AROUND THE SCHOOL FACULTY STUDENTS World Record 7 Jacobs School students pilot their human powered submarine to a new world record. FALL 2000 Jacobs School of Engineering Larry Smarr 6 A leading architect of today’s information infrastructure, Larry Smarr joins the School’s Computer Science and Engineering Department. Breaking New Ground 3 The Powell-Focht Bioengineering Hall will be equipped for modern bioengineering with five core technology laboratories. Dynamic Earthquake Test First Step In Study to Improve Woodframe Construction BOOKCASES CAME CRASHING DOWN, a hotwater heater flipped over, glass shattered, and a heavy speaker landed squarely on a teddy bear’s head. Inside UCSD’s Charles Lee Powell Structural Research Laboratories, a 600 square-foot model home was jolted with .9 g’s, simulating the epicentral forces of the 6.7 Northridge Earthquake that rocked the LA area in 1994. Dozens of spectators and news reporters got a front row seat to the nation’s first full-scale, dynamic seismic test on a woodframe house. And although the contents of the house were destroyed, the structure itself stood strong. This July 11 test was part of the CUREe (California Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering)- Caltech Woodframe project, which is aimed at devel- oping reliable and economical ways to improve woodframe performance in earthquakes. Structural engineers simulate near- fault ground motions from 1994 Northridge Earthquake “This house was engineered to current design code, and our preliminary conclusion is that the standards are probably very good,” said Andre Filiatrault, UCSD professor of structural engineering and principal in- vestigator of the test. “Unfortunately, many older homes built before the seismic standards were implemented in 1997 may not perform as well in an earthquake.” “One surprising observation from the test is that the stucco finish seemed to absorb some of the energy from the ground motion, protecting the interior ply- wood and drywall,” said Frieder Seible, UCSD chair of structural engineering and manager of the Testing and Analysis element of the overall Woodframe project. The CUREe-Caltech Woodframe project was pro- posed after the Northridge Earthquake when more than $20 billion in property damage occurred to woodframe homes. Twenty-five people died because of building damage, and all but one of the fatalities occurred in this kind of construction. More than 50,000 residents See EARTHQUAKE on page 4 S S S S S haken haken haken haken haken but still standing Photo: John Miller, UCSD Media Services
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UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering / Fall 2000
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Jacobs School students pilot theirhuman powered submarine to a newworld record.
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Jacobs School of Engineering
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A leading architect of today’s informationinfrastructure, Larry Smarr joins theSchool’s Computer Science andEngineering Department.
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The Powell-Focht Bioengineering Hall willbe equipped for modern bioengineeringwith five core technology laboratories.
Dynamic Earthquake TestFirst Step In Study to ImproveWoodframe ConstructionBOOKCASES CAME CRASHING DOWN, a hotwaterheater flipped over, glass shattered, and a heavy speakerlanded squarely on a teddy bear’s head. Inside UCSD’sCharles Lee Powell Structural Research Laboratories, a600 square-foot model home was jolted with .9 g’s,simulating the epicentral forces of the 6.7 NorthridgeEarthquake that rocked the LA area in 1994. Dozensof spectators and news reporters got a front row seatto the nation’s first full-scale, dynamic seismic test on awoodframe house. And although the contents of thehouse were destroyed, the structure itself stood strong.
This July 11 test was part of the CUREe (CaliforniaUniversities for Research in Earthquake Engineering)-Caltech Woodframe project, which is aimed at devel-oping reliable and economical ways to improvewoodframe performance in earthquakes.
“This house was engineered to current design code,and our preliminary conclusion is that the standardsare probably very good,” said Andre Filiatrault, UCSDprofessor of structural engineering and principal in-vestigator of the test. “Unfortunately, many older homesbuilt before the seismic standards were implementedin 1997 may not perform as well in an earthquake.”
“One surprising observation from the test is that thestucco finish seemed to absorb some of the energyfrom the ground motion, protecting the interior ply-wood and drywall,” said Frieder Seible, UCSD chair ofstructural engineering and manager of the Testing andAnalysis element of the overall Woodframe project.
The CUREe-Caltech Woodframe project was pro-posed after the Northridge Earthquake when more than$20 billion in property damage occurred to woodframehomes. Twenty-five people died because of buildingdamage, and all but one of the fatalities occurred inthis kind of construction. More than 50,000 residents
See EARTHQUAKE on page 4
SSSSShakenhakenhakenhakenhakenbut still standing
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UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering / Fall 2000
Dean’s Column
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When we broke ground in August for thePowell-Focht Bioengineering Hall, in manyways we broke ground on a new era for theJacobs School of Engineering.
UCSD, and particularly the Jacobs School,have laid out a framework for unprecedentedgrowth to take place over the next 10 years.We have thought carefully about our role,given that we are the only research universityin the greater San Diego economic region.The strategy that we have developed is di-rectly in line with the University of California’splan to serve the growing population of stu-dents in California. As we look toward thecoming decade, we have a powerful sense ofopportunity and responsibility.
