ucla engineer spring 2012

spring 2012, issue no. 27

uCLA EnginEEr3.1415926535 8979 323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 852110555

safEty/sEcurityinfrastructure, Hardware, cyber

1216UCLAEngineerSpring2012R1.indd 159 3/22/12 5:00 PM

The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and

Applied Science is conducting vital research that will

protect our civil and electronic infrastructure, and even

more importantly, will play critical roles in saving lives.

Destructive earthquakes in Japan, Chile, Haiti and

New Zealand over the past three years have been sober-

ing reminders that we live on a seismically active planet.

And unquestionably this threat exists in California. Many

of our Civil and Environmental Engineering faculty are

on the ground floor, leading efforts to dramatically improve our infrastructure

resiliency, including John Wallace, Jonathan Stewart, Scott Brandenberg, and

Ertugrul Taciroglu. In this issue, we ask them to share some of the significant work

they are doing.

Further, a more subtle, but just as real a threat, can be a malicious electronic

attack. Our faculty has some of the world’s very best minds working to prevent and

intercept these threats. This issue features Q&A’s with computer science professor

Rafail Ostrovsky and electrical engineering professor John Villasenor, experts

on cyber security and hardware security respectively.

This edition of UCLA Engineer also features a profile on our 2011 Alumnus of

the Year, Ernst Volgenau PhD ’66, who began his business in the basement of his

home three decades ago and ultimately grew it into a $1.7 billion global empire.

Our career column features another successful alumnus, Shioupyn Shen PhD ’91,

co-founder of CloudMosa Inc., who talks about the challenges and excitement of

starting your own company.

In addition, this issue highlights the impact of the important work our engineer-

ing students are making. Learn about the successes of our new student mentorship

program and about the difference our graduate students are making at several

K-12 schools.

Finally, this issue includes new research of mouse genomes and cell-penetrating

peptides; a story on a new faculty startup fostered by our Institute for Technology

Advancement; exciting new developments within our Boelter Society; and our new

endowed faculty chairs.

I invite you to enjoy another enlightening issue of UCLA Engineer.

Sincerely,

Vijay K. Dhir

Dean

DeanVijay K. Dhir

associate DeansRichard D. Wesel Academic and Student Affairs

Jane P. Chang Research and Physical Resources

assistant DeanMary Okino Chief Financial Officer

Department chairsBenjamin Wu Bioengineering

Harold G. Monbouquette Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Jiun-Shyan (J.S.) Chen Civil and Environmental Engineering

Jens Palsberg Computer Science

M.C. Frank Chang Electrical Engineering

Jenn-Ming Yang Materials Science and Engineering

Tsu-Chin Tsao Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

UcLa engineer aDvisory BoarDJiun-Shyan (J.S.) Chen Vijay K. Dhir William Goodin Harold G. Monbouquette Mary Okino Richard D. Wesel

externaL affairs commUnicationsSheila Bergman Executive Director of External Affairs and Development

Wileen Wong Kromhout Director of Media Relations and Marketing

Matthew Chin Communications Manager

office of externaL affairs(310) 206-0678 www.engineer.ucla.edu [email protected]

design: Etch Creative

ngineerUcLa e

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from the dean

3.1415926535 8979 323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 54930386

1216UCLAEngineerSpring2012.indd 6243 3/20/12 2:17 PM

DeanVijay K. Dhir

associate DeansRichard D. Wesel Academic and Student Affairs

Jane P. Chang Research and Physical Resources

assistant DeanMary Okino Chief Financial Officer

Department chairsBenjamin Wu Bioengineering

Harold G. Monbouquette Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Jiun-Shyan (J.S.) Chen Civil and Environmental Engineering

Jens Palsberg Computer Science

M.C. Frank Chang Electrical Engineering

Jenn-Ming Yang Materials Science and Engineering

Tsu-Chin Tsao Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

UcLa engineer aDvisory BoarDJiun-Shyan (J.S.) Chen Vijay K. Dhir William Goodin Harold G. Monbouquette Mary Okino Richard D. Wesel

externaL affairs commUnicationsSheila Bergman Executive Director of External Affairs and Development

Wileen Wong Kromhout Director of Media Relations and Marketing

Matthew Chin Communications Manager

office of externaL affairs(310) 206-0678 www.engineer.ucla.edu [email protected]

design: Etch Creative

4 infrastructure resiliency: making Buildings safer from Destructive earthquakes

6 hardware and cyber security

8 Billion-Dollar Business allowed founder to continue to serve his country

2 research news

10 student news

14 school news

18 faculty news

26 alumni news

ngineerUcLa e

4

2196 4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436 7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 91715364363.1415926535 8979 323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 54930383.1415926535 8979 323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038


2196 4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436 7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436

F or decades, laboratory mice have been widely used

in research aimed at understanding which genes are

involved in various illnesses. But actual variations

in past gene sequences of mice were unknown. While

researchers were able to determine that a variant affecting

disease was in a certain region, they couldn’t pinpoint the

exact set of variants in that region.

Now, in new research recently published in the journal

Nature, an international team of investigators that

included UCLA researchers, reports that it has sequenced

the complete genomes of 17 strains of mice, including

the most frequently used laboratory strains. The massive

genetic catalog will provide scientists with unparalleled

data for studying both how genetic variation affects

phenotype and how mice evolved.

UCLA Engineering researchers played a key role in

the study, using UCLA-developed technology to help

sequence a nearly complete map of mouse genetic varia-

tion. Cataloging the full set of variants is a first step in

identifying the actual variants affecting disease.

“The actual number of variants discovered is important

because this gives the complete picture of how much vari-

ation exists in these mouse strains,” said Eleazar Eskin,

an associate professor of computer science who develops

Developing a complete map of mouse genetic variationWileen Wong Kromhout

for Drug Delivery act like a SwiSS army knife

techniques for solving computational problems that

arise in the study of the genetic basis of disease.

The new study was led by groups from the Wellcome

Trust Sanger Institute and the Wellcome Trust Centre

for Human Genetics in Oxford.

Previous technology used in the genetic sequencing

would, in some cases, make ambiguous predictions, and

the locations of these ambiguities resulted in missing

entries in the catalog of genetic variation in mice.

“Our role in the collaboration was to apply a technique

that we developed a couple years ago for predicting

variants where the sequencer failed to make a prediction,”

said Eskin, who holds a joint appointment in the depart-

ment of human genetics at the David Geffen School of

Medicine at UCLA. With the full set of genetic informa-

tion, researchers can now accurately predict

the phylogeny — similar in concept to the family tree —

of how the various mouse strains are related. The new

study confirms that mice have a complex evolutionary

history.

The complete release is available online at:

www.engineer.ucla.edu/mouse-genetic-variation

3.1415926535 8979 323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038

research News


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ucla EnginEEr 3

mouse genetic variation

Wileen Wong Kromhout

c ell-penetrating peptides, such as the HIV TAT

peptide, are able to enter cells using a number

of mechanisms, from direct entry to endocytosis,

a process by which cells internalize molecules by

engulfing them.

Further, these cell-penetrating peptides, or CPPs,

can facilitate the cellular transfer of various molecular

cargoes, from small chemical molecules to nano-sized

particles and large fragments of DNA. Because of this

ability, CPPs hold great potential as in vitro and in vivo

delivery vehicles for use in research and for the targeted

delivery of therapeutics to individual cells.

But exactly how cell-penetrating peptides — and

particularly the HIV TAT peptide — accomplish these

tasks has so far been a mystery.

“The HIV TAT peptide is special. People discovered

that one can attach almost anything to this peptide and it

could drag it across the cell,” said Gerard Wong, a profes-

sor of bioengineering and of chemistry and biochemistry,

and a member of the California NanoSystems Institute

at UCLA. “So there are obvious beneficial drug-delivery

and biotechnology applications.”

In a new study published in the Proceedings of the

National Academy of Science, UCLA Engineering

researchers identify how HIV TAT peptides can have

multiple interactions with the cell membrane, the actin

cytoskeleton and specific cell-surface receptors to

produce multiple pathways of translocation under

different conditions.

Moreover, because the researchers now understand

how cell-penetrating peptides work, they say it is possible

to formulate a general recipe for reprogramming normal

peptides into CPPs.

“Prior to this, people didn’t really know how it all

worked, but we found that the HIV TAT peptide is really

kind of like a Swiss Army Knife molecule, in that it can

interact very strongly with membranes, as well as with

the cytoskeletons of cells,” said Wong. “The second part

wasn’t well appreciated by the field.”

In addition to the membrane activity, researchers

discovered that the HIV TAT peptide also creates its own

binding site out of the membrane. This means the peptide

can actually go through the membrane and induce

the cytoskeleton directly to have an endocytotic event.

Researchers also noticed that small cargoes can

be transferred directly, while cargoes larger than a few

nanometers needed to be anchored to the membrane

by the TAT peptide.

The study was funded by the National Science

Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

cell-penetrating peptidesfor drug delivery act like a SwiSS army knife

techniques for solving computational problems that

arise in the study of the genetic basis of disease.

The new study was led by groups from the Wellcome

Trust Sanger Institute and the Wellcome Trust Centre

for Human Genetics in Oxford.

Previous technology used in the genetic sequencing

would, in some cases, make ambiguous predictions, and

the locations of these ambiguities resulted in missing

entries in the catalog of genetic variation in mice.

“Our role in the collaboration was to apply a technique

that we developed a couple years ago for predicting

variants where the sequencer failed to make a prediction,”

said Eskin, who holds a joint appointment in the depart-

ment of human genetics at the David Geffen School of

Medicine at UCLA. With the full set of genetic informa-

tion, researchers can now accurately predict

the phylogeny — similar in concept to the family tree —

of how the various mouse strains are related. The new

study confirms that mice have a complex evolutionary

history.


www.engineer.ucla.edu/mouse-genetic-variation


www.engineer.ucla.edu/cell-penetrating-peptides

Schematic representation shows that HIV TAT (blue) can permeate membranes and interact with the cytoskeleton (green).

3.1415926535 8979 323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038

1216UCLAEngineerSpring2012R2.indd 3 3/26/12 10:14 AM

44

T he edges of tectonic plate boundaries are very

seismically active regions. This includes California

as well as other parts of the globe, such as the

Pacific Rim, known as the Ring of Fire, and Turkey.

Recent powerful earthquakes in Chile in 2010 and in

Japan in 2011 were among the largest ever recorded. And

another large earthquake centered close to the modern

city of Christchurch, New Zealand, caused much exten-

sive damage. UCLA Civil and Environmental Engineering

faculty are closely examining some of the damage

from the quakes mentioned and working to make build-

ings and infrastructure safer in the likely event of a large

earthquake in the U.S. and in particular California.

Below is just a glimpse into some of that work.

professor john wallace, directs a large lab at the

base of Boelter Hall that simulates earthquake shaking

on concrete structures. He’s also the principal investiga-

tor at NEES@UCLA, the mobile field lab of the National

Science Foundation’s George E.

Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake

Engineering Simulation.

Shortly after an 8.8 magnitude

earthquake, one of the largest ever

measured, struck off the coast of

Chile in February 2010, Wallace

led a field team to the capital city of

Santiago to set up monitoring systems

on several buildings to study how

they responded to the quake and

strong aftershocks. Chile has concrete building codes very

similar to those in the U.S. and gathering data follow-

ing large ground motions could lead to insight on how

California buildings would fare in a very large earth-

quake.

“The study of buildings in Chile has helped us identify

a handful of very important issues related to building

safety that need to be addressed in our codes, issues that

we would not have identified if not jolted by this quake,”

Wallace said.

The strong shaking caused some buildings to be perma-

nently tilted from their foundations. One issue that may

have contributed to that was the performance of thinner

concrete walls in tall buildings.

This field-collected data has been supplemented by lab

tests at the University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research

Institute and Earthquake-Defense facility, with the largest

shaking table in the world, where Wallace spent his sab-

batical in the fall of 2010. While the test results have not

been completely reviewed, preliminary results suggest the

issues identified in Chile do need to be addressed in the

U.S., as well as Japan.

“The goals now are to implement code changes in the

U.S. that address these identified problems and to educate

practicing engineers about these changes,” he said.

Wallace is leading efforts this year within the American

Concrete Institute to update code changes on reinforced

concrete buildings to reflect what was learned both on

site in Chile and in Japan. This fall, he will also chair

a special session at the upcoming World Conference on

Earthquake Engineering related to these efforts.

