Loose Bits - May 2010

Here is this month’s installment of Loose Bits, the UW EE community news email intended to highlight all the positive achievements and activities happening around the department. If you have any news items you would like to share, please continue to send your information to: pr@ee.washington.edu.

Upcoming Events:
As this academic year comes to a close, there are several events that are important to mention. Please take a look at the events and consider attending them to show your support for fellow faculty, staff and students. Below are a few of the upcoming events with dates, times, locations and due dates for RSVPs as applicable:

• Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium – May 21^st, 12pm-5pm, Mary Gates Hall (http://exp.washington.edu/urp)
• EE Awards Day Ceremony – May 27^th, 2:30pm-4:00pm, Microsoft Atrium
• COE Community of Innovators Awards – June 1^st, 3:30pm, Don James Center at Husky Stadium (RSVP by 5/25)
• 2010 EE Graduation Celebration – June 11^th, 7:00pm, Kane Hall Room 130 (RSVP for the Ceremony by 5/23: www.ee.washington.edu/academic/graduation/index.html) 

Awards & Honors:
Many of our community members have received recognition for their exceptional efforts in research and education. You can click on the links below to learn more information about the award and recipient. Congratulations to these students, faculty and alumni!

Undergraduate student Eric Arendt is the recipient of the COE Dean’s Medal. This is the third year in a row in which an EE student has been selected for this honor.
www.ee.washington.edu/news/2010/arendt_deans_medal.html

UW Tech Fee Funds EE Computing Proposal
The Tech Fee Committee has accepted EE’s proposal for an Electrical Engineering Remote Access Lab for a preliminarily funding amount of approximately $86,000. This proposal will allow students the flexibility to remotely connect in to a virtual lab space that will image the exact tools found in the EE computing labs.
www.ee.washington.edu/news/2010/tech_fee_award.html

Professor Karl Böhringer has been appointed the John M Fluke Chair of Engineering. www.ee.washington.edu/news/2010/bohringer_fluke_chair.html

Graduate student Leo Lam has been honored with the 2010 COE Student Innovator Award for Teaching. The awards ceremony will be held on June 1^st, 3:30pm at the Don James Center at Husky Stadium. www.engr.washington.edu/mycoe/awards/coera_index.html

Graduate students Gabe Cohn and Julie Medero received the NSF Fellowship for 2010-2011. www.ee.washington.edu/news/2010/nsf_fellows.html

Vikram Jandhyala & Radha Poovendran will be promoted to full professors effective September 16^th. www.ee.washington.edu/news/2010/vikram_radha_promotion.html

Alumnus Paul Packan (BSEE ’84) has been named an Intel Fellow in the Technology and Manufacturing Group. In this role, he currently leads Intel Corporation's 15nm device technology group. Intel Fellows are selected for their technical leadership and outstanding contributions to the company and the industry, and it represents the highest level of technical achievement within the company.
www.ee.washington.edu/news/2010/packan_intel_fellow.html
www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/bios/ppackan.htm

 

UWEE in the News:
The research and service activities in our department have gained public interest through media coverage. Below is a selection of press items that features our faculty, students and staff. You can click on the link to read the article or view the video.

Shwetak Patel on Discovery News
news.discovery.com/videos/tech-smart-tech-measures-personal-water-consumption.html
Brian Otis in Trend
www.engr.washington.edu/news/trend/spr10_world.html#otis
Georg Seelig in Trend
www.engr.washington.edu/news/trend/spr10_world.html#seelig
Shwetak Patel in UWeek, Xconomy, Yahoo! Finance, Belkin Press Release
uwnews.org/uweek/article.aspx?visitsource=uwkmail&id=57278
www.xconomy.com/seattle/2010/04/21/uw-prof-shwetak-patel%E2%80%99s-energy-startup-zensi-bought-by-belkin/
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Belkin-Acquires-Zensi-bw-3528892092.html?x=0&.v=1
http://www.belkin.com/pressroom/releases/uploads/04_21_10ZensiAcquisition.html
Babak Parviz, Andy Lingley & James Etzkorn on KING 5’s Evening Magazine
www.king5.com/on-tv/Bionic-contacts-becoming-reality-at-University-of-Washington-89562147.html
Payman Arabshahi in Wired UK
www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-03/12/amarsi-project-could-see-robots-learn-from-co-workers.aspx

Department News:
Most of the latest news and events items can be found on our EE website: www.ee.washington.edu/news/index.html. Here are some additional departmental items that have occurred over the last month:

Spring Issue of The Integrator is Online
This issue has a couple of great feature stories, including a profile piece on recent alumnus Sheila Reynolds, and an article on smart grid and renewable energy.
www.ee.washington.edu/newsletter/integrator/index.html

EE/Physics Departments Hire Joint Faculty Position
Dr. Kai Mei Fu has accepted the offer as Assistant Professor of EE and Physics. She will join the department in September 2011.

New Grant Awards
Our faculty members continue to be successful at bringing in research funding for the department. During the months of March and April, new grant awards have totaled just over $1.2 million. Here are the new awards for the months of March and April that faculty have received:

PI:  Blake Hannaford
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Short title: Open Testbeds

PI: Jenq-Neng Hwang
Sponsor: Industrial Technology Research Institute
Short title: Video Object Tracking

PI: Thomas Henderson
Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Short title: Frameworks for ns-3