The chart at right illustrates our plan todouble the size of the Jacobs School faculty,double the size of our graduate student en-rollment, and in-crease the size of ourundergraduate stu-dent body by 50%.This scale for theJacobs School iswhat we consider tobe minimum steady-state level for aschool that has the mandate we have for thisregion of the State. A school of engineeringof this scale will make us comparable in sizeto the engineering schools at the University ofMichigan and UC Berkeley.
The responsibility we face as we go for-ward is nearly as awsome as that faced by thefounders of UCSD in the early ’60s. The deci-sions we make now, and have been makingfor the past six years, will determine the scopeand character of the School for the next 50years. Last May, we held a faculty retreat tobegin to develop a common vision as we moveforward. I’d like to share with you some ofthe ideas we discussed at the retreat.
In the area of research, the Jacobs School isa global leader in the fields of bioengineer-ing, earthquake engineering, high performancecomputing, telecommunications and informa-tion technology, high performance materials,and energy research. As we grow, we havethe opportunity to enhance our currentstrengths and establish leadership in additionalareas.
Engineering continually advances andevolves as we begin to work on science thatseems to be at the edge of several well-un-derstood disciplines. Aerospace engineering,for example, grew out of mechanical engi-neering and the areas of fluid dynamics andstructural mechanics.
It is clear that newfocus areas will be infields that are now be-ginning to emergefrom the mixing of other traditional disciplines.These new disciplines will cross departmentlines, and we discussed the concept of eachfaculty member having an appointment in twodepartments. This would also allow our gradu-ate students greater opportunities for interdis-ciplinary research.
One of our highest priority growth areas isin computer and information science as ap-plied to biology, medicine and health. Thisincludes topics such as genomics andproteomics, a field that is often genericallycalled bioinformatics. A second high priorityarea is information technology and systems en-gineering/systems integration, including top-
ics such as network-ing, technologies tobroaden the scopeand availability of thewireless Internet, andthe human-applianceinterface. Additionalmultidisciplinary areaswhere we will build
strength include materials and nanotechnology,environmental engineering and civil infrastruc-ture renewal.
We also talked about our education mission.In recent years, all of our departments havemodernized their undergraduate curriculum toinclude new features such as freshman engi-neering, a capstone senior design project andmore hands-on laboratory work throughout thefour years. Now, we’d like to develop a set ofcommon principles for education across all ofour departments. These may include writtenand oral communications as well as ethicsbrought in early in the curriculum and rein-forced throughout all four years. We also planto introduce courses in management, businessand entrepreneurship at the graduate level andmake these courses available to our under-graduates. As always our goal will be to con-tinuously monitor and improve the educationwe provide.
The next decade will be one of extraordi-nary growth and opportunity. Though we willnot change our basic mission of education,research and innovation, we will redraw theoutlines around what we do, expanding ourscope in almost every area.
Bob Conn, Dean
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Faculty 138 190 260
Undergraduates 3295 3700 4500
Graduates 770 1200 1500
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UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering / Fall 2000
Around the School
ON THE COVERStructural engineers areworking to improveearthquake safety ofwoodframe homes.
Research 4Ian Galton licenses threetechnologies to improve analog todigital converters.
Innovation 5$1 million grant supports researchon a new class of tensegritymaterials.
Faculty 6Larry Smarr is the director designateof the proposed California Institutefor Telecommunications andInformation Technology [Cal-(IT)2].
CENTER SECTIONGraduate Degree Programs
Students 7Graduating Seniors Survey Results.New scholarships.
CorporatePartnership 8$6 million fund will fast-trackdevelopment and application ofadvanced technology.
Private Support 9Frieder Seible is named toReissner Professorship.
Alumni 10Three alumni share how the Schoolhas shaped their careers.
Job OpportunitiesBack Cover
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UCSD broke ground August 9 on thefive-story, 105,000 square footPowell-Focht Bioengineering Hall.The building will be equipped formodern bioengineering, enabling fac-ulty and students to apply emergingtechnologies to better understand andtreat human disease. Unique featuresof the building include core technol-ogy laboratories to encourage col-laboration across all engineering andbiomedical disciplines, state-of-the-artteaching laboratories for hands-oneducation, and facilities and programsto encourage technology transfer.
Funded almost entirely by privategifts, The Powell-Focht Bioengineer-ing Hall was made possible by the
Whitaker Foundation’s LeadershipAward of $18 million and the CharlesLee Powell Foundation’s gift of $8 mil-lion as well as many other generouscontributions. The building is namedin honor of the late San Diego Supe-rior Court Judge James L. Focht andCharles Lee Powell.
The Powell-Focht Hall is the first ofseveral engineering buildings, whichwill be constructed in Pryatel Field,located between Engineering Build-ings I and II on the Warren campus.Doors are expected to open in 2002.
Visit www.soe.ucsd.edu/events forphotos and more information.
Friends, faculty, staff and students made Jacobs Schoolhistory as they formed a human outline around the future
home of the Powell-Focht Bioengineering Hall.
(l to r) David Gough, Wendy Baldwin, Portia WhitakerShumaker, Shu Chien, Robert Dynes, Joel Holliday,Minerva Kunzel, Duane Roth, G. Burtt Holmes andRobert Conn.
