w w w. e n g r. s j s u . e d u

Newsletter for Alumni, Friends and Silicon Valley Industry ■ Winter 2006/07

Inside this IssueMessage from the Dean 2

U.S. President and SenatorVisit Silicon Valley 2

Town & Gown: Silicon ValleyLeaders Symposium 4

Improving Classroom Pedagogywith Hands-on Experience 5

Inspiring Young Women in Science and Math 5

Celebrating 60th Anniversaryat 2006 Engineering Awards Banquet 8

2006 Engineering Awards 8

2006 Alumni Award of Distinction Recipients 10

In July 2006, eight SJSU studentsparticipated in the Global Poverty

Alleviation (GPA) program in Chinaand learned for themselves the ways in which poverty is a “denial of opportunities.”

To participate in GPA, a month-longservice learning program, the studentswere responsible for their own travelexpenses to and from China; however,once they arrived, the program providedfor their housing and food. The WangFoundation, in partnership with TsinghuaUniversity and a consortium of otherU.S. universities, hosted approximately

50 U.S. students and 400 students fromTsinghua University. The students metin Beijing for a one-week orientationfocused on Chinese culture andgeneral issues of poverty. Afterwards,

the students ventured out into student-teams to visit some of the most impov-erished regions of China, living in thecities and villages and teaching Englishto children, students, and adults.

Trying to understand another culturealways defies neat summarization, andthe experiences the SJSU studentshad are varied and complex for severalreasons. First, the eight students visiteddifferent regions in China, from thefairly urban city of Chongqing, wherestudents lived in air-conditioneddormitories, to the mountainous desertof Pengyang County, where the farmerslived in caves.

Secondly, the SJSU students taughtEnglish to a plethora of different audi-ences, from grade school children to

How the Other Half of the World Lives: TeachingEnglish to People Living below the Poverty Line

Raising the Bar for Web Video Conferencing

Last year when Dr. Xiao Su of theComputer Engineering Department

tried to communicate via videoconfer-ence with her young daughter JolieWang, who was visiting grandparentsin China, the video quality was terrible.“The image would freeze for a wholeminute, then jump, and then startagain. But the face would be garbled,”she explained. In other words, the realtime Quality of Service (QoS) was poor.

According to Dr. Su, while Voice overInternet Protocol (VoIP) providers,such as Skype, have made VoIP quality

excellent, in the world of video andmultimedia streaming, QoS has laggedbehind. Skype has been able to designa system that leverages peer-to-peer(P2P) networks created by a userbase to deliver excellent voice quality.Dr. Su hopes to do the same for videoand multimedia streaming throughresearch sponsored by a five-year,$400K 2006 National ScienceFoundation (NSF) CAREER award.

Dr. Su has been a productive scholarin her academic career and is the kind

Raising the Bar continued on page 3

“It is in the deprivation of the lives that people can lead that poverty manifests itself.Poverty can involve not only the lack of the necessities of material well-being, butthe denial of opportunities for living a tolerable life.”

— United Nations’ Human Development Report of 1997

GPA continued on page 6

2 SJSU College of Engineering Newsletter ■ Winter 2006/07

Dear Friends of the College,

We had much to be proud

of during the College of

Engineering’s 60th Anniversary in

2006. For the past 60 years, the

College of Engineering has

provided affordable, accessible

high-quality education to anyone

who has the drive and ability to

pursue a rigorous course of study in engineering. Moreover,

SJSU graduates have been instrumental in the development

of Silicon Valley’s technology industry and infrastructure

as well as the Bay Area community.

Yet, as we enter the 21st century, the technology industry

and Silicon Valley community face significant challenges

brought forth by intense global competition. The vitality of

Silicon Valley calls for a competitive technology industry

and a larger pool of local talent with higher-level capabilities.

To meet this need, the College is seeking to develop its

programs further and has created its “Engineering the Vision”

initiative, which consists of strengthening five program

areas: student success, faculty development, leading-edge

engineering, multidisciplinary projects, and global experi-

ential learning.

Our vision is ambitious, but it is necessary in order to

provide Silicon Valley with the world-class talent it needs

to remain a technology leader. It is also necessary in order

for our future graduates to succeed in this competitive

world as their predecessors did.