InfrasTrucTure resIlIency:Making Buildings safer froM destructive earthquakes

Matthew Chin

Tokyo’s E-Defense shake table facility, where John Wallace spent his sabbatical in the fall of 2010. photo courtesy j. wallace

John Wallace at E-Defense, with Alberto Salamanca, assistant

development engineer, and Zeynep Tuna, Ph.D. student.

photo courtesy j. wallace

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research NewsfeaTure

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ucla EnginEEr 5 ucla EnginEEr 5

strong aftershocks. Chile has concrete building codes very

similar to those in the U.S. and gathering data follow-

ing large ground motions could lead to insight on how

California buildings would fare in a very large earth-

quake.

“The study of buildings in Chile has helped us identify

a handful of very important issues related to building

safety that need to be addressed in our codes, issues that

we would not have identified if not jolted by this quake,”

Wallace said.

The strong shaking caused some buildings to be perma-

nently tilted from their foundations. One issue that may

have contributed to that was the performance of thinner

concrete walls in tall buildings.

This field-collected data has been supplemented by lab

tests at the University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research

Institute and Earthquake-Defense facility, with the largest

shaking table in the world, where Wallace spent his sab-

batical in the fall of 2010. While the test results have not

been completely reviewed, preliminary results suggest the

issues identified in Chile do need to be addressed in the

U.S., as well as Japan.

“The goals now are to implement code changes in the

U.S. that address these identified problems and to educate

practicing engineers about these changes,” he said.

Wallace is leading efforts this year within the American

Concrete Institute to update code changes on reinforced

concrete buildings to reflect what was learned both on

site in Chile and in Japan. This fall, he will also chair

a special session at the upcoming World Conference on

Earthquake Engineering related to these efforts.

professor jonathan stewart, builds

mathematical models of what to expect when

an earthquake hits.

On a national scale, he’s worked on large,

multi-disciplinary teams developing ground

motion prediction equations – which

incorporate an earthquake’s magnitude, site-

to-source distance, site characteristics, and

various other factors to describe the intensity

of shaking at a given area. These equations

are integral components of probabilistic seis-

Infrastructure resIlIency:

mic hazard analysis, which affect building codes

and standards nationally and globally. Stewart’s

principal contributions to these efforts are in relation to

the description of site effects on ground motion char-

acteristics and regional variations in ground motions.

Stewart works often with three UCLA alumni that are

prominent contributors to these major projects, including

Kenneth Campbell PhD ’77, Tim Ancheta PhD ’10, and

Christine Goulet PhD ’08.

“In every case, we’re trying to bring together all the

best minds, as much data as we can worldwide, and

Making Buildings safer froM destructive earthquakes

“We’re doing some good fundamental work. and the world willhopefully be a better place because of these types of projects.”

— jonathan ste wart

Tokyo’s E-Defense shake table facility, where John Wallace spent his sabbatical in the fall of 2010. photo courtesy j. wallace

Jonathan Stewart in Japan, following the

Tohoku earthquake. photo courtesy j. stewart

continued on page 31

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6

John Villasenor, professor of electrical engineering.

Tell me a little about your current research in the area of hardware security. What has been your focus? Why?

Villasenor: While everyone has heard of threats such as

software viruses, there is much less awareness of the risk

that the chips at the core of today’s electronic devices

and systems could themselves be compromised from the

moment they are designed. Malicious circuitry can be

built in to a chip and lie hidden for months or years until

it is activated. At that point, there are many different

types of hardware attacks that could be launched. For

example, the attack could cause the chip, and therefore

the device that contains it, to stop functioning. Another

possibility is that data passing through the chip could

be surreptitiously leaked.

Given the vital importance of electronics systems for

communications, national defense, the financial markets,

the power grid and other aspects of our infrastructure,

it is extremely important to ensure that the chips at the

core of these systems have not been compromised.

Why would you say hardware security today is just as important as software security?

For typical consumers, software security is more impor-

tant because they can take steps to minimize the risk of

having a software security problem. For example, they

can use up-to-date antivirus software and exercise care

regarding the types of personal information they provide

when using electronic devices.

By contrast, hardware security really needs to be

addressed earlier in the supply chain — by the companies

that are involved in designing chips, and the companies

that purchase those chips to place in their products. For

those companies, hardware security is an important, and

often underappreciated, concern.

Our computer system infrastructure can be vulnerable to malicious attacks. UCLA Engineering has some of the world’s best experts working to protect these critical resources. Below are interviews with two of those experts.

How has the advancement/change in technology affected this issue?

First, chips are tested before they are inserted into prod-

ucts, but today’s chips are too complex to test exhaus-

tively. As a result, an attack can remain hidden during the

testing process.

Second, the globalization of chip design has led to an

enormous increase in the number of people who con-

tribute to — and so have access to — the circuit designs

that will eventually end up in a chip. These designs often

involve outsourcing arrangements that can span multiple

companies and continents, and involve many layers of

suppliers. If even a tiny percentage of the people involved

in designing chips act maliciously, that’s still an enormous

concern.

In the media recently, you’ve been asked to address a few areas involving national security. What may be some issues that people aren’t looking at yet but in your opinion should?

There are certainly people in the Department of Defense

(DOD) who are well aware of the hardware security risk.

For example the Defense Advanced Research Projects

Agency, which is the main research arm of the DoD, has

been funding important work in this area for a number

of years. But the overwhelming majority of the electron-

ics, including in DoD systems, involves the commercial

supply chain. In most segments of the commercial world,

hardware security isn’t really on the radar in any mean-

ingful way. I think it is very important to be proactive,

not reactive, regarding this vulnerability.

To find out more about John Villasenor’s research in

hardware security, and to read his essays on technology

policy, visit his Web site at: http://ipl.johnvillasenor.com/

196 4428810975 6659334461 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436 7892590360 0113305305 4882046652 1384146951 9415116094 2847564823 3786783165 2712019091 4564856692 3460348610 4543266482 1339360726 0249141273 7245870066 0631558817 4881520920 9628292540 9171536436

&

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Feature


ucla EnginEEr 7

Our computer system infrastructure can be vulnerable to malicious attacks. ucla Engineering has some of the world’s best experts working to protect these critical resources. Below are interviews with two of those experts.

How has the advancement/change in technology affected this issue?

First, chips are tested before they are inserted into prod-

ucts, but today’s chips are too complex to test exhaus-

tively. As a result, an attack can remain hidden during the

testing process.

Second, the globalization of chip design has led to an

enormous increase in the number of people who con-

tribute to — and so have access to — the circuit designs

that will eventually end up in a chip. These designs often

involve outsourcing arrangements that can span multiple

companies and continents, and involve many layers of

suppliers. If even a tiny percentage of the people involved

in designing chips act maliciously, that’s still an enormous

concern.

in the media recently, you’ve been asked to address a few areas involving national security. What may be some issues that people aren’t looking at yet but in your opinion should?

There are certainly people in the Department of Defense

(DOD) who are well aware of the hardware security risk.

For example the Defense Advanced Research Projects

Agency, which is the main research arm of the DoD, has

been funding important work in this area for a number

of years. But the overwhelming majority of the electron-

ics, including in DoD systems, involves the commercial

supply chain. In most segments of the commercial world,

hardware security isn’t really on the radar in any mean-

ingful way. I think it is very important to be proactive,

not reactive, regarding this vulnerability.

To find out more about John Villasenor’s research in

hardware security, and to read his essays on technology

policy, visit his Web site at: http://ipl.johnvillasenor.com/

Rafail Ostrovsky, professor of computer science and mathematics and director of the center for Information & computation Security.

Can you describe some major current issues in cyber security today?

Ostrovsky: Our society gets more mobile and more inter-

connected every day. For example, most of our data either

already leaves or soon will migrate to the clouds, owned

by big corporations; our mobile data, including per-

sonal preferences regarding shopping, travel, and online

searches, are mined by companies for targeted advertise-

ments. This ubiquitous connectivity is both helpful and

harmful. It is helpful in communicating with our friends,

yet it is harmful as individual privacy often becomes

compromised. The biggest challenge of cryptography is

to allow individual privacy to be maintained without

hindering services and conveniences that the Internet

and mobile platforms and cloud-based computing has to

offer. The idea is instead of limiting what the big corpora-

tions can touch, to allow processing and manipulation

of encrypted data in a way that carefully controls

the information flow, while at the same time protecting

individual privacy.

With regards to those issues, can you describe some of the research you’re leading that addresses those issues?

My group’s research focuses on developing new technolo-

gies for allowing willing participants to utilize benefits of

the Internet and mobile platforms without violating indi-

vidual privacy. What makes the research especially fun is

trying to formalize in a rigorous mathematical sense what

this means and how to prevent privacy breaches without

limiting functionality and usefulness of the systems at

hand. It is also important to be able to prove that even if

some of the participants are malicious, and deviate from

the protocol in an arbitrary, devious way, they cannot

sabotage the system. While important gains on this front

have been made, many outstanding questions remain,

especially when security and privacy guarantees must

hold in a dynamic and changing environment, such as

the Internet.

Where will we be 10 years down the road in regards to cyber security?

I see cyber security being far more pervasive ten years

from now. Most of our devices, including buildings, cars,

and home appliances will be wirelessly interconnected

and will attempt to be more “helpful” to their owners.

That will make our lives easier on the one hand, and

more dangerous on the other. Imagine, for example,

if you can switch on your stove, your microwave and

your air-conditioner remotely through a hand-held

device, or just a few hand gestures in front of your iPad.

It sounds very appealing for individual citizens, but also

could make it much easier for criminals to cause damage

through identity theft or for terrorists and rogue states

to cause massive political and economic damage through

cyber-attacks that will be coupled with physical systems

and control devices.

This is the challenge of cyber security: to allow ever

increasing ease of use and convenience for individual

citizens and businesses, while at the same time protect-

ing individual privacy and national cyber security. It’s an

exciting time for those of us working in this field, since

both the good guys and the bad guys continue to develop

ever more sophisticated attacks and defense systems —

we must be ahead of the bad guys at all times.

The full text of the Q&A with Professor Ostrovsky, in-

cluding his thoughts on cloud computing issues, is avail-

able at: www.engineer.ucla.edu/cybersecurity-Q-and-A

To find out more about Professor Ostrovksy’s research

in cryptography and other areas of computer science,

visit his Web site at: www.cs.ucla.edu/~rafail/

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&

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Feature

8

I t’s hard to believe, SRA International, Inc., a

government IT services and system-integration com-

pany, with revenue of $1.7 billion and nearly 7,000

employees, began in the basement of Ernst Volgenau’s

home in Reston, Virginia in 1978.

To comprehend the success of the company, one only

needs to understand the man behind it. Volgenau PhD

’66, President and CEO of SRA International for almost

30 years and currently Chairman of the Board, came

from humble beginnings. Growing up on a small farm in

western New York, he learned the value of dedication and

hard work and credits his parents and siblings for setting

high expectations and being great role models.

Volgenau dreamed of becoming an astronaut and as

a young man was offered a scholarship to MIT to study

nuclear engineering. At the same time, he was also

selected for appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy at

Annapolis. Volgenau choose to serve his country.

“It was a tough choice, but I decided on the Naval

Academy, and spent four years there,” remembered

Volgenau. “Later I transferred to the Air Force because of

poor eye sight. In those days, your eyes had to be perfect

and the Navy would have given me restricted com-

mission. The Air Force, however, allowed me to join a

combat missile squadron without that limitation and also

promised me graduate school.”

During his early years in the Air Force, Volgenau was

assigned to Los Angeles with his young wife, Sara. He

had a masters degree and was working in the Air Force

space program in the early 1960s at a time when there

were many space initiatives – satellites and other space

vehicles. Volgenau also began teaching graduate courses

at UCLA Extension, where a professor encouraged him to

obtain a Ph.D. in engineering.

“UCLA was all work and no play,” said Volgenau.

“In those days, I had to finish my exams and disserta-

tion in a limited amount of time. My wife, Sara, and I

lived in Woodland Hills, and we had two young children.

We were very busy. But my whole thought process was

changed as a result of my graduate studies at UCLA.”

Volgenau ultimately spent two decades in the Air Force,

where he put his engineering degrees to work on space

boosters and satellites. He then taught and attended the

Air Force astronaut school. Later he was an analyst in a

Pentagon office informally known as “the Whiz Kids.”

Eventually he managed computer development projects at

the Air Force Logistics Command.

Just before starting SRA International, Volgenau was

Director of Inspection and Enforcement for the U.S.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He managed 700 engi-

neers and physicists who inspected all commercial nuclear

power plants in operation and under construction.

For ten years, he taught evening classes in engineering,

operations research, and computer systems in graduate

schools at UCLA, Wright State University, American

University, and George Washington University.

“I taught these classes in order to keep academically

proficient in areas related to my work,” said Volgenau.