UCSD is celebrating its 40thanniversary with a year-longseries of special events.UCSD will demonstrate the
years of growth in quality, strength, and breadthsince Roger Revelle, considered the “father”of UCSD, envisioned an educational and re-search mecca rising from a dusty La Jolla mesa.
A major focus of the celebration will be 40“gifts” of service to the communities of SanDiego County. In a variety of ways, thecampus will feature more than 300 ac-tivities and programs which UCSD cur-rently provides throughout the area.
S.S. PennerLecture SeriesProfessor Stephen H. Davis,Walter P. Murphy Professorof the Department of Engi-neering Sciences and Ap-plied Mathematics at North-western University, willpresent a lecture on “Inter-facial Fluid Mechanics” aspart of the S.S. Penner Lec-ture Series.
Mark your calendar for Fri-day, December 1, 2000 at 4p.m. in the CMRR Audito-rium. For more information,call (858) 534-0708 or visitwww-mae.ucsd.edu.
were displaced long-term from their homes.Insurance claims and losses were 10 times whatthe industry anticipated.
The impact of the project could be enormous.Although 99% of residences and many schoolsand commercial buildings in California are con-structed of wood, there has been very little re-search focused on improving the earthquakeresistance of this kind of construction. Through-out the United States, 80 to 90% of all buildingsare of woodframe construction.
Laboratory testing and analysis of both resi-dential and non-residential woodframe build-ings and studies of their damage in theNorthridge Earthquake will be used to improvebuilding codes and standards, make insuranceratings and loss estimates more accurate, andtrain practitioners in the design and construc-tion industry.
The UCSD test was one of the first steps inthe project. Over a period of five months, struc-tural engineers subjected the full-scale modelhouse to a series of ground motions recorded
from historical earthquakes. These ground mo-tions were simulated by a 4.8 ton platform knownas a shake table. The house itself was engineeredto current code, and structural components andmaterials were modified throughout the test se-ries.
Data gathered from 300 sensors and six cam-eras installed inside and outside the house will beused to create computer simulations expected toaid in evaluating current design and constructionpractices.
The CUREe-Caltech Woodframe project is fundedmainly by the Federal Emergency ManagementAgency (FEMA) through a grant administered bythe California Office of Emergency Services (OES).Additional support is being provided by the Cali-fornia Earthquake Authority (CEA). CUREe is man-aging the project under the direction of Caltech’sProfessor John Hall. Over a dozen universities andnumerous consulting engineers are involved.CUREe is a non-profit organization that representsa consortium of universities with major earthquakeengineering programs.
UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering / Fall 2000
Now that scientsts have mapped thehuman genome, what will we dowith the information? Watch“Bioinformatics: A Primer for theGenomics Era” to get the answers.The program will air Sept. 20 at 8pm. on UCSD TV (http://ucsd.edu/ucsdtv) and features UCSD’s ShankarSubramaniam, Daniel Masys M.D.and Andrew McCammon. The pro-gram will also be available on de-mand beginning September 18 atwww.uctvonline.org.
Your Health
Innovation
������������ �� �����������������������Dusty plasmas are commonly found in space and fordecades scientists have contemplated their possiblerole in the birth of stars and in such beautiful naturalphenomena as Saturn’s rings and the vibrant tails ofcomets. But with recent technology breakthroughs,researchers are studying such plasmas here on earth,and looking to apply them to problems such as de-stroying harmful bacteria and viruses.
Dusty plasmas are electrified gases composed offree electrons and ions that are contaminated withminiscule grains of dust.
According to ECE Professor Emeritus Asoka Mendis, a leader in dusty plasma research:“The electrical charging of dust grains immersed in a plasma has consequences for both thedust and the plasma. Because the grain charge can be very large (1000s of electrons for amicron-sized grain), the collection of grains in a plasma can become strongly coupled,eventually forming highly organized lattice structures called Dust Coulomb Crystals in aconfined, laboratory setting.”
Even though the physics are the same, in space plasmas and dust interact on a muchlarger scale. Because they are not confined by walls, the dusty plasmas in space are notexpected to produce dust coulomb crystals, but are responsible for other important ob-served phenomena. The crystals are purely a laboratory creation.
Mendis says these crystals, which have recently been fabricated in several laboratoriesaround the world, are strikingly visual and can be used to study basic properties of con-densed matter. Currently, Mendis and his associates are extending their study of dustyplasmas to plasmas containing microscopic bacteria. In IEEE Transactions on Plasma Sci-ence, August 2000, the group found that plasmas can cause an eletrostatic disruption of theouter cell membrane of the E.coli bacteria. Recent observations in several laboratories areconsistent with this work. This finding offers promising possibilities for an alternativeelectro-physical treatment for destroying harmful bacteria. Mendis also speculates that themembranes of viruses, which are even smaller, may be more susceptible to electrostaticdisruption than that of the bacteria.
The April 2001 issue of the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science will be dedicated toMendis on his 65th birthday in honor of his contributions to the field.
