EECS News Spring 2004

EECS doctoral candidate Vinod Prabhakaran appeared in a Sacramento Bee article titled "Guarded Support: Correctional Officers Back Study Program," about college programs for inmates.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/v-print/story/10301188p-11221329c.html
August 8, 2004
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Professor David Patterson, along with John Hennessy, is the recipient of the 2004 C & C Prize. The Foundation for C & C Promotion in Japan awards this prize which consists of a certificate, a plaque, and a monetary award. The citation for Patterson and Hennessy reads "for contributions to the advancement of computer science, engineering and industry through inspiring textbooks, research and professional services on computer architecture."
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Professor and Chair Jitendra Malik appeared in a New York Times article titled "What's Next: Fleeting Experience, Mirrored in Your Eyes," about a corneal imaging system being developed at Columbia University.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/29/technology/circuits
/29next.html?pagewanted=print&position=
(requires registration)
July 29, 2004
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Professor Kris Pister appeared in a New York Times article titled "Wireless Sensor Networks Spread to New Territory."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/26/business/26sensor.html?
pagewanted=print&position=
(requires registration)
July 26, 2004
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Professor Kathy Yelick appeared in an eWeek article titled "Sun Plans Java Platform Extensions."
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1624450,00.asp
July 19, 2004
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David Wagner appeared in an article titled "These chips keep tabs on library books -- and perhaps you. Libraries from Toronto to the Vatican are using high-tech ways to track wayward tomes, but the methods have sparked privacy concerns" in The Ottawa Citizen.
[no link online]
July 13, 2004
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Professor Eric Brewer was featured in a LA Times article titled, "A Fallen Tech Highflier Sifts Through Bubble Memories," about Inktomi Corp., the search engine and network technology company he co-founded as a Berkeley computer science professor in 1996.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-golden5jul05,1,7400945.column
(LA Times Archive page, registration required)
July 5, 2004
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Professor Emeritus Charles Susskind passed away on June 15, 2004 after a brave and lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease. He joined UC Berkeley's Electrical Engineering department in 1955 in the area of microwaves. The SF Chronicle article can be seen at http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?file=/
chronicle/archive/2004/06/17/BAGTU778E01.DTL&type=printable

UC Berkeley Newscenter press release can be viewed at http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/06/24_susskind.shtml
June 2004
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Professor Gene Myers appeared in a Sacramento Bee article titled "Computational biology: UCSC man's work earns top award: His computer programs deciphered human genome," about David Haussler receiving ACM's Allen Newell Award.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/8867554.htm?1c
(Registration may be required)
June 8, 2004
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Professor David Patterson has been elected President of the Association of Computing Machinery. He will serve from July 1, 2004 - June 30, 2006.
http://www.acm.org/key_people/election_2004/
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Professor Costas Spanos will be the next director of the Electronics Research Laboratory, beginning July 1st. He will replace outgoing ERL Director Professor Al Pisano. Costas Spanos has served as the Faculty Director of the Microlab in recent years.
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James O'Brien received an award from the Hellman Family Faculty Fund for his proposal, “Combined Audio and Visual Stimulation for Synthetic Environments.”
http://vpaafw.chance.berkeley.edu/hellman.html
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Ion Stoica was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Science and Technology. 20 of the 57 recipients named by President Bush came from NSF. NSF's nominees for these presidential awards are drawn from junior faculty members who have received grants from NSF's Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program, considered the agency's most important and prestigious awards for new faculty members who show promise as leaders in science and engineering.
http://nsf.gov/od/lpa/newsroom/pr.cfm?ni=91
May 4, 20004
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Three New Centers Open in EECS
The Berkeley Quantum Information and Computation (BQIC) Center kick-off event on May 13th began with a ribbon-cutting ceremony with BQIC directors Umesh Vazirani of EECS and Birgitta Whaley of Chemistry. BQIC brings together researchers from the colleges of chemistry, engineering and physical sciences to work on fundamental issues in quantum algorithms, quantum cryptography, quantum control and the experimental realization of quantum computers. The inauguration of the center featured plenary talks about foundational and experimental aspects of research by experts K. Nakamura of NEC, Japan, L. Schulman of Caltech, D. Awschalom of UC Santa Barbara, and M. Mosca of the University of Waterloo. More details can be found at: http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/BQIC.