Please join me in supporting and making this vision a reality

for our students and our community through our annual

appeal. Best wishes in the new year!

Sincerely,

Belle Wei

Dean, College of Engineering

Message from the Dean

computer engineering major Arash

Shokouh and electrical engineering major

John Weinerth had the opportunity to meet former U.S.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and President George

Bush, as both visited Silicon Valley this year to highlight

the global competitiveness issue and to promote math

and science education.

Frist (R-Tenn.) met with SJSU campus leaders and several

engineering students to publicize his SMART Grant program,

which provides financial assistance to low-income juniors

and seniors pursuing degrees in math, science, and

strategic foreign languages.

In April, Shokouh was invited to participate in President

Bush’s panel of politicians and industry professionals,

including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Cisco

Systems CEO John Chambers, held at Cisco Systems

headquarters. The panel discussed how the United

States can improve its competitive edge in the areas

of math and science. The president was specifically

promoting the American Competitive Initiative, a program

that aims to increase the number of students graduating

with degrees in math and science. ■

U.S. President and Senator Visit Silicon Valley

SJSU

3w w w. e n g r. s j s u . e d u

of faculty member the NSF CAREERaward seeks to encourage. With heraward she will study the QoS andsecurity issues surrounding video andmultimedia streaming over P2P networks.QoS (including video playback qualityand continuity), for example, can beimproved by designing more effectivemethods of video transmission thatleverage the internal characteristics ofvideo compression algorithms. At thesame time, however, the integrity andsecurity of the stream needs to bemaintained.

“On a P2P network, video and voice goto other people’s computers—that’s theadvantage and the disadvantage of aP2P network—packets can be dropped,held, modified or not forwarded. Wedon’t want this to happen,” explainedDr. Su.

The technical challenge is that bothencryption and compression eat upcomputer cycles and compete for thesame resources. Optimizing both QoSand security over P2P networksthrough an integrated investigativeapproach is the aim of Dr. Su’s project.

Dr. Su wasn’t always interested incomputers. As a student in China, her first two years of undergraduateeducation were in the biomedical field.At this point, she was given an oppor-tunity to change majors, a privilegeaccorded only to the highest achievers,and she settled on computer scienceas the most fundamental preparationfor a career in technology.

Having built a solid foundation of math,English and computer education, shedecided to strengthen this backgroundwith a major in computer science.

A decision made for practical reasonsthen became a passion. “I fell in lovewith computers,” Dr. Su laughs, as sherecalls the choice that has brought herto this point. “With computers, you cansee what works,” she says. She enjoysmathematical thinking, finding it criticalto designing excellent computer algo-rithms. “A smart algorithm is easilytested,” she notes. “To see thingsworking is rewarding.”

Dr. Su eventually came to the U.S. for graduate school. Not particularlytroubled by being one of the fewwomen in the computer engineeringfield, she spent a year at RensselaerPolytechnic Institute and then trans-ferred to the University of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign for doctoral work.

She joined her future husband whowas also working on a doctoral degreein computer science. Her hard workeventually led her to San José StateUniversity where she joined theComputer Engineering faculty asAssistant Professor in 2002.

Dr. Su has translated her love ofcomputers to improving what we seeon the computer screen. Perhaps oneday in the not-so-distant future whenher daughter Jolie is visiting hergrandparents in China, Dr. Su will beable to see and talk to her: jitter free,delay free and freeze free. ■

Raising the Bar continued from page 1

“I fell in love with computers,” Dr. Su laughs….

“With computers, you can see what works.”

4 SJSU College of Engineering Newsletter ■ Winter 2006/07

S ince Fall 2002, the College of Engineering has hosted theSilicon Valley Leaders Symposium (SVLS). The Fall 2006

SVLS series, as in previous semesters, brought to campussix prominent leaders from the high-tech industry in SiliconValley. Executives, such as Dr. Teresa Meng, co-founder ofAtheros Communications, and James Bagley, Chairman ofLam Research Corporation, discussed with students, faculty,and staff their companies’ cutting-edge research.

