s d n

e Spring/Summer 2006 i r F & i n m u l A r o f g n i r e e n i g n E f o l o o h c S i b r e t i V C S U e h t y b d e h s i l

b is Viterbi for “Cool” u P

pronunciation: cool adj. 1 [Slang] hip, The Big Three-O excellent, first-rate The Center for Engineering Diversity Celebrates 30 Years

n. 2 Klein Institute “At the Speed of Light” for Undergraduate An Academic and Corporate Engineering Life Collaboration

2 4 x 3 = Rarified Air e u s s

I Four Faculty Earn

4 n. 3 the place to be

e Membership into Three m u

l National Academies o V THE FUTURE OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING: SHOP FLOORS Centennial TO FACTORIES TO SUPPLY CHAINS TO ENTERPRISES WILLIAM ROUSE, director of the Tennenbaum Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology Lectures Hosted by the Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering FUELING THE FUTURE: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES An Academic IN ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT LYNN ORR, Keleen and Carlton Beal Professor of Petroleum Engineering and director of the Celebration Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford University Hosted by the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

In celebration of 100 Years of MOLECULAR MECHANICS OF BONE FRACTURE Engineering at USC, the Viterbi PAUL HANSMA, professor of physics at UC Santa Barbara School partnered with distinguished Hosted by the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science professors, accomplished engineers and even the presidents of THE NEWTONIAN REVOLUTION: INTERACTION OF MATHEMATICS renowned technical institutes and WITH HIGH TECHNOLOGY RUDOLPH E. KALMAN, professor emeritus at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology a university, to produce the Hosted by the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering successful Centennial Lecture Series. We thank these individuals for THE FUTURE OF MICROPROCESSOR ARCHITECTURE their time, knowledge, spirit and JOHN HENNESSY, president of Stanford University Hosted by the Department of generosity. Visit the link below if you missed any of these memorable THE TURNING POINT FOR ENGINEERING: CAN WE ADAPT? presentations. G. WAYNE CLOUGH, president of the Georgia Institute of Technology Hosted by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

INFORMATION EXCHANGE AMONG NEURONS IN SENSORY CORTEX , professor of electrical and computer engineering, Hosted by the Department of

TO THE MOON AND BEYOND EDWIN “BUZZ” ALDRIN, astronaut Hosted by the Astronautics and Space Technology Division

THE PROMISE OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN 21ST CENTURY MEDICINE RODERIC I. PETTIGREW, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Hosted by the Department of Biomedical Engineering

THE IMPACT OF U.S. HIGH TECHNOLOGY NATIONAL DEFENSE STRATEGY ON ENGINEERING EDUCATION JAMES ROCHE, former Secretary of the U.S. Air Force Hosted by the Systems Architecture and Engineering Program

For information about all of the lectures please visit: http://viterbi.usc.edu/links/?103 IN THIS i SSUE features

PAGE 14 KIUEL is Viterbi for “Cool” An Undergraduate Institute is Born by Diane Ainsworth

PAGE 20 The Next 100 Years An Essay Competition for Students

PAGE 24 The Big Three-O The Center for Engineering Diversity Celebrates 30 Years of Value-Added Programming by Diane Ainsworth p14 PAGE 26 “At the Speed of Light” An Academic and Corporate Collaboration by Teresa Hagen

PAGE 28 4 x 3 = Rarified Air Four Faculty Earn Membership into Three National Academies departments by Diane Ainsworth & Eric Mankin

PAGE 3 Dean’s Message

PAGE 4 Special Announcement

PAGE 5 Straight & To the Point Short Subjects PAGE 30 Alumnus Profile p p10 Arthur Lin, PHD EE ’90 7

PAGE 31 Alumna Profile Orna Berry, PHD CSCI ’86

PAGE 33 Alumnus Profile Benjamin Kuo, BSEE ’94

PAGE 34 Snapshots Late Fall 2005 & Spring 2006 Events

PAGE 36 Class Notes & News

PAGE 37 In Memoriam

PAGE 39 Honors & Awards p PAGE 40 Notebook 34

Cover photos by Max S. Gerber and Brian Morri

Board of Councilors CHAIRMAN Karl Jacob III, BME ’91, BS CSCI ’00 Dwight J. Baum Entrepreneur and Advisor Private Investor John C. Johnson Dean Allen, BSME ’57 Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems Retired, Parsons Corporation Jay L. Kear, BSME ’60 Gordon M. Anderson, BSME ’54 HamiltonTech Capital Partners Retired, Santa Fe International Corporation James J. Keenan, BSEE ’61, MS ’67 Sonny Astani, MSISE ’78 Retired, Hendry Telephone Astani Enterprises, Inc. Kenneth R. Klein, BS BMEE ’82 Carton H. Baab, BSEE ’81 Wind River Systems, Inc. Raining Data Corporation Dean Geraldine Knatz, MSENV ’77, Ph.D. BISC ’79 Yannis C. Yortsos William F. Ballhaus, Jr. The Port of Los Angeles The Aerospace Corporation Marie L. Knowles, BSChE ’68, MSChE ’70, MBA ’74 Chief Executive Officer Ronald R. Barnes, BS ACCT ’76 Retired, ARCO External Relations Norris Foundation David Lane, BSEE ’81 Christopher J. Stoy Gregg E. Brandow, BSISE ’59 Diamondhead Ventures Brandow & Johnston Associates Robert Lee, BSEE ’70 USC Viterbi Engineer Edgar Brower, BSISE ’59 Retired, Pacific Bell Retired, Pacific Scientific Alexander Livanos Editor Simon (Xiaofan) Cao, MA PHYS ’85, MSEE ’87, Northrop Grumman Space Technology Annette Blain Ph.D. PHYS ’90 Alfred E. Mann Blain Special Projects Group Arasor Corporation Advanced Bionics Corporation, USC Trustee Yang Ho Cho, MBA ’79 Managing Editor Gordon S. Marshall, BS BUS ’46 Bob Calverley Korean Airlines, USC Trustee Retired, Marshall Industries, USC Trustee David W. Chonette, MSME ’60, ENGME ’64 Paul Martin Production Director Versant Ventures, Brentwood Venture Capital Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation Kirstin Strickland Leo Chu Fariborz Maseeh Hollywood Park Casino and Crystal Park Casino Hotel Picoco, LLC Contributing Writers Diane Ainsworth, Bob Calverley, Malcolm R. Currie Bryan B. Min, BSISE ’86 Retired, Hughes Aircraft Company, USC Trustee Epsilon Systems Solutions, Inc. Teresa Hagen, Eric Mankin Kenneth C. Dahlberg, MSEE ’69 John Mork, BSPE ’70 Science Applications International Corporation Art Direction & Graphic Design Energy Corporation of America Tracy Merrigan Creative John Deininger Bonnie Optekman J.D. Investments, Inc. NBC Universal Media Works We wish to acknowledge the Feng Deng, MS CENG ’93 Donald L. Paul following individuals for their Northern Light Venture Capital Chevron Corporation contributions to this issue of Vinod Dham Allen E. Puckett NewPath Ventures Retired, Hughes Aircraft Company, USC Trustee USC Viterbi Engineer: Tisha Armatys, Matt Bates, Steve Bucher, Wendy David DiCarlo, Ph.D. EE ’79 F. Edward Reynolds, Jr., BSCE ’81 Northrop Grumman Space Technology The Reynolds Group Campbell, John Cohoon, Kathleen Concialdi, Heather Curtis, Jason Albert Dorman, MSCE ’62 George E. Scalise, BSEE ’88 Founding Chairman, AECOM Dziegielewski, Clint Fulton, Barbara John F. Shea, BS ENG ’49 Myers, Jacqueline Williams, Jana Daniel J. Epstein, BSISE ’62 J.F. Shea Co., Inc. ConAm Management Corporation, USC Trustee Wilson-Wade, Louise Yates. Darlene Solomon Alan J. Fohrer, BSCE ’73, MSCE ’76 Agilent Technologies Southern Edison USC Viterbi Engineer is published Peter Staudhammer twice a year for the alumni and Alice P. Gast, BSChE ’80 Alfred Mann Institute, USC Lehigh University friends of the Viterbi School of Richard D. Stephens, BS NSMA ’74 Engineering at the University of Thomas O. Gephart, BSME ’62 The Boeing Company Ventana Capital Management Southern California. Mark A. Stevens, BS EE ’81, BA ECON ’81, MS CENG ’84 Hester Gill Sequoia Capital, USC Trustee Letters to the editors and comments M.C. Gill, BSChE ’37 Parviz Tayebati, Ph.D. Physics ’89 are welcome. Please send them to: M.C. Gill Corporation, Honorary USC Trustee Azna Corporation USC Viterbi Engineer, Olin Hall 500, Ed Glasgow, BA ’70 Cyrus Y. Tsui, BSEE ’69 Los Angeles, California Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company Retired 90089-1451 or email them to Kenton Gregory, BSEE ’76, MD ’80 Andrew J. Viterbi, Ph.D. EE ’62 [email protected]. Oregon Medical Laser Center Viterbi Group, LLC, USC Trustee Jen-Hsun Huang William P. Wiesmann http://viterbi.usc.edu/ NVIDIA Corporation BioSTAR Group DEAN’Sm ESSAGE

Viterbi Springs Centennial

Spring at Viterbi… It is a wonderful time. It is the culmination of a year of relentless efforts in teaching and research. Students graduate and carry with them all the rich experiences they have accumulated from their interaction with Viterbi faculty and staff. New students will join us in the fall and the cycle will recommence… It is this renewal process — the farewell to the graduates and the welcome to the new ones next fall — that we are celebrating. As this academic year comes to a close, I can only say that it has been my privilege the past year — our 100th Year — to steer the magnificent ship that is the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. And it is with even greater pride that I accept my new position as permanent dean of the School at a moment when we are charting the exciting waters of a new and even more promising century. During the past century, a tiny regional technical program at USC has blossomed into an international engineering and technology powerhouse. One with outstanding faculty, students and staff, that is winning tough competitions with top universities for national research centers. To celebrate our 1100100 (think binary) years we held a high-profile series of academic lectures and a gala event at the California Science Center. These events were nothing short of magnificent. If you walk through the Engineering Quad, and pass by Ronald Tutor Hall you cannot miss the colorful banners that display our pride in the School’s history. And I am very fortunate and proud to share more good news about the School. Since last June, four of our junior faculty won highly competitive National Science Foundation Career awards. Another, Elaine Chew, received the PECASE or Presidential Early Career Award given annually to only 50 young academics in science and engineering. Our faculty, the lifeblood of all institutions of higher education, continues to thrive and grow in stature. And by (mathematical?) harmony, we have some very recent wonderful news to end the academic year: On April 24, Len Adleman, the Henry Salvatori Chair in Computer Science and winner of the 2003 Turing Prize, and Bob Hellwarth, the George T. Pfleger Chair in Electrical Engineering, were elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS). One day later, we learned that Len Adleman was also elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). With these elections, Len and Bob have now joined a very elite group, one that holds simultaneous memberships in the three academies AAAS, NAE (National Academy of Engineering) and NAS. And I am very proud that the Viterbi community now counts four members (along with University Professor Sol Golomb and Presidential Chair Andy Viterbi) with this remarkable distinction. During the past year, we have also seen two loyal and visionary alumni step forward to boost the Viterbi School even higher. John Mork and his family named the Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. And in this issue you will read in Yannis Yortsos detail about Ken Klein’s passionate plan to nurture undergraduate engineering students. Named Permanent With the Klein Institute for Undergraduate Engineering Life, or KIUEL (pronounced Dean of the “cool”), a new paradigm in engineering education is emerging at USC. This institute, which USC Viterbi School we believe is unique in the country, recognizes that each engineering undergraduate is a For complete announcement, precious commodity. Ken Klein explained the purpose of his new institute this way: see page 4. “It’s an institute with the sole purpose of making the life of the undergraduate engineering student better. That means easier, balanced, fulfilling, comfortable...” i r r On their journey to become engineers, Viterbi students not only learn from a demanding o M curriculum, they also receive the benefits that come from an overall collegial experience outside the classroom, whether n a i r it’s by building community, service learning or in USC’s initiative on the Arts and the Humanities. B y

b This year, the Viterbi spring is centennial — and “cool”… o t o h p

— Yannis C.Yortsos s o s t Dean r o

Y USC Viterbi School of Engineering

USC Viterbi Engineer Vol. 4 No. 2 Spring/Summer 2006 SPECIALa NNOUNCEMENT

BREAKING NEWS Yannis Yortsos Named Dean of the Viterbi School

Yannis C.Yortsos, who had been serving as School’s faculty and student body, named to the post of USC Provost, he dean on an interim basis since June 2005, has continuing aggressive fundraising efforts immediately tapped Yortsos to serve as dean been named permanent dean of the USC and furthering ongoing efforts to build for an interim period. Andrew and Erna Viterbi School of global partnerships that offer new During his time overseeing the Viterbi Engineering. The announcement was made possibilities for education and research. School’s academic affairs, Yortsos facilitated by President Steven B. Sample and Provost Yortsos is a distinguished and an impressive overhaul of the undergraduate C. L. Max Nikias, as this issue of USC Viterbi internationally known chemical engineer curriculum, and the School enjoyed signifi- Engineer went to press. who has held the Chester F. Dolley Professor cant gains in student strength and in the His appointment comes at a symbolic of Petroleum Engineering since 1975. He is quality of academic programs for freshmen. time with the School cele- He also presided over brating its centennial year. the merging of two Effective June 1, it is the departments — chemical culmination of an eight- engineering, including its month international search petroleum engineering during which the search program, and materials committee identified and science — that now form reviewed more than 200 the Mork Family candidates for the position. Department of Chemical “Yannis Yortsos has Engineering and Materials shown tremendous Science, named when leadership skills since alumnus John Mork (BSPE arriving at USC,” Sample ’70) endowed it with a $15 said. “He is a world-class million gift. In addition, scholar who understands alumnus Ken Klein (BS the Viterbi School’s BMEE ’82) established the limitless potential, and he Klein Institute for also understands how to Undergraduate mobilize the school’s faculty, Dean Yortsos, President Sample and Provost Nikias enjoying the Viterbi Engineering Life (KIUEL), students, alumni and staff to School's centennial celebration gala event. described in detail in this issue, fulfill that potential.” during the period that Yortsos Nikias said: “Professor Yortsos has highly regarded for innovative work in served as dean for an interim period. won acclaim for describing what the ‘new chemical engineering relating to the “I am humbled and honored to be engineer’ of the 21st century must look like. mechanics of fluids in porous media, and named dean of the USC Viterbi School of He has argued that the future of engineering in petroleum engineering relating to oil Engineering,”Yortsos said in accepting the — as well as that of other disciplines that recovery. He earned a diploma in chemical position. “The School has become a global seek to impact our world — will require a engineering from the National Technical leader in innovations in engineering, and ‘seamless blending of left-brain and right University in Athens, Greece. After coming I am thrilled to be part of its future brain skills,’ which necessitates creative to the for graduate work, he enhancement and growth. In this century, alliances between engineers and counterparts earned an M.S. and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering will flourish in exciting new areas in other sciences, the social sciences, the engineering from Caltech. that require interdisciplinary research and humanities and the arts.” From 1991 to 1997, Yortsos chaired the teaching, and alliances across disciplines and Nikias, who co-chaired the international Viterbi School’s department of chemical across the globe. I am convinced that with the search, said that Yortsos has laid out engineering. He served as the School’s continuing, unparalleled help of our friends, ambitious strategies to enhance the School’s associate dean and then senior associate dean the Viterbi School will reach new heights of profile as an elite institution, by building for academic affairs during the four years excellence in creating new paradigms of additional strength and diversity within the that Nikias served as dean. When Nikias was engineering education and research.”