“When I worked in aerospace programs, I taught control

systems. When I worked in computers, I taught computer

design and management. One of my Ph.D. fields was

in computer design. I was really interested in that

field and wanted to start a firm that would specialize

in the application of computers. When I started SRA

International, there were not many companies like it.”

Volgenau believes wholeheartedly in serving society.

The values he holds most dear have been embedded

deeply in SRA, which has the ethic “honesty and service.”

Billion-Dollar Business Allowed Founderto ContInue to Serve hIS Country



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ucla EnginEEr 9 3.1415926535 8979 323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038

“ucla was all work and noplay. In those days, I had to finish my exams and dissertation in a limited amount of time. My wife, Sara, and I lived in Woodland Hills, and we had two young children. We were very busy. But my whole thought process was changed as a result of my graduate studies at ucla.”

ucla EnginEEr 9

“UCLA was all work and no play,” said Volgenau.

“In those days, I had to finish my exams and disserta-

tion in a limited amount of time. My wife, Sara, and I

lived in Woodland Hills, and we had two young children.

We were very busy. But my whole thought process was

changed as a result of my graduate studies at UCLA.”

Volgenau ultimately spent two decades in the Air Force,

where he put his engineering degrees to work on space

boosters and satellites. He then taught and attended the

Air Force astronaut school. Later he was an analyst in a

Pentagon office informally known as “the Whiz Kids.”

Eventually he managed computer development projects at

the Air Force Logistics Command.

Just before starting SRA International, Volgenau was

Director of Inspection and Enforcement for the U.S.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He managed 700 engi-

neers and physicists who inspected all commercial nuclear

power plants in operation and under construction.

For ten years, he taught evening classes in engineering,

operations research, and computer systems in graduate

schools at UCLA, Wright State University, American

University, and George Washington University.

“I taught these classes in order to keep academically

proficient in areas related to my work,” said Volgenau.

“When I worked in aerospace programs, I taught control

systems. When I worked in computers, I taught computer

design and management. One of my Ph.D. fields was

in computer design. I was really interested in that

field and wanted to start a firm that would specialize

in the application of computers. When I started SRA

International, there were not many companies like it.”

Volgenau believes wholeheartedly in serving society.

The values he holds most dear have been embedded

deeply in SRA, which has the ethic “honesty and service.”

SRA was named by Fortune magazine as one of the

100 best companies to work for in America for ten years

in a row.

“Our ethic of honesty and service has four compo-

nents,” said Volgenau. “First, we are always honest.

Second, we do good work for our customers. Third, we

care for one another, and fourth we serve society in other

ways, for example through charitable contributions of

time and money.”

When asked to provide some words of wisdom on

starting a company in today’s economic environment,

Volgenau said, “Be prepared to work very hard and

sacrifice a lot. Plan ahead… don’t just open your doors.

Hire really good people, give them plenty of responsibility

and insist on working together as a team.”

“Most important of all,” Volgenau continued, “is to

have high ethical standards. Really good people want to

be part of something special. Being successful financially

Billion-Dollar Business allowed Founderto Continue to Serve hiS Country

is essential, but a company should also stand for

something.”

Today, Volgenau credits his wife, Sara, for helping

him achieve much of his success by being such a

strong partner at home. He enjoys spending time with

his family of three wonderful daughters, three great

sons-in-law, and nine promising grandchildren. He is

proud of his service in the military and proud to be

an American.

Ernst Volgenau


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10

A ll UCLA Engineering students are admitted after

having proven themselves by earning top grades

in the classroom. However, navigating university

life is more than just classes and labs, homework and

projects. It’s managing a busy academic schedule, while

also fitting in those extracurricular activities that com-

plete the college experience. Along with all that comes

choosing the path that best fits their own interests and

future career goals. Getting through the first two years

can be tough for all students, and even overwhelming

for some.

To ease this important transition to university life,

UCLA Engineering put into place a new program this

year that matches every entering freshman and new trans-

fer student with an engineering upperclassman trained

to be a mentor.

“There’s always been so much experience that upper-

classmen could offer, but so inaccessible in a way, unless

you got involved with a club,” said electrical engineering

senior Tammy Chang, who led a pilot mentor effort in

her major last year, and is now the student lead for the

school-wide effort.

Student organizations offer some form of tutoring

and mentoring along with opportunities to work on club

projects. However new students had to actively seek out

those groups. Now, thanks to the Office of Academic

and Student Affairs and the SEASnet computing facility,

peer mentoring has been made easily accessible to those

students and the process has been streamlined through

CourseWeb, the electronic home for an engineering stu-

dent’s academic life.

“You always have people who are coming in who need

help, and you always have people who have been here

for a while who can help, and possibly who want to help,”

Chang said. “And all we’re doing this year is providing

a connection between those two groups.”

Instead of needing to be active with a specific organi-

zation, now all incoming students automatically know

there’s a mentorship program even before they begin their

fall quarter. In this year’s program, mentees were paired

with mentors from their own major. Students who are

undeclared were matched with mentors through student-

run societies like Society of Women Engineers (SWE);

the engineering honor society, Tau Beta Pi; and the

Engineering Society of UCLA (ESUC). Throughout the

fall quarter each group held its own events that included

info-sessions with academic counselors.

“We received such an overwhelmingly positive response

from mentees and mentors who were in the electrical

engineering pilot program last year, that we decided

to implement this school-wide,” said Richard D. Wesel,

associate dean of academic and student affairs.

“We have great students who want to be mentors and

incoming students who are really helped by their peers.

This new effort simply makes it much easier for

everyone to connect.”

Matthew Chin

New MeNtorship progrAM Helps Students Ease into University Life

1 2

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studeNt News


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ucla EnginEEr 11

students and the process has been streamlined through

CourseWeb, the electronic home for an engineering stu-

dent’s academic life.

“You always have people who are coming in who need

help, and you always have people who have been here

for a while who can help, and possibly who want to help,”

Chang said. “And all we’re doing this year is providing

a connection between those two groups.”

Instead of needing to be active with a specific organi-

zation, now all incoming students automatically know

there’s a mentorship program even before they begin their

fall quarter. In this year’s program, mentees were paired

with mentors from their own major. Students who are

undeclared were matched with mentors through student-

run societies like Society of Women Engineers (SWE);

the engineering honor society, Tau Beta Pi; and the

Engineering Society of UCLA (ESUC). Throughout the

fall quarter each group held its own events that included

info-sessions with academic counselors.

“We received such an overwhelmingly positive response

from mentees and mentors who were in the electrical

engineering pilot program last year, that we decided

to implement this school-wide,” said Richard D. Wesel,

associate dean of academic and student affairs.

“We have great students who want to be mentors and

incoming students who are really helped by their peers.

This new effort simply makes it much easier for

everyone to connect.”

New MeNtorship prograM The new student mentorship program also comple-

ments other advising opportunities already in place at

the school, including academic counseling, as well as the

faculty mentorship program, where professors provide

advice each quarter to assigned mentees on topics ranging

from undergraduate research to graduate schools and

working in industry.

For electrical engineering freshman Emily Im, the

student mentorship program has helped boost her confi-

dence. Im met with her mentor, and attended an infor-

mational “pathways” workshop on the different course

pathways offered in electrical engineering. Now she says

she is much more positive about the next few years.

“I knew that majoring in engineering was going to be

difficult, but I didn’t have any background knowledge and

I felt that I was just diving into the unknown,” Im said.

“I know more of what to expect in the future and just

knowing that someone is willing to answer any of my

questions is comforting as well.”

For their first event, to help become more acquainted,

several of the mentor groups held scavenger hunts around

campus with their mentees. However the one held by

electrical engineering mentors got rained out. But as

good problem-solving engineers would do, the mentors

devised an alternate program for that day. They changed

the scavenger hunt to an exercise on how best to navigate

the campus when it rains. Mentees had to use binary code

to decipher clues that would take them around Boelter

Hall, Engineering IV and Engineering V. The places they

found were beneficial to new students getting to know the

school, such as the undergraduate lounge where tutoring

is available.

Other events have included class scheduling and resume

building workshops. Mentors with SWE, Tau Beta Pi

and ESUC also held an introductory session on different

majors for undeclared students. In addition, mentors in

Materials Science and Engineering held a gingerbread

house workshop, complete with a load-bearing competi-

tion. Events planned for winter quarter focused on poten-

tial internships and other summer experiences.

Chang, who empathizes with many of the new students

as she herself transferred into engineering from statistics,

suggested that this year the student mentorship program

has reached about 40 to 60 percent of its potential.

“The way we can continue to improve this program is by

making it known to students that this is something mean-

ingful,” Chang said.


www.engineer.ucla.edu/new-mentorship-program

1 Mentor Tammy chang

2 an electrical engineering mentor workshop

3 Front row, from left: Saqib Mohammad (Mentor), Queenie Ma (Mentee), Emily Im (Mentee), Nicholas Tsianos (Mentee)

2 3photos: catherine lee, ucla eta kappa nu

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“We have great students who want to be mentors and incomingstudents who are really helped by their peers. This new effort simply makes it much easier for everyone to connect.”— richard d. wesel


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12

graduate students bring clean energy workshops to high school classrooms

e nergy takes work. Hard work, and a lot of it,

in fact. That’s the starting point in the EnGen

Roadshow, a presentation to Los Angeles-area high

school science classes created by several UCLA graduate

students in engineering and the sciences.

Through the use of several demonstrations, including a

hand-crank generator, a steam engine, photovoltaic cell,

and even a mini-hydroelectric generator, the graduate

students begin a discussion on where different sources

of energy come from; the technologies and efficiency of

converting them to a more useful form of electricity; then

finally, the environmental impacts that they each have.

The students are all fellows in UCLA’s Clean

Green Integrative (CGI) Graduate Education Research

Traineeship (IGERT), a National Science Foundation-

funded program that aims to develop leaders in

environmental energy through integrated research and

coursework in the science, business and policies of

clean technology. The interdisciplinary program includes

engineers, as well as chemists, economists, statisti-

cians and public policy students. Designing a program

to educate K-12 students on clean energy is part of the

program’s mission.

Additional funding from the American Recovery and

Reinvestment Act requires a program with impact on the

future of green technology in greater Los Angeles. The

Clean Green IGERT fellows decided to focus their efforts

at the high school level.

“Many of us felt that we were not exposed to the fun-

damentals of clean energy in high school and we hoped to

make students aware of energy issues as they are begin-

ning to seriously contemplate their future career paths,”

said Clean Green IGERT fellow Leland Smith, a materials

science and engineering graduate student. “We hoped

to show the relevance of math and science education on

real world problems.”

So far, the group has presented to three high schools,

including Bell Gardens High; Alexander Hamilton

High in Los Angeles, and Redondo Union High

in Redondo Beach.

At Hamilton, the fellows gave their talks in teacher

Dina A. Kraemer’s Advanced Placement environmental

sciences classes. Her course is geared to helping students

discover strong connections between science, technology

and public policy issues.

Clean Green IGERT fellow Joshua Shapiro

demonstrates solar thermal energy.

“I cannot emphasize enough the power of 20-

something grad students presenting,” Kraemer said.

“The kids are mesmerized by individuals that are close

in age and see their future in them.”

Matthew Chin

Clean Green IGERT Fellows

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student news


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ucla EnginEEr 13

graduate students bring clean energy workshops to high school classrooms

coursework in the science, business and policies of

clean technology. The interdisciplinary program includes

engineers, as well as chemists, economists, statisti-

cians and public policy students. Designing a program

to educate K-12 students on clean energy is part of the

program’s mission.

Additional funding from the American Recovery and

Reinvestment Act requires a program with impact on the

future of green technology in greater Los Angeles. The

Clean Green IGERT fellows decided to focus their efforts

at the high school level.

“Many of us felt that we were not exposed to the fun-

damentals of clean energy in high school and we hoped to

make students aware of energy issues as they are begin-

ning to seriously contemplate their future career paths,”

said Clean Green IGERT fellow Leland Smith, a materials

science and engineering graduate student. “We hoped

to show the relevance of math and science education on

real world problems.”

So far, the group has presented to three high schools,

including Bell Gardens High; Alexander Hamilton

High in Los Angeles, and Redondo Union High

in Redondo Beach.

At Hamilton, the fellows gave their talks in teacher

Dina A. Kraemer’s Advanced Placement environmental

sciences classes. Her course is geared to helping students

discover strong connections between science, technology

and public policy issues.

Clean Green IGERT Fellow Joshua Shapiro

demonstrates solar thermal energy.

“I cannot emphasize enough the power of 20-

something grad students presenting,” Kraemer said.

“The kids are mesmerized by individuals that are close

in age and see their future in them.”

At the front of the classroom, the fellows had high

school students try a hand-crank generator or lifting a

bucket of water overhead for hydroelectric power, both of

which connect to an LED that lights up when it receives

electricity. But for the students, turning the crank or lift-

ing that bucket starts to become difficult after a minute.

