sacramento Bee, 10.17.2006, Editorial:
“New Labs by the Lake; Science is here for the Long Haul at Tahoe”
The Associated Press, 10.14.2006,
“$24 Million Environmental Center opens at Lake Tahoe
Contra Costa Times, 10.16.2006,
“New Digs for Lake Tahoe Researchers: Public Interpretive Center is included in $24 Million Facility on Lake's North Shore”
KCBS-AM 740 (SF Bay Area & N. Calif.), 10.14.2006,
“Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences”
KQED-FM (Nat'l Public Radio affiliate, San Francisco),
10.13.2006,
“New Tahoe Science Center”
KXJZ-FM (Nat'l Public Radio affiliate, Sacramento), 10.13.2006,
“New Tahoe Science Center”
KTVN-2 (CBS, Reno, Nev.), 10.14.2006,
“New Tahoe Science Center”
KRNV News 4 (NBC), Reno, Nev.,
10.14.2006,
“New Science Center at Lake Tahoe”
Reno Gazette-Journal, 10.15.2006
“$24 Million Facility keeps Tahoe Blue”
KOH-AM (Reno, Nev.). 10.13.2006
“New Tahoe Science Center"
North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, 10.13.2006,
“First Look at a World-Class Facility”
North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, 10.13.2006,
“Opinion: Global Warming Research at Center”
North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, 10.15.2006
“Opinion: “Knowledge Universe Comes to Town”
Tahoe Daily Tribune, 10.16.2006,
“Long-Term Economic Impact of TCES Explored”
Tomorrow (Oct. 14), the doors to the $24 million facility will officially swing open.
North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, 10.18.2006,
“New 3-D Visualization Theatre”
American Airbus crash data
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 11.12.2006
"New look at rudder questions is urged"