4 USC Viterbi Engineer

straight & to theP int

THEp OINT

USTRAIGHT & to theP INT Í

To Boldly Go WhereSTRAIGHT No Computer & to the INT Science Class Has Ever Gone P ò Students in a new engineering class will be generating excitement about artificial writing computer code for Isaac Asimov’s intelligence topics in general, and agents disobedient robot Speedy, and for the sinister and multiagent systems in particular. many-bodied Star Trek menace, the Borg. “Second, science fiction also helps Milind Tambe, associate professor of provide a perspective on how far we have computer science, plans to use classic stories by come in our research, as well as current Asimov and other science fiction sources as limitations, and future research problem sets in a class on artificial intelligence challenges. for undergraduate programmers beginning in “Third, science fiction literature the fall, 2006 semester. is a great vehicle for understanding the “Computer science is catching up with the impact on society if agent-based ideas in these stories,” says Tambe. “We are computing truly succeeds.” using science fiction as the spice for the main Most of the texts will be standard dish of teaching an important new area of our scholarly references in the field of AI. But discipline.” the assignments will also include science fiction Milind Tambe While a number of universities use science films and television shows, along with such fiction as a way to introduce concepts in famous stories as Asimov’s “Runaround” — the being or, through inaction, allow a human physics and other fields, Tambe believes his 1942 tale that introduced his famous “Three being to come to harm.” course is the first of its kind in the field of Laws of Robotics.” The syllabus asks students to analyze computer science. Tambe and third-year In this story, set in 2015, astronauts on the Speedy’s thinking with what is called “belief- doctoral student, Emma Bowring, collaborated planet Mercury send a robot named Speedy on desire-intention” or “BDI” logic, which formu- to design CS 499, “Intelligent Agents and a vital, but dangerous mission to bring back the larizes persistent agent goals, with questions like Science Fiction.” Bowring will be the teaching element selenium. Instead of obeying, Speedy “(a) Explain in BDI logic the commitment assistant for a class that “she made very signifi- starts running in a circle around his formed to save humans. (b) Is this commitment cant contributions in creating,” says Tambe. destination. The reason, the humans discover, only invoked when a human is in danger or is it The class will focus not on robots per se, is the robot’s calculation of required behavior present under all circumstances?” but on their “minds,” what are known in conforming to the second law of robotics: In more traditional academic course i r computer science as artificial intelligence “A robot must obey orders given by a human,” syllabus language, the course will cover “intro- r o

M “agents.” These are virtual robots, which are is in delicate equilibrium with its necessity to duction to agents, elementary decision theory n a i complex software systems capable of creating conform to the third law: “A robot must and reasoning under uncertainty, elementary r B

y strategies, negotiating with each other and protect its own existence.” game theory (includes Nash equilibria and b

o prisoner’s dilemma), teamwork and belief- t cooperating, all to achieve ends. The humans manage to break the cycle o h “Science fiction provides three key by convincing Speedy that they are in mortal desire-intention logics, emotions in agents.” p e b benefits in this course,” says Tambe. “First, danger, which brings into play the top-priority Other science fiction source materials that m a

T it is a great motivator and it provides context, first law: “A robot may not injure a human continued on page 6

USC Viterbi Engineer 5 THEp OINT

Smart Tools, and Not Just for Smart Kids Faculty OpEd

by Carole Beal

Leo Tolstoy famously began Anna Karenina Only the computer knows about the failure. with the observation that “All happy families It helps discouraged students while shielding are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its them from embarrassment in front of own way.”While it is an overstatement, this also classmates or the teacher. Our research applies to K-12 education where “all good indicates that many of these “failing” students students are alike; each failing student fails in are eager for such opportunities. her or his own way.” The key is that Wayang studies and learns We more commonly call this phenomenon from its users. With data gathered from the the “rich get richer” effect. Seemingly exciting student, the software creates a model of where new educational tools and products each student is — spatial ability, math characteristically work well for students who proficiency and prior knowledge. The system are already superior but do little or nothing for surveys their motivation from a variety of students whose work is below grade level or angles — their learning style, test anxiety, who are failing outright. self concept in math and even their mood on exaggerate where we are. We still have a long What if we could quickly and accurately that particular day — and produces a detailed way to go, but I believe we are on the right diagnose how each failing student fails and picture of each learner, classifying them into track in focusing on technology that listens to provide them with specific tools to address various learning categories. and diagnoses students. Our goal is to provide their specific pattern of failure? It tailors an educational program for each each student with individualized tutoring. Inspired teachers know how to do this — student using information about how earlier Information technology can do this. that is why they excel. But teachers are under students with similar profiles had done in the Carole Beal is a project leader and multiple constraints and heavy pressure to deal system. It can recognize bad “trajectories,” such educational psychologist specializing in K-12 with large classes in the 180 days per year they as the student forming an anti-successful education at the USC Viterbi School’s have available for teaching. Even great teachers strategy to get by or coast through, and it Information Sciences Institute. need all the help that they can get and many of intervenes before the student is set on the track. them are asking for technology-based tools to For example, Wayang can diagnose that the help their most needy students. student is guessing and remind the student of To Boldly Go Information technology can provide this his or her goal to go to college, making the link continued from page 5 support with appropriately designed teaching between today’s class work and where the materials — the kind we are now building. student wants to be in a year. will be discussed — and coded — by the class What is critical in these systems is not so much Information about the student comes include Star Trek episodes on the alien that they teach certain educational material, but not just from what he or she types. New distributed intelligence (one mind in many the way they engage with individual students to technologies allow us to monitor the student bodies) called the Borg; and on the emergence see where their learning problems are. and do so with a “light footprint.” Simple, of emotions in Lt. Commander Data. One example we have developed is inexpensive web cameras can track eye gaze The Viterbi School and its Information “Wayang Outpost,” a multimedia learning to see when attention lags. We’re starting to Sciences Institute are leading centers of research system meant to teach geometry to high experiment with lightweight wireless EEG in agents and artificial intelligence, and many of school students. It works, bringing a 20% headsets to directly measure cognitive effort the non-science fiction texts the class will read improvement in post-test scores. But it and distractibility. are original papers by USC researchers includ- improves scores only on the skills taught in the It is not just students who can profit from ing Stacy Marsella, David Pynadath, Jonathan system, not on other material, so we know that these technological individualized tutoring Gratch, Gal Kaminka and Tambe himself. the benefits are not due to a transient novelty tools. We believe the tools will also help teach- Tambe also hopes that some authors of effect. The weakest students post the biggest ers learn to be more effective in the same way. science fiction sources to be analyzed and improvement, which is a reversal of the usual The systems provide teachers with real-time coded will visit the class. “rich get richer” effect that is so often found in assessment about each student’s strengths and “This will be a rigorous class in state of the the education community. weaknesses, feedback they can use to adapt the art computer science,” says Tambe, “but it will Wayang does not just give vivid next day’s lesson plan instead of waiting for the be one that I think will challenge students in an multimedia explanations of geometry. It lets results of annual achievement tests. interesting way, one that they’ll enjoy taking. I a failing student try a problem, fail, get Unfortunately, technology has often been know I will enjoy teaching it.” immediate feedback and learn from failure. oversold in education so I do not want to —EM

6 USC Viterbi Engineer THEp OINT

USC Notables Honor Sol Golomb at Hillel L’Chaim Award Dinner

University Professor Solomon Golomb received former students delivered a long an evening of praise and reminiscence and USC and eloquent tribute to his Hillel came away with $100,000 in funding. teacher. Andrew J. Viterbi President Steven B. Sample, Viterbi School recollected how he had met naming donor and trustee Andrew J. Viterbi Golomb years before at JPL, and (Ph.D. EE ’62) and Leventhal School naming how generously Golomb had donor Kenneth Leventhal spoke, while Provost helped him not just in academic C. L. Max Nikias, Viterbi School Dean Yannis matters, but for such things as Yortsos and Nobel Prize winner George Olah helping find a place for his joined more than 220 well-wishers filling the parents to live. Skirball Center. It was in Golomb’s car, The occasion was USC Hillel’s annual Viterbi said, on a long-ago drive L’Chaim Award Dinner, a fundraising event for north to the Bay Area that he the benefit of the Jewish student group, which, had made his decision to per its mission statement, “provides the founda- propose to his wife Erna. And tion for Jewish student life at USC, offering a when the marriage took place, in a now-vanished Bo, looked on proudly. secure, inclusive and nurturing environment for synagogue on Santa Barbara Boulevard (long No tributes to Golomb would be complete all Jews who are part of the USC community.” since renamed after Martin Luther King), without a review of the classic photographs of Golomb has been a steadfast supporter of Golomb was by his side. the white-bearded professor sitting in USC’s the group for decades, and wryly pronounced Viterbi took at least some of the credit for Hoose library in a full USC football uniform. his association as the reason he had “offered bringing Golomb to USC in 1963, where, as The image was used for the cover of a USC himself as a sacrifice” for the fundraiser. The Viterbi noted, he is widely credited with laying recruiting brochure that got the largest response warmth and specificity of the tributes to the foundations of USC’s emergence as an in the history of the publication, so striking that Golomb, a polymath linguist/mathematician/ engineering superpower. Golomb now holds it was reprised a second year. philosopher/game-designer and beloved father the engineering chair that bears Viterbi’s name. A surprise award closed out the evening. broke through the award dinner format in the Golomb’s daughter Beatrice could not be Golomb already held the Kapitsa medal from presentations of speaker after speaker. Sample, at the dinner: she had booked tickets more than the Russian academy of sciences (Russian is one himself multitalented as engineer, administrator a year before for a cruise of Patagonia. But of the languages he speaks). Fellow Russian and musician, pointed out the dimensions of through video, she presented a slide show of “akademik” Professor George Chilingar (BSPE Golomb’s distinctions as an introduction. her father’s life, beginning with tales of his ’49, MSPE ’50, Ph.D. GEOL ’56) presented him “The title of university professor is the astonishing precocity, of his courtship of his with two new awards, plaques from the Russian highest recognition USC can bestow on a faculty Scandinavian wife, of his linguistic prowess, of academy and the Russian Academy of Natural member,” said Sample, noting that out of more his invention of the game of polyminoes, the Sciences honoring Golomb for lifetime than 3000 faculty, only 17 held the distinction. precursor of Tetris, all this while her mother, achievement. And, the president continued, “With his ceaseless Hillel itself offered its own tribute: “Sol curiosity, his thirst for learning across the aca- Golomb has been a significant part of USC demic landscape and his extraordinary accom- Hillel and the Jewish community for thirty plishments, Sol Golomb is the very embodiment years. We are so proud to honor him for his of the concept of university professor. … I often work on the board and executive committee turn to Sol for advice and assistance, and I know and for being such a strong supporter of Jewish I can always count on him.” life at USC,” said Robert Gach, board chair of Sample also noted Golomb as a “triple the USC Hillel Foundation. threat” — a member of the National Academy of —EM Science, the National Academy of Engineering as Top (left to right) USC Hillel Executive Director well as the American Academy of Arts and Dr. Steven Mercer; USC Hillel Board Chair Sciences; and a winner of the Shannon Prize, the Robert Gach; Solomon W. Golomb; LA Hillel highest award in . Council President Jaime Gesundheit; USC Golomb has served as a mentor to Trustee Andrew J. Viterbi. numerous students over the course of his career, Left: Golomb suited up for student recruiting and perhaps the most distinguished of all these with Donald “Don” McInnes, professor of music.

USC Viterbi Engineer 7 THEp OINT

On the Threshold of Miniature Flight Inspired by the recent upsurge of interest in small-scale aerodynamics, some aerospace engineers at USC are raising simple questions with surprisingly elusive answers. ‘If we were to build a small flying machine,’ they ask, ‘what would it look like? A dragonfly? A moth? A bat? A bird?’

