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Christos Papadimitriou has been chosen to receive the 2015 European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) Distinguished Achievements award. This award is given to acknowledge extensive and widely recognized contributions to theoretical computer science over a life-long scientific career. Previous recipients of the EATCS Award represent a Who's Who of Theoretical Computer Science including EECS Prof. Richard Karp. More>> James O'Brien and his colleagues Ben Cole and Eric Parker will be receiving a Technical Achievement award from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Finite Element Destruction modeling. The software they developed has been used in over 60 Feature films during the last five years, including Harry Potter, Man of Steel, 300: Rise of an Empire, Godzilla, Life of Pi, Maleficent, and Guardians of the Galaxy. Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli has been named as an ACM Fellow for 2014. ACM Fellows have achieved advances in computing research and development that are driving innovation and sustaining economic development around the world. Prof. Sangiovanni-Vincentelli has been recognized for his contributions to electronic design automation. More>> Murat Arcak has been selected as the recipient of the 2014 Antonio Ruberti Young Researcher Prize. This prize is awarded by the IEEE Control Systems Society to recognize distinguished cutting-edge contributions by a young researcher to the theory or application of systems and control. Prof. Arcak is receiving the award for contributions to the theory and applications of nonlinear control, stability and passivity. Research conducted by Sayeef Salahuddin’s group, Laboratory for Emerging & Exploratory Devices, has been published in the online journal Natural Materials titled Negative capacitance in a ferroelectric capacitor”. Capacitance is the ability of a material to store an electrical charge. The article describes the first direct observation of a long-hypothesized but elusive phenomenon called “negative capacitance “This property, if successfully integrated into transistors, could reduce the amount of power they consume by at least an order of magnitude, and perhaps much more,” says the paper’s lead author Asif Khan. That would lead to longer-lasting cell phone batteries, less energy-consumptive computers of all types, and, perhaps even more importantly, could extend by decades the trend toward faster, smaller processors that has defined the digital revolution since its birth. Ana Arias’ research group, Flexible Electronic Devices and Systems Laboratory has a paper published in “Nature Communications” titled “ All-organic optoelectronic sensor for pulse oximetry”. Pulse oximetry is a ubiquitous non-invasive medical sensing method for measuring pulse rate and arterial blood oxygenation. Conventional pulse oximeters use expensive optoelectronic components that restrict sensing locations to finger tips or ear lobes due to their rigid form and area-scaling complexity. Prof. Arias’ group is developing a new organic optoelectronic sensor to create a device that could ultimately be thin, cheap and flexible enough to be slapped on like a Band-Aid during that jog around the track or hike up the hill. Dan Garcia was interviewed by NBC Bay Area’s Jessica Aguirre about code.org and their Hour of Code initiative that launches today as part of CS Education Week. On the 1 year anniversary of the first Hour of Code, over 50 million students have tried the Hour of Code. President Obama kicks off the 2014 Computer Science Education Week with a new call to motivate students worldwide to try the 2014 Hour of Code. On Tuesday, Dec. 9, 500 local high school students will come to UC Berkeley for CS ED Day 2014, a full day of computer science related activities. PATH (California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology) Research Engineer and Program Manager Wei-Bin Zhang has been elevated to IEEE Fellow. Prof. Emeritus Pravin Varaiya nominated Wei-Bin for his contribution to cooperative highway automation systems and in recognition of his scientific leadership on numerous projects at PATH throughout the years. More>> EECS alumnus Paul Debevec (advisor Prof. Jitendra Malik) and a team of 3-D imaging specialists led by the Smithsonian Institute created the first 3-D modeling of a presidential portrait for Barack Obama. In the White House, Paul Debevec’s team assembled a modified Light Stage X, a high-speed system with eight cameras and 50 LED lights that capture detailed shape and reflectance properties of a face in seconds, recorded the President's facial features in high-resolution. The Light Stage data was processed by USC's ICT Graphics Lab team, and subsequently combined with additional data capture by the Smithsonian team to create a life-sized bust and life mask of the president. The first “ Light Stage” was constructed at UC Berkeley in 1999. The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation has awarded $5.7M to 5 groups of researchers working in one of three fundamental areas in the field of artificial intelligence (AI): machine reading; diagram interpretation and reasoning; and spatial and temporal reasoning. Maneesh Agrawala and Jeffrey Heer (U. of Washington) have been named recipients for their work on developing computational models for machines to “read” scientific charts and diagrams so they can extract useful data and relationships to drive improved information applications. The paper titled “ Analyzing Log Analysis: An Empirical Study of User Log Mining” written by S. Alspaugh, Beidi Chen, Jessica Lin, Archana Ganapathi, Marti Hearst and Randy Katz has been chosen “Best Student Paper” at USENIX (The Advanced Computing Systems Association) LISA 2014. This conference recognizes the overlap and differences between traditional and modern IT operations and engineering, and has developed a highly-curated program around 5 key topics: Systems Engineering, Security, Culture, DevOps, and Monitoring/Metrics. More>> The paper written by Prof. Brian Barsky, EECS alumnus Fu-Chung Huang, Gordon Wetzstein and Ramesh Raskar