In addition, the industry leaders also emphasized otherimportant skills, such as developing strong communicationand interpersonal relationships and encouraging awarenessof global economic and technological trends, which studentsmust gain in order to be successful in the new global market.The SVLS series also included two SJSU student programs,the Global Technology Initiative and the Global PovertyAlleviation.

The main objective of the Symposium series is to solidify thelink between Silicon Valley industries and the University interms of the transfer of knowledge between both, includingcollaborating on industry projects and gaining input aboutcurriculum development and enhancement.

The symposia take place every Thursday from 12:00pm to1:00pm in the Engineering building auditorium, ENG 189. InSpring 2007, the series will be university wide in celebrationof SJSU’s 150th Anniversary.

For more information about the Spring 2007 symposiumseries, please contact Dr. Ahmed Hambaba, AssociateDean of Graduate and Extended Studies in the COE, athambaba@sjsu.edu. ■

SJSU’S 150th Anniversary Deans’ Speaker Series: Silicon Valley Leaders Symposium

Spring 2007 Schedule

February 15 Secretary Norman MinetaFormer Secretary of Transportation,2001–2006

February 22 The Honorable Michael Honda15th District California

March 1 Dr. Simon P. WordenCenter Director, NASA Ames Research Center

March 8 Dr. David P. López President, National Hispanic University

March 15 Dr. Kenneth FongChairman, Kenson Ventures, LLC

April 5 Mr. Rick WallaceCEO, KLA-Tencor

April 12 Dr. Myron ScholesNobel Laureate, Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1997

April 19 Dr. Geoffrey Nunberg School of Information, University of California at Berkeley

April 26 Mr. Bruce ChizenCEO, Adobe

Town & Gown: Silicon Valley Leaders SymposiumHosts Industry Executives

Norman Mineta First speaker in Spring 2007 Symposium Series.

5w w w. e n g r. s j s u . e d u

“What I thought was great ‘droning’

at the chalkboard — and I was really

good at it — not only doesn’t match

what students need today, but I’m

not sure it’s what students needed

when I went to college.”

—Dr. Kurt McMullin

A fter three summers of the Partnershipfor Student Success in Science

(PS3), Dr. Kurt McMullin has specialinsight to teaching science: studentslearn better from experiences than fromlectures and textbooks.

PS3 is a regional project to enhance thescience knowledge and teaching skillsof middle school teachers. It involvesnine middle school districts, fromSanta Clara to Foster City on thepeninsula, and Newark Unified in theEast Bay. The districts are partneredwith San José State University, AgilentTechnologies, and Synopsys, andfunded by $6.7 million from the NationalScience Foundation. SJSU educationfaculty provide most of PS3’s teachingtalent while three College of Engineeringfaculty, in addition to Dr. McMullin, areexpert providers of program content:Thalia Anagnos of General Engineering,Claire Komives of Chemical andMaterials Engineering, and NikosMourtos of Mechanical & AerospaceEngineering.

Dr. McMullin says PS3 has exposedmajor challenges to effective scienceteaching. Among them is an odd mixof teacher skills and content knowledge.He describes teachers who majored in physics in college with the intent of

teaching high school-level physics;instead, they are teaching at an 8th grade level. He also notes thatdistrict budgets are driven by mathand language arts while science isfrequently de-emphasized.

Dr. McMullin says checks often revealstudents are two years behind thecurve in preparing for an engineeringprogram. “I feel terrible when freshmencome into my office for advising. I talkwith them and find out they’ve taken abare minimum of science and math inhigh school.”

Agnes Kaiser, a chemistry teacher atCrittenden Middle School in MountainView, is a former engineer who appre-ciates PS3’s focus on developing skillsinstead of rote learning. “PS3 lends alot of inquiry rather than recipe-bookchemistry science. It’s exploring theissues behind the experiments.Students need to know the why behindscience.” Kaiser says students learnby seeing, hearing, and doing, andthis training program has opened hereyes to using all three types of learning.

According to Dr. McMullin, PS3 isshowing that traditional teachingmethods such as pure lecture areineffective in science and math edu-cation. “We’d rather provide studentsthe chance to experience sciencethan have them read every textbookand repeat it verbatim.”