With the steadiness of a surgeon, John books on aerodynamics and on aircraft and McArthur, a graduate student in aerospace and helicopter flight have been developed for mechanical engineering, positions a slightly devices that are much larger and fly much curved plate about the length of a 12-inch ruler faster. These aerodynamic models and on a rod that protrudes from the force balance analytical methods are, arguably, among some in USC’s Dryden wind tunnel. The flow of the crowning intellectual and practical properties and the force balance calibrations in achievements of the past century. this tunnel, housed in the basement of the “Modern aircraft are efficient and Rapp Research Building, have been carefully powerful, and routinely carry people and tested over three or four months. armaments over long distances,” he continues. Today the airflow in the tunnel will be “But few have paused to reflect on how a very seeded by a fog of one-micron-diameter smoke small plane might work. In fact, most of the particles and illuminated by consecutive double serious work has stopped at the scale of pulses from a dual-head laser. Each light pulse competition sailplanes.” will be five nanoseconds in length and consecu- Of Bats and Thrushes tive flashes will be separated by about 150 Geoff Spedding microseconds. The laser will flash at a rate of 10 Spedding wends his way out of the wind tunnel Hertz, so each pulse pair will be regenerated Winged Flight and back through the maze of instrumentation every 1/10th of a second. Images of the airflow Spedding and a research group in the Viterbi filling the basement of the Rapp laboratory, will be captured on a charge-coupled device School’s Aerospace and Mechanical then climbs a flight of stairs leading to his (CCD) array camera and saved in real time. Engineering (AME) Department are busy office. Stepping inside, he reaches for a small Over the past ten years, McArthur’s faculty pursuing those questions with data from their plastic bat with a wingspan of about 20 cen- adviser, Geoff Spedding, professor of aerospace wind tunnel experiments. AME graduate timeters dangling on a string from the ceiling. and mechanical engineering, and his students machine the simplest possible wings When he is not collaborating with a group colleagues, have developed custom software — flat plates, curved plates and classical of biologists at Lund University in Sweden, to perform an analysis of this flow field airfoils — and then plot the wind tunnel using live birds and bats, Spedding relies on with extreme accuracy. After making the measurements on graphs that are scotch-taped wind-up or battery-powered toys, such as this measurements, they will be able to describe to the laboratory door. red-eyed Halloween bat, to inspire him. He not only the lift and drag forces of this small Winged flight has always fascinated winds it up and gives it a gentle shove. The curved wing, but also the spatial gradients of Spedding, who is a zoologist by training. bat begins to flap its wings and flash its red the airflow in which it is flying, which are After earning a Ph.D. in zoology from the eyes as it circles high above his desk. Gaining difficult quantities to estimate. University of Bristol, England, he specialized in momentum, it lifts into a higher orbit. No one has paid much attention to small- animal aerodynamics and hydrodynamics. With “Newton’s laws of motion in action,” scale airfoil geometry — how the shapes of the recent upsurge of interest in small-scale Spedding grins. small flying things impact their flight aerodynamics, he has begun to investigate How do Newton’s laws of motion work on capabilities — or to understanding the what affects the aerodynamic performance much smaller scales? Just the same, Spedding aerodynamics of winged flight on small scales, of these very simple objects, which fly at very notes. But because the viscosity of the air can no until quite recently, Spedding explains, as he low speeds. longer be ignored, the flows are very complex. i r adjusts the cambered plate and aims the laser. “Imagine a flying ruler, which is a simple That is what gives aerodynamicists a second r o M

“The geometry and kinematics of bird flat plate,” he says, holding up a ruler he has reason to pause. Even simple textbook problems n a i flapping are complicated,” he says. “The retrieved from the top drawer of a desk. “How become complicated. Standard aerodynamic r B

y question then arises, must this complexity be models do not give researchers the answers. b well could this fly when attached to a suitable o t mimicked or are there more simple fundamen- airframe? How would we improve this design?” “Paradoxically, it is far easier to predict, o h p

tal designs of small-scale aerodynamics that can It is remarkable that such questions qualify analyze and model the flow around a Boeing g n i d

be applied to build the next generation of as topics of research, but Spedding says there 747 than it is to predict the flow around our d e p small, remotely piloted flying machines?” are two reasons for it. “First, all of our text- simple ruler flying at some reasonable speed,” S

8 USC Viterbi Engineer THEp OINT

Graduate student John MacArthur, left, and Professor Geoff Spedding Assistant Professor Eva Kanso works on biological are probing the aerodynamics of small objects. locomotion with Professor Tony Maxworthy.

Spedding says. “And much of the existing simple wings in oscillatory flapping motion will yet powerful tools drawn from dynamical data in the literature is controversial and generate strong swirling currents, or vortices, of systems theory, geometric mechanics and inconsistent, with little apparent incentive to fluid at the front edge of the wing, and that the computation. The reduced modeling approach force the issues to resolution.” forces associated with this strong rotational has already been able to demonstrate some Then what sort of small-scale flying motion will be both beneficial and controllable. amazing things — for starters, for a simple cyclic machine should he build? In many cases, the presence of these complex, shape, changes will occur in an articulated three- “We could build just about anything,” says time-varying fluid motions can make the segmented swimming machine placed in water. Spedding. “Suppose we built a small flying difference between flying and being grounded. Voilá! It swims. machine that can flit through crowded spaces, Since then, the leading edge vortex (or This line of research enables novel hover silently in a precise position, making LEV) has become a staple of those seeking to engineering applications, such as the design observations of a moving target, abruptly understand the aerodynamics of both insect of biologically inspired vehicles, both micro reverse direction in times of danger, and do all and bird flight. Maxworthy predicts that it is and macro, that can propel themselves by of this for more than an hour. Then it would “very likely that any successfully engineered undulating their shapes. report back to base as directed with images and device will have to have some similar means of “Investigating simple systems like this other sensory information, such as chemical generating and then controlling such fluid helps to unravel the basic principles of aquatic and pressure readings, visibility, heat and motions.” locomotion,” Kanso says. “I am interested in radioactivity measurements.” Similar principles apply to swimming fish, quantifying these principles and building on It is not the technology that is holding he says. Researchers are currently working on them…learning to improve on what we’ve engineers back from building that plane, he experimental modeling of the forces and flow already built.” says. It is possible to build all kinds of small- fields generated by fin and tail motions. The research has a ways to go, but it is a scale electromechanical devices these days. Kanso, a mechanical engineer who earned first of its kind. The data is providing new It is the design — what it would look like. her Ph.D. from the University of California, insights into biological locomotion and the “It could look like a dragonfly. A moth. Berkeley, is the third member of the team. future of small-scale flying and swimming A bat. A bird. Or none of the above,” he says. Interested in the interaction of shape changes machines. But like all good mysteries, the with wake dynamics, she is attempting to future is full of unanswered questions. Biological Locomotion unlock the mathematical keys to underwater “There’s still a lot to learn from bird flight Assistant Professor Eva Kanso and Professor locomotion. before a reasonable airfoil design can be pro- Tony Maxworthy, who holds the Smith “If we were to build a swimming robot, posed,” Spedding says, “or before we start past- International Professorial Chair in Mechanical should it resemble a jellyfish? Or an eel?” she ing bird feathers on our small flying machines.” Engineering, collaborate with Spedding’s asks. “How many degrees of freedom does it However, the day will come when this AME research team addressing problems in need to have to be able to achieve a desirable planet is populated by both animals and small biological locomotion. forward or steering motion?” autonomous vehicles whose forms and In 1979, Maxworthy, a member of the behaviors may or may not mimic the natural National Academy of Engineering, was the first Dynamical Systems Theory world. That day is not too far away. scientist to realize and demonstrate that many Kanso answers questions like that with simple —DA

USC Viterbi Engineer 9 THEp OINT

An Engineering Senior's Journey Into Africa

Chemical engineering student Fima High Incidence of Malaria Prampram, he says, with Macheret wanted to do “something The young engineering student saw a throngs of children running meaningful” during his summers, and at variety of patients, 75 percent of whom up to greet them and villagers the same time acquire some hands-on had malaria and were suffering from high waving hello every time they experience in medicine. So before the start fevers and body aches. Other villagers arrived. The volunteers were of the Fall ’05 semester, he embarked on a came to the clinic with work injuries — honored at one point with an journey of hope and goodwill to the small cuts, scrapes and sprains — while a few invitation to a meeting of the fishing village of Prampram, Ghana, on the came in with injuries caused by domestic traditional council of the west coast of Africa. violence. “I started giving injections the Prampram area, during which “I’m going to medical school in a few first day I was there,” he says. “I learned they presented the council years, so I wanted to work in a part of the that their babies had very leathery skin; with 20 boxes of donated world that really needs help,” says the USC it was hard to puncture the skin with a books. “I was very happy senior, who is specializing in biochemical hypodermic needle.” about that, because they had engineering. Fifteen nurses staffed the clinic, but a very good library in town,” Macheret He could not have landed in a more they did not have much more than basic says. “I was really surprised to find a remote corner of the world. Prampram is a first aid supplies, vaccinations and generic chemical engineering textbook there.” poor village located an hour from Accra, medicine to work with, Macheret says. The New Best Friend Ghana’s capital. The town has a population nearest hospital was a half hour away, so of about 6,000 people. Macheret says it is most of the ailing residents sought out the Macheret also assisted on school painting also known as “Gbugbla,” which means to clinic for medical attention. Macheret projects. Over the course of a few “keep on trying.” explains how six or seven volunteer teams weeks, he had struck up friendships that For three weeks, Macheret from Global Volunteers work three-week transcended geopolitical boundaries. But it kept on trying. As part of a stints in the village each year. Quite often, was Emmanuel, a young soccer player on team of volunteers from Global the city team who had bigger ambitions of

s they bring some of the basic medical Volunteers, he helped nurses in supplies with them. Those volunteering in playing in the nationals, who made the the village clinic administer the clinic learned how to dress wounds, biggest impression. k shots and medicine to local take blood pressure and apply tourniquets “Emmanuel ran on the beach for two residents. Global Volunteers hours each morning,” Macheret says. r before administering an IV of saline sends teams of volunteers to solution to dehydrated patients. “He was so inquisitive and had so many sites worldwide, including the While Macheret helped out in the questions about everything. I think one of o United States, to work on village clinic, other volunteers taught the best things I did while I was there was projects ranging from teaching conversational English and other subjects in to help him set up an email address. And English, to assisting with health village classrooms. now that he knows how to do that, he’ll

w care, to constructing community The volunteers were given “rock star be able to teach others in the village how buildings. “The clinic staff to get online.”

treatment” everywhere they went in quickly became both During their free time, the volun-

t my teachers and my teers watched the fishing boats come colleagues in that they home in the afternoon and joined in were excited to teach me other community rituals. They also n their techniques, but also visited the homes of community eager to know my members and learned to cook local

e opinion on various dishes. They learned that everyday life issues,” says Macheret, in Prampram is difficult. Too many who graduated in May residents struggle to achieve even a d 2006. “International minimal standard of living, Macheret health care has a long explains. The fishing industry is u way to go, but through unpredictable, unemployment is high hard work, responsibility and education is still inconvenient t and international effort, and inaccessible for many.

s it will improve.” Once part of the powerful

10 USC Viterbi Engineer THEp OINT

IMSC Awarded Microsoft Grant to Advance Digital Geographics

Stay tuned for the next generation of online from USC’s Annenberg Center for maps. Led by Cyrus Shahabi, a team of Communication to support an urban renewal computer scientists at USC’s Integrated Media project that is under way in downtown Systems Center (IMSC) is conducting basic Los Angeles. IMSC researchers are developing research in advanced geographical visualization programming interfaces that will allow urban and data management systems for “Virtual planners to redesign the city and create digital .” The technology is being developed in a blueprints for a proposed $1.8 billion redevelop- project called GeoDec. ment project. Shahabi is an associate professor of com- “In our puter science and specializes in databases and proposal, we information management. He received one of demonstrat- eight highly competitive Microsoft research ed that we Ashanti Empire, Ghana figured grants to conduct his research, which is also can build prominently in one of the most tragic supported by a recent grant from Google. more accu- chapters of Western history— the GeoDec is designed to rapidly and accurately rate 3-D African slave trade. In colonial forts enable an information-rich and realistic 3-D models in a perched along the Ghanaian coastline, visualization or simulation of geographical relatively countless Africans were imprisoned locations, such as cities or states. short time,” until their departure on slave ships Shahabi says, as high-powered interactive says Shahabi. bound for the New World. The mapping tools like “Virtual Earth,”“Google “We have also Cyrus Shahabi volunteers had the opportunity to visit Earth,” and “MapPoint” come online, GeoDec shown that we these sobering sites. programming applications are needed for data can map images and live video textures to the Macheret, who started a student mining and management. These mapping tools models to make them even more realistic.” volunteer group at USC called “Cry for are hints of what is to come in commercial In addition, GeoDec can automatically Freedom,” spent spring semester mapping and local search platforms that will and accurately integrate a variety of spatial “actively recruiting USC students to enable users to harness state-of-the-art and temporal data, such as road networks and undertake a similar trip next summer.” capabilities. GPS data, into a model to make it ready for He says the volunteer group, co- “This award from an industry leader in sophisticated spatio-temporal data analysis. founded by his friend and fellow USC online mapping provides us with an incredible “The ability to create high fidelity, infor- student, Jon Turco, is dedicated to opportunity to work with high-caliber scientists mation-rich models of cities, states or countries freedom from inequality in healthcare at Microsoft Research and to help advance the is critical for a wide variety of decision makers,” and education. state-of-the-art in online mapping,” says Shahabi explains. For example, in the United “I hope we can organize a Shahabi. “We would like to extend the query States, city managers, urban planners, emer- fundraiser to raise some money for and data analysis utilities of ‘Virtual Earth’ so it gency response planners and first responders those who want to go,” he says. “It’s can be used in more application scenarios, such can use GeoDec. In military operations, these a great way to apply your education as in emergency-response, urban planning and capabilities will be useful to urban operations and to learn what it’s like in other intelligence applications.” planners, psychological operation planners and parts of the world. It really does USC’s GeoDec research includes a family training systems for soldiers in the field. transcend any learning experience I’ve of interactive, highly accurate, 3D visualization Co-principal investigators on the GeoDec had so far.” tools ranging from rapid modeling to the project include USC Information Sciences —DA depiction of live dynamic data, including live Institute (ISI) researcher Craig Knoblock, r e b

r video. Led by Shahabi, the project is part of who specializes in databases and artificial e

Right; Macheret treating a baby G

. IMSC’s Decision Support Research Area, which intelligence, and IMSC researchers and Viterbi S at the clinic. x

a is devoted to research that presents massive School faculty Ram Nevatia, an expert in M

Top; L-R: Fellow USC student Jon Turco, y amounts of data in real-time via forms and computer vision, and Ulrich Neumann and b

o Macheret, nurse Evelyn Narty, soccer t displays that can be quickly understood. Suya You, who will focus on graphics. o h p player and new friend Emmanuel Narty, These interactive mapping capabilities have More information about IMSC’s GeoDec i b and Lindsay, a volunteer from Barnard a

h already been sought out, Shahabi adds. For project is available at http://viterbi.usc.edu/ a

College in New York City. h S example, GeoDec has also received funding links/?105