And that’s the exactly what the UCLA graduate students

want, as it shows just how much work it takes to convert

even a little bit of potential energy into the more useful

form of electricity.

Following the demonstrations, the Clean Green IGERT

fellows discuss the many types of energy sources, as

well as their effects on the environment. Many of the

high schoolers’ questions ask where clean and renewable

energy currently stands and when it will become more

readily available.

“Our energy consumption comes at a price, and it is up

to us as a society to determine what that price should be,”

said Shapiro, an electrical engineering graduate student.

“We believe that by educating about where electricity

comes from and the real costs associated with producing

electricity, people will become more prudent consumers

of energy.”

While the lessons are intended to benefit the students

they present to, it’s been a positive learning experience for

them as well.

“As grad students, we spend a lot of time thinking

about the fine details of energy technology and talking

with people who have a deep knowledge of the problem,”

Smith said. “It becomes easy to take for granted that peo-

ple have a high level of understanding of these issues. It

is entirely different to speak with people who know high

school science, but not much more about clean energy. As

tomorrow’s leaders in clean energy, this is an invaluable

Leland Smith at Hamilton High in Los Angeles

experience for the Clean Green IGERT fellows.”

In addition to the outreach component, the Clean

Green IGERT faculty members have developed two

graduate clean energy courses designed to spur discus-

sion and collaboration between the fellows. The topics

include policy, economics, energy harvesting, storage, and

conservation. The classes are cross-listed and available to

all graduate students.

“One of the premises of our program is to assemble a

broad-range of disciplines all involved in clean energy,”

said electrical engineering professor Diana Huffaker,

director of the Clean Green IGERT and a member of the

California NanoSystems Institute. “It is at the interface of

standard disciplines that innovation can come about.”

A short video of the EnGen Roadshow’s

demonstrations is available online at:

www.engineer.ucla.edu/clean-energy-workshops

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14


Ronald and ValeRie SugaR ChaiR in engineeRing established with $1 million gift

u CLA Engineering has announced the establish-

ment of the Ronald and Valerie Sugar Chair in

Engineering, made possible by a $1 million gift

from UCLA alumni Ronald D. ’68, MS ’69, PhD ’71 and

Valerie ’71 Sugar.

The endowed chair will support an engineering profes-

sor who is not only an accomplished researcher but also

an excellent teacher and student mentor.

Ronald Sugar, is chairman emeritus of Northrop

Grumman Corp., having served as the company’s chair-

man of the board and CEO from 2003 until his retire-

ment in 2010. During his tenure, Northrop Grumman

grew into the nation’s second largest defense contrac-

tor, with 120,000 employees and $35 billion in annual

revenue.

Prior to joining Northrop Grumman in 2001, Sugar

held executive positions in the aerospace, defense and

automotive industries, including chief financial officer of

TRW Inc.; executive vice president of TRW Automotive

Electronics; president and chief operating officer of TRW

Aerospace; and president, COO and director of Litton

Industries. In 2001, Sugar became president, COO and

director of Northrop, assuming the role of chairman and

CEO in 2003.

He is currently a director of Apple Inc., Chevron Corp.,

Amgen Inc. and Air Lease Corp. and serves as senior

adviser to the private investment firm Ares Management

LLC. Sugar is also a trustee of the University of Southern

California, a member of the UCLA Anderson School

of Management board of visitors, a director of the Los

Angeles Philharmonic Association, a director of the

Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools and a national

trustee of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

“I am thankful to the university for once providing me

the opportunity and financial support to earn engineering

degrees, which later proved indispensable in my career,”

Sugar said. “I look forward to supporting the teaching

and research activities of distinguished faculty at UCLA

Engineering for many generations to come.”

Sugar, a member of the National Academy of

Engineering and a fellow of both the American

Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Royal

Aeronautical Society, graduated summa cum laude in

engineering in 1968 from UCLA, where he also received

his master’s and doctoral degrees in the same field.

He was subsequently honored as a UCLA Engineering

Alumnus of the Year.

Valerie Sugar, Ronald’s wife, graduated magna cum

laude in history in 1971 from UCLA and earned a

master’s degree in library science from USC in 1972. She

held professional positions in library science and com-

puter science at the RAND Corp. and Aerospace Corp.

Subsequently, she has focused on family, artistic and

philanthropic endeavors.


www.engineer.ucla.edu/sugar-chair

Building the SmaRt gRid of the futuRe: UCla teams with Korea’s energy research institute

Ronald and Valerie Sugar

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SChool newS


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ucla EnginEEr 15


Ronald and ValeRie SugaR ChaiR in engineeRing established with $1 million gift

u CLA Engineering has entered into a 10-year

partnership with the government-supported Korea

Institute of Energy Research (KIER) in South

Korea to collaborate on smart-grid research and the

development of new technologies with the aim of creating

a robust smart grid on an international level.

As part of that effort, the Smart Grid Energy Research

Center (SMERC) is using the campus — in particular,

Boelter Hall and the Engineering IV and V buildings —

as an experimental lab to observe how wireless sens-

ing and control systems can help create the smart grid.

The team, led by mechanical and aerospace engineering

professor Rajit Gadh, the center’s director, is retrofit-

ting these structures with cutting-edge sensors and

smart meters that can, for example, gauge and adjust the

amount of power needed in a room at a particular time

Sugar, a member of the National Academy of

Engineering and a fellow of both the American

Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Royal

Aeronautical Society, graduated summa cum laude in

engineering in 1968 from UCLA, where he also received

his master’s and doctoral degrees in the same field.

He was subsequently honored as a UCLA Engineering

Alumnus of the Year.

Valerie Sugar, Ronald’s wife, graduated magna cum

laude in history in 1971 from UCLA and earned a

master’s degree in library science from USC in 1972. She

held professional positions in library science and com-

puter science at the RAND Corp. and Aerospace Corp.

Subsequently, she has focused on family, artistic and

philanthropic endeavors.


www.engineer.ucla.edu/sugar-chair

of day and control appliances, lights, and heating and

air-conditioning systems depending on energy pricing or

power availability on the grid.

Jung-in Choi, a Korean professor, who has also been

working on smart grid research since 2005, introduced

KIER to Gadh. Choi came to UCLA on sabbatical from

Kyungwon University and learned about Gadh’s research

through several news articles.

Building the SmaRt gRid of the futuRe: ucla teams with Korea’s energy Research institute

Rajit Gadh’s visit to Korea’s smart-grid demo project on Jeju Island.

“I think SMERC is one of the most active research

institutes in the smart-grid field today,” he said. “In

particular I have been most interested in the open

architecture platform for the smart grid — Dr. Gadh’s

WINSmartGridTM in particular. KIER needs an open

architecture platform technology, and I thought a part-

nership between KIER and SMERC would be beneficial

for both.”

The UCLA WINSmartGridTM (Wireless Internet Smart

Grid) is a network platform that allows electrically oper-

ated machines and appliances such as plug-in electric

vehicles, washers, dryers and air conditioners to be wire-

lessly monitored, connected and controlled through a

wireless communications framework. Control signals can

subsequently be sent via the WINSmartGridTM network,

which in turn can dynamically control various appliances

in real time.

Gadh envisions electric vehicles guzzling energy into

their batteries overnight, when power is cheap, and then

dispensing it back into homes and offices during the

day, when electricity demand is at its highest. In UCLA’s

Parking Structure 9, located next to the retrofitted engi-

neering buildings, Gadh has installed two EV charging

stations with devices that collect and wirelessly transmit

data about electricity usage back to his lab.

As part of Korea’s effort to grow its technology and

knowledge in the area of green and renewable energy, the

country in 2009 launched a national smart-grid demon-

stration project with the construction of a smart-grid test-

bed on Jeju Island. The test bed will become the world’s

largest smart grid community, allowing the testing of the

most advanced technologies.


www.engineer.ucla.edu/smart-grid-kier

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16

professor’s startup begins Full-Scale Operations


Professor Ozcan’s compact, lightweight optofluidic platform integrates imaging cytometry with florescent microscopy.

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research Newsschool news

a ydogan Ozcan, associate professor of electrical

engineering and bioengineering, has garnered a

great deal of media attention and professional

recognition in recent years for his work on lensless

computational microscopy. Most recently, The Scientist,

a magazine focusing on the life sciences, research and

technology, declared Ozcan’s microscopy platform the

top innovation of 2011, claiming the No. 1 spot in their

Top 10 list. His group’s computational microscopy tech-

nology, with the help of UCLA Engineering’s Institute

for Technology Advancement (ITA), has now led to a

spinoff called Holomic LLC. A few months ago, Holomic

officially announced its founding and start of full-scale

operations in Los Angeles, after receiving $2.5 million in

seed funding from a strategic investor as well as an NIH

Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant

of $383,000.

“Holomic LLC’s mission is to commercialize technolo-

gies created by my research group at UCLA and expand

the range and number of microscopy applications to

benefit communities in the United States, other industrial-

ized nations, as well as resource-limited countries,” said

Ozcan, founder and director of the company. “Holomic

would not have reached this stage without the support of

the School of Engineering as well as ITA. I am thankful

for their support.”

According to Les Lackman, deputy director of

ITA, the Institute helped spin off two successful compa-

nies prior to Holomic. One is WaveConnex, Inc.

with Frank Chang, distinguished professor and chair of

the Electrical Engineering Department and the other,

Easel Biotechnologies with James Liao, professor

and vice chair of the Chemical and Biomolecular

Engineering Department.

“ITA is a leading organization that helps incubate

advanced breakthroughs from our research labs to

industry, with the goal of streamlining the creation of

products, processes and services that fill the needs

of society,” said Dean Vijay K. Dhir about ITA when it

first opened. “This new institute adds an important

component to our mission of education, research

and service, and it will help UCLA Engineering remain

on the forefront of transitioning dynamic, world-

changing research.”

Ozcan’s telemedicine microscopy platform captures

images using a technology termed Lenseless Ultra-wide-

field Cell Monitoring Array platform based on Shadow

imaging (LUCAS). With this computational approach, the

microscope can be miniaturized to the point where

it fits on most cell phones, while remaining inexpensive

enough for widespread use in developing countries.

Holomic is currently in the development stage and

plans to introduce a product line of portable, cell phone

or wireless based microscopes for a wide range of

applications, including scientific research, point-of-care

diagnostics, pathology labs, telemedicine and environ-

mental monitoring. First product releases are planned

for late 2012.


www.engineer.ucla.edu/holomic-startup


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ucla EnginEEr 17 ucla EnginEEr 17

professor’s startup begins Full-Scale Operations

BOelter SOciety:the Development of two new programs

n amed for the first dean of the school, Llewellyn

M. K. Boelter, the Boelter Society is the leader-

ship giving society at the UCLA Henry Samueli

School of Engineering and Applied Science. Members

of the Boelter Society show inspirational leadership by

making an investment in the school’s students, faculty

and future. With over 225 members, who donate at least

$1,000 annually, and 100 Lifetime members, who con-

tribute a minimum of $100,000 over their lifetime, the

Boelter Society enables the dean and department chairs

to respond quickly to new opportunities and address the

most pressing needs of the school, including student proj-

ects and programs, faculty recruitment, improvement of

lab and classroom spaces and ensuring for the operational

vitality of the school.

The Engineering External Affairs Office is currently in

the process of developing two new programs within the

Boelter Society; the Young Professional Boelter Society

and the Boelter Society Leadership Committee. These two

programs will engage more supporters and make a large

impact on the future of the school by increasing discre-

tionary funding through the Annual Fund to meet the

needs of the school as it continues to grow. While these

programs will provide the school with more opportunity

and flexibility, they will also provide alumni and donors

an expanded network of supporters who all share the

same commitment to the school’s excellence and future.

The Young Professional Boelter Society will help keep

young alumni connected to the school and allow them to

forge new connections with other alumni and supporters.

Quarterly networking events that feature leading figures

in the world of engineering and innovation will be just

one of the benefits of joining. Members of the Young

Professional Boelter Society are asked to contribute a

minimum of $250 a year for the first five years after grad-

uation and a minimum of $500 for the next five years,

allowing the school’s newest graduates to contribute at a

significant level and be a part of group that sustains the

school’s superior reputation.

The Boelter Society Leadership Committee, gener-

ously chaired by Larry ’59, MS ’61 and Carol Tannas, is

a group of volunteers who have committed to supporting

the school financially and to inspiring others to do the

same. Leadership Committee members, who contribute

at a level of $5,000 or more, work with other members

of the Boelter Society to encourage involvement and

financial support. As the school enters into upcoming

projects, including the build out of Engineering VI, it

is critical that funding and external support are able to

keep pace with continuing developments which will help

facilitate the overall growth of the school. The Leadership

Committee will help the school meet the needs of students

and faculty, ensuring that the brightest minds are work-

ing in the best facilities to meet the challenges facing the

world today.