Now past its midway point, PS3 hasgiven Dr. McMullin a personal revela-tion: “I’ve seen that what I thought Iwas doing well and how I was trainedas an engineer is not the best andmost effective way. I’ve really tried tosharpen my teaching.” ■

Inspiring YoungWomen in Scienceand Math

About 800 young women, from 6th

to 9th grade, and 200 interestedadults attended the 2006 ExpandingYour Horizons (EYH) in Science andMathematics Conference at SJSU.This was the eleventh EYH conferencehosted on campus.

Dr. Belle Wei, Dean of the College ofEngineering, delivered the openingremarks, which were followed by alively and interactive presentation fromthe Lawrence Hall of Science Brainiacs.

The rest of the day was devoted toworkshops given by women withcareers in math, science, or engineer-ing. The girls had the opportunity todissect a bovine eyeball, extract DNAfrom strawberries, observe fungi underthe microscope, make and study apolymer, and write a computer programin BASIC, among many other activities.

The EYH Conference seeks to encour-age and foster young women’s interestin science and math by providingopportunities to meet and form rela-tionships with women in careerstraditionally dominated by men.

Visit www.expandingyourhorizons.orgfor more general information andwww.elstad.com/sjsueyh.html forspecific information about the nextconference at the SJSU campus onSaturday, March 17, 2007. ■

Improving Classroom Pedagogy with Hands-on Experience

college students, from teachers ofEnglish, themselves, to music teacherswho wanted to learn the languagebecause of the high demand. Some of the SJSU students had alreadytraveled abroad, and for others it wastheir first experience outside the U.S.

Perhaps the best way to summarizethis program and its effects on thestudents is to let some of the studentsspeak for themselves.

On poverty:Michael Bayne: “I didn’t understandhow much of a ticket to going EastEnglish was. That’s your ticket out of alot of these situations that they’re in interms of lack of opportunity.”

Derrick Larson: “Where I stayed therewas no electricity. We had runningwater only at certain times becausethey had a big problem with the waterpressure getting up to the differentelevations. The school where I wasstaying in the dorms was higher upthan the rest of the town. We neverknew when we’d have running water.So whenever the running water goes,it doesn’t matter when, you had to rundown with your bucket and fill up yourbucket because that was the wateryou had to wash your clothes in, take a shower…”

Rodney Blaco: “I had a great time. Itwas an incredible experience. Myself,I grew up poor by U.S. standards. Myfather was born in a logging campand my mom was from a coalmining town. So we didn’t pass the poverty line until I was well intohigh school. From that perspectiveI was wondering what it’s like fromanother person’s perspective inanother country to grow up poor. I was blown away by the differenceand how much we take for grantedhere [that] you just don’t have in other countries.”

Bayne: “The local farmers … lived incaves…. It was okay in the summer,but very harsh in the winter becauseof the cold weather and being in thehigh desert. When you walked into thecave directly to your right is a smallwall that’s about two feet tall. Thatforms the perimeter of the bed. Andthere’s a small wooden door andinside they put coal underneath thebed. They sleep on wooden planksthat are supported by this little brickperimeter. And in the back of the cavethey have their coal supply. About 90%of their income goes towards buyingcoal…. The biggest deal in the town isthat they’re going to use cow pattiesinstead of coal for energy usage. Thecoal is going to be shipped out…. So they’re going to be putting cowpatties underneath their bed andsleeping there in the winter.”

On teaching and education:Brandon Luu: “The whole world’s learningEnglish, even in Japan they have tolearn English when they’re in 6th grade.And Malaysia uses it as a secondlanguage and Singapore uses it as asecond language. Everyone [has to]learn English, it seems, to do busi-ness…. I guess China didn’t want tobe left behind, because they’re theonly country using Chinese.... So ontheir tests, theytest the

students onEnglish…. If youwant good jobslike working at the airport or in busi-ness you have to know somesort of English, especially for the2008 Olympics. They expect the peopleat the airport to know English, the taxidrivers to know English, and they’regoing to be tested on it, too.”