Chien Takes Leave toWork with Entropia
Professor Andrew Chien (CSE), is tak-ing a leave of absence to serve as co-founder and Chief Technology Officer ofSan Diego-based Entropia, Inc. The com-pany, which says it is creating the world’slargest Internet computing service, dy-namically delivers processing power -more than 1 trillion computations persecond - to commercial product devel-opers and non-profit researchers.Entropia’s computing power is providedby PC owners who donate their comput-ers idle processor time to science.
Prior to joining Entropia, Chien and hisUCSD research group developed HPVM,or high-performance virtual machine, asystem that exploits commodity PC hard-ware and software technologies to de-liver supercomputer performance.
AMCC AcquiresYuniNetworks
Professor Ken Yun (ECE) foundedYuniNetworks in late 1999, and Applied Mi-cro Circuits Corp. acquired the company inJune 2000. YuniNetworks was building ascalable terabit switch fabric technologybased on Yun’s university research. Now thathe has completed the technology transfer ofhis invention, Yun is back from leave of ab-sence and serving as a full-time professor.
�������LAST ISSUE, WE REPORTED oncompanies founded by JacobsSchool faculty and alumni. Sincethen, we’ve learned that CSE alumTodd Elvins co-founded IndicastCorporation in May 1999 with UCSDalum Rob Fassett. Also a correction:MP3.com was founded by MichaelRobertson, who is a UCSDcommunications alumnus.
Dolphins, Spiders andStronger MaterialsUCSD RESEARCHERS ARE MODELING anew class of structures after the compli-ant, malleable properties of dolphin skinand the incredibly strong, flexible proper-ties of spider fiber. The research is fundedby a new $1 million grant from the Officeof Naval Research.
Based on the speed at which they canswim and recent lab experiments, it is be-lieved that a dolphin’s compliant skin has
lower drag result-ing from tur-bulent skin
fr ic t ion than ahard, solid surface.
Reproducing this phenomenon in man-made materials could optimize flow/struc-ture interface and weaken near-wall tur-bulence responsible for increased drag.
According to MAE Professor RobertSkelton, “Such structures would activelycontrol their mechanical properties tomodify drag, acoustical response, shapecontrol, and vehicle guidance, withouthinged surfaces or flaps. Structures wouldbe more flexible and adaptable, and wouldbe less influenced by competing forces.”Skelton says the work may be applied toaquatic vehicles such as submarines andboats, deployable space structures, and air-craft wings.
These principles, combined with thestructural efficiency revealed in spider fi-ber, nature’s strongest fiber, are leading toa new line of structures that Skelton hascoined tensegrity structures. Skelton’s teamhas shown that tensegrity tends to benature’s basic building architecture. The re-searchers are developing mathematical andengineering methods to create large con-trollable structures with similar efficienciesas those found in natural materials.
Participants include Jacobs School pro-fessors Robert Skelton, Thomas Bewley,Robert Bitmead, and Hidenori Murakamiand math professors William Helton andPhil Gill.
Q & A with VitaliNesterenkoMaterials Science and Engineering(MSE) at UCSD is an interdisciplinary,graduate research program designedto provide a fundamental understand-ing and quantitative evaluation of ma-terials with the objective of predict-ing, modifying, and tailoring theirproperties to yield enhanced perfor-mance. Behind the enthusiastic lead-ership of the program’s director, VitaliF. Nesterenko, MSE is breaking newground.
Q: Why is the Materials Scienceand Engineering Program unique?A: Although the MSE Program drawsmany of its associated faculty andresources from the Jacobs School, itsfocus is actually much broader, andincludes physics, chemistry, andmineralogy.
Q: MSE has been experiencingtremendous growth. How do youexplain this success?A: One of our goals has been toincrease the number of graduatestudents entering the Program eachyear from an average of five to 10-15. To accomplish the goal, weaggressively target potential studentswith our program’s web page, invitethe best prospective graduatestudents on campus during theannual Jacobs School ResearchReview, and promote interaction withfaculty at early stages of admissionprocess. This year, we admitted 14graduate students.
Q: What is your highest priority forthe educational program?A: We feel it is critical to offer an up-dated, state-of-the-art curriculum, espe-cially for recruitment purposes. From mydiscussions with incoming students, I havelearned that they are very interested inthe courses, surprisingly even more thanthe current research activity of the fac-ulty. We need to have fresh, relevantcourses focusing on subjects such as poly-mers, biomaterials, and the structure andproperties of films, and we need to en-hance mathematical component of corecourses. Invited lecturers from industryare also important.
Q: What is the greatest challengefor MSE?A: Finding a focus for joint research ac-tivity in the Program is probably the mostdifficult problem we face. This year, wecreated a distinguished lecture series withsupport from Vice Chancellor RichardAttiyeh. This will help in bringing facultytogether to identify such joint efforts andpromote collaborative research. We arealso hoping to develop a Center for Char-acterization, which would be a centralresearch and education laboratory avail-able to all the students, faculty and col-laborators involved in the Program.
Visit http://matsci.ucsd.edu/
LARRY SMARR, KNOWN WORLD-WIDE FOR HIS ROLEin creating the modern information infrastructure, joinedthe Jacobs School as a professor of computer scienceand engineering in July. Previously, Smarr was the di-rector of the National Center for Supercomputing Appli-cations (NCSA) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He was also the Director of the NationalComputational Science Alliance, comprised of over 50universities, government labs, and corporations.