USC Viterbi Engineer 11 THEp OINT

Four Viterbi School Faculty Win NSF CAREER Awards

Assistant professors at the USC Viterbi School David Kempe Technology, is also associate director of have recently won four highly competitive Kempe is an education and diversity programs in the Viterbi National Science Foundation Faculty Early researcher and School’s Biomimetic Microelectronic Systems Career Development awards. The awards, which programming team (BMES) Engineering Research Center. include five-year grants of approximately coach. His award will More information about Meng and her $400,000, are one of the highest honors for underwrite five years project can be found at: http://viterbi.usc.edu/ young faculty members and support early career of research on links/?108 development for teacher-scholars who are most modeling epidemics in Maria Yang likely to become future academic leaders. networks. The abstract The four Viterbi award winners are of his project reads as follows: Yang’s project, “A Igor Devetak of the department of electrical “Epidemic phenomena in networks occur Design Data Analysis engineering, David Kempe of the department when an infectious disease, computer virus, Approach to Early of computer science, Ellis Meng of the behavior, piece of information or innovation Stage Design Process department of biomedical engineering, and is disseminated in a highly decentralized and Modeling,” will Maria Yang of the Daniel J. Epstein Department parallel way along the links of a social or determine models of Industrial and Systems Engineering. computer network. Epidemic phenomena often and measures for “This is extraordinary news and confirma- have a strong effect on society.” the conceptual or tion that the Viterbi School’s faculty is continu- Kempe is one of the organizers of the USC formulation phase of the engineering design ing to grow in stature,” said Dean Yannis Yortsos. Programming Contest for Viterbi students. process. “I offer my warmest congratulations to all four Prior to coming to USC in 2004, he was a post- “Decisions that are made at the very early of these very distinguished young academics.” doctoral fellow at the University of stages, when a product is still just an idea, will Washington. He received his Ph.D. in 2003 have a strong impact on the later phases of Igor Devetak from . design,”Yang said.“The challenge will be to Devetak works in the More information about Kempe’s award can come up with measures and a model of that area of quantum infor- be found on the web at: http://viterbi.usc.edu/ process across industries and product types.” mation theory and is links/?107 Yang will document a wide variety of especially interested in design processes in such industries as classic information Ellis Meng aerospace, automotive and consumer theory as systematized Meng is an expert in electronics. Gathering text, sketches and by . bioMEMS (micro- prototypes drawn from design artifacts and His goal is to expand electromechanical documentation, she will determine models and classical to include quantum systems) fabrication. process measures that will eventually serve as information systems. His project is entitled “A Her research involves indicators of potential design outcome. High-Level Framework for a Unified Treatment developing She received both her master’s degree and of Quantum and Classical Information Theory biocompatible Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford and Thermodynamics,” and he hopes to acceler- polymer microsystems University under an NSF Graduate Fellowship. ate the creation of quantum that can seamlessly communicate and interact Her mechanical engineering bachelor’s degree systems and eventually quantum computers. with the body’s natural chemical and electrical is from MIT, where she is also currently a In a groundbreaking paper published in pathways. Her award will support her effort to member of the Mechanical Engineering 2003, Devetak set forth a novel rigorous proof develop novel microfabricated neural interfaces Visiting Committee. for determining information capacity of quan- that may one day help to repair damage and In addition to her research, Yang teaches tum information channels. Shannon did this restore lost functions in people who have several courses in process design in the Daniel for now-standard digital electronic channels. suffered central nervous system injuries. J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Devetak received his Ph.D. in electrical “These MEMS devices integrate both Systems Engineering, including a graduate-level engineering from Cornell University in 2002. microelectrodes and microfluidics on a single course on the management of engineering Before coming to USC in January 2005, he platform and facilitate multi-channel, multi- design teams. completed a postdoctoral research appoint- modality flows in both directions. This has More information about her award can be ment at IBM’s T.J. Watson Research Center. never been accomplished before,” she says. found at: http://viterbi.usc.edu/links/?110 More information can be found at: Meng, who received her Ph.D. in electrical http://viterbi.usc.edu/links/?106 engineering from the California Institute of

12 USC Viterbi Engineer THEp OINT

Viterbi Students Win Water Grants

Three teams of USC’s Viterbi School civil are designed to prevent trash engineering students met with Assemblywoman and pollutants from flowing Carol Liu (D-La Cañada Flintridge) and into the ocean, but they Metropolitan Water District officials recently don’t stop all of the pollution to discuss novel technologies for water from entering the storm conservation in Southern California. drains,” Shankar said. “There The students were among a dozen are about 90,000 catch basins Southland college and university teams to in Los Angeles County alone receive World Water Forum grants totaling and 30,000 in the City of $120,000 to research local water supply Los Angeles. We could solutions that may result in global benefits. achieve a 20 percent reduc- Assemblywoman Liu is honorary chair of the tion in the cost of treating Southern California World Water Forum, which storm water runoff if we had is currently celebrating the United Nations’ more efficient insert devices.” adjust for height and maximize water-use effi- “International of Fresh Water.” Shankar’s project, supervised by J. J. Lee, ciency. Kim’s faculty adviser is Carter Wellford. Liu met with USC Viterbi School civil will compare the costs of insert devices with Civil engineering graduate student and engineering faculty, including Carter Wellford, hydraulic performance and pollution removal team leader Christopher Harich won a grant chair of the department of civil and efficiency. His team will deliver a cost-benefit for his project to test water well clean-up environmental engineering; Professor J. J. Lee; analysis to help decision-makers reduce the techniques and propose the best and most and Research Professor Dennis Williams, as well costs of implementing and managing new catch efficient methods for increasing well efficiency. as water officials including Timothy J. Brick, a basin systems. “In national expenditures, 56 percent of Metropolitan Water District (MWD) board Hyoung-Jin Kim, a graduate student the large public utilities obtain their water from member representing the city of Pasadena, and and team leader of a project to design a touch- the ground,” Harich said. “If we could just go in Nancy Sutley, a MWD board member and City activated on/off showerhead switch, was there and clean our wells, and gain 10 percent of Los Angeles deputy mayor. Liu called the another of the USC grant winners. He said efficiency, we would be saving about $350 projects “wonderful,” offering people “some water use through showering accounts for million a year.” very practical solutions to a very difficult issue about 17 percent of all indoor water use. Under the supervision of Dennis Williams, about how to handle our water efficiently and “Many older showerheads and even the Harich and his team will use USC’s full-scale economically.” low-flow showerheads do not prevent waste well/aquifer model to determine those well “We have a lot of work to do,” Liu while showering,” Kim said. “My idea was clean-up methods that are most efficient. added, “but I thought the projects were very simple. Let’s turn off the water while soaping “All of these projects demonstrate the stimulating and very practical.” or shampooing. That way, we will save tremendous benefits that are coming out of this The water conservation grant program is considerable amounts of water.” grant program,” concluded Timothy J. Brick, part of a year-long competition sponsored by The project will investigate switches that MWD board member for the city of Pasadena. the United Nations to mobilize “USC is the only school that got three students at dozens of universi- grants,” he said. “You’ve done a tremendous ties and community colleges to job and I’m very excited about taking this address global water issues. information back to Metropolitan and telling Suraj Kumar Shankar, everyone how successful it has been. a civil engineering graduate —DA student, is working with fellow graduate student Zhiqing Kou Top: (left to right) Christopher Harich, USC to study catch basin insert civil engineering graduate student and grant devices, which are found in winner, meets with Timothy Brick, Metropolitan drainage systems, and propose Water District board member representing the most economically Pasadena, and Assemblywoman Carol Liu viable products for use in (D-La Cañada Flintridge). residential, commercial and Left: A camera crew captures Assemblywoman industrial areas. Liu chatting with Metropolitan Water District “Catch basin insert devices representative Benita Horn.

USC Viterbi Engineer 13 is Viterbi for “cool”

by Diane Ainsworth

“ My hope is that KIUEL will send a strong message to students that the Viterbi School cares, the university cares, and that I care about undergraduate student engineers.” —Ken Klein

en Klein (BS BMEE ’82) knows the rigors of USC’s undergraduate engineering major kbetter than most of the echo-boomers filling today’s classrooms and lecture halls. He has been in the trenches, where he learned to work hard, set goals and stay focused. “The engineering major is tough, any way you slice it,” says the president and chief executive officer of Wind River Systems, Inc., a global leader in device software optimization (DSO). “Our undergraduates have an extremely heavy burden to shoulder during their USC years, so it’s important to support them as best we can.” Klein sees his $8 million gift to establish the new Klein Institute for Undergraduate Engineering Life (KIUEL) as the way to support student engineers at a critically important time in the history of the profession. The rest of the world is producing more engineering

graduates than the U.S. each year and the competition is gaining ground. i r r “We are really on the precipice of a serious shortage of engineers,” says Klein, who o M

n

earned a dual degree from USC in biomedical engineering and electrical engineering. a i r B “I wanted to send a message of encouragement to student engineers by establishing an d n a

institute that will enrich their lives outside of the classroom and, hopefully, make things r e b easier for them.” r e G

Klein, who is tall and slender, with ocean-blue eyes, jogs four miles every day and surfs . S

x

when he is in the vicinity of an acceptable surfing beach. Professionally, he is riding the crest a M

y

of a burgeoning new market in device software optimization, but that has not prevented b

s o

him from devoting some time to the formation of his new institute. t o h p

He announced the gift in the fall of 2005 and worked closely with Viterbi School t n

Associate Dean Louise Yates to design an overarching program to expand current student e d u t

services and create an aura of community within the School. When it opens later this year, S

14 USC Viterbi Engineer The Klein Institute Q & A with Louise Yates

Louise Yates is associate dean of admission and student affairs in the Viterbi School of Engineering. As overseer of undergraduate student affairs, her office will administer most of the new programs that are established by the Klein Institute for Undergraduate Engineering Life (KIUEL). USC Viterbi Engineer asked Yates to discuss the institute’s role in student affairs and give readers a sneak preview into some of the new programs in store for undergraduate Ken Klein students.

Why is the Viterbi School the Klein Institute, housed next to the admission and student affairs office, will provide establishing an institute for students with a full array of academic and social support services beyond the traditional Qundergraduate engineering classroom environment. student life at USC?

Institute’s Building Blocks The engineering major is a difficult KIUEL is designed to create a more cohesive and positive experience for Viterbi School major. It’s probably more difficult than undergraduate engineering students. It is founded on the building blocks of leadership 90 percent of all the majors available development, building community, service learning opportunities and cross-disciplinary to undergraduate students. activities. Some of its programs are already in place, but they will be enhanced and Engineering students work hard at expanded. Other new programs and activities are in the planning stages now and will be academics and don’t often see the implemented, customized and modified in the years ahead. need for getting involved in other Klein’s institute is heart-felt. He hopes to help connect students with little time outside activities. We think that if we can of the classroom with the student community at large. provide a variety of personal and “I felt cut off from university life, like there was a school within a school, and that in professional activities to support our engineering, things were a lot more difficult for us than for students in other majors,” says students and offer more opportunities Klein. for a more rewarding college i

r experience, they will begin to balance

r “I took some time to engage in a number of personal pursuits, like becoming captain o

M their lives a bit more and ultimately

of the USC surfing team, but the majority of my life was spent studying and working. Of n a i gain all the skills that will help them r course, I managed to squeeze in a USC football game from time to time.” B

y develop as engineers and leaders. b Klein is no stranger to university life. He is the son of a peripatetic professor, a o t o wandering engineer who moved his family frequently to take new teaching assignments at continued on page 17 h p

n some of the top engineering schools in the nation — the Massachusetts Institute of i e l

K Technology, Purdue, UC Berkeley and Stanford University. continued on page 16

USC Viterbi Engineer 15 COVER s TORY

“I moved every single year from the time I was born until the time Interactive. He saw opportunity in the business of software testing and I was in junior high school,” he laughs. The family finally settled in application management. As part of Mercury’s founding team, he Monarch Beach, Calif., near Laguna Beach, where Klein learned to surf. worked as a regional sales manager and helped to grow the fledgling But while he was still in high school, the family made one final move, company into a half-billion-dollar a year enterprise. this time to New Canaan, Connecticut, outside of New York City. “That final experience made me realize that I really wanted to get Climb to the Top back to Southern California and that was a big factor in my decision to In 12 years at Mercury, Klein rose to chief operating officer and became a attend USC,” says Klein, who makes his home today in Atherton, member of the company’s board of directors. He remembers the climb to California. “I knew I wanted to get back home and USC provided me the top fondly, calling it “a real home run” to be part of a business that with the home I was looking for.” had such an impact on industry. The experience was a Honors at Entrance stepping-stone to Wind River He began as a freshman honors System, Inc. In January of 2004, student in the fall of 1977 and Klein was recruited to jump-start worked part-time through a Wind River, a 20-plus-year-old fellowship program at Hughes software applications company Aircraft Company. Midway into in need of a major overhaul. his biomedical engineering Founded in 1981, Wind River major, Klein got interested in enabled companies to develop, very large-scale integrated circuit run and manage device software design and decided to begin a better, faster, at lower cost and second major in electrical more reliably. engineering. Working and In less than two years at the studying day and night, he helm, Klein and his management completed the requirements for team turned Wind River into a both majors in the same amount $270 million business with of time it took most students to approximately 40 percent of the complete one major. market share in the device soft- “That was a formative “I knew I wanted to get back home and USC ware optimization (DSO) indus- experience,” he says modestly. try. That made it four times larg- “At one point, I was taking 18 provided me with the home I was looking for.” er than the nearest competitor. units and working 30 hours a “We are really at the week. I’ve never worked harder before — or since — so it was both a very forefront of a seminal shift in the marketplace, where software is valuable and a very painful experience.” increasingly becoming the battleground of differentiation for devices,” For fun, with his limited free time, he surfed his favorite beaches Klein says. “In the next five years, there will be over 14 billion intelligent along the Southern California coast, from Trestles in San Onofre to Salt devices connected to each other in ways we can’t even imagine right now. Creek in Dana Point to Rincon in Ventura County. Software will be playing a greater role than it ever has in the past in these Klein took a fulltime job at Hughes Aircraft Company after gradua- devices. In a few years, DSO is projected to become a $3 billion industry.” tion, but was careful not to stay too long. “If you stay in a technical job Wind River Systems designs embedded software platforms — soup- too long, you get pigeon-holed,” he says. “I wanted to transition into the to-nuts applications solutions — for devices as prosaic as digital video business side of engineering and took on a field application engineering recorders, digital television sets and set-top boxes to very exotic systems position in marketing.” for scanners, medical equipment, satellite systems and avionics systems. Silicon Valley startups were just beginning to spring up in the mid- Its longer-term aspirations are to become a one-stop shopping site 1980s, so Klein leap-frogged from Hughes to Daisy Systems in Mountain for everything from operating systems to networking, management View, Calif., a pioneer in the electronic design automation industry. and security.