titled “ Eyeglasses-free Display: Towards Correcting Visual Aberrations with Computational Light Field Displays” has been named “ World Changing Ideas 2014” by Scientific American. The magazine annually chooses 10 problem-solving, planet-improving, lifesaving advances set to drive progress in the years ahead. The paper titled “ Versatile Low Power Media Access for Wireless Sensor Networks” written by Joseph Polastre, Jason Hill, and David Culler in 2004 has been chosen to receive the “Test of Time” award at the 12th ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys 2014). This conference introduces a highly selective, single-track forum for research on systems issues of networked sensing and actuation, broadly defined. Tsu-Jae King Liu has been selected to receive the University Research Award by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) for excellence in semiconductor technology. The SIA -- in consultation with the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) commends accomplished researchers for their roles in their university research engine that has made the U.S. the cradle of discovery and technology development. Prof. King Liu is being honored for contributions and achievements in technology research. EECS staff member Yang (Linda) Huang's debut novel Living Treasures was published in Oct. 2014 and received critical acclaim. San Francisco Book Review calls it "endearing, extraordinarily moving, and its timely message about life makes it a must read for young and old readers alike." Jiayu Jeng, the KTSF Channel 26 Talk Tonight host, says, "Living Treasures is a book that breaks your heart, and then mends it with hope. Best book I've read this year." Foreword Reviews chose Living Treasures as one of the top novels of 2014, featuring characters who have lived through some rough patches in our world’s history. More>> The National Science Foundation will be honoring EECS graduate student, Veteran and NSF Graduate Fellowship Recipient Bradley Wheeler on Wednesday, November 5 at the NSF headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. The ceremony will highlight 11 Veterans including Bradley and their contributions to STEM fields. Bradley’s emphasis is in Microelectromechanical Systems and is currently working on millimeter-scale autonomous robotics with the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center and Qualcomm Swarm Lab and in collaboration with faculty from the Berkeley Wireless Research Center. Laura Waller is among 18 young scientists and engineers from universities across the country named as 2014 recipients of the Packard Fellowships for Science and Engineering. The Packard Foundation established the Fellowships program in 1988 to provide early-career scientists with flexible funding and the freedom to take risks and explore new frontiers in their fields. Each Fellow will receive an unrestricted grant of $875,000 over five years to pursue his/her research. More>> Profs. Michael Lustig and Ben Recht have been selected to receive 2014 Okawa Foundation Research Grants. This award recognizes promising young faculty members in the fields of information and telecommunications. Profs. Lustig and Recht continue a line of distinguished faculty from Berkeley EECS who have received this award. To see the list by year please go to http://www.okawafoundation.or.jp/en/activities/research_grant/list.html. Lars Rohrbach, Manager of the Infrastructure Development and Support Group (IDSG), is the winner of the 2014 Wil Zeilinger Staff Excellence Award. The Zeilinger Award honors a staff member of the EECS department or ERSO who exemplifies a spirit of service cheerfully given for the general good. Laura Waller is among a few highly talented researchers who have been selected to each receive $1.5 million over the next five years from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, as part of the foundation’s Data-Driven Discovery Initiative. This initiative is committed to enabling new types of scientific breakthroughs by supporting interdisciplinary, data-driven researchers. Prof. Waller’s research involves simultaneous design of optical systems and computational algorithms for creating microscopes that employ simple hardware, yet achieve contrast modes not otherwise possible. The National Institutes of Health announced its first research grants through President Barack Obama’s BRAIN Initiative, including three awards to the University of California, Berkeley, totaling nearly $7.2 million over three years. These initial awards are part of a 12-year scientific plan focused on developing the tools and technologies needed to make the next leap in understanding the brain. Michel Maharbiz’ proposal on the use of ultrasound to create ‘waveguides’ that can steer light below the surface of the cortex, stimulating photoswitches that enable the study of neurotransmitters and was chosen with 5 other proposals. More>> The EECS Department is proud to congratulate three outstanding Masters students - Matthew Fong (5th Year MS), Henry Lu (5th Year MS), and Johanna Ye (M.Eng.) on joining the class of 2015 Siebel Scholars. The Siebel Scholars program was established by the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation in 2000 to recognize the most talented students at the world’s leading graduate schools of business, computer science, and bioengineering. All UC Berkeley scholars were honored at a lunch with Tom Siebel and the Dean of the College of Engineering, Shankar Sastry. Martin Wainwright has been awarded the COPSS (Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies) Presidents’ Award, at the Joint Statistical Meetings earlier this month. This award is considered to be the Nobel Prize of Statistics, a most prestigious award for young researchers in Statistics. More>> Dan Garcia was interviewed for an article in the Center for Digital Education online publication titled “ California Shores up Support for Computer Science Education”. Lawmakers and educators are taking steps to make computer science now count toward high school graduation requirements for math and science.
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