Smarr is serving as the director-designate of the Cali-fornia Institute for Telecommunications and Informa-tion Technology [Cal-(IT)2], a joint proposal of UC SanDiego and UC Irvine. The Institute will conduct researchin core technologies needed to expand the reach andcapacity of the global wireless Internet. It will also usethe new telecommunications infrastructure to advanceapplications important to California’s economy includ-ing education, environmental monitoring, health caredelivery and transportation. The proposal comes at therequest of California Governor Gray Davis, who plansto establish three Institutes for Science and Innovationto help ensure the state’s economic prosperity.
“I look forward to the exciting challenge of workingon what I consider to be the research frontiers of thefuture including the wireless Internet, nanotechnologyand genome-enabled medicine,” says Smarr. “San Di-ego is the place to be. Not only does the region haveone of the nation’s best research universities, it also hasa technology industry base which is thriving in thesefrontier areas.”
For the last 15 years, Smarr led NCSA as it trailblazedtoday’s information infrastructure. He argued stronglyfor the construction of the first national NSF backbone,which connected the five NSF supercomputer centersin 1986, and rapidly evolved, first into the NSFnet, andthen into today’s commercial Internet. The developmentof NCSA Mosaic and NCSA’s Web server software trans-formed the Internet into the Web.
Smarr serves on a number of high-level governmentcommittees such as the President’s Information Tech-nology Advisory Committee and the Advisory Commit-tee to the Director, NIH. He is a member of the NationalAcademy of Engineering and a Fellow of the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Sciences.
Smarr earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees fromthe University of Missouri, a master’s at Stanford Univer-sity, and a doctorate from the University of Texas atAustin (all in Physics). An internationally recognized as-trophysicist, Dr. Smarr conducted observational, theo-retical, and computational based research in astrophys-ics for 15 years before he became Director of NCSA.
University of California, San Diego Irwin and Joan
Jacobs School
Jacobs School of
of Engineering
Engineering
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The Jacobs School of Engineering at UC SanDiego is a premier institution that is set apartby its entrepreneurial atmosphere. The Schoolleads the nation in key areas that are at theconvergence of more traditional disciplines.Our strengths include networking and com-munications, high performance computing,information technology, nanotechnology,earthquake engineering and civil infrastruc-ture renewal, materials, energy, controls,bioengineering and tissue engineering.
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M.ENG., M.S. AND PH.D. DEGREE PROGRAMS
The quality of the Jacobs School’s gradu-ate program is recognized worldwide andthe School was ranked among the top 10engineering schools at public universitiesin the 2000 U.S. News & World Reportsurvey. The Jacobs School has achievedexcellence in education by steadfastly hir-ing only the highest quality faculty andattracting the very brightest students. Fif-teen of our faculty are members of the Na-tional Academy of Engineering.
The Jacobs School has been extraordinar-ily successful in obtaining support for ourresearch programs. In fact, the School rankssecond in the nation among engineeringschools in terms of average research sup-port per faculty member.
Students at the Jacobs School enjoy livingand learning in “Technology’s Perfect Cli-mate.” UCSD rests high atop the bluffs ofLa Jolla, just minutes from the PacificOcean with its postcard-perfect beachesand breathtaking sunsets. UCSD is alsolocated near the hub of San Diego’s bur-geoning high technology and biotechnol-ogy industries. According to the MilkenInstitute, San Diego has one of the broad-est and most balanced arrays of technol-ogy clusters in any metropolitan area ofthe U.S. One of the strengths of our gradu-ate program is our proactive partnershipwith industry. Our students have the op-portunity to work on research applied toreal world industry challenges.
Proactive partnership with industry iscentral to the mission of the JacobsSchool of Engineering. Through acontinuing dialogue with executives, werenew our curricula to ensure we arepreparing students for the future. Ourstrong research collaborations allowfaculty, students and industry engineersto exchange ideas, fueling innovation inboth the university and corporateresearch laboratories. The CorporateAffiliates Program (CAP) is one of theprimary means by which the JacobsSchool cultivates relationships withindustry. More than 50 leading-edgetechnology companies interact with theschool and its students through CAP.
LAST SEPTEMBER A TEAM OF ABOUT 20Jacobs School engineering students begandesigning a human powered submarine withone goal in mind: shattering the InternationalHuman Powered Vehicle Association’s(IHPVA) world speed record for non-propeller human powered submarines. OnJuly 23 they did just that with a remarkablerun at 3.447 knots. The previous record fornon-propeller subs was 2.9 knots.
UCSD team captain and mechanicalengineering student Scott Ketcham says the
San Diego sub, christened “SubSonic,” wasmodeled after a dolphin fish: “The submarineswims much like a dolphin. It has a horizontaltail fin that moves up and down for itspropulsion. The submarine also does not useany external control fins for steering.Directional control of the submarine is doneby the use of vectored thrust and dynamicballast tanks. This reduces drag to achievehigher speed.” SubSonic also includes asoftware program to control the depth of thesub.