The fifth floor lobby of Boelter Hall will soon have

a brand new recognition wall that acknowledges

the support of every Boelter Society member.

For more information about joining either the Young

Professional Boelter Society or the Boelter Society

Leadership Committee, contact Kaci Silverman at

[email protected] or at 310-206-4327.

Cadance Hinkle

UCLA Engineering Dean Vijay K. Dhir with Bolter Society Leadership Committee chairs,

Lawrence and Carol Tannas.Bolter Society

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component to our mission of education, research

and service, and it will help UCLA Engineering remain

on the forefront of transitioning dynamic, world-

changing research.”

Ozcan’s telemedicine microscopy platform captures

images using a technology termed Lenseless Ultra-wide-

field Cell Monitoring Array platform based on Shadow

imaging (LUCAS). With this computational approach, the

microscope can be miniaturized to the point where

it fits on most cell phones, while remaining inexpensive

enough for widespread use in developing countries.

Holomic is currently in the development stage and

plans to introduce a product line of portable, cell phone

or wireless based microscopes for a wide range of

applications, including scientific research, point-of-care

diagnostics, pathology labs, telemedicine and environ-

mental monitoring. First product releases are planned

for late 2012.


www.engineer.ucla.edu/holomic-startup


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18

J ames C. Liao, the Chancellor’s Professor of

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has

been named the holder of the Ralph M. Parsons

Foundation Chair in Chemical Engineering.

The chair, established through an endowment by

the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, honors the memory

and the life work of Ralph Parsons, founder of the global

engineering and construction firm bearing his name.

The foundation was established in 1961 and has been

independent of the company since 1976. It strives to

support and facilitate the work of Southern California’s

best nonprofit organizations, recognizing that those

in need today will go on to shape the future of the region

and help it set and achieve new goals.

The endowed chair is intended to educate a brand

of engineers who can design new technological products

and systems while at the same time anticipating and

preventing adverse social and environmental impacts,

such as pollution. Much of Liao’s research focuses on

creating new ways to produce environmentally friendly

biofuels and chemicals.

“Jim Liao is a world renowned scholar in metabolic

engineering, synthetic biology and systems biology,”

said Dean Vijay K. Dhir. “In addition, he is an excellent

teacher and mentor who has been recognized with several

major awards in his field. This chair will help support

Jim’s work as a leading educator and researcher in

biofuel technology.”

Over the past few years, Liao has received widespread

attention for his work in developing methods for the

production of more efficient biofuels. This has included

genetically modifying E. coli bacteria and modifying

cyanobacterium to consume carbon dioxide to produce

the liquid fuel isobutanol — a reaction powered directly

by energy from sunlight, through photosynthesis.

“It is an honor to be named the Ralph M. Parsons

Foundation Chair in Chemical Engineering,” Liao said.

“This endowment will not only support our efforts to

enrich the educational experience of our students but will

also support our research in a vitally important area.”

In 2010, Liao was awarded the Presidential Green

Chemistry Challenge Award from the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency. The first UCLA professor to receive

the award in its 15-year history, Liao was recognized

for his groundbreaking work recycling carbon dioxide for

the biosynthesis of higher alcohols. This process turns

CO2 into products that can be used in alternative

transportation fuels or chemical feedstock, reducing

greenhouse emissions.


www.engineer.ucla.edu/liao-parsons-chair

Jennifer Wortman VaughanJames C. Liao

named to Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Chair in Chemical EngineeringWileen Wong Kromhout

James C. Liao

“This endowment will not only support our efforts to enrich theeducational experience of our students but will also support our research in a vitally important area.”

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faCuLty neWs


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ucla EnginEEr 19

J ennifer Wortman Vaughan, UCLA assistant

professor of computer science, has been named

the holder of the Symantec Term Chair in

Computer Science.

The chair was established to support the teaching and

research activities of a distinguished junior faculty to

foster innovation in computer science.

Vaughan’s research interests are in machine learning,

algorithmic aspects of economics, and social computing.

Machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence,

is a scientific discipline concerned with the design and

development of algorithms that allow computers to

calculate behaviors or predictions based on empirical

data, such as collections of documents on the Web or

sets of tagged images.

It is currently one of the most active areas of computer

science research, in large part because of its widespread

applicability to problems as diverse as natural language

processing, speech recognition, spam detection, search,

computer vision, gene discovery, medical diagnosis,

and robotics.

The growing popularity of the Internet and social

networking sites like Facebook has led to the availability

of novel sources of data on preferences, behaviors,

and beliefs of massive populations of users. A major goal

of Vaughan’s research is to bridge the gap between theory

and practice by designing a new generation of machine

learning models and algorithms to address and explain

the issues commonly faced when attempting to aggregate

local information across large online communities.

“I am very excited be named the Symantec Term

Chair,” Vaughan said. “Symantec’s support will enable

me to enhance my research efforts here at UCLA,

Jim’s work as a leading educator and researcher in

biofuel technology.”

Over the past few years, Liao has received widespread

attention for his work in developing methods for the

production of more efficient biofuels. This has included

genetically modifying E. coli bacteria and modifying

cyanobacterium to consume carbon dioxide to produce

the liquid fuel isobutanol — a reaction powered directly

by energy from sunlight, through photosynthesis.

“It is an honor to be named the Ralph M. Parsons

Foundation Chair in Chemical Engineering,” Liao said.

“This endowment will not only support our efforts to

enrich the educational experience of our students but will

also support our research in a vitally important area.”

In 2010, Liao was awarded the Presidential Green

Chemistry Challenge Award from the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency. The first UCLA professor to receive

the award in its 15-year history, Liao was recognized

for his groundbreaking work recycling carbon dioxide for

the biosynthesis of higher alcohols. This process turns

CO2 into products that can be used in alternative

transportation fuels or chemical feedstock, reducing

greenhouse emissions.


www.engineer.ucla.edu/liao-parsons-chair

which is especially valuable to me as an early career

scientist. I look forward to many future opportunities to

interact with Symantec’s world-class team of researchers.”

Symantec was founded in 1982 by visionary computer

scientists. The company is focused on providing security,

storage and systems management solutions to help

businesses and consumers secure and manage their infor-

mation. Headquartered in Cupertino, Calif., Symantec

has operations in more than 40 countries and employs

more than 3,500 software engineers.


www.engineer.ucla.edu/vaughan-symantec-chair

Jennifer Wortman Vaughannamed to Symantec term chair in computer ScienceWileen Wong Kromhout

James C. Liao

Jennifer Wortman Vaughan

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20

L ixia Zhang, a professor of computer science, has

been named the holder of the Jonathan B. Postel

Chair in Computer Science.

The chair, established through an endowed fund

initially created by a distinguished group of Jonathan

Postel’s friends and family, honors the famed computer

scientist’s lifetime achievements.

Known as one of the Internet’s pioneers, Postel was

a three-time graduate of UCLA Engineering, where he

received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineer-

ing and his Ph.D. in computer science. As part of pro-

fessor Leonard Kleinrock’s ARPANET team at UCLA,

he was one of the programmers who helped create the

Internet’s precursor.

After graduation, Postel continued his research at

the nonprofit MITRE Corp. and the Stanford Research

Institute (SRI) before moving on to a 21-year career at the

University of Southern California’s Information Science

Institute.

His research contributions included Internet proto-

col design and verification, multimedia computing and

communications, electronic commerce, the Internet

domain-name system, and a range of additional Internet

protocols.

Over the years, Postel became a leading spokesman for

and architect of systematic organization in the rapidly

growing online community and was recognized world-

wide for his major role in the development and manage-

ment of the Internet. He died in 1998.

This chair is one of two at the school established in

honor of Postel. The other, the Jonathan B. Postel Chair

in Networking, is held by Deborah Estrin, a distin-

guished professor of computer science. The Postel Chair

in Computer Science is intended for a faculty member of

significant stature in computer science who will continue

the great strides Postel made in Internet-related research.

In 1999, Zhang coined the term “middlebox” to refer

to the new components that are not in the original IP

(Internet protocol) architecture. The term was quickly

picked up by the community and is now used everywhere.

Zhang’s research group has been tackling topics like

resiliency, security issues in the global routing system and

domain name system (DNS), and the system challenges in

deploying cryptographic protections in global-scale open

systems such as the Internet. Her group has developed

several Internet monitoring tools which are widely used

by the Internet research and operational communities.

“It is an honor to be named the Jonathan B. Postel

Chair in Computer Science,” Zhang said. “I consider

myself fortunate to have joined Internet research early

on and to have had opportunities to work closely with

Dr. Postel. My career goal is to not only help the Internet

grow but to also help train new generations of Internet

engineers and researchers by teaching students how to

think architecturally.”

Zhang has already received several accolades for her

work including the 2009 IEEE Internet Award for her

contributions toward developing the Internet’s architec-

ture. Since 2010, Zhang has been leading a 12-campus

project funded by the National Science Foundation, to

develop a new Internet architecture called Named Data

Networking (NDN), which holds great promise for

meeting the challenges and opportunities presented by

computing in the 21st century.


www.engineer.ucla.edu/zhang-postel-chair

Lixia Zhang named to Jonathan B. Postel Chair in ComPuter sCienCeWileen Wong Kromhout

Lixia Zhang, during her office hoursphoto: matthew chin

The Leonard KLeinrocK Term chair in Computer SCienCe eStabliShed

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facuLTy news


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ucla EnginEEr 21

resiliency, security issues in the global routing system and

domain name system (DNS), and the system challenges in

deploying cryptographic protections in global-scale open

systems such as the Internet. Her group has developed

several Internet monitoring tools which are widely used

by the Internet research and operational communities.

“It is an honor to be named the Jonathan B. Postel

Chair in Computer Science,” Zhang said. “I consider

myself fortunate to have joined Internet research early

on and to have had opportunities to work closely with

Dr. Postel. My career goal is to not only help the Internet

grow but to also help train new generations of Internet

engineers and researchers by teaching students how to

think architecturally.”

Zhang has already received several accolades for her

work including the 2009 IEEE Internet Award for her

contributions toward developing the Internet’s architec-

ture. Since 2010, Zhang has been leading a 12-campus

project funded by the National Science Foundation, to

develop a new Internet architecture called Named Data

Networking (NDN), which holds great promise for

meeting the challenges and opportunities presented by

computing in the 21st century.


www.engineer.ucla.edu/dicarlo-packard-fellow

of Science, the highest honor for achievement in science

bestowed by the President of the United States. Kleinrock

received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering

from the City College of New York and master’s

and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

named to Jonathan B. Postel chair in comPuter scienceWileen Wong Kromhout

The Leonard KLeinrocK Term chair in ComputEr SCiEnCE EStabliShEd

Leonard Kleinrock, with the Interface Message Processor (IMP) that sent the first Internet message in 1969.

T he Leonard Kleinrock Term Chair in Computer

Science has been established with gifts totaling

$500,000 from nine of Kleinrock’s former

students and an estate gift from Kleinrock himself.

The chair will be a five-year term chair supporting out-

standing junior faculty in computer science in their

teaching, research and public service activities.

“Professor Kleinrock is one of our most accomplished

and cherished faculty members,” said Vijay K. Dhir, dean

of UCLA Engineering. “He has built a rich tradition of

mentorship, and as noted by the 40th anniversary of the

Internet developed here at UCLA, he has created a culture

of innovation that continues to this day. It is the school’s

honor to be able to create this chair in his name.”

Kleinrock developed the mathematical theory of data

networks a decade before the Internet’s birth, published

the first paper and book on the subject, and directed

the transmission of the first message ever to pass over

the Internet, in 1969. After more than four decades, he

is widely considered the world’s leading authority and

researcher in the field of computer network modeling,

analysis and design.

As a distinguished professor of computer science,

Kleinrock has supervised and mentored the research of

scores of outstanding computer scientists — 47 students

so far, with more in the pipeline — who work at major

laboratories, universities and commercial organizations

around the world.

Kleinrock is a member of the National Academy

of Engineering (NAE) and the American Academy of

Arts and Sciences. His honors include the Ericsson

Prize, the Marconi Prize, the NAE Draper Prize and the

Okawa Prize. He also received the 2007 National Medal

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22

Bioengineering Professor named Packard Foundation Fellow

electrical engineering professor receives Prestigious Pecase award

Dino Di Carlo

Matthew Chin

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t he David and Lucile Packard Foundation has

named Dino Di Carlo, assistant professor of

bioengineering, a 2011 recipient of a Packard

Fellowship for Science and Engineering. He was among

16 recipients in this year’s class of Packard Fellows.