Michelle Amihan: “The first week I wasteaching elementary school teachersand high school teachers. Some ofthem spoke English. All the teacherstold me that they never have to speakEnglish in class. They’ll write it on theboard, or they’ll say it in Chinese, butthey’ll never have to speak it orallyand that they don’t really have their

6 SJSU College of Engineering Newsletter ■ Winter 2006/07

GPA continued from page 1

GPA Participants

Michelle AmihanB.S. Civil & Environmental Engineering ‘06Su Yu County, Jiangsu Province

Michael BayneISE and Business, SeniorPengyang County, Ningxia Islamic People Autonomy Region

Rodney Blaco, J.D.Electrical Engineering & History, SophomoreHua County, Henan Province

Gavin DevriesB.S. Civil & Environmental Engineering ’06Lin County, Shanxi Province

Derrick LarsonMIS, SeniorFu’an County, Fu-Jian Province

Brandon LuuChinese, JuniorJianchang County, Liaoning Province

Evelyn NgISE and Math, SeniorLongbao County, Chongqing City, Si-Chuan Province

Sarah OstrengaComparative Religious Studies, JuniorLingqiu County, Shanxi Province

Michael Bayne

Evelyn Ng

7w w w. e n g r. s j s u . e d u

students speak English either. So Ifound that really surprising; how doyou teach English without makingsomebody speak English?”

Larson: “The students were really well-educated. I taught, the first week,seniors, and then the second week Itaught teachers from a teacher-trainingschool. The main problem they’rehaving right now is having enoughEnglish-speaking teachers because partof the entranceexam for

college, like their SATs,is English comprehension

and listening. They don’thave enough teachers for

the students.”

Blaco: “I liked teaching the kids morethan I liked teaching adults, becausethey’re much more excited. They wantto learn English; they really want toabsorb as much as they can. So Itried to find creative ways [to teach]. If they wanted to play basketballeveryday, I taught all the Englishwords for basketball and then madethem go play basketball using English.”

Luu: I thought I was going to a reallyrural place, it is rural, but I thoughtthey’re not going to have any Englishexperience at all…but they had beenteaching for 20 something years andso they do know English. And some ofthe students I met were close to fluent,and it really shocked me because thiswas out in the middle of nowhere.”

Larson: “I think the main focus of myteam was to give these students somesort of hope, because I guess therehad not been any students who wentto university. Yet these students would

wake up at 7[am] and they stay upuntil 11[pm] and study. The dormlights turn off at 10:30[pm], so thestudents go down to the bottom

floor where there’s a light outsideand they’ll cram under the light with

their book and read. And none ofthose students are going to go to acollege more than likely. Yet they study so hard and they’re all speakinggood English.…”

Amihan: I think the main impact for meat least in my province is that, I thinkeveryone’s right, you can’t teach themEnglish in so little time. But you haveto spark the interest in them to want to learn and I think we did, especiallybeing able to speak to an actualforeigner, like an American, and to beable to learn about America from anactual person who lives there.

On the culture:Blaco: “In the classroom one thing Inoticed was that everyone wears thesame outfit every day. Again, it comesdown to income level…. It was easy toremember who people were becausehe’s the guy in the red shirt; he’s one ofsix kids in the Yao Ming jersey. I neversaw clothes that had Chinese letteringon them, except for in a store window.Everything was Houston Rockets, Nike,or Adidas, even in the villages with 300people. Every person that I saw thathad on a t-shirt on, it was an Americant-shirt…. Western influence has reachedevery corner of the country.”

Bayne: “I was kind of upset for China. I thought that they should have oppor-tunities created without the need for English, because they are theirown country.”

On how the experienceaffected them:Evelyn Ng: “I would go back to visitthem and see how they’re doing…. It’s[this experience] actually given me alot more respect for people who can’tunderstand English because I’ve been to a foreign country wherenobody speaks English and I had tolisten to their Chinese throughout allthe discussion sessions and a lot oftheir conversations with each other….I would want to talk with them, but Ididn’t know how. Knowing how difficultit is to learn another language or tojust be in a room with people who can’teven understand or communicate with you, I have more respect for mygrandparents or my aunts who camefrom China and don’t speak English.”