Nine teams competed in the contest whichwas hosted by the American Society ofMechanical Engineers (ASME), the Instituteof Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE),and the Oceanic Engineering Society.Sponsors included the Jacobs School, ASME,IEEE, OES, COI, Sempra Energy, Nokia, USGrants, Shell, Hamilton Sundstrand, andOrincon.
Get involved: If you are interested in fundinga student project, please contact Joe Bearat (858) 534-7609.
FlyingHighIn its first year ofcompetition, the JacobsSchool’s AmericanInstitute of Aeronauticsand Astronautics(AIAA) chapter tooksixth place out of 30
international teams in the 2000 AIAA/Cessna/ONR StudentDesign/Build/Fly Competition.
Their radio-controlled plane was made almost entirely ofcomposites. With a wingspan of 7 feet, the aircraft was 62.5inches long and weighed less than 55 pounds.
J a c o b s S c h o o lengineering studentsachieved a 95% passrate on this year ’sCalifornia Board forProfessional Engineersand Land Surveyors“Engineer-In-TrainingExamination.” Thenational average passrate was only 61%.
� Welcome to the followingcompanies who joined CAP in the lastfour months: bex Research, e.Digitaland STMicroelectronics. This bringsour total Cap membership to 53companies!
If you would like information aboutCAP, contact Kelly Briggs at (858)534-2329.
� Currie Munce ’79 (IBM) is theincoming Chairman of the CAPExecutive Committee, and DavidGrooms (Kyocera) is the incomingVice Chairman.
� MP3.com’s Michael Robertsonserved as keynote speaker for theJacobs School’s Graduation Banquetand provided entertainment bySpaceman Spiff.
� Don Spencer, longtime friend of theJacobs School and Director of Tech-nology for the TRW Avionics SystemsDivision has retired. He served on theCAP Executive Board for more than10 years.
� The following CAP companies haveestablished scholarships for the com-ing academic year: Clinicomp,Sempra/SDG&E, Qualcomm, BAESystems, and MP3.com.
� TRW Foundation recently awardedtwo grants totaling $40,000 to supportJacobs School research. The Foun-dation is sponsoring a project by LarryMilstein (ECE) titled “Enhanced Re-ceiver Design for Interference-LimitedMultiple Access Channels” and aproject by George Polyzos (CSE) titled“Support for Mobile Wireless Accessto Multimedia over the Web.”
� Solar Turbines has provided$5,000 to help launch a new JacobsSchool outreach program to juniorhigh and high school students.
� Mark your calendars!Important CAP dates to remember:
September 25, 2000Solar Turbines/CAP Exec. BoardSan Diego Bay CruiseOctober 12, 2000Fall meeting of the Executive BoardNovember 3, 2000CAP ReceptionFebruary 23, 2001Annual Research ReviewMay 4, 2001Annual Recognition Banquet
Corporate Partnership
San Diego Universities, ORINCON andNavy Lab Form Partnership forCommercialization of TechnologyCONGRESS HAS APPROPRIATED a $6 million fund to fast-track thedevelopment and application of advanced technology in San Diego.The program creates a powerful partnership including the UCSD JacobsSchool of Engineering, UCSD Connect, San Diego State University’sEntrepreneurial Management Center, ORINCON Industries, and theSpace and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center-San Diego.
“This initiative will help fill the gap between technology generatorsand end users in both the defense and commercial marketplace,” saidCongressman Brian Bilbray.
The consortium will seek out marketable research from UCSD andSPAWAR. Academic, industry and government technical representa-tives will evaluate proposals and advance selected ideas. ORINCONand/or SPAWAR will develop and test prototypes, while San DiegoState University’s Entrepreneurial Management Center and UCSD Con-nect will oversee market viability studies, business planning and tech-nology transfer marketing.
Daniel Alspach, CEO of ORINCON, and a UCSD engineering alum-nus and former professor, was one of the principal architects of theprogram.
“San Diego has experienced phenomenal growth in entrepreneurismover the last several years. With this kind of federal funding, we can doeven better,” says Alspach. “This grant allows several significant enti-ties, who may not have had the opportunity to work closely togetherin the past, to collectively facilitate the transfer of university and DOD-funded research for entrepreneurial ventures.”
COMPANIES HAVE THE OPPORTUNITYto provide senior Electrical Engineeringand Mechanical and Aerospace Engineer-ing students with valuable practical ex-perience in industrial design problem-solving. These senior design courses en-able your company to put the combinedbrainpower of three to five talented stu-dents to work on engineering designprojects over a 10-15 week period.
The cost to participating companies isminimal — primarily that associated withfabrication. This type of university/indus-try cooperation promotes hands-on, real-
������������� ����������������world experience and is a critical part ofthe students’ educational and professionaldevelopment.
Project topics can be interdisciplinaryand have included electromechanical,fluid mechanics, heat transfer, thermody-namic, and electrical components.
For more information on senior designprojects, please contact Pankaj Das, ECEcourse director, at (858) 822-0114([email protected]) or Nathan Delson,MAE course director, at (858) 534-0655([email protected]).