The Berkeley Institute of Design (BiD) officially opened with its May 14th kick-off event. BiD Director John Canny led a day of research overviews, breakout sessions, and demos, including a tour of their new space in the Hearst Memorial Mining Building. BiD incubates a new design discipline spanning computer science, architecture, industrial and mechanical engineering. BiD’s academic program, subject to future approval, is expected to be a two-year master’s degree. BiD will also include a PhD program in interdisciplinary design, which will put PhD students in a mentor role, pairing them with master’s students with complementary interests for the duration of their program. More information can be found at: http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/BID.

The Center for Optoelectronic Nanostructured Semiconductor Technologies (CONSRT) kick-off was May 16th. CONSRT, part of CITRIS, is funded under the DARPA University Photonics Research Program with significant industrial and institutional support. CONSRT’s goal is to advance nanostructured optoelectronic materials and devices to enable breakthrough functionalities in sensing, imaging, processing and communication microsystems with greatly reduced power, size, and weight. Connie Chang-Hasnain is the center’s director, and task leaders Pallab Bhattacharya, Dennis Deppe, and Peter Delfyett will focus on research in the areas of material research on quantum dots and nanocrystals, enabling devices for optical interconnects and communications, and system demonstration, respectively. More information is available at: http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/IPRO/CONSRT.
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Gene Myers received the Max Planck Research Prize from the Max Planck Society and the Alexander von Humboldt foundation for being "one of the pioneers of computational molecular biology."
May 2004
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Shankar Sastry has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the engineering sciences and technologies category.
A full list of the Fellows of the Class of 2004 may be found at
http://www.amacad.org/members/2004cs.htm
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Alumnae Barbara Grosz, now a professor at Harvard University, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the computer sciences category.
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EECS graduate student David Molnar appeared in a San Francisco Chronicle article titled "Despite privacy fears, library board approves microchips to track books."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/
2004/05/07/BAGOA6HC5H1.DTL&type=printable
May 7, 2004
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At the annual UC Berkeley Business Plan Competition at the Haas School of Business, EECS graduate student Sunil Bhave and Dr. Emmanuel Quevy's entry Silicon Clocks won the Best of UC Berkeley & UCSF Technology Prize of $7,500. EE graduate student Paul Hung was part of the Analog Micro Displays team, which received second place. EECS graduate students Frank Gennari, Mike Lam and Greg Mcintyre's team, DFM Technologies, won the third place prize and the People's Choice Award.
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/05/03_bizplan.shtml
http://haas.quimbik.com/about/2004winners.html
April 2004
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Professors Eric Brewer and David Culler appeared in a New York Times article titled "News Analysis: Why Google Is Peering Out, at Microsoft."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/03/technology/03next.html?pagewanted
=print&position=
(registration required)
May 3, 2004
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U.S. News and World Report magazine has rated U.C. Berkeley's graduate computer engineering and electrical/electronic/communications engineering as the nations #1 programs, tied with Stanford and MIT.

U.S. News and World Report Graduate School Ratings for 2004

Computer Engineering
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/eng/brief/engsp05_brief.php

Electrical/Electronic/Communications Engineering
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/eng/brief/engsp06_brief.php

The annual ratings are based on a combination of factors including student/faculty ratios, number of Ph.D. degrees awarded, faculty membership in the National Academy of Engineering, research funding, and peer and recruiter assessments.

U.S. News and World Report magazine has rated U.C. Berkeley as #3 nationwide in undergraduate computer engineering and electrical/electronic/communications engineering specialties for schools with doctorate programs. Since Berkeley doesn't have a computer engineering program, except as part of its EECS programs, EECS is taking credit for this rating. This makes Berkeley's program the top public undergraduate program in the nation for schools with doctorate programs.

U.S. News and World Report Undergraduate School Ratings for 2004

Computer Engineering
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/engineering/
phd/enps05_brief.php