Luu: “I thought China was a dangerousplace. Then when I went there it totallychanged my mind. How I see the worldis totally 180 now…. I want to go backas soon as possible…. It was all theseterrible conditions, but my professor onour team was telling me that outside of this town… there are places evenworse than what you see…. I’ll neverhave to go anywhere close to thesekinds of conditions…. So I felt like Ihave to come back… I have to dosomething…. It really changed me.”

For more information about the service learning program visit theWang Foundation’s website at www.wangfoundation.net/home.htm.

Rodney Blaco’s blog is available atwww.rodneyblaco.blogspot.com/and additional photos have beenposted by Michael Bayne athttp://web.mac.com/michaelbayne/iWeb/China. ■

Gavin Devries

Sarah Ostrenga

Brandon Luu

Rodney Blaco

Michelle Amihan

Derrick Larson

8 SJSU College of Engineering Newsletter ■ Winter 2006/07

Celebrating 60th Anniversary at 2006 Engineering Awards Banquet

The 2006 Engineering Awards Banquet was highlighted by the College ofEngineering’s 60th Anniversary celebration. Alumni, Silicon Valley friends,

faculty, staff, and students gathered to honor the college’s distinguished alumniand award winners.

The program included a 60th Anniversary video as well as toasts to the College and its future success. Dean Belle Wei challenged engineers to address globalissues. Keynote speaker Dr. Moira Gunn, host of NPR’s TechNation, discussed theinterdisciplinary nature of engineering today. We are at “a juncture of science andengineering,” she noted and went on to emphasize the enormous role Biotech willplay in the future of engineering. ■

The Applied Materials Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching

Kurt McMullinCivil and Environmental Engineering

Best known for his expertise in seismicdamage, Dr. McMullin is passionate aboutteaching. He directs the “Partnership forStudent Success in Science,” a $6.7 millionproject providing engineering training to K–8science teachers. Students cite Dr. McMullin’sinnovative projects and inquiry-based instruc-tion as excellent preparation for work in industry.

The McCoy Family Faculty Award for Excellence in Service

Rameshwar SinghCivil and Environmental Engineering

A professor of water resources engineering,Dr. Singh’s record of service ranges from cityand state water commissions to the SantaClara County Flood Advisory Board. He hasdirected groundwater basin and wastewaterrecycling studies for Santa Clara County anddesigned hydraulic models of pumpingstations to ensure their efficient operation.

Onslow H. Rudolph, Jr. Staff Excellence in Service Award

Ben Rashid

An Operating Systems Analyst and leadCollege of Engineering Microsoft DesktopSupport, Ben combines creativity andproblem-solving skills with excellent customer service to provide solutionsensuring client satisfaction.

2006 College of Engineering Awards

9w w w. e n g r. s j s u . e d u

Lockheed Martin Student Award for Academic Performance—Undergraduate

Grace Wu

Electrical engineering major Grace Wu was aPresident’s Scholar in both 2005 and 2006.She is a member of the IEEE and has anoutstanding grade point average.

College of Engineering Award for Academic Performance—Graduate

Pankaj Aggarwal

Pankaj was the recipient of the 2005Performance Award at Tensilica and is also aformer lead design engineer at Cadence andadvisory engineer for IBM. As a graduatestudent in the electrical engineering program,Pankaj completed a project that was adaptedfor a VLSI Systems course.

College of Engineering Award for Academic Performance—Graduate

Masao Drexel

In his M.S. in materials engineering program,Masao is studying the effects of cold workand heat treatments on Nitinol wire. A partici-pant in the 2006 NSF East Asia and PacificSummer Institutes for U.S. Graduate Students(EAPSI), Masao has also interned at AppliedMaterials and Nitinol Devices and Components.

Scott T. Axline Memorial Student Award for Excellence in Service

Ragu Kantamaneni

Ragu’s record of service begins with his2004-2006 term as president of the Societyfor Computer Engineering. A finalist in theMicrosoft Windows Embedded StudentChallengE, Ragu and his team designed theiFree, an embedded system that monitorsand transmits vital functions of wheelchair-bound patients via wireless communication.