Jacobs School students recently designed theQuadriplegic Shower Chair for GPK, an ElCajon company specializing in products andservices for quadriplegics. Team membersRandy Hull, Robert Rumbaugh, James Carr,and David Bibb designed the chair to enablequadriplegics to easily position themselvesover the toilet and transfer in and out of theshower. The students successfully addressednumerous safety, portability, and price con-straints. For example, a user had to be se-cure at all times, and the unit had to accom-modate up to 250 lbs. and fit multiple bath-room layouts. Also, the prototype cost couldnot exceed $1,500 and the production costneeded to be under $500.
Examples of other projects can befound at www-mae.ucsd.edu/mae156b/student_projects.html.
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UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering / Fall 2000
FRIEDER SEIBLE, PROFESSOR AND CHAIR of the Department of StructuralEngineering, has been named the inaugural holder of the Eric and Johanna ReissnerEndowed Professorship in Applied Mechanics and Structural Engineering. The en-dowed chair was established by the Reissner family to honor Eric Reissner, who servedon the faculty of the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering from 1970 until the time ofhis death in 1996.
Reissner was an international figure in applied mathematics and structural mechan-ics. His research had a profound impact in structural mechanics, civil engineering andthe design of aerospace structures.
Seible’s outstanding achievements include the development of large-scale structuraltesting techniques, seismic assessment and retrofit of bridges, and the application ofpolymer matrix composites in civil engineering structures. He developed and directsthe Charles Lee Powell Research Laboratories, which are known worldwide for full-scale testing and analysis of structures. Among his many honors, Seible was electedinto the National Academy of Engineering in 1999.
Faculty Fellowships Aid inRecruiting Outstanding Young FacultyAn outstanding faculty is thehallmark of any great univer-sity. The Jacobs School hascreated the Faculty Fellow-ship program to help attractand retain excellent juniorfaculty members. This pro-gram complements the en-dowed chair program, whichis reserved to honor and re-ward senior faculty mem-bers.
Named faculty fellowshipscan be established by pro-viding a two-year gift of aminimum of $25,000 peryear. Or individuals maycontribute to the general fac-ulty fellowship fund. Thesegifts help promising facultymembers create new cur-ricula, establish their re-search laboratories, andconduct the preliminarystudies needed to competefor larger federal grants.This support becomes im-portant part of the start-up of-fer made to new facultymembers, which greatly en-
hances the Jacobs School’sability to attract the very bestcandidates.
The Jacobs School has inplace two named faculty fel-lowship programs, which il-lustrate how your gift can bemade. Established by theCharles Lee Powell Founda-tion, the Powell AssistantProfessor Fellowships areawarded to faculty who havebeen with the Jacobs Schoolfor more than two years.Three fellowships areawarded including one at$50,000 per year and two at$25,000 per year. TheJacobs Faculty Fellow-ships were established bya gift from Irwin and JoanJacobs and are awarded toassistant professors beingrecruited in the current aca-demic year. Three two-yearfellowships are awardedeach year including one fel-lowship at $50,000 per year,and two fellowships at$25,000 per year.
Outstanding CAP Awards:Steve F. Flaim, Ph.D., F.A.C.C.,Vice President of R&D, Galileo Laboratories
Donald J. Spencer, Ph.D.,Director of Technology, TRW Avionics Systems Division
Undergraduate Student Leadership Award:Heidi Buck, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Graduate Student Research Award:Max Rotunno, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace
Graduate Fellowship Campaign ExtendedThe Graduate Fellowship campaign has been a huge success,
and UCSD has extended the program until December 1. Thegoal of the program is to provide the type of support that willenable UCSD to compete with other top-ranked schools for thebest graduate students. The university will match each dollarcontributed and students will begin benefiting from the fellow-ships as early as fall quarter 2001.
To date, the Jacobs School has received $276,500. Combinedwith matching funds, these gifts provide a total of $553,000 forgraduate student support. Many thanks to Arnost and Kitty Fronek,and to Buzz Woolley, Jr. for their generous gifts.
There is still time to take advantage of this matching program.To participate, a minimum contribution of $3,000 per year forthree years ($9,000) is required. A donation of at least $75,000over three years entitles contributors to name the fellowship.
UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering / Fall 2000
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UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering / Fall 2000
Alumni
BrianKenne
Different Ways, Different ReasonsAlumni Give Back
Taner Halicioglu
Taner Halicioglu (CS, ’96) makes his living in the Internet e-com-merce sector, so its no wonder he was the first Jacobs Schoolalumnus to use our new online giving form. Halicioglu is a Sr.Software Engineer for a Bay Area start-up called Loudcloud(www.loudcloud.com). The company establishes, monitors andexpands network and systems operations, web servers and data-base servers for new e-commerce businesses.
Taner says he has fond memories of UCSD, and only began totruly appreciate the School and what it taught him after graduation.
“What I really enjoyed was the 1:1 time with my professors andclassmates…just being able to “brain dump” ideas and talk about things,”said Halicioglu. Some of the teachers he remembers include Keith Muller,Keith Marzullo and Joseph Pasquale.
Aside from work, Halicioglu has traveled to Turkey, Australia, and Ken-tucky to visit friends and relatives. His most recent hobby is racing hiscar in Autocross and track events.