“I was able to really experience a Silicon Valley company and it was i r r a very exciting time,” he remembers. “I grew my career at Daisy, going The “Wind River Dry Heavers” o M

n a

from a field application engineer to a sales engineer and then, finally, to a The four-building facility sits on 275,000 square feet of prime real estate i r B

regional sales manager, so that’s when I really completed my transition in Alameda, Calif. adjacent to the Oakland Estuary and a deep-water y b

o from being purely technical to being more business-oriented.” port. Klein jogs four-to-six miles a day along luscious grass picnic areas t o h p

From Daisy Systems, he tried his hand at another startup company lining the perimeter of the property and up the streets of Alameda with t n based in San Francisco called Interactive Development Environments. his “Wind River Dry Heavers,” a team of pretty serious runners who e d u t

After a couple of years, Klein joined an even smaller startup, Mercury continued on page 19 S

16 USC Viterbi Engineer COVER s TORY

Describe the we are developing a leadership seminar How and in what ways will Klein Institute’s main series as well as a peer leadership consult- students benefit from KIUEL Qgoals and objectives. ant program to help all students under- Qservices and activities? stand some of the basic concepts about Really, its main goal is to create a more The primary goal is to get engineering leadership that are so important today. cohesive and positive experience for students to participate in more out-of- We have lots of ideas. They include undergraduate engineering students. classroom experiences that are actually programs such as an alumni mentoring We are interested in developing an related to their majors as well as help program, career related workshops and undergraduate community so that our them build community within Viterbi. students feel connected both in and seminars, an emerging leader program, outside of the classroom. After all, we are cross-disciplinary attracting some of the most academically activities and gifted, talented young people in the workshops, country to our campus. Naturally, we’d like including under- to make sure they enjoy their time at USC graduate research and that they ultimately become great symposiums, and engineers. So many of them often get frus- much more. trated with the amount of time they have Some of the to spend on academics and this is one way service learning and to help them balance their lives while globalization ideas encouraging them to stay in the field. include programs We’ve spent a lot of time carefully that would link mapping out the foundations of KIUEL. students with Its building blocks emphasize leadership community agencies development, building community, in need of service learning opportunities and short-term cross-disciplinary activities. In developing technical assistance, these programs, our hope is that students interdisciplinary will socialize and interact beyond the design competi- classroom, creating a positive community tions, an interna- and overall student life experience for tional experiential themselves, while at the same time program providing developing and enhancing skills ranging opportunities for from communication to volunteerism. students to assist in solving technical Louise Yates In addition, we want to encourage and problems in Third World countries, facilitate the interaction between students more opportunities for overseas Our hope is that they will benefit, and faculty outside of the classroom. experiences and establishment of a KIUEL and hopefully thrive, with a community- Student Arts Council. This is so that building process as they begin to develop What kinds of programs engineering students can get more deeper friendships and relationships with will the institute involved with the recent Arts and other students while learning some things support? Humanities initiative of the USC Provost Q that will carry them through their careers. taking place on campus. We have a range of ideas for new activities Although we already offer a variety of and events we’d like to introduce in the support services to help students make it When will this next few years. These programs are diverse through what is ultimately one of the institute be toughest programs at the university, KIUEL and learner- centered to encourage launched? proactive behavior. Hopefully, the variety Q will go beyond those services and take

i will give every Viterbi School student an them to the next level. We want to r Our first KIUEL programs will begin in the r o avenue for involvement within the School. graduate well-rounded leaders who are M fall of 2006. The staff managing these n a i The very first set of programs that we programs will be housed in Tutor Hall with- great engineers. r B y will be offering next year will be leadership in our student affairs office, with support b o t development programs, including a being provided by our retention coordinator o h p

leadership retreat for all of our current as well as both our career services office s e t a student organization officers. In addition, and our center for engineering diversity. continued on page 19 Y

USC Viterbi Engineer 17 COVER s TORY

Viterbi School Celebrates New Klein Institute for Undergraduate Engineering Life

Holding up a very “cool” black T-shirt, and be realized, so I want to congratu- within this technological revolution.” with the definition of KIUEL in white late you all on the vision that you have lettering — that’s Viterbi School for developing this center,” he said. Defining Experiences nomenclature for the Klein Institute for Before the celebration got under Kellyanne McLachlan, a senior in the Undergraduate Engineering Life (KIUEL) way, Klein, his wife, Natalie, and son, Mork Family Department of Chemical — alumnus Ken Klein rejoiced with a Sean, were escorted to Louise Yates’s Engineering and Materials Science, said crowd of engineering students, faculty office on the first floor of Tutor Hall, her many extracurricular activities, and administrators in a jubilant where Dean Yortsos unveiled an elegant including serving as a trustee scholar courtyard celebration on March 30 that glass sign bearing the Klein Institute and chairwoman of the Viterbi School inaugurated his new $8-million institute. name. Student Council, defined her “Thanks to Ken’s undergraduate experience support, we have at USC. created new and much “I’ve gained leadership needed resources, a experience through my facility so special that participation in student it will set us apart organizations, and I’ve from all other also had the opportunity engineering schools,” to give back to our said Viterbi School community through Dean Yannis Yortsos, servicing these projects who was the master of with my friends and ceremonies. classmates,” she said. Joining the "This gift from Ken Klein celebration were some will have an incredible of KIUEL’s key impact on our lives as USC supporters: USC engineers. Provost and former “As I reflect on nearly Viterbi School Dean two decades and a half C. L. “Max” Nikias; since I left this place, I USC’s Vice President assert to you that I would for Student Affairs not be the person that Michael Jackson; Dean Yannis Yortsos, left, presents Ken Klein and his wife, I am today without a Viterbi School Natalie, with original KIUEL artwork. USC engineering degree, nor Associate Dean of without the experience I Admission and Student Affairs Louise The Trojan Marching Band shadowed garnered here at the school,” Klein said. Yates; members of the Viterbi School the events, stepping out onto the second “They say that a mark of a good Board of Councilors, including chairman floor balcony of Tutor Hall at the life is to leave the world a little better Jim Baum; and the Klein family. appropriate moment to salute Klein and off than when we arrived,” Klein said. “Today USC salutes a couple who the crowd of students. “If KIUEL enables one student to stay truly epitomize the concept of KIUEL, Speakers underscored the in school and graduate as a Trojan Ken and Natalie Klein,” said Nikias. importance of the institute to help engineer, then I will take great pride “The Klein Institute is more than an act facilitate greater community building in knowing that we were successful, of generosity; it is an act of vision. between students and faculty within that I did a good deed, that I made a the School and throughout campus. difference.” i r Groundbreaking Program r “There is a difference between Amid cheers and a standing ovation, o M

Jackson praised the school for having information and education,” Nikias said. the Trojan Band emerged to play USC’s n a i r the vision and perseverance to design “There is a difference between data and victory song while the speakers raised B

y b such a groundbreaking program for wisdom. Technology can help us educate their hands in the victory sign to the o t undergraduate life. a student in many ways, but here at beat. Engineering students rushed to the o h p

“Great ideas sometimes take a USC, President Sample has challenged us stage to shake Klein’s hand and ask him n i e l collective effort to mature and develop to create the best human environment more about the institute. K

18 USC Viterbi Engineer COVER s TORY

Will industry play a part in this Do you think the establishment leadership, social and networking skills. institute and its programs? of KIUEL will help in attracting We want to provide them with a place QQWhat about other participants more freshmen and transfer where they can transition from the outside of Viterbi School staff applicants in the future? university to real life and have all the and faculty? important skills they need in real life to I have no doubt. KIUEL is really one be successful. We want them to call up We encourage Viterbi School alumni to of a kind. I don’t know of another their friends who are applying to colleges volunteer their time and resources to some comprehensive institute specifically for a couple of years after them and say, of these programs. If they work in some of engineering quite like it that has been “Oh yeah, you have to do engineering the companies we partner with, they can established anywhere in the country. at Viterbi.” certainly help us design programs and I think that as our programs are activities for students that will help connect developed and gain momentum, them to current engineers. The students their uniqueness will be attractive benefit a lot from exposure to engineers to prospective students when they from industry. They can help in a variety of compare various institutions as they other ways, too. Our industry partners are decide where to attend college. key to providing the information we need So yes, one of the things we about what is expected of students after hope to build on is our reputation graduation. We will be seeking a lot of for offering students a very broad, input from them as we move forward in well-rounded undergraduate designing these new programs. education with plenty of opportunities to develop important

Klein story continued competed and won second place in last year’s 199-mile California Relay. they can or that Among some of its recent accomplishments, Wind River Systems they minor in a provided Boeing with the applications platform, or brains, of the main cross-discipli- computer system onboard its new 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Wind River nary field, like also built the VxWorks embedded operating system that controls the economics, main computers onboard NASA’s twin Martian rovers, Spirit and biology, Opportunity, 60 million miles from Earth. psychology or business,” he says. The company’s robust DSO systems are used by everybody who is “Engineers who haven’t gained that broader experience, either anybody in the computer industry — Cisco, Apple, Siemens, Hewlett- through education or work, will wind up on a very narrow path for a Packard, Nortel, Mitsubishi, Motorola, Sony, Samsung, Bang & Olufsen, very large portion of their careers.” ZTE Corp. in China, NASA, Nissan and Tektronix, to name just a few. From a functional perspective, it’s important that engineers With offices in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Wind River develop skills in sales, marketing, accounting, finance, business law and employs about 500 engineers around the world, “all of whom report to leadership. somebody who reports to me,” Klein says. In addition to his daily “These are really important skills to master,” Klein says. “I look at a responsibilities, Klein also serves as a member of the USC Viterbi School number of these things when I hire engineers at Wind River. For example, Board of Councilors, where he adds a unique perspective to matters I’m always on the lookout for engineers who are very customer-oriented involving undergraduate education. or who are focused on business and have some expertise in that area.” In occasional guest lectures on the nearby Cal and Stanford Klein’s institute, the first of its kind, promises to help Viterbi School r e campuses, Klein tells young engineers that the life they expect to have undergraduates gain that experience with a number of programs, b r e

G when they graduate — especially in the embedded software industry including mentoring, guidance counseling, tutoring, networking, study

. S

x — will be nothing like the reality they face once they get there. Things abroad, community outreach and internship/fellowship opportunities. a M

change too quickly in the global economy. He encourages them to That is because Klein feels strongly that homegrown talent is a y b

o broaden their horizons as undergraduates and partake of the many commodity to be treasured. t o h extracurricular activities that will give them a more well-rounded view “My hope is that KIUEL will send a strong message to students that p s r i of the business of engineering. the Viterbi School cares, the university cares, and that I care about a f f A

undergraduate student engineers,” he says. “I want engineering students t n Minors and Cross-Disciplinary Electives e to know that there will be people in the Viterbi School who can make d u t

S “I strongly recommend that student engineers take as many electives as their undergraduate experience vibrant and enjoyable.”

USC Viterbi Engineer 19 The Next 100 Years An Essay Competition for Students STUDENTf EATURE

FIRST PLACE The Next 100 Years: A Love Story by Linda Deng

ngineering is no longer the solitary human psychology. But of course we Ebachelor it once was. Instead, it has finally must first nurture the children, for found a mate — or many mates, for that matter they are mere kids now. USC — and — and the world has born witness to DNA universities around the world — must computing, the hybrid child of computer show their students the photo albums science and biology; to laser micrometers, the of engineering’s children, make their offspring of electrical engineering and physics; students aware of just how adorable and to the study of human factors, resulting these children are now and how from an illicit affair between mechanical engi- handsome they will surely turn out to be neering and psychology. Indeed, engineering if we raise them right. Students will has come out of its shell and will be constantly no longer be engineers; they will be looking for love in the next 100 years. engineers and linguists, engineers and chemists, engineers and musicians. The It’s just as well too, since engineering has Viterbi School of Engineering will be the started to get a tad creaky in the knees, but Viterbi School of Engineering and its children will divvy up engineering’s many Mathematics and Science and fortunes among themselves and they will Psychology and Law and Philosophy… someday have children of their own, and by 2105, engineering’s blood will be surviving in f course, that is not to say that “pure” win either. Humans have always been curious many of the world’s disciplines. No longer will Oengineering wasn’t just as handsome. But about themselves, so monikers like Freud have engineering’s human followers be restricted to what good is beauty when you lack a significant become household names. But cognitive constructing steel bridges or developing word other with whom to share it? Indeed, engineers science, a mixture of computer science and processing software, but they will build roads may still be able to produce smaller silicon psychology and linguistics and neuroscience between cultures and perform calculations in chips and faster microprocessors year after year, and philosophy and anthropology (oh, there’s alternate dimensions — not through gushy but perhaps all computer engineering requires probably more), has cropped up lately to Miss America promises or out-of-this-world is the gentle encouragement of a physics wife to answer those burning questions about science fiction stories, but through cognitive whisper that she wants a son named a Qubit — ourselves. No, engineers won’t just be building science and quantum computing. and the world will become proud godparents of things anymore, even if what they build will be a quantum computer able to calculate any For sure, engineering’s offspring will be faster, smaller and faster and better. We’ll be learning equation faster than its pure engineering father, stronger and friendlier, as we employ interdisci- about ourselves as well, winning the human even after decades of training, ever could. plinary principles to create more efficient forms race, attempting to answer virtually any of computation, more structurally sound Granted, the see-how-fast-and-small-you-can- question thrown at us, mechanical, electrical, materials and more of an understanding of go race is not the only competition we want to psychological, philosophical, or otherwise.

Early this year as part of the Viterbi School’s 100 Years of Engineering celebration, we announced an essay contest. We asked students to tell us in 700 words or less what the next 100 years of engineering would look like. We received 50-plus essays on subjects that ran the gamut of engineering thought, perspective, prediction and illusion. Essays were judged by Steve Bucher, director of the engineering writing program; Bob Calverley, executive director, communications and public relations; Martin Gundersen, professor of electrical engineering; Eric Mankin, communications manager (who suggested the contest); Louise Yates, associate dean for admissions and student affairs; and Yannis Yortsos, dean of the Viterbi School. First place went to Linda Deng with Yi Luo receiving second place honors. You may read those two essays on the following pages. Rachel Morford and Justin Perez won the two third place prizes. The other three finalists were Danielle Elkins, Andrew Jacobs and Valerie Giambanco. These seven essays and more can be found on the web at: http://viterbi.usc.edu/link/?104. There were many interesting observations about engineering and predictions for the next 100 years. The following pages include some excerpts from several of the many insightful essays.

USC Viterbi Engineer 21 STUDENTf EATURE

SECOND PLACE The Next Century for Engineering by Yi Luo

he industrial revolution of the late 1800’s replaced completely, granting the population other clean sources of energy. Collectively, Theralded the beginning of the rapid the freedom to focus purely on intellectual engineering advances will largely eliminate the acceleration of human technological progress. pursuits or simply lead a life of ease and joy. harmful byproducts of human society. For thousands of years before, agriculture, uring the next century the ballooning transportation and materials had changed human population will necessitate relatively little, yet the decades and centuries D increases in food production. Engineers will afterwards would include scores of revolution- address this need by constructing advanced, ary advances. Technology is self-perpetuating; sealed hydroponics farm facilities. Crops would as it grows more sophisticated and more be managed remotely and tended by robotic prevalent within society, it is pushed to machines with perfect efficiency. Such facilities become more advanced even faster than would allow for farming irrespective of local before. This trend will continue in the next soil or weather conditions and essentially turn century, giving engineering and its advances the entire Earth into arable land. Increasingly increasing importance in society. Ultimately, effective networks of transportation will technology and engineering will allow human ensure that the ample supplies of food can be beings to become the only known animals to distributed cheaply to any location on Earth. truly transcend the traditional constraints of environment and scarcity. Engineers will further tackle problems of overpopulation by using advanced materials Future engineers will perfect machines of to build cities that stretch high into the sky. molecular size, allowing them to cheaply and ngineers of the future will face problems Massive skyscrapers that are taller and wider directly manipulate the basic structure of largely identical to those that have plagued E yet still safer than those of today will matter. This, along with other innovations, humankind throughout its existence: will result in light new materials with starvation, disease, natural disaster and other characterize the expanding urban areas of the astounding strength and durability, allowing problems of environment. However, future world. Building upwards instead of outwards is USC engineers to design buildings immune individuals will have the unique opportunity to simply immensely more efficient in terms of to earthquake damage. Advances in materials actually handle these complex issues. Molecular space, helping to make room for the masses of science will facilitate a variety of inventions sized machines will revolutionize medical the future. The catastrophic effects of natural throughout the engineering world, from cars technology, especially in terms of anti-viral disasters like tsunamis and hurricanes will be that travel safely at ludicrous speeds to flexible, capability. Nanotechnology will lead to a cure minimized in the communities of the future controllable prosthetics that look and feel true for the dreaded HIV virus. Derivatives of these and cheap, safe housing will be provided to life. As robotic technology becomes progres- innovations will be constructed to seek out and throughout the world. Ultimately, technology sively more advanced, engineers will be able to destroy harmful pollutants in the environment. will provide the means to finally eliminate automate an increasing number of tasks. In Additionally, engineers will improve electric scarcity, the issue that has defined the direction some places, human physical labor could be fuel cell, solar and hydroelectric power and of human progress for thousands of years.