Donald Beall-Rockwell Award for Engineering Accomplishment

Jimmy Chi-Yun Chan

An M.S. candidate in mechanical engineering,Jimmy is studying deformable polydimethyl-siloxane membranes in microscale. Hepresented at the MEMS & BioMEMS 2005conference and is a researcher on the PlanarPneumatic Microvalve project.

Lockheed Martin Student Award for Academic Performance—Undergraduate

Sarah Lemmer

Sarah is an aviation major, a NASA researchassistant and a licensed private pilot. Aparticipant in the 2005 Global TechnologyInitiative Asia Study Tour, Sarah is also aPresident’s Scholar and Dean’s Scholar.

Student Awards

10 SJSU College of Engineering Newsletter ■ Winter 2006/07

Carolyn Guidry

President, Mark and Carolyn Guidry Foundation

M.S. Computer Engineering, 1979

The 2006 recipient of the AlumniAward of Distinction, Carolyn

Guidry earned an M.S. in ComputerEngineering from San José StateUniversity in 1979. In the late 70s, Ms. Guidry’s master’s degree made hera pioneer for women in engineering, adiscipline in which women have beenunderrepresented; however, she alreadywas a pioneer twenty years earlierwhen she earned a bachelor’s degreein Electrical Engineering from LouisianaState University (LSU) in 1959.

As an undergraduate, Ms. Guidry wasactive in student leadership and servedas Student Vice-President of theCollege of Engineering. At this timeshe also met her future husband, Mark Guidry. Married one week aftergraduation, the two formed a lifelongpartnership that would include threechildren—all with degrees in engineer-ing; two successful startup companies;and a nonprofit foundation that supportsa variety of children’s education pro-grams, teacher education programs,and children’s museums.

After spending twenty years raising afamily of three children, Ms. Guidryreturned to higher education andearned her master’s degree while heryoungest child completed high school.The work/study flexibility at San JoséState made it possible for Ms. Guidryto accomplish both her family respon-sibilities and professional pursuits.

Two of Ms. Guidry’s adult children wereat the 2006 College of EngineeringAwards Banquet where Ms. Guidry

received her award as a distinguishedalumna. “We’re just so proud of her,”daughter Gayle said, beaming, “We’rea family of engineers.” In fact, Ms.Guidry’s son, Mike, attended San JoséState, earning a degree in ElectricalEngineering in 1995.

After graduating from San José State,Ms. Guidry was involved in designingnew computers, completing marketanalyses, and managing productplanning at Hewlett-Packard (HP). She and Mark also partnered with othertechnologists in starting two companies:Simon Software and Avasem Corporation.

Simon Software, which specialized insemiconductor design software, wasacquired by ECAD. The company laterreleased the only circuit-simulationprogram on the market developedespecially for the MOS (metal oxidesemiconductor) technique of chipdesign. ECAD merged with SDASystems to become Cadence.

Among its many products, AvasemCorporation developed the first single-chip timing generator chip (primarily

used in PC motherboards to replacecrystals and oscillators). In 1993,Avasem merged with IntegratedCircuit Systems (ICS).

Ms. Guidry’s roles in the startup com-panies ranged from corporate secre-tary and member of the board ofdirectors to handling employee policyand employee development. She alsocontributed to product planning andmarket growth. Today, both Cadenceand ICS are financially successful andemploy nearly 6,000 people, facts ofwhich Ms. Guidry is very proud.

In 1988 Ms. Guidry retired from HPand turned her considerable techno-logical and managerial talent to volun-teerism in the education field. “Childrenare our future,” Ms. Guidry has said,and she has dedicated herself tochildren’s education. As a full-timevolunteer for the San José Children’sDiscovery Museum, she developedcomputer systems and software forthe museum’s operations. She alsoassisted in content conception andrealization, and in fundraising.

Well aware of the fundraising challengesfacing educational and arts organiza-tions like the Children’s DiscoveryMuseum, Ms. Guidry again partneredwith her husband to establish theMark and Carolyn Guidry Foundation.As president and chief operating officerof the foundation, Ms. Guidry combinesher skills in technology and passionfor volunteerism with her devotion tofunding education and the arts inorder to make a difference in the livesof children. ■

2006 Alumni Award of Distinction Recipients

11w w w. e n g r. s j s u . e d u

Peter McGrath, Ph.D.