The Fellowship Program was established in 1988 and

arose out of David Packard’s commitment to strength-

ening research groups that are the heart of university-

based science and engineering programs. By supporting

unusually creative professors early in their careers, the

Foundation hopes to develop scientific leaders, to further

the work of promising scientists and engineers, and to

support efforts to attract talented graduate students into

university research in the United States. Di Carlo will

apply the unrestricted grant to conduct research on using

the mechanical properties of a cell, rather than molecular

properties, as clinically useful and low-cost indicators

of a patient’s health. This approach takes advantage of

microscale fluid physics to sequentially align, squeeze,

and measure thousands of cells per second to potentially

identify cancer, infection, and transplant rejection.

“The real hope is to develop an automated approach

to take advantage of the differences in varied physical

properties amongst cells to enable inexpensive clinical

diagnostics,” Di Carlo said. “We have been pioneering

precision techniques to engineer and control cell positions

in flowing fluids and we are taking advantage of

this expertise to stretch and analyze cells quickly using

purely fluid-induced forces.”

Di Carlo is developing a technology to measure the

mechanics of thousands of cells per second in an auto-

mated fashion. The technique relies on the ability to flow

cells one by one at high rates into a fluid wall and capture

the changes in cell shape upon hitting that wall with a

high-speed camera that can snap over 100,000 photos per

second. Software then automatically identifies the cells

and extracts information concerning the changes in cell

shape that can be reported back to the end user, such as

the doctor, in an easy-to-read format.

Di Carlo anticipates the approach, if successful, could

find broad applications in cases when the physical proper-

ties of cells reflect disease state, as in screening for cancer,

identifying infection, or monitoring transplant patients

for rejection.



Faculty news


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ucla EnginEEr 23

BioEnginEEring ProfEssor named Packard Foundation Fellow

Electrical Engineering Professor receives Prestigious Pecase award

a ydogan Ozcan, associate professor of electrical

engineering and bioengineering, has received the

country’s highest honor for science and engineer-

ing researchers who are at an early stage of their careers.

Ozcan was one of 94 researchers recently announced

by President Obama, as recipients of the Presidential

Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers

(PECASE).

Ozcan’s research is in photonics and its applications

in nano- and bio-technology. Most prominently, he

has developed new powerful optical imaging and sens-

ing architectures that can be incorporated into mobile

phones. Essentially becoming mobile labs, these phones

can analyze fluids to test for HIV, malaria, and other

infectious diseases in body fluids, or analyze water qual-

ity following a disaster. These devices, which are rela-

tively inexpensive to produce, have broad applications for

improving health care in resource-poor regions.

“I’m very honored to receive the PECASE award,”

Ozcan said. “This will support our existing efforts to

create smart global health systems through innovative

uses of photonics and computational technologies.”

“Ozcan’s research in photonics applications, in

particular his work with mobile phone platforms, holds

great potential, and he is a truly deserving recipient of

this honor,” said Dean Vijay K. Dhir. “This award also

reflects the excellence of the school’s faculty, who are

committed to conducting research that addresses the

critical needs of the country across many areas.”

Ozcan has already received several prominent

honors for his research, including the National Science

Foundation CAREER Award; the National Geographic

Emerging Explorer Award; the National Institutes

of Health Director’s New Innovator Award; Young

Investigator Awards from the Office of Naval

Research and from the Army Research Office; MIT’s

TR35 Award, IEEE Photonics Society and SPIE

Young Investigator Awards, and a Grand Challenges

Explorations Award from the Bill and Melinda

Gates Foundation.

The PECASE award recipients are nominated by

16 federal department and agencies. The recipients’

early accomplishments demonstrate the greatest promise

in continuing America’s preeminence in science and

engineering. Ozcan’s nomination was from the

Department of Defense.

Ozcan is also a member of the California NanoSystems

Institute (CNSI).


Aydogan Ozcan (center)photo credit: phil channing

3.1415926535 8979 323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038

the work of promising scientists and engineers, and to

support efforts to attract talented graduate students into

university research in the United States. Di Carlo will

apply the unrestricted grant to conduct research on using

the mechanical properties of a cell, rather than molecular

properties, as clinically useful and low-cost indicators

of a patient’s health. This approach takes advantage of

microscale fluid physics to sequentially align, squeeze,

and measure thousands of cells per second to potentially

identify cancer, infection, and transplant rejection.

“The real hope is to develop an automated approach

to take advantage of the differences in varied physical

properties amongst cells to enable inexpensive clinical

diagnostics,” Di Carlo said. “We have been pioneering

precision techniques to engineer and control cell positions

in flowing fluids and we are taking advantage of

this expertise to stretch and analyze cells quickly using

purely fluid-induced forces.”

Di Carlo is developing a technology to measure the

mechanics of thousands of cells per second in an auto-

mated fashion. The technique relies on the ability to flow

cells one by one at high rates into a fluid wall and capture

the changes in cell shape upon hitting that wall with a

high-speed camera that can snap over 100,000 photos per

second. Software then automatically identifies the cells

and extracts information concerning the changes in cell

shape that can be reported back to the end user, such as

the doctor, in an easy-to-read format.

Di Carlo anticipates the approach, if successful, could

find broad applications in cases when the physical proper-

ties of cells reflect disease state, as in screening for cancer,

identifying infection, or monitoring transplant patients

for rejection.




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24

Bioengineering Professor named nIH new Innovator

Matthew Chin

Andrea Kasko

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faculty news

a ndrea M. Kasko, assistant professor of

bioengineering, has received a 2011 NIH

Director’s New Innovator Award from the

National Institutes for Health (NIH).

The NIH award program supports exceptionally

creative investigators at an early stage in their career

who have proposed highly innovative projects. These

projects hold potential for a significant impact on an

important biomedical or behavioral research problem.

The research grant is for $1.5 million over five years.

The award supports Kasko’s research in utilizing

light-responsive biomaterials to fabricate and manipulate

chemically and physically complex three-dimensional

cell microenvironments. The research has applications

in developmental biology, tissue engineering, regenerative

medicine, therapeutics and disease models.

“It’s a great honor to be selected for the NIH Director’s

New Innovator Award,” Kasko said. “This particular

award allows us to tackle a large and complex problem

that is, how can we recreate the natural environment

of cells and use it to understand their behavior and dis-

cover new therapies – without having to break the project

up into several smaller projects. Being able to assemble

a larger team to simultaneously explore multiple areas

allows us to work at a more rapid pace and to get a much

more complete picture than we would otherwise be able

to do. We’re excited to see where this research takes us.”

Kasko leads a research group that works with

hydrogels, which are widely used for three-dimensional

cell culture because they recapture some of the important

properties of the natural environment of cells, such as

high water content.

“What is unique about our approach is we have

incorporated chemical groups into our hydrogels that

respond to light,” she said. “This allows us to change

the environment around the cells, for example, by releas-

ing a drug, or making the material softer.

Light-responsive biomaterials can help create physically

and chemically complex 3-D scaffolds for cells. Precise

control over biomaterial properties in 3-D is critical

to capture the complex cascades of signals and complex

microenvironments found in nature.

Down the road, generating accurate 3-D models of

tissue, whether healthy or diseased, could help research-

ers understand how that tissue develops or heals, and how

it responds to its environment.

Kasko is the fifth UCLA Engineering faculty member

to receive the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award in

the past three years.


www.engineer.ucla.edu/kasko-NIH-innovator


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Bioengineering Professor named nIH new Innovator

IDEAS. DISCOVERIES. SOLUTIONS. LEGACY.

YOUR LEGACY MATTERS.Consult with a UCLA estate planning professional today.

800-737-UCLA www.legacy.ucla.edu

Andrea Kasko

3.1415926535 8979 323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038

Light-responsive biomaterials can help create physically

and chemically complex 3-D scaffolds for cells. Precise

control over biomaterial properties in 3-D is critical

to capture the complex cascades of signals and complex

microenvironments found in nature.

Down the road, generating accurate 3-D models of

tissue, whether healthy or diseased, could help research-

ers understand how that tissue develops or heals, and how

it responds to its environment.

Kasko is the fifth UCLA Engineering faculty member

to receive the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award in

the past three years.


www.engineer.ucla.edu/kasko-NIH-investigator


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26

Shioupyn Shen phD ’91:

Shioupyn Shen, who studied under the advisement of Leonard Kleinrock, distinguished professor of the Computer Science Department, received his Ph.D. from UCLA Engineer-ing in 1991. Upon graduation, Shen had a successful career working for companies like Microsoft and Google. At Microsoft he worked on NT Networking, Directory Service and SQL Server. At Google he worked on Gmail, Ads Syndication and Google WiFi. Shen, with the opportunity to observe the tech titans from the inside, acquired a vast array of industry experience. In 2009, he founded CloudMosa, Inc., with the mission to revolutionize the Web experience on mobile devices through cloud computing. The company developed the Puffin Web Browser — with the goal of making it the fastest and most powerful Web browser on mobile platforms.

How did the opportunity to start your own company come about?

Shen: One of the most crucial skills for success is the

ability to screen ideas quickly and to pursue opportunities

early. I am a hands-on person with a technical and ana-

lytic background to evaluate ideas keenly. In 2006, I was

designing an inexpensive tablet computer – my version

of OLPC (One Laptop per Child) — with a far superior

Web browser. With the launch of the iPhone in early 2007

and the EeePC in late 2007, I realized that a hardware

revolution had started. When Amazon EC2 came out

of Beta in late 2008, I knew the timing was right. I took a

leave of absence in early 2009 to implement a prototype,

and then decided to devote myself full time to pursue

this opportunity.

Was it a hard decision to leave Google to run a start-up?

Leaving Google was one of the hardest decisions of

my life. Google was named the best company to

work for in recent years. However, mobile Internet and

cloud computing offered some of the best opportunities

in decades. I asked myself “what would I do if I could

do anything,” and the decision became obvious — choose

the path with more interesting challenges and far superior

opportunities than staying in my comfort zone.

ThE PoWEr AND rESPoNSIBILITy oF LEADING yoUr oWN CoMPANyWileen Wong Kromhout

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alumni newS


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ucla EnginEEr 27

Shioupyn Shen ph.D. ’91:

Shioupyn Shen, who studied under the advisement of leonard Kleinrock, distinguished professor of the computer Science Department, received his Ph.D. from ucla Engineer-ing in 1991. upon graduation, Shen had a successful career working for companies like Microsoft and Google. at Microsoft he worked on NT Networking, Directory Service and SQl Server. at Google he worked on Gmail, ads Syndication and Google WiFi. Shen, with the opportunity to observe the tech titans from the inside, acquired a vast array of industry experience. In 2009, he founded cloudMosa, Inc., with the mission to revolutionize the web experience on mobile devices through cloud computing. The company developed the Puffin Web Browser — with the goal of making it the fastest and most powerful web browser on mobile platforms.

Was it a hard decision to leave google to run a start-up?

Leaving Google was one of the hardest decisions of

my life. Google was named the the best company to

work for in recent years. However, mobile Internet and

cloud computing offered some of the best opportunities

in decades. I asked myself “what would I do if I could

do anything,” and the decision became obvious — choose

the path with more interesting challenges and far superior

opportunities than staying in my comfort zone.

What is the biggest challenge of starting your own company?

One of the biggest challenges I had to face was hiring;

it is challenging to compete with top tier companies

when it comes to recruitment. Additionally, many highly

skilled and successful engineers had already retired to

pursue other interests. The best candidates are founders

of failed start-up companies, who are hard to find and

difficult to recruit. Fortunately, the timing was a blessing

for CloudMosa; in early 2009, many excellent engineers

became available because of the global financial crisis.

For someone who has had the experience of being on both sides, what advice would you give a student decid-ing which path to take?

Regardless of which path a student takes, my best advice

is to be analytic, i.e., to develop the mathematical skills

to be comfortable with numbers. When “it doesn’t add

up,” the subtle clues are more obvious to those who are

more sensitive to numbers. In terms of career choice, it

is mostly determined by personality. Are you a passion-

ate person or a disciplined person? Passionate people

make better entrepreneurs but must be cautious because

“curiosity kills the cat.” Disciplined people are better at

climbing the corporate ladder but must be able to take

risks because “care kills the cat.”

What advice would you give an alumnus trying to make a similar career transition?

Nowadays, the line between an engineer and an

entrepreneur has blurred, and it is common for someone

to transition back and forth depending on the opportuni-

ties available. My best advice is to alternate between

the two worlds. First, be an entrepreneur in graduate

school when the cost is the lowest. If unsuccessful on the

first try, then work for one of the most selective compa-

nies right after graduation. Work hard to build a superb

technical reputation and wait for some over-achieving

bosses to become entrepreneurs.