“Flying cars. Vacations on lunar settlements. A robot housekeeper in every home. Regenerative human limbs. A cure for all modern diseases. Clothes that can maintain the wearer’s temperature in any weather. New energy sources. A longer human lifespan. An end to world-hunger. These predictions may seem remarkably similar to those made in the 20th century as we entered the 21st.” —Rachel Morford

22 USC Viterbi Engineer STUDENTf EATURE

“A few things we know for certain: Nations will go to war over conflicting foreign policies. The USC football team should win 10 or 11 national championships while ngineering and technology have grown UCLA wins 10 or 11 games. And if you start Etremendously more important in human soon, during the next 100 years, you could society as it has progressed, a trend which will only continue during the next century. probably get through the Lord of the Rings Humanity will become more connected to Trilogy three, maybe four times.” global communication and information net- —Justin Perez works. These networks will allow for the emer- gence of a global culture unified by a desire to consume the next exciting new technology. An engineering education at USC after the next “…sooner than 100 years from now, students may one day century will likely cover many of the same be embedded with microchips that directly download and topics as today, but merely as background store lecture lessons into their brains.” knowledge to begin understanding the innovations of the era. The focus will be much —Elizabeth K. So more theoretical as opposed to “hands on” since physical “Actually, it seems that everything needed to “There will be engineering improve and sustain human life has already duties will be been created…I cannot think of any completely a USC Viterbi carried out novel item that can be feasibly engineered, campus on by robotic every continent assistants. even though I am still holding out for The students teleportation and mind-reading devices.” by 2015.” of tomorrow —Valerie Giambanco —Lanita Williams will have an unprecedent- ed privilege to never be the victims of human physical “Our society should reevaluate our final goal as human beings. fallibility. Instead, they will be limited only by the magnitude of their intellect. Do we exist merely to eat what and whenever we want, live in constant comfort and be entertained? Is this how we find true ‘happiness?’ Current trends in society seem to suggest otherwise.” “The engineering students of this school must work to —Kirsten McKay unite all students. They must wholeheartedly pursue the interdisciplinary, depth-with- “In the next 100 years, the hybrid system will not breadth education that is only become affordable and reduce the world’s growing increasingly vital to dependence on oil, but it will become a large part the survival of our world.” in reducing the amount of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere.” —Zenzile Z. Brooks —Danielle Elkins

USC Viterbi Engineer 23 PROGRAMf EATURE

THE CENTER FOR ENGINEERING DIVERSITY CELEBRATES 30 YEARS OF VALUE-ADDED PROGRAMMING

The Center for Engineering Diversity (CED) turns 30 years old this year. In that time, it has grown from a small program of support services for underrepresented engineering students into a multifaceted center offering all of the academic, social and professional opportunities students may need to succeed in a very rigorous field. CED’s mission is to provide scholastic, personal and professional growth to students who are traditionally underrepresented in engineering. Those students include African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans. Many of those who declare engineering majors will be introduced to CED long before they enter USC. If they take advantage of CED’s services, they will make important connections that could help them academically and/or professionally. That is the beauty of CED. Its programs span the pre- and- post-USC years and its recipients usually form lifelong friendships and business connections in the process. “There’s no getting around it, engineering is a very rigorous major,” says Louise Yates, associate dean for admission and student affairs. “We are always looking for ways to attract students with diverse backgrounds to this field, but at the same time, we are also trying to retain them and give them the tools they need to succeed and graduate.” According to the students, a few “signature” programs — Summer Bridge, reFROSHer, the Corporate Dinner and Shadow Days — are among the most popular. Most of these pro- grams are works in progress. They have evolved over the years, built on content, sometimes shifted emphasis to match industry’s changing by Diane Ainsworth needs, as well as the interests and talents of each incoming class. But they all have lasting power and universal appeal, because they get results. i r r The Big SUMMER BRIDGE o The Big M

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Summer Bridge is one of those signature i r B

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offers. Founded in 1980 as a non-residential t o h p

program, it turned into a two-week residential

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experience years later to immerse the incoming a v a

class in the day-to-day realities of pursuing an N

24 USC Viterbi Engineer PROGRAMf EATURE engineering major at USC. because it’s more difficult to find one after the engineering major, fell in love with Amgen, “It’s designed to help students ease through first year of school. “I want them to give the a biotechnology company headquartered in the transition from highschool to college and students some insight into how they got their Thousand Oaks, California, after shadowing a help them adjust to college life,” says Traci internships; whether they did an intern pro- biomedical engineer last year. Thomas-Navarro, CED director. “We are also gram or were just good at networking,” he says. “I got a summer internship in global med- interested in preparing them as much as we can ical writing that summer (2005) and kept the for the academic challenges of engineering.” CORPORATE DINNER cards of all the people I worked with so I could During the two-week program, students Students also enjoy CED’s Corporate Dinner. contact them again,” says the identical twin, are given a general introduction to USC and Ask Dawn Carter, senior manager of university whose sister is a USC chemical engineering enroll in two or more academic courses, usually programs at Amazon.com and a transfer major. “The internship helped me to define the in math and physics. They are also given many student herself. Carter served eight years on kind of a job I wanted, which is something you opportunities to meet with upper classmen, CED’s industry advisory board, young alumni, industry representatives, faculty helping to develop and orchestrate and CED staff to gather information about the aerospace industry-university school, the major and the industry. events like this. “It’s the best,” says Carlos Arredondo, a “These industry events are freshman majoring in mechanical engineering. an opportunity for students to His Summer Bridge roommate, Daniel Lind, interact with companies in an agrees. “Without it, I wouldn’t know anyone,” inclusive environment” she says. says the first-year mechanical engineering “This interaction starts in their student from Florida. freshman year and can be The opportunity to make new friends continued all the way through the is a big part of the community-building undergraduate years. Not many process. Students also participate in important companies give kids access for team-building exercises, industry tours, social four or five years while they’re outings and orientation. By the end of the working on their degrees.” second week, Thomas-Navarro says, many of CED students can also Left to right: Traci Thomas-Navarro, David Martinez and student Robyn Jackson chat about an upcoming event. these students have found their new room- participate in a mid-year mates for the first year at USC and learned corporate luncheon, which provides them an don’t really get until you’re in the workplace,” more about the field of engineering. opportunity to interact with industry partners she said. “So now I know where I want to work over lunch. During the meal, they learn what and what kind of work I want to do.” reFROSHer opportunities are available at specific Established in 1975, CED has a long ReFROSHer is a relatively new event, created by companies such as Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop tradition of outstanding commitment to diverse CED’s Assistant Director David Martinez. The Grumman, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lockheed students in engineering. CED designs, Saturday workshop reunites Summer Bridge Martin and . implements, and collaborates on various students and first-year engineering students student-centered activities to increase student who did not attend Summer Bridge. SHADOW DAYS persistence within the Viterbi School of The focus is to give students an overview Just about every undergraduate engineering Engineering. CED offers its services to the entire of the engineering major, what they can expect student knows about Shadow Days. “It’s one of USC community and maintains a focus on the later in graduate school, as well as information the first questions I get from new students,” retention and graduation of African American, about all of the academic and co-curricular Martinez is quick to point out. Hispanic and Native American students in opportunities available to them at CED. Held during spring break, the program engineering. CED alumni who take a special “This is really to tell them about the academic allows students to spend a day “shadowing” interest in the center’s mission and many experience and what lies ahead in terms of job a working engineer. The event usually includes programs are encouraged to become actively prospects,” Martinez says. “In addition, we talk about 10 companies and draws about 35 involved. They serve as role models and coaches about graduate school and what they should be engineering undergraduates, all going off to for engineering students who are carefully prepared to do to get in. We want to plant the different companies in the Los Angeles area to choosing their career paths within the discipline. seed in their minds early.” learn what professional engineers do every day. Alumni support comes in the form of time, Martinez invites upper classmen to the The students love it. energy and resources to help deliver professional event, as well as young alumni, and puts “One student went to Raytheon last year and academic workshops for the students. together industry or alumni panels for the day- and now he works there,” Martinez says with Interested alumni may fill out an long workshop. He asks sophomores to speak a smile. information form online at to the freshmen about summer internships Sunita Deb, a senior biomedical http://viterbi.usc.edu/ links/?111.

USC Viterbi Engineer 25 “At the Speed of Light” An Academic and Corporate Collaboration by Teresa Hagen

ith a little help from his industry Since the eighties, the Internet has Advanced Technology and Network Planning friends, Alan Willner is leading his exploded as both an economic and Group. “My students and I are working with Wstudents on a search for the end of the communication powerhouse, creating Cisco to achieve longer reach, reduce rainbow. He might not find a pot of gold, but challenges for companies to provide ever-faster complexity/cost, and provide higher he could very well uncover the technological and more reliable connections at minimal cost. performance,” says Willner. “These systems riches to be mined from the use of light and its Enter Willner and a group of Ph.D. students can be fairly complex, so my students perform hundreds of refracted colors. “You can have 100 that work in his fiber optics lab, add three both experimentation and simulation to find (wavelength multiplexed) colors all being corporations with different approaches to this design guidelines for future networks. And who modulated with their own data stream at, say, problem, and let the brainstorming begin. better to work with than Loukas and Cisco on 10 or 40 gigabits per second, and they’re all Willner, who joined USC in 1992 and communication networks!” going down a single optical fiber,” explains received the National Science Foundation “Alan’s research has provided multiple Willner, who is a professor of electrical Presidential Faculty Fellows Award from the benefits for Cisco, most notably new innovative engineering at the Viterbi School. “Since data White House, specializes in high speed optical ideas and excellent collaborations,” adds bits become distorted due to all kinds of fiber communications research. Over the past Paraschis. “He has also provided some of the physical-layer problems, there has been a lot few years, he and his students have established most exciting seminars/tutorials. And, of of research to figure out how to make all this close partnerships with leading researchers in course, his students are top-notch.” happen in the most efficient method possible. industry. In particular, Willner’s lab receives According to Willner, “My students simply “I was hired at AT&T Bell Laboratories in funding from Cisco Systems, HP and Intel, love interacting with Loukas, have a very deep the late ‘80s in their research department, with incredibly valuable and active technical respect for him and have published several which was performing pioneering work on collaborations resulting from the funding research papers with him. He is an endless wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) for dollars. “This close interaction creates a unique source of encouragement, inspiration and optical fiber systems,”Willner recalled. “The educational experience, producing a Ph.D. technical insight, helping them identify the first undersea transatlantic cable was (sending graduate that is uniquely suited for future ultimate potential for making a future data) at about 280 megabits per second, engineering challenges,”Willner says. commercial impact.” whereas now, even commercial systems are Willner first engaged in collaboration Meanwhile, Willner also nurtured a sending a terabit (per second) over a single with Cisco Systems, Inc., working closely with relationship with Intel. He and his students strand of optical fiber.” Dr. Loukas Paraschis, technical leader for the work closely with Dr. Mario Paniccia, director

26 USC Viterbi Engineer CORPORATEf EATURE of the Photonics Technology Lab, who special- connect transistors in a more efficient way, picture, and is a natural mentor to my students. izes in silicon photonics. By using photons with lower power and higher speed in a more He helps the student connect physical issues to instead of electrons, optics is a promising efficient architecture. That’s a big win and a a grand vision. What a great role model for breakthrough technology for interconnections huge limitation buster.” young people! in and around future PC’s and servers. There is plenty of mutual admiration and “The research projects with Cisco, HP and Furthermore, manufacturers could someday respect in the HP/USC relationship. “Alan, his Intel are all collaborative, which I love, and build optical components from silicon, a more students and his post docs have become well hopefully we bring value to the companies,” cost-effective material compared to the exotic known for their system modeling capabilities,” Willner adds enthusiastically. “It is great for my materials used for today’s optical devices. comments Beausoleil. “I like the way their students who have direct access to scientists and “Mario’s team has the potential to revo- researchers at each company. I’m lutionize optical hardware as we know only there to help facilitate the it, and my students are thrilled to inter- interaction. In fact, I believe that this act in the process with his outstanding is a key difference between me and and innovative people,” says Willner. many other professors around the “We all think that Alan has put country. I encourage the students to together one of the top optical network- communicate directly with the ing labs in the country. He has the infra- industry collaborators. The benefits structure to do very long distance trans- to students are enormous: develop- mission and networking measurements ing team spirit, developing trust with as well as the modeling and simulation the collaborators, developing project capabilities to explain the experimental management abilities and develop- results,” Paniccia responds when asked ing communication and leadership about the advantages of working with skills. Also, most of them are going Willner and USC. “My feeling of Alan is to be working in industry, and this he’s a pleasure to work with, he’s very interaction gives them a perspective focused, and his time at Bell Labs has on their future that they given him a valuable would not otherwise industrial perspective. He experience. They gain understands how ‘applied keen insight as to how science’ works and tries to companies evaluate their instill that in his students. own ‘pain’ when looking at We routinely have his future challenges.” students intern with us Willner is also quick here at Intel and that to note that “these further enhances our collaborations could not working relationship.” flourish without the Research that models gather encouragement and wisdom of the Viterbi investigates the high- the non-ideal School administration. Companies always speed interconnections characteristics of point out that USC is very easy to work with. within an electronic chip has recently partnered the physical building blocks of the network, USC has a can-do attitude in terms of making Willner with HP and Dr. Ray Beausoleil, princi- and they try to find the limitations that physics things possible, rather than making it harder. pal scientist for HP Labs. Beausoleil’s specialty is imposes. It’s generally much more valuable to Non-disclosure agreements and intellectual nanophotonic crystal devices, a promising tech- build an end-to-end model of an optical system property issues are so much more straight-for- nology that can control light within tiny spaces when you’ve gotten all the physics right. One of ward at USC. Provost Nikias’ and Dean Yortsos’ and be applied to information processing. the things that I really appreciate as someone emphasis is always on building long-term “When you have many chips with a huge who hires is that Alan is teaching (his students) valuable relationships, not putting stumbling number of high-speed transistors packed very how to learn, how to stay curious, how to not blocks in the way.” densely, you have a lot of power consumption be afraid to dive into an area where they don’t Clockwise from top: Professor Alan Willner, left, and critical clock distribution challenges. These know anything at all.” with Loukas Paraschis of Cisco Systems; Ray are big problems and big money issues for the Willner doesn’t mince words in his own Beausoleil, principal scientist for HP Labs; Loukas microprocessor industry,” explains Willner. high regard for Beausoleil. “Ray is the Paraschis (third from left) visits Willner (second “So you look to see if optical interconnects can consummate explorer, thinks about the big from right) in his USC lab with his students.