Former Sector Vice President,Science Applications InternationalCorporation

B.S. Mechanical Engineering, 1965

In 1969, Dr. Peter McGrath beganworking and conducting research on

nuclear energy in Karlsruhe, Germany.As he became internationally knownfor work on nuclear reactor safety andenvironmentally safe storage of radioac-tive wastes, he also hoped that oneday nuclear energy would become theprimary power source for industry andhomes in the U.S. as it is in otherEuropean countries.

“I have always believed that nuclearpower should have a prominent posi-tion in our installed electric generatingcapacity. Public acceptance has beena major hurdle to date. At presentabout 20% of our electricity is fromnuclear, while in France it is about75%. I don’t see any reason why wecould not do the same.”

Dr. McGrath’s concern about energysources in the U.S. reflects a largerissue for him: the competitive positionof the U.S. on an international scale,especially with regard to engineeringstudents today. Dr. McGrath believesthat good engineering students mustalso be good leaders who have aninternational sensibility.

Currently, Dr. McGrath sees challengesto the U.S. maintaining its technologysupremacy: “Too few of our brightstudents are pursuing careers in thesciences and engineering. When I wasentering college the national attentionand public pressure were on how wecould catch up to and surpass theRussians in science and engineering.”

Although Russia is no longer the maincompetitor, China and India now are,and the skills students need to acquire

to make them globally competitive,according to Dr. McGrath, go beyondthe classroom. He advises students touse to the fullest extent possible theactivities college life offers: “Get out ofthe library and the classroom andparticipate. While GPA is important,

it should not be the sole focus.Participation in college activities willhelp develop vital skills to be success-ful in any career, including engineering.Spend time learning to write and speakin public forums.”

When Dr. McGrath attended San JoséState University, graduating inMechanical Engineering in 1965, henot only excelled academically but wasalso involved in many extracurricularorganizations that honed his leadershipskills. He served as Sophomore ClassPresident, Junior and Senior ClassRepresentative to the Student Council,and as a member on several student-faculty committees. He was also amember of several leadership fraterni-ties and an officer and member ofSigma Phi Epsilon.

Another invaluable resource Dr. McGrathcredits are the mentors he had at SanJosé State. There were three influentialpeople, whom he vividly remembers to

this day: Rod Diridon was his roommateof several years; his “advice andactive pushing helped bring a ragingintrovert like me out of my shell.”

Dean of Students Stanley Benz, whomDr. McGrath got to know well throughhis involvement in student government,taught him how to negotiate non-tech-nical problems, or, as Dr. McGrathputs it, “real-world problems.”

Finally, Professor Robert Clothier wentbeyond his classroom responsibilitiesby encouraging Dr. McGrath to attendgraduate school, helping locate finan-cial support, and steering him to thefield of nuclear engineering. His influ-ence was profound, and Dr. McGrathearned his Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineeringfrom the University of Wisconsin in1969.

Having earned numerous awards, Dr. McGrath is the former Senior VicePresident of Science ApplicationsInternational Corporation (SAIC).During his career, he has also workedat Sandia National Laboratories andthe Environmental Protection Agency,and has served on the U.S. NuclearRegulatory Commission.

Dr. McGrath’s international technicaland business expertise put him in anideal position to assess the future. Hebelieves the actions of individuals stillmatter and can have major impacts.“In hindsight, yesterday’s problem orissue appears to have been easier toaddress, while those we are currentlyfacing appear to be insurmountable.Either you set yourself to effect changeor someone else or event will do it foryou. I, personally, prefer to strive toinfluence my future rather than simplyaccept what comes along.” ■

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2 70 0Coming Up in 2007

Celebrate SJSU’s 150th Anniversary

in 2007

2007 Engineering Awards Banquet

Wednesday, May 2, 2007San José Fairmont Hotel

6:00pm – 9:00pm

New BiomedicalDevices Engineering

Concentration

New Year, New Face:the COE Newsletter

Gets a Makeover

www.engr.sjsu.edu