Electrical/Electronic/Communications Engineering
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/engineering/
phd/enps06_brief.php
April, 2004
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EECS alumnus T. John Koo, now an assistant professor at Vanderbilt University, and Professor Shankar Sastry appeared in a Vanderbilt Engineering News article titled "ISIS: Improving 'Smart' Systems from Cell Phones to Jet Planes."
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/alumni/publications/engineering_sp04.pdf
Volume 45, Number 1, 2004
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Professor Ruzena Bajcsy was featured in an East Bay Business Times article titled "Project applies technology to big issues," about current research areas in CITRIS, and applying information technology to new areas in the humanities. Professor Kris Pister also appeared in the article.
http://eastbay.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2004/04/26/focus1.html?t=printable
April 23, 2004
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Eric Brewer appeared in a Los Angeles Times story titled "Some See a Challenge to Microsoft in Google's Sites," about the possibility of Google developing an operating system that would live on the Internet.
https://www.latimes.com/services/site/registration/
(LA Times Archive page, registration required)
April 14, 2004
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Professor Elwyn Berlekamp appeared in a New York Times article titled "Puzzles + Math = Magic," about the Gatherings for Gardner meeting of mathematicians, inventors, puzzle experts, and magicians.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/03/arts/03MATH.html?pagewanted
=print&position=
(registration required)
April 3, 2004
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Professor David Culler was featured in an Oakland Tribune article titled "Scientists vie for Homeland Security Cash," about Charles McQueary, undersecretary for science and technology at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, visiting the department.
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~2028339,00.html
March 19, 2004
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Professor Kris Pister was featured in an East Bay Business Times article titled "Firm in new market turns to tech veteran," about Joy Weiss, the new CEO of his company, Dust Inc.
http://eastbay.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2004/03/08/story7.html?t=printable
March 5, 2004
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Professor Ruzena Bajcsy is the recipient of the ACM Distinguished Service Award. Her citation reads "For outstanding contributions to computer science, information technology and societal systems as a researcher, educator, administrator, and for distinguished service on many major committees, councils and boards."
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Professor David Messerschmitt's recent book with Clement Szyperski of Microsoft entitled "Software Ecosystem" has been recognized by the Association of American Publishers as the outstanding achievement in Professional and Scholarly Publishing in the Business, Management, and Accounting category for 2003. The press release for the award is at:
http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~messer/softeco/PSP_winners_2003.pdf
and the book web site is at:
http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~messer/softeco/
February 2004
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Professor David Wagner was named “Best Academic Researcher” in Information Security Magazine’s December 2003 lineup of top security professionals.
http://infosecuritymag.techtarget.com/ss/0,295796,sid6_iss288
_art514,00.html
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Professor Nathan Cheung appeared in an EE Times article titled "Laser Liftoff Techique to Yield Biodetection Chip."
http://www.eetimes.com/printableArticle?doc_id=OEG20040220S0027
February 20, 2004
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Professor and Inktomi founder Eric Brewer appeared in an Oakland Tribune article titled "Yahoo dealing with Inktomi," about Yahoo!'s plans to switch to Inktomi's search engine.
http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82%257E10834%
257E1965517,00.html
February 19, 2004
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Professors James O'Brien and Jonathan Shewchuk have been selected as Alfred Sloan Fellows for 2004. The fellowships are awarded annually to recognize and support young scientists and scholars in chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, and physics. Fellows receive grants of $40,000 over two years.
http://www.sloan.org
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Professors Kris Pister and David Culler were featured in a San Jose Mercury article titled "Smart Dust."
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/7979553.htm?
template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
February 18, 2004
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Professors David Culler and Kris Pister appeared in a US News & World Report article titled "Science & Society: 'Smart dust' is way cool."
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/tech/articles/040216/16dust.htm
February 16, 2004
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Professor James O'Brien was interviewed by TechTV for the show "The Screen Savers," about his research developing numerical simulation techniques for modeling the appearance of physical phenomena in synthetic environments.
http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/showtell/story/0,24330,3615914,00.html
February 12, 2004
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Professor Jeff Bokor appeared in an Mit Technology Review article titled "Gadgets in the Superchip Age: Novel chip designs and manufacturing techniques keep the 40-year computing explosion going strong."
http://www.techreview.com (registration required)
January 30, 2004
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Dean Richard Newton, CITRIS Director Ruzena Bajcsy, Chair Shankar Sastry, and Professor Vivek Subramanian appeared in an EE Times article titled "A world-changing view of engineering," about CITRIS.
http://www.eet.com/printableArticle?doc_id=OEG20040123S0020
January 26, 2004
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Professors David Culler and Kris Pister appeared in an EE Times article titled "Sweeping smart dust into the mesh"
http://www.eet.com/printableArticle?doc_id=OEG20040123S0026
January 26, 2004
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Professor David Wagner appeared in a New York Times article titled "Report Finds Risks in Internet Voting by Americans Overseas."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/22/technology/22WEB.html?pagewanted
=print&position=
(registration required)
January 22, 2004