USC Viterbi Engineer 27 = Rarified Air 4 x3 by Diane Ainsworth & Eric Mankin At one memorable White House gathering, President John F. Kennedy and Golomb hold joint appointments, joined Yortsos in the celebration. once quipped, “there has never been a greater concentration of The two deans paid tribute to each individual’s specific achievements, intellectual power here... since Thomas Jefferson dined alone.” but also emphasized the extent to which the contributions of all But the intellectual power concentrated in the dean’s boardroom of exemplified the interdisciplinary ethos that has become profoundly part Ronald Tutor Hall on May 3 rivaled that gathering, as 50 of USC’s best of the USC intellectual paradigm. minds gathered to pay tribute to four of their colleagues who had Aoun noted that the ideal was not a re-creation of the old idea of a achieved an exceedingly rare intellectual distinction. single researcher mastering multiple disciplines in the mold of Leonardo The four, Leonard Adleman, Solomon Golomb, Robert Hellwarth da Vinci — knowledge and research have expanded beyond this point — and (Ph.D. EE ’62), all affiliated with the USC Viterbi but rather the ability and willingness to share skills with masters of other School, now hold memberships in the three prestigious national disciplines. academies: the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), the National On hand to hear the presentations and intellectual banter was a Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the American Academy of Arts and group that included all Viterbi School department chairs, numerous Sciences (AAAS). distinguished faculty members, along with representatives from At the beginning of the event, three of the honorees also held an the Provost’s office, including Viterbi School faculty member appointment in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and by the Tom Katsouleas, president of the USC Academic Senate, Vice Provost event’s close, all four did. for Academic Affairs Elizabeth Garrett, and Dean of Graduate Programs Two of them, Andrew Viterbi and his longtime mentor and friend, Jennifer Wolch. Solomon Golomb, have been triple academy members for several years, Aoun and Yortsos detailed, briefly, the career contributions of the but Adleman and Hellwarth had both achieved the same rare honor just four honorees, before presenting each of them with a commemorative a few days before the reception. Hellwarth, already an NAE and NAS plaque. member was elected to AAAS while Adleman added NAS and AAAS Leonard Adleman has achieved worldwide recognition in two membership to his NAE honors. widely separated areas. In 1977, with Ronald L. Rivest and , i r r

“The work you have done is the kind to which we all aspire. It is he co-developed an algorithm known as the RSA Code (for the initials of o M

n

profoundly rich and original in its theoretical implications,” said Viterbi the three creators). The RSA Code opened commerce on the Internet a i r B

School Dean Yannis Yortsos, addressing the four. “And, in all cases, becoming the foundation for an entire generation of technology security y b

o

society has found practical, world-changing uses for it.” products. Adleman and his collaborators later received the A. M. Turing t o h

Joseph Aoun, dean of the USC College, where Adleman, Hellwarth Prize, sometimes called the Nobel Prize of computing. P

28 USC Viterbi Engineer FACULTYf EATURE

From left to right: Dean Yannis Yortsos; earned one of the first USC doctorates in electrical engineering. He went Solomon Golomb; Robert Hellwarth; on to create the Viterbi Algorithm, a groundbreaking mathematical Leonard Adleman; Andrew Viterbi and formula for eliminating signal interference now used in all four Joseph Aoun, dean of the USC College. international standards for digital cellular telephones, as well as in data terminals, digital satellite broadcast receivers and deep space telemetry. In a 1994 paper, Adleman The co-founder of Qualcomm, he was elected to the NAE in 1978, demonstrated that DNA molecules to the NAS in 1996, and to the AAAS in 2001. His long list of could act as a computer and he used professional honors includes the IEEE’s Shannon Lecture Award and its DNA to solve a simple problem, Medal. creating the new field of molecular Near the end of the Tutor Hall ceremony, Aoun noted that Viterbi computing. Eight years later, he had wanted to become a professor of Latin in the College, but his demonstrated how to use DNA qualifications were, the dean said puckishly, somewhat thin in that computing to solve complex problems. department. As an alternative, he announced that Viterbi would receive Adleman, who was elected to the an appointment in the department of mathematics. NAE in 1996, is a USC distinguished About a week before the reception, word spread through USC that professor and the Henry Salvatori both Adleman and Hellwarth had been elected to AAAS. And then, the Professor of Computer Science, and is next day, news arrived that Adleman had also been elected to NAS. also a professor of molecular biology. “Len Adleman’s election to the National Academy represents a Solomon Golomb is renowned special achievement, because it shows how much those most familiar for developing a mathematical with his scientific contributions — his peers — value his work,” said curiosity called shift register sequence Aoun, “Robert Hellwarth remains one of the best examples of scholars into a robust tool that now underlies committed to both advancing fundamental research and the digital communications, cryptography, radar, cell phones and much development of those discoveries into useful applications.” more. In 1961, shift register enabled the detection of extremely faint “Professors Adleman and Hellwarth’s contributions to science and radar echoes bounced off the planet Venus. technology, and to society, have been nothing short of remarkable,” said In 1976, Golomb became the very first USC faculty member Dean Yortsos. “It is very gratifying that these two prestigious academies elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Golomb is also an have recognized their outstanding interdisciplinary work, which internationally known expert on mathematical games and a longtime straddles electrical engineering, computer science, physics and mentor of Viterbi, who later endowed the Viterbi Chair of Engineering molecular biology.” that Golomb now holds. A USC university professor, Golomb is also a Election to the NAS and/or the NAE is considered one of the professor of mathematics. highest honors in American science and engineering. Membership in the Robert Hellwarth was part of the Hughes Research Laboratory team American Academy of Arts and Sciences is broad-based, consisting of that created the first laser in 1960, and subsequently became an early and scholars and practitioners from mathematics, physics, biological sciences, continuing contributor to the new optics spawned by this development. humanities and the arts, public affairs and business, which gives the He currently is working to understand and create materials for nonlinear Academy a unique capacity to conduct a wide range of interdisciplinary optical devices. studies and public policy research. At USC he developed a new, and now widely employed, method for “Throughout its history, the American Academy of Arts and reversing the light-wave pattern of an optical image, a process called Sciences has convened the leading thinkers of the day, from diverse “optical beam phase conjugation.” His election in 1977 to the NAE cited perspectives, to participate in projects and studies that advance the his “major contributions to the understanding of quantum electronics public good,” said Academy CEO Leslie Berlowitz. “I am confident that and the invention of new laser devices.”Aoun paid tribute to the help this distinguished class of new Fellows will continue that tradition of Hellwarth gave to physicist Jack Feinberg when Feinberg had to master cherishing knowledge and shaping the future.” laser technology. Adleman is among 72 new members of the NAS. He and Hellwarth Hellwarth has received the L. A. Hyland Patent Award, the Charles join 195 scholars, scientists, artists, civic, corporate and philanthropic Hard Townes Award, given by the Optical Society of America, and IEEE’s leaders elected to the AAAS this year. AAAS recipients come from 24 Quantum Electronics Award. states and 13 countries, and represent more than 60 universities, a

i Hellwarth is a USC university professor with joint appointments dozen corporations, museums, research institutes, media outlets and r r o in the Viterbi School’s department of electrical engineering, where he foundations. The 2006 AAAS Fellows also include former presidents M n a holds the George T. Pfleger Chair, and in the USC College Department George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. i r B

y of Physics. b o t Andrew Viterbi, who holds the USC Presidential Chair in o h

P Engineering, and who with his wife Erna named the Viterbi School,

USC Viterbi Engineer 29 ALUMNIp ROFILE

Arthur Lin, PHD EE ’90 Imagining the Future of Mobile Digital Life

As Corporate Vice President and Chief protocols), traffic management, QoS (quality “I think the mobile device we know today Technology Officer of Core Networks at Nokia, of service) control schemes, captive portals, will be almost everywhere, covering everything Arthur Lin has a lot of responsibilities…and a network-based firewalls, NAT/PAT, (network we do on a day-to-day basis, including serving lot of fun. address translation/port address translation) as a remote control for our home security and “There is plenty of excitement working VPNs (virtual private networks) and appliances,” Lin continues. “I think also in the with a small company, but you can have a lot of high-performance, high-touch packet not so very distant future that device will also fun working for a large company, too,” Lin says processing. be our credit card, charge card, pre-paid card in reference to his employer, a European-based On a daily basis, Lin’s responsibilities and ID card. That’s already happening in company headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. focus on assuring Nokia’s highly Europe and parts of Asia.” Lin admits that “Since leaving school, I’ve always been either competitive standing as a security and one of the engineers working on the products technological leader in battery life still or a general manager responsible for the mobile communication. offer challenges, business or company. Now, I don’t have the “Our customers include but he believes direct P and L (profit and loss) responsibilities, both the service providers as that technology and that gives me the freedom to look at the well as the end subscribers, will eventually business we are in (or not in yet) more like you and I,” Lin explains. resolve those generally and into the future. My job is to look “I keep thinking about how concerns. at what the products and solutions are that we can actually enable Born in Nokia should offer to our customers.” people to be more Taipei, Taiwan, Lin, who received both his master’s and connected, and not just Lin came to the Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and professionally, but also in United States computer science from USC, is highly qualified their social lives as well. I’m specifically to to be in that position. Prior to Nokia, Lin working on the services, the study at USC. served as the co-founder, president and CEO of applications and also the He remains in Tahoe Networks, which was acquired by Nokia next big thing for Nokia. touch with his in 2003. He also was the co-founder, CTO and We’re looking at products, thesis advisor, vice president of engineering and operations at software and hardware John Silvester, Shasta Networks and later, the executive vice components, platforms, professor of president and general manager for Nortel’s IP technology and solutions. electrical services and routers business unit. (Shasta What will be the future engineering and Networks was acquired by Nortel Networks of the digital home, the vice provost in early 1999.) For many years, Lin worked as digital life and the mobile for scholarly the director of engineering and held various digital life?” technology, as senior-level engineering and management So, what does the future well as former positions at Cisco Systems. look like? According to Lin, engineering faculty He has developed an extensive list of mobile phones have already “Any success I’ve had member Deborah breakthrough products for the networking become an essential part of our I definitely attribute to Estrin, who is now industry, including the Tahoe Mobile Internet lives and will continue to a professor of com- eXchange TMIX-5000, Shasta 5000 BSN dominate as a means of my education at USC.” puter science at (broadband service node/router), Cisco’s 120x0 communication, but that is just UCLA. Lin stays and 7x00 series routers, the Cisco Catalyst the beginning. “In the next couple of years or connected to his alma mater by serving on 5x00/6x00 series multi-layer LAN switches so, we will all be 3G and WLAN connected so the Industry Advisory Board for electrical and the Cisco LS-1010 multi-service ATM/IP we’ll have a much higher bandwidth,” Lin adds. engineering-systems. (asynchronous transfer mode) switch. Lin has “Mobile phones today already include a high- “When I was (at USC), I really enjoyed also received 16 patent awards and has quality digital camera with integrated flash, every single bit of it,” he remembers published more than 100 technical papers. PDA, mobile messaging and e-mail functions. enthusiastically. “It was a nice campus, nice He is a leading authority on technologies such The mobile devices that we’re coming up can environment, with great professors and great as very high speed packet switching systems, also play MP3 music and video; you can watch classmates. Any success I’ve had I definitely gigabit router architectures, high performance TV and play network games, so they are also attribute to my education at USC.” multicast , VoIP (voice over Internet mobile entertainment devices. —Teresa Hagen

30 USC Viterbi Engineer ALUMNIp ROFILE

Orna Berry, PHD CSCI ’86 The Most Important Thing

These days, the most important thing in the University and earned a bachelor’s degree in world to Orna Berry, high-tech entrepreneur, mathematics and statistics. She then went on to venture capitalist and former chief scientist of study at Tel Aviv University where she earned a Israel, is a six-month old bundle of joy, her first master’s degree in operations research. When grandchild Neta David. But the road to Berry came to the United States, she was inter- grandmotherly bliss has been sprinkled with ested in medical mathematics. When it came to many important accomplishments, and the computers, her main concern was keeping all of journey is by no means over. the punch cards in order rather than algorithms. Berry was a pioneering female engineer in But the advent of terminals and keyboards the field of computer science when she enrolled changed that and lured her to computer science. at USC in September 1980. “I had a fellowship and worked at Rand “There were few women, but it was and then later at SDC,” she says describing her actually easier than it was in industry. I avoided studies as a USC computer science doctoral paying attention to the issue and saved myself a student in the early 1980s. This was the period lot of emotional pain,” she says. “I was really when the Internet, then known as Arpanet, was happy at USC. The friends I made at USC are emerging. “My Ph.D. relied on the Arpanet still my friends today. Most of us were foreign heavily. I was doing experimental work that and we were like a virtual family.” involved a few hundred CPU hours — that’s It was one of the many branches of the hours, not seconds — across the Arpanet on 11 famous Trojan Family. One of her peers, Victor CPUs spread in the U.S. and Canada.” leverage is a major mission. It puts value on Vianu, is now a professor of computer science When she left USC, Berry’s career began our education and boosts the economy.” at UC-San Diego. Another, Serge Abiteboul, is a to take off. She spent 18 months at SDC, a As Israel’s chief scientist, Berry chaired a senior researcher at INRIA, the French company that later became Unisys. Next she half dozen large bi-lateral and multi-lateral National Institute for Research in Computer returned to Israel where she was a researcher industrial research and development funds. Science and Control. Still another is Gérard for IBM. Then she became the chief scientist — One of these is BIRDF (the Bi-national Medioni, now chair of the USC Viterbi a position known today as chief technical Industrial Research and Development Fund), Department of Computer Science. officer — for Fibronics. There her design and which was established to stimulate “We used to go hiking together and we implementation work became international collaborations between Israel and the U.S. went to the beach — all the usual Southern standards (IEEE 802.1 and 802.5). “It puts small Israeli companies together California things,” remembers Medioni. “Orna “I had the good fortune to move from with large U.S. companies that have market and I lived in the same part of town and we distributed computing into networking at a time access in the U.S.,” she says. BIRDF has an carpooled together.” when it was moving into the commercial endowment of $110 million. Its interest and Berry was born in Jerusalem about the market,”she explains. “In 1993, I co-founded my royalties from successful projects have generated time Israel became a nation. She and Israel own company, ORNET Data Communication revenues of $7.5 billion to collaborating grew up together. At 18, she was inducted into Technologies. We developed a very high per- companies from the US and Israel, with the military and served as an Air Force officer formance local area network switch. It increased three-quarters of that going to the U.S. and in the period immediately following the June traffic in a local area network fifty fold.” one-quarter to Israel. “That’s good. The Israeli 1967 Six Day War. This was a time known to ORNET was eventually acquired by economy has benefited a great deal and U.S. Israelis as the War of Attrition. She was Siemens and after Berry fulfilled her financial markets are now looking at Israel.” responsible for scheduling ground training in commitment to stay for a year, she became Berry was a member of a task force the Air Force’s flying school and prepared the chief scientist for Israel in the Ministry of organized by the Association for Computing technical documents for the first American Industry and Trade. She was the first and is still Machinery (ACM) that issued a recent study, fighter aircraft — the F-4 Phantom and the A-4 the only woman to have held that post. The Globalization and Offshoring of Software. Skyhawk — received by Israel’s Air Force. job, which was to encourage industrial research The study found that despite intensifying “The world has learned how difficult and development, was a professional rather competition, offshoring between developed and it is to come to political agreements between than a political position, and she controlled an developing countries can benefit both parties. different systems in the Middle East but also annual budget of half a billion dollars. “Technology collaborations and investments elsewhere. In Israel we are pretty much at the “Israel has no natural resources,” she among different nations produce a climate of center of this tension.” notes. “Turning our educational infrastructure, innovation leading to new jobs, particularly After the military, Berry went to Haifa our problem-solving skills, into economic continued on page 33