Jeannine Menger
For Jeannine Menger(CS, ’86) a degree fromUCSD means both agreat education andopen doors. She’s landedexciting jobs at SAIC,Jenny Craig, OverlandData, and PC Synergy. Menger is now an in-dependent software de-veloper and is currentlyworking under contractwith Novatel Wireless inCarlsbad. To date, she’sautomated their factory
and shipping systems and setup their product activation andtesting lines.
“My education at UCSD was very thorough,” says Menger.“We learned in depth how computers are designed and builtand how the mathematics of them plays into their functioning.This has been incredibly valuable when applied against realworld circumstances.”
Jeannine Menger brought the annual fund giving to a newlevel when she inquired about monthly automatic deductionsfrom her checking account. This method of giving is nowavailable to all alumni.
“When I think aboutthe experiences thatinfluenced my career,UCSD had by far thegreatest influence ofanything that camebefore or after.”
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UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering / Fall 2000
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$%&�� �'����(����, B.S. AMES,Bioengineering. Konno is the Directorof Technology Assessment for the Criti-cal-Care Division of EdwardsLifesciences, and has served with thecompany for 20 years. He lives in La-guna Beach with his wife JoAnna (alsoa UCSD grad) and two children (Eric, 3and Allison, 2).E-mail: [email protected]
$%&$��)��'�*��������)+���,B.S., Electrical Engineering. Bastaki iscurrently director of the IT Center, UAEUniversity, United Arab Emirates.Bastaki recently chaired the IEEE UAESection and in May was chairman ofthe IEC 2000 conference.E-mail: [email protected]
$%&&�,�*�� -� ���*���, Ph.D.AMES, Fluid Dynamics. Lienhard is aprofessor of Mechanical Engineeringat MIT and recently became an ASMEfellow.
$%%&��������� �� , M.S., Ph.D.,Computer Science. Long is a Professorof Computer Science and AssociateDean in the Jack Baskin School of Engi-
neering at UC Santa Cruz. He consultsfor IBM Research and is actively work-ing to build a storage systems researchgroup (currently with four faculty).Email: [email protected]
$%&&� ���.����� ��� , B.S.,Bioengineering. Wang is a Product De-velopment Engineer at Woodside Bio-medical, Inc., a Carlsbad based start-upthat develops an anti-nausea device calledthe Reliefband (www.reliefband.com). TheReliefband is an FDA approved Class 2medical device that transmits low-levelelectrical stimulation pulses to a nerve inthe wrist. These pulses counteract the sen-sation of nausea associated with motionsickness, chemotherapy, morning sick-ness, and post-operative nausea. Wangjust moved to Carlsbad and enjoys beingable to bike to work.E-mail: [email protected].
$%%/����)+�������*, B.S., Electri-cal Engineering. Dinh is a senior soft-ware engineer working for Intel Wire-less Communications and ComputingDivision in San Diego.E-mail: [email protected].
$%%0� ������ -� �*�1�2 , B.S.,Bioengineering. Chavez received hisDoctor of Medicine degree from theMedical College of Wisconsin on May20, 2000. Chavez will conduct his inter-nal medicine residency at UCSD. Dr.Chavez was honored with the AlphaOmega Alpha and Merck ManualAwards for academic achievement. Wel-come home Brian.
$%%3��������� �-� �#�*���, B.S.,Mechanical Engineering. Buehlerearned his M.S. in Mechanical Engineer-ing from Berkeley in 1998 and is currentlyworking for XCellSis Corporation inPoway.E-mail: [email protected].
$%%4��-�������1��), Ph.D., Com-puter Engineering. Elvins co-foundedIndicast Corporation in May 1999 withUCSD alum Rob Fassett. Indicast is de-livering the audio internet; a personal-ized voice portal accessed via your cel-lular telephone with an all voice interface.Elvins says people interested in work-ing for the Indicast team may send re-sumes to [email protected][email protected].
Please take a few moments to update us on your recent activities and/or new address.E-mail to: [email protected] -or- Updates on the Web: www.soe.ucsd.edu/alumni/class_notes.html
UCSD Homecoming 2000Enjoy a weekend of athletic challenges and fun activitiesduring the annual alumni homecoming on October 28 atRIMAC field. Be a runner, a winner, or a spectator. There issomething for everyone!
The day includes annual alumni team competitions in ten-nis, women’s and men’s soccer, women and men’s waterpolo, and men’s basketball. There will also be food, liveentertainment, and drawings for great prizes. Admission andparking are free.
For more information, call (858) 534-4037, or visitwww.alumni.ucsd.edu.
The University of California is presentingan all UC Alumni Career Conference Satur-day, September 23 at the Westin BonaventureHotel in Los Angeles. The conference features plenty of oppor-
tunities for networking and workshops on:• Working for or starting your own .com company• Incorporating financial planning into your career• How to use On-line career resources
For details, visit www.ucalumni.net or call James Stofanat (510) 987-9184.
Companies listed are members of the School’s Corporate Affiliates Program. Visit the Corporate Jobspage at ����������������for direct links to detailed employment opportunities.