What has been the best part about running your own company?

With great power come great responsibilities. If I took

too much pleasure in my power, I would have failed my

responsibilities. The best part is not the pleasure but the

experience — an experience to make each day count.

Every morning when I wake up, I am glad that the

company is still growing. I must treat every day as the

best opportunity to improve the company as well as the

last chance to help the company survive. In terms of

being my own boss, it is just a façade; the wife is always

the real boss.

What about your education/experience at UCLA Engineering has contributed to your career success?

The value of education is intangible; it shapes our charac-

ter more than builds our skills. During my time at UCLA,

I received an excellent foundation on which the rest of

my career was based. I was very fortunate to have Dr.

Kleinrock as my thesis advisor. In addition to the class-

room lectures and thesis advice, the most valuable asset

I acquired was self-confidence — it made me a strong

enough person to plow through the darkest days

of my career.

Shioupyn Shen

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28

1940s Louis G. Walters ’47, MS ’49, PhD ’51

former assistant professor and adjunct associate

professor, UCLA Engineering

My principal Faculty responsibilities were the manage-

ment of the automatic control discipline and the

off-campus UCLA Engineering programs to extend

the UCLA footprint to engineering centers throughout

Southern California. I served as engineering professor

in residence at the China Lake Naval Air Station

(1951-1952) and later in San Diego, offering graduate

seminars in automatic control theory, critical to the

aerospace industry in that area.

I had co-founded an aerospace engineering enterprise

which Ford Motor Company quickly acquired. Within

weeks, Samuel Herrick (professor of astronomy at UCLA)

and five of his graduate students joined in a UCLA team

effort to provide orbit determination technology and

software for the Air Force centers for satellite R&D

(Air Force Satellite Test Center) and operations (Air Force

Space Command). The engineering context of the histori-

cal astronomy practice was named “astrodynamics”

and incidentally, each of Herrick’s graduate students

achieved their academic objectives through an off-campus

graduate program in Orange county, hosted by Ford.

I managed the development and technical evolution of

astrodynamic products for these centers for four decades,

ending as a member of the Air Force Science Advisory

Board committee on Space Surveillance, Asteroids and

Comets. The unusual combination of educational oppor-

tunities between 1943 and 1945 was in preparation

for a military assignment (Philippines) to establish a radar

network capable of tracking weather balloons to extreme

altitudes, to understand difficulties in scheduling B29

flight schedules in the SW Pacific. The effort clocked wind

speeds of over 200 knots, now described as the

“jet stream.”

I retired at age 80, and now divide my time between

Washington state and Keauhou, Hawaii. My current

contact is: [email protected]

1950sGeorge Bekey ’50, MS ’52, PhD ’61 has

published another book. Robot Ethics

is co-edited with P. Lin and K. Abney

from the philosophy department at the

California Polytechnic State University

at San Luis Obispo. The book was

published by MIT Press, 2012. His previous book

Autonomous Robots was also published by MIT Press

in 2005.

Harry G. Bieker MS ’54 is 85 years old and still working.

He lives in Grants Pass, Oregon.

Edward G. Coffman, Jr. ’56, MS ’61, PhD ’66 won the 2011

Harold Larnder Prize of the Canadian Operational

Research Society. He is a professor emeritus in both the

computer science and electrical engineering departments

of Columbia University. He retired as a Distinguished

Member of Technical Staff of Bell Laboratories in 1999.

He is a Fellow of IEEE and ACM. Coffman’s work

in computer engineering started in 1958 as a systems

programmer at the System Development Corporation.

Highlights of his career include his work as a co-inventor

of time-sharing systems and a co-inventor of computer

networks.

Gary MacDougal ’58 is currently co-chair of the $400-

million America for Bulgaria Foundation

(www.americaforbulgaria.org), believed to be the largest

foundation in Eastern Europe with an annual budget

of $20 million. MacDougal’s special interest has been

helping the Roma, about 10% of the population of

the Balkans with about 60% unemployment rate, remove

barriers to education, jobs and property ownership.

MacDougal and his wife Charlene have traveled

to Bulgaria to work regularly for the past 20 years.

(www.macdougal.com)

Bill Revell ’59 spent 46 years as an engineer at Lockheed in

Sunnyvale, Calif., as well as a four- year stint in Aurora,

Colo. He went on to earn a master’s degree in mathemat-

ics at San Jose State University. He married Elaine Perry,

ALUMNI CLASS NOTES

3.1415926535 8979 323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038

ALUMNI NEwS


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ucla EnginEEr 29

1950sGeorge Bekey ’50, MS ’52, PhD ’61 has

published another book. Robot Ethics

is co-edited with P. Lin and K. Abney

from the philosophy department at the

California Polytechnic State University

at San Luis Obispo. The book was

published by MIT Press, 2012. His previous book

Autonomous Robots was also published by MIT Press

in 2005.

Harry G. Bieker MS ’54 is 85 years old and still working.

He lives in Grants Pass, Oregon.

Edward G. coffman, Jr. ’56, MS ’61, PhD ’66 won the 2011

Harold Larnder Prize of the Canadian Operational

Research Society. He is a professor emeritus in both the

computer science and electrical engineering departments

of Columbia University. He retired as a Distinguished

Member of Technical Staff of Bell Laboratories in 1999.

He is a Fellow of IEEE and ACM. Coffman’s work

in computer engineering started in 1958 as a systems

programmer at the System Development Corporation.

Highlights of his career include his work as a co-inventor

of time-sharing systems and a co-inventor of computer

networks.

Gary MacDougal ’58 is currently co-chair of the $400-

million America for Bulgaria Foundation

(www.americaforbulgaria.org), believed to be the largest

foundation in Eastern Europe with an annual budget

of $20 million. MacDougal’s special interest has been

helping the Roma, about 10% of the population of

the Balkans with about 60% unemployment rate, remove

barriers to education, jobs and property ownership.

MacDougal and his wife Charlene have traveled

to Bulgaria to work regularly for the past 20 years.

(www.macdougal.com)

Bill Revell ’59 spent 46 years as an engineer at Lockheed in

Sunnyvale, Calif., as well as a four- year stint in Aurora,

Colo. He went on to earn a master’s degree in mathemat-

ics at San Jose State University. He married Elaine Perry,

and they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in

2010. They have two sons, Michael and James. They built

a house in Saratoga, Calif. where they lived for 45 years,

before recently moving to San Jose.

1960sGeorge Ng ’63, now in retirement, resides in San Diego.

John O’Keefe ’67 was recently named chief technical officer

of Instantiations Inc., an Oregon-based software devel-

opment company. O’Keefe joined Instantiations in 2006

after retiring from IBM.

John Roebuck MS ’65, owner of Roebuck Research and

Consulting, initiated and co-authored a technical article

on re-inventing anthropometry for design of ear-related

products. It was published in the Proceedings of the 2011

Annual Meeting of the Human Factors and Ergonomics

Society.

Tom Stone ’67, MS ’69 has retired from full-time work

in the planning, design, and construction of large

international and domestic transportation projects.

For 10 years he oversaw the creation and development

of DesertXpress, which recently was environmentally

cleared to become the nation’s first dedicated passenger-

only interstate high speed rail system - as a private

initiative linking Southern California and Las Vegas.

From his home office in Golden, Colo., Stone still

provides part-time consulting services on large transpor-

tation projects, including the Exposition Corridor Phase

2 light rail line from Los Angeles to Santa Monica, and

the proposed I-70 Mountain Corridor Advanced Transit

System in Colorado.

1970sNick Brestoff ’71, was looking to get more science and

engineering into his life after 36 years as a trial attorney.

He now represents plaintiff inventors in patent infringe-

ment cases, on contingency.

Hiroshi Eto ’79 was recently promoted to senior executive

service as programs director for the U.S. Army Corps

of Engineers, Great Lakes and Ohio River Division

office in Cincinnati, Ohio. Eto overseas $2 billion in

civil works and military programs across seven district

offices located in Chicago; Detroit; Buffalo; Pittsburgh;

Huntington, W.Va; Louisville, Ky.; and Nashville.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

(IEEE) awarded William R. Goodin, MS ’71 PhD ’75, ME

’82, the Outstanding Branch Counselor Award for 2011.

This international award is presented to individuals who,

through their work as counselors and advisors, exem-

plify IEEE’s commitment to the educational, personal,

professional, and technical development of students in

IEEE related fields of interest. Goodin is a Senior Member

of IEEE, and has served as an alumni counselor for the

UCLA student branch since 2003. He is currently associ-

ate director of alumni relations at UCLA Engineering.

Robert Grossman ’74 is now celebrating 33 years as prin-

cipal of Grossman & Speer Associates, Inc, a structural

engineering firm based in Glendale, Calif., that special-

izes in building design. Grossman has been the structural

engineer of record for many public school and municipal

projects throughout Southern California.

Bill Schumann ’72 retired from FMC Technologies after

30 years of service with the company. He began his

distinguished career with FMC in 1981 as the director of

pension investments. Schumann served in various

management positions throughout that decade then

moved into the role of senior vice president and chief

financial officer of FMC Corporation in 1999. He

continued in this role and has been the only CFO

for FMC Technologies since its spin-off from FMC

Corporation in 2001. In 2010, Schumann’s performance

was recognized externally when he was voted one of

the top performing CFOs in the oilfield service and

equipment industry. His leadership and financial guidance

has been instrumental in supporting the overall growth

and success of FMC Technologies. Although he stepped

down as CFO, he continues to work in his role as

executive vice president, leading a number of strategic

activities that support FMC Technologies’ global plans

for growth.

Robert Skelton PhD ’76, professor emeritus of UC San

Diego, recently received a research award from Germany’s

Alexander von Homboldt Foundation. For three months,

they sponsored Skelton’s lectures on his new book

(Skelton and de Oliveira, Tensegrity Systems, Spring

2009). Skelton received another award from the EPFL in

Lausanne, Switzerland to lecture there for two months.

During Skelton’s 12 years with Lockheed and Sperry

Rand he designed control systems for SKYLAB, the

nation’s first space station, and the Hubble, the nation’s

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30

most successful space telescope. He created the systems

and control program at the School of Aeronautics at

Purdue (where he taught for 22 years). He created the

systems and control program at UC San Diego (where he

taught for 15 years). He was awarded the Nichols Medal

from the ASCE. Skelton is a fellow of AIAA and IEEE,

and has published six books. He served on the National

Research Council’s Aeronautical and Space Engineering

Board, and received a research award from The Japan

Society for the Promotion of Science. Skelton held the

Daniel Alspach Endowed Chair at UC San Diego

until his retirement.

1980sJim Barrie ’83, MS ’85, PhD ’88, Chung-Tse Chu PhD ’89,

and Pete Fuqua ’88, MS ’91, PhD ’93 jointly received

The Aerospace Corporation’s 2011 President’s

Achievement Award for identifying a critical design flaw

in a spacecraft mirror coating, that, had it gone unno-

ticed, would likely have resulted in a costly delay to a high

priority government satellite. By identifying the problem

early in the manufacturing process, and offering a

solution that could be implemented in a timely fashion,

the rework costs were minimized and the program was

able to launch on schedule.

William D. Newman ’86 has been named an influencer in

the areas of enterprise performance management;

governance risk and compliance; and sustainability by

the Americas SAP User Group (ASUG) at a recent confer-

ence. In this role, Newman will work with customers

of software company SAP to provide guidance and

direction in areas of strategy, risk management,

and sustainability. Newman serves as managing principal

of Newport Consulting Group, an independent

consulting firm with services in the areas of market

growth and entry, sustainability management, strategy

and program design and oversight. He also serves on

the adjunct faculty at Northwood University in the area

of international management studies.

Dean Tullsen ’84, MS ’86, a professor of computer science

as UC San Diego, was named a Fellow of the Association

for Computing Machinery. Tullsen was recognized for

“contributions to the architecture of high-performance

processors.”

Jerry Yen ’88 was recently promoted to director of Global

Commercial Insights and Strategy for Hewlett-Packard.

He is based in San Diego, and balances his global

business trips with exercise to keep up with his aquatics

instructor wife, water polo son, and gymnast daughter.

1990sGaurav Bhasin MS ’98, MBA ’06 was promoted to

director, Technology Investment Banking at Duff and

Phelps Securities (formerly Pagemill Partners). Since

joining the firm in May 2008, Bhasin has closed over

15 transactions and represented both public and private

sellers, buyers and strategic partners in a broad range

of technology industries and sectors, including Internet,

semiconductors, telecommunications/networking and

software and services. Additionally, Bhasin has success-

fully completed complex cross-border transactions in

geographical regions worldwide. He is interested in con-

necting with alumni ([email protected]).

Jason K. Hui ’97, MS ’98, PhD ’02 has been elected as the

chair of IEEE New Hampshire Section.

Andrei Iancu ’89, MS ’90, JD ’96 has been named manag-

ing partner of Irell & Manella. He has long been involved

with firm management, having previously served on the

firm’s executive committee and currently chairs the hiring

committee. Iancu will continue to practice full-time as a

member of the firm’s litigation and intellectual property

practice groups. He has represented some of the country’s

most well-known companies in a variety of high-profile

matters. His clients span the technology spectrum, includ-

ing those associated with medical devices, multimedia,

cell phones and telephony, the Internet, computer soft-

ware and hardware, and video game systems.

2000sMaria Siqueira Araujo ’04, MS ’08 and her husband, Jeyson,

are expecting their first child, due in May 2012.

Youngjae Chun MS ’07, PhD ’09 was recently hired at the

University of Pittsburgh’s industrial engineering depart-

ment as a tenure-track assistant professor.

The appointment started in September 2011.

Benjamin Davis PhD ’09, is currently an assistant professor

of chemical engineering at The Cooper Union for

the Advancement of Science and Art. He and his wife

Infrastructure resIlIencycontinued from page 5

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alumnI news


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ucla EnginEEr 31

Jerry Yen ’88 was recently promoted to director of Global

Commercial Insights and Strategy for Hewlett-Packard.

He is based in San Diego, and balances his global

business trips with exercise to keep up with his aquatics

instructor wife, water polo son, and gymnast daughter.

1990sGaurav Bhasin MS ’98, MBA ’06 was promoted to

director, Technology Investment Banking at Duff and

Phelps Securities (formerly Pagemill Partners). Since

joining the firm in May 2008, Bhasin has closed over

15 transactions and represented both public and private

sellers, buyers and strategic partners in a broad range

of technology industries and sectors, including Internet,

semiconductors, telecommunications/networking and

software and services. Additionally, Bhasin has success-

fully completed complex cross-border transactions in

geographical regions worldwide. He is interested in con-

necting with alumni ([email protected]).

Jason K. Hui ’97, MS ’98, PhD ’02 has been elected as the

chair of IEEE New Hampshire Section.

andrei Iancu ’89, MS ’90, JD ’96 has been named manag-

ing partner of Irell & Manella. He has long been involved

with firm management, having previously served on the

firm’s executive committee and currently chairs the hiring

committee. Iancu will continue to practice full-time as a

member of the firm’s litigation and intellectual property

practice groups. He has represented some of the country’s

most well-known companies in a variety of high-profile

matters. His clients span the technology spectrum, includ-

ing those associated with medical devices, multimedia,

cell phones and telephony, the Internet, computer soft-

ware and hardware, and video game systems.

2000sMaria Siqueira araujo ’04, MS ’08 and her husband, Jeyson,

are expecting their first child, due in May 2012.

Youngjae chun MS ’07, PhD ’09 was recently hired at the

University of Pittsburgh’s industrial engineering depart-

ment as a tenure-track assistant professor.

The appointment started in September 2011.

Benjamin Davis PhD ’09, is currently an assistant professor

of chemical engineering at The Cooper Union for

the Advancement of Science and Art. He and his wife

Jessie Davis (JD ’06) are expecting their first child in

June 2012. They are in their third year now living in New

York City and very much enjoying academic life.

chris Guillory ’06 has moved to the East Village in

Manhattan to pursue software engineering opportunities

in finance.

Victor Jovancevic MS ’05 recently moved to London to

join a private equity and real estate investment company

called Landmark Partners as a real estate associate.

Oren Kaplan ’01 made a transition from software

engineering to film directing. His debut feature

project, The Hammer, tells the true story of the first deaf

wrestler-turned-UFC Fighter to win an NCAA champi-

onship. The story unfolds in both English and American

Sign Language and employs creative use of sound design

and subtitles to provide the viewer with the experience

of being deaf. The Hammer premiered at the AFI Film

Festival where it won the Audience Award. It went

on to be released in theaters in over 100 cities and is now

available on DVD and VOD. You can check out the

trailer at http://thehammerfilm.com.

Jae lee ’04 and his wife Kathy Song ’04 (Sociology)

welcomed Keira Skylar Lee into their family on December

16, 2011.

Matt Pollard ’02 and his wife Danya welcomed the birth of

their first child, Jackson Mason Pollard, in January 2012.

2010sDavid Ng ’10 worked at the UCLA start-up

company NanoH2O for 2 years. In 2011

he became a chemical process engineer

at Chemical Engineering Partners, under

Evergreen Oil.

Jeffrey Su ’10 completed his master’s degree in informa-

tion technology - very large information systems, from

Carnegie Mellon University in December 2011. He is

beginning work as a software development engineer with

Microsoft’s Bing multimedia search team.

understand how the ground motion scales with the source

parameters, magnitude, the distance from the source,

the site, and various other factors. Then try to get the best

models we can to describe that.”

In Los Angeles, Stewart is working on the issues involv-

ing non-ductile concrete buildings — older buildings whose

structures are made up of unreinforced concrete that pre-

date standards set following the 1971 Sylmar earthquake.

“The idea here is to, at a very broad scale, come up

with methodologies to identify the buildings presenting

the most pronounced collapse risk, the killer

buildings.”

Stewart’s long-term research interest

is understanding the complex behavior associ-

ated with the interface between the foundation

of a structure and the supporting soil. Stewart

recently led a large, multi-disciplinary team

in developing a national standard for modeling

such effects, based on the best engineering

science coupled with carefully executed experi-

ments performed at field-scale.


the sacramento/san joaquin delta is a large estuary

that lies between the Central Valley and Suisun Bay at

the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers.

A system of levees, dating back to the mid 1800’s protects

the Delta “islands” that lie mostly below sea level due

to subsidence caused by oxidation and erosion of the

unusual peaty organic soils. The Delta serves as the hub

of California’s water delivery system that serves over

23 million residents, and provides the sole source of water

for many communities. It also is near the eastern margin

of the San Andreas fault system, and there are concerns

that an earthquake could cause simultaneous flooding

of many Delta islands, inundating farmland and wildlife

habitat. This “big gulp” scenario would draw in saline

water from the West, contaminating fresh water in

the Delta to the point that water delivery could be halted.

This would be a truly disastrous scenario that some

have deemed “California’s Katrina.” However, very little

is currently known about the seismic response of peaty

organic soil.

continued on page 32

Scott Brandenberg and the NEES@UCLA team on their

research site in the Delta. photo courtesy s. brandenberg

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32

To assess how levees would respond in an earthquake,

associate professor scott brandenberg and Stewart

are leading a project on the deformation potential of the

levees. The research team conducted a field test last sum-

mer with one the NEES@UCLA eccentric mass shakers.

“We are going to look at how the energy from the

relatively stiff embankment was transmitted into the peat

to help us understand how seismic energy coming up

from the peat would be transmitted into a levee during an

earthquake,” Brandenberg said.

The research team is processing the data from that on-

site test as well as conducting more research in the labora-

tory. They have also proposed a second field test with the

water level closer to the surface, as well constructing a

model levee to shake on a geotechnical centrifuge.

“The improved knowledge of levee seismic vulnerability

will be broadly applicable wherever these earth structures

are founded on organic soils,” Brandenberg said.

Brandenberg and Stewart are also involved in a study of

levee performance during past earthquakes to help advise

decision-making on important levees in California, and a

laboratory testing program to study the behavior of peaty

organic soils.

associate professor ertugrul taciroglu is the

principal investigator on a NEES@UCLA field project

in Istanbul, Turkey. Collaborating with colleagues from

Bogazici University and the Kandilli Observatory and

Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI) the research

team examined the behavior and performance of an older

reinforced concrete building. Field testing began in 2010,

on a standard four-story building with a concrete frame

and masonry infill.

The building was then stripped

to its frame and retrofitted with

improved seismic design. A structural

monitoring system was set up in the

building to monitor its ambient

vibration. Then in December of that

year, it was subjected to forced

vibration testing.

One of the things we sought to find out from test data

was the contribution of masonry infill to the dynamic

characteristics of this non-ductile reinforced concrete

building,” Taciroglu said. “This in turn influences how

the forces induced by an earthquake are distributed

throughout the structural frame.”

Much of Turkey lies between the Anatolian Plate and

faults along it have produced earthquakes greater than

magnitude 7.0, including a 7.2 quake in Eastern Turkey

in 2011.

“We found that the said contribution from infill walls

to structure’s apparent natural vibration frequencies

and damping are significant enough that they can not be

ignored in forward numerical simulations,” he said. “This

is very much in line with findings from other similar stud-

ies, and at least for buildings in Turkey, more field tests

are warranted to bracket and model the infill behavior.”

The Istanbul test building is not only typical of

many residential, government and commercial build-

ings in Turkey, it’s also similar to pre-1973 buildings

in California. Following the 1971 Sylmar earthquake,

California state buildings codes were improved. However,

many of these earlier buildings still remain throughout

the state.

these are just a few examples of research being

conducted by UCLA engineers. Much of the engineering

research related to earthquakes is very collaborative with

UCLA faculty and students working with colleagues

in California and around the world; in academia, govern-

ment and industry.

“We’re doing some good fundamental work,” Stewart

said. “The world will hopefully be a better place because

of these types of projects. And UCLA is right in the

middle of it all.”

Wallace added, “It’s exciting work that has an unusu-

ally high impact on engineering practice, and it enriches

our classroom teaching.”

To find out more about earthquake-engineering

related research at UCLA, visit the Web site of the

Civil and Environmental Engineering Department:

www.cee.ucla.edu and the NEES@UCLA

Web site: www.nees.ucla.edu


Ertugrul Taciroglu (left) and collaborators at the Istanbul

building test site. photo courtesy e. taciroglu

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feature


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You have a stake in uCLa engineering’s future Partnerships with alumni, parents and friends who give annually to the School allow UCLA Engineering to continue to be a bastion of cutting-edge education and research.

the uCLa engineering fundMake a gift this year — and every year — to enhance engineering excellence at UCLA

www.engineer.ucla.edu/giving

invest in engineering exCeLLenCeOne of the things we sought to find out from test data

was the contribution of masonry infill to the dynamic

characteristics of this non-ductile reinforced concrete

building,” Taciroglu said. “This in turn influences how

the forces induced by an earthquake are distributed

throughout the structural frame.”

Much of Turkey lies between the Anatolian Plate and

faults along it have produced earthquakes greater than

magnitude 7.0, including a 7.2 quake in Eastern Turkey

in 2011.

“We found that the said contribution from infill walls

to structure’s apparent natural vibration frequencies

and damping are significant enough that they can not be

ignored in forward numerical simulations,” he said. “This

is very much in line with findings from other similar stud-

ies, and at least for buildings in Turkey, more field tests

are warranted to bracket and model the infill behavior.”

The Istanbul test building is not only typical of

many residential, government and commercial build-

ings in Turkey, it’s also similar to pre-1973 buildings

in California. Following the 1971 Sylmar earthquake,

California state buildings codes were improved. However,

many of these earlier buildings still remain throughout

the state.

these are just a few examples of research being

conducted by UCLA engineers. Much of the engineering

research related to earthquakes is very collaborative with

UCLA faculty and students working with colleagues

in California and around the world; in academia, govern-

ment and industry.

“We’re doing some good fundamental work,” Stewart

said. “The world will hopefully be a better place because

of these types of projects. And UCLA is right in the

middle of it all.”

Wallace added, “It’s exciting work that has an unusu-

ally high impact on engineering practice, and it enriches

our classroom teaching.”

To find out more about earthquake-engineering

related research at UCLA, visit the Web site of the

Civil and Environmental Engineering Department:

www.cee.ucla.edu and the NEES@UCLA

Web site: www.nees.ucla.edu

infrastruCture resiLienCY

3.1415926535 8979 323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 8521105559 6446229489 5493038


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3.1415926535 8979 323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944 5923078164 0628620899 8628034825 3421170679 8214808651 3282306647 0938446095 5058223172 5359408128 4811174502 8410270193 852110555

Safety/SecurityAreAS• Advanced Structural Materials

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• Manufacturing and Design

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• Signal Processing and Communications

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DIStINCtIve FeAtUreS OF the PrOgrAm• Each course is fully equivalent to the corresponding

on-campus course and taught by the faculty members

who teach the on-campus course.

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the online student.

the primary purpose of this program is to enable employed engineers and computer scientists to enhance their technical education beyond the Bachelor of Science level, and to enhance their value to the technical organizations in which they are employed.

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