USC Viterbi Engineer 31

ALUMNIp ROFILE

Benjamin Kuo, BSEE ’94 Broadening the Focus Orna Berry continued from page 31

Seven years ago, whizzing along the 101 movers and shakers in Southern California’s high value jobs that benefit all parties.” Berry corridor for two hours a day between his high tech world. led the industrial track in the ACM task force. Thousand Oaks home and his Pasadena office, Midway through USC, Kuo remembers Sequoia Capital, one of the Silicon Valley’s Benjamin Kuo began pondering the rich taking an early morning interdisciplinary class most well-known venture capital firms, in and largely unknown Southern California taught jointly by the engineering and USC which USC Trustee and Viterbi School Board technology industry. Marshall schools. of Councilor member Mark Stevens (BSEE ’81, “I was looking It focused on MS CENG ‘84) is a senior partner, has an office to cut my commute entrepreneurs, in Israel. Berry, in fact, has communicated with because my wife was venture capitalists both Stevens and Andrew Viterbi (Ph.D. EE expecting our first and the whole busi- ’62), who named the Viterbi School. She counts child, so I started ness of starting a Benny Hanigal and Shmil Levy, two of the coming up with a high tech company. three Sequoia partners in Israel, as close allies. list of tech compa- “It was a 7 a.m. She continues to work to develop new nies in the local area class and you really areas in high-tech research and development in and put it up on my had to be motivat- Israel’s science and technology industries. She personal website,” ed,” he says. “But sits on the Israel National Research Advisory says Kuo. “It was just Mike Markkula, the Board, the European Union Research Advisory a hobby. It sort of guy who financed Board and in 2000, she joined Gemini Israel happened by itself.” Apple was there.” Funds as its first venture partner. Others soon Kuo believes “When I was an entrepreneur, Gemini was noticed Kuo’s engineers tend to my main investor,” she recalls. “Today I’m website. People be narrowly chairing two young companies that I’m really began emailing him with corrections and focused. They learn to focus on the problem at excited about.” additions to his list, and he emailed them back hand, analyze it and solve it. A very good skill One of those companies is Adamind, with asking for more information. Before long there to have, he says, but there should be more. which Gérard Medioni has also had contact. was so much traffic that his Internet Service “Sometimes engineers need to step back Adamind is working on a system for Provider booted him and Kuo had to go out and take a look at what is going on around transcoding images and content between and get his own domain name. them,” he says. “Too often engineers are handheld devices. The other company is Prime He began emailing updates, beginning working long hours solving problems and Sense, which is working on a device to replace with a grand total of 25 recipients. And so was aren’t talking to people. You need to mouse, keyboard and joystick inputs into a born socalTECH, now a newsletter sent daily to understand the market and the world beyond computer or other systems. 4,700 subscribers and a website packed with your own little piece.” “Actually, it is quite similar to some work news and information on Southern California’s After graduation, and after he had been being done at the GamePipe Laboratory at high tech industry, pulling in 50,000 visitors a working purely as an engineer for a period, USC,” she says. “USC has evolved a great deal month. It grew so much, and has done so well, Kuo deliberately switched to product and there are a lot of interesting things being it is no longer a hobby. It is Kuo’s fulltime job. management and marketing. He simply wanted done there.” “I used to read articles about companies to get a broader view of the world. He found Berry has three children. Her son studies ‘based in the Silicon Valley’ when I knew they time to write a book Building SANs with at INSEAD in France and her older daughter is were in Pasadena,” he says. “Five or six years Brocade Fabric Switches, and became a regular a patent translator, whose husband builds atom ago, no one talked about Southern California contributor to storage industry publications chips at Ben Gurion University. Her older tech firms and people said there’s no high tech like Storage magazine. daughter is the mother of her first grandchild. down here. They were wrong.” Today, Kuo is enjoying talking to people Her youngest daughter, who is 16, is a budding SocalTECH.com provides high-tech and networking with others as he continues to photographer who has won prizes and is news about the Southland. It tracks venture- grow socalTECH. studying in a special science program. capital-backed companies and venture funding, “I love what I’m doing,” he says. Kuo still “We like to go biking, or go to the desert and Kuo conducts interviews with executives, lives in Thousand Oaks. He is married to and watch meteorite showers, or to see the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Jennifer Miyasaka (BSEE ’96) whom he met at flowers in Galilee,” she explains. And would she SocalTECH.com has become an USC, and the couple has two children, a boy consider sending her daughter to study at USC. important virtual place for tech networking in and a girl. “Oh yes, absolutely!” the industry, and is widely followed by the —Bob Calverley —Bob Calverley

USC Viterbi Engineer 33 SNAPs HOTS

snapshots,, USC Viterbi School of Engineering Events Late Fall 2005 & Spring 2006

Jeremiah Allen (MSCE ’68), Carlos and Erin Canedo Gamepipe Lab Director, Mike Zyda meets with Microsoft Engineering students Kevin Kellogg, Daniel Marsh, (BSEE ’98), and Tayo Oviosu (BSEE ’98) enjoy a night representatives to discuss updates in the Viterbi School’s Cynthia Jeong, Donovan Schafer, and Kristine of friends and video games at Viterbi Gamefest. new gaming courses. Skinner show their Trojan spirit. BAY AREA WEEKENDER MICROSOFT EVENT E-WEEK On Friday, November 11 alumni joined In early February, Microsoft hosted represen- As its name suggests, National Engineers Week together for the first ever Viterbi Gamefest at tatives from the USC Viterbi School including is a week celebrated across the country by Le Colonial Restaurant in San Francisco. Led Gérard Medioni, chair of computer science; both professional and student engineers. by Viterbi gaming experts Anthony Borquez Mike Zyda, director of the Viterbi School’s At USC, it is a week filled with annual events and Victor Lacour, alumni previewed the next GamePipe Laboratory; and Louis Johnson, such as the Engineering Date Auction and generation gaming technology designed by associate professor of research for the Viterbi Ball, along USC Viterbi School engineers and played in USC’s Information Sciences with other social an NCAA 2006 Videogame tournament Institute. Together, they and professional between the virtual USC Trojans and the Cal presented cutting-edge research, get-togethers. On Golden Bears. curriculum enhancements and February 21-24, gaming information to more engineers of all than 40 Microsoft employees, majors, years, and among which were several areas of concentration Viterbi School alumni. To came together to conclude the event, USC celebrate the world of memorabilia was raffled-off, engineering. including an autographed Matt Leinart jersey.

After creating a rocket using a plastic bottle and water, aerospace engineering student Allison Anderson tests out her creation during E-Week’s rocket competition.

34 USC Viterbi Engineer SNAPs HOTS

USC ON THE ROAD TEXAS VITERBI ALUMNI EVENT Alumni in the News The Viterbi School and the USC Alumni Association marked USC’s 125th anniversary Alumna named President of Lehigh University celebration with their “USC on the Road” program. In Dallas and Houston on February Alice P. Gast, (BSChE ’80) a member of 1 and 2, Dean Yortsos; USC trustee, Major the USC Viterbi School Board of General Charles Bolden, Jr.; and Michael Councilors, has been appointed president of Zyda, director of the Viterbi School’s Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. She will GamePipe Laboratory, presented “Creating a assume leadership there on Aug. 1, 2006. Science of Games.” The presentation allowed “It is a tremendous honor to be asked the Viterbi School to showcase this exciting to serve Lehigh University as its next technology to an enthusiastic crowd of alumni president,” Gast said. and friends. Ming Hsieh (BSEE ’83 MSEE ’84) celebrates his distinguished alumni award with wife Fong Liu and daughter Tiffany at the luncheon’s VIP reception.

Gast had been vice president for research and associate provost at MIT, and was also the Robert T. Haslam Professor of Cal Tech President and Nobel Prize winner, Dean Yortsos presents USC president, Steven Sample Chemical Engineering. A chemical engineer Dr. delivers the keynote speech with the Viterbi School of Engineering Centennial specializing in complex fluids and colloids, at this year’s awards luncheon. Medallion. she joined MIT in 2001 from Stanford 28TH ANNUAL ENGINEERING University. AWARDS LUNCHEON She earned an M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton, and is a member of the On Wednesday, April 5, 2006 alumni, faculty American Association for the Advancement and USC trustees gathered for the 28th of Science, the American Chemical Annual Engineering Awards Luncheon held Society, the American Institute of on campus at Town and Gown. This year, Chemical Engineers and the American alumnus Ming Hsieh (BSEE ’83, MSEE ’84) Physical Society. was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Among her many other awards, she Award; alumna Dr. Nan Marie Jokerst (MSEE received the Viterbi School Distinguished ’84, Ph.D. EE ’89) was awarded the Alumnus in Academia Award in 2002, the Distinguished Alumni in Academia award; first year it was given. and Chevron CEO David O’Reilly was given She cited Robert Hellwarth, professor n o s the Engineering Management award. A special r of electrical engineering and Victor Chang, e

Dean Yortsos celebrates with honorees Nan Marie d award went to USC President, Steven B. n associate professor of chemical A

Jokerst (MSEE ’84, Ph.D. EE ’89) and Chevron’s Vice

Sample, who was honored with the Viterbi o Chairman Peter Robertson. e engineering, as two USC faculty who h T School of Engineering Centennial Medallion. y strongly influenced her. b

Guests enjoyed a keynote speech from of Engineering extends its gratitude to the o t Gast and her husband, a computer o h

Nobel Prize winner and Cal Tech President, many corporate and individual sponsors who p

consultant, have two children. t s

Dr. David Baltimore. The USC Viterbi School helped make this event a success. a G

USC Viterbi Engineer 35 CLASSn OTES

Alumni news notes K& Winter and Spring 2006

1973 1981 a child. Apolonio is currently working for Juan Jose Gonzalez (BSCE) started CAPT Donald S. Muehlbach, Jr. Parsons Corporation managing construction his career in the Peace Corps — first in (MSSM) assumed his 5th Navy Commanding projects in the transportation industry. Malaysia and then in Thailand. He has spent Officer (CO) position. He is serving as CO of 1999 most of his professional career in Asia the NAVSEA Engineering Duty Qual Unit working for a two consultant firms before 102 in San Diego. Emre Ekmekci (BSISE) just started in the joining the Louis Berger Group, Inc., where MBA program at Columbia Business School he has worked for 20 years. He has managed 1989 in NYC. rural and urban infrastructure projects in Erik Haroutounian (MSCENG) married Yen-Shuo Peter Liao (Ph.D. BME) has Asia, supervising international and local Garine and settled in the UK. They have three recently been promoted as principal scientist professionals as well as support staff. Recently, children, Alexander (11), Anoushka (9), and of DePuy Orthopedics, Inc., a Johnson & he participated in and managed several Isabella (5). His career focuses on project and Johnson company. He is in charge of the integrated urban and regional development program management as well as consulting research on the wear of artificial hip joints programs in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, in telecoms, IT and government. Upcoming and particle analysis of various implant Indonesia, Thailand, India and the personal projects include writing a children’s materials. In addition, he is the chairman Philippines. As the team leader for a World book in Armenia. of the Community of Asian Associates at Bank project in Indonesia, he prepared Johnson & Johnson (CAAJJ), DePuy strategic plans for infrastructure development 1995 Chapter. He and fellow CAAJJ members in 18 towns that included solid waste Joel Chacon (MSEE) just started a new received an Impact Award from Johnson management, cost recovery, revenue career with Matrikon Europe, Ltd. in & Johnson for their Tsunami Relief generation and financial management plans. Aberdeen, Scotland. Fundraising Campaign in 2005. He has In March 2006, Gonzalez began a three-year Amy Stewart-Deaker made numerous presentations at major urban infrastructure project financed by the international conferences such as the (BSENVE) and James World Bank in Afghanistan. Orthopedic Research Society Conference, Deaker are happy to Society for Biomaterials and Wear of announce the birth of their 1980 Material Conference. He also has several son, Tobin, on November 12, Arturo Salazar (BSCE) was elected as the patents in progress. 2005. The family lives in Los Angeles area representative to the Board Berkeley, CA. of Directors of the Professional Engineers in 2001 California Government. Also, Salazar recently Apolonio (Polo) Ramirez (BSCE) Amit Shah (MSMFE) will graduate with an completed 25 years of employment with the married Norma Grimaldo-Ramirez in MBA from The Tepper School of Business at California Department of Transportation January 2002. They live in Granada Hills Carnegie Mellon University in May 2006. (Caltrans). and are currently in the process of adopting

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36 USC Viterbi Engineer INm EMORIAM Viterbi Storybook In Memoriam

Submitted by: James Robert Cannon (BSCE ’47, Kroger’s work contributed significantly to the basic understanding of electronic Ada Chan (BSCE ’00, MSCE ’01) MSCE ’56), passed away on April 16, 2005 in Walnut Creek, California. Born on materials, was vital to semiconductor “I will be forever grateful to the Viterbi September 14, 1925, Jim was a graduate of technology and led to the development of Alumni who provided not just their South Pasadena High many practical devices. He was also a sci- financial contributions but also their School and USC, entist with a keen sense of social responsi- time in mentoring and speaking to where he earned three bility warning that unless humans became students. A monumental Viterbi story degrees including a willing to sacrifice some of the amenities for me was in Fall 1997 at the bachelor’s and of modern life, science could become like USC Engineering School Career master’s in civil an ‘uncontrollable cancerous growth’. Conference when I met the keynote engineering. He Born on September 11, 1915 in speaker: Viterbi and Marshall alumna served his country Amsterdam, Netherlands, he was one of Mrs. Marie Knowles. Mrs. Knowles’ during World War II the youngest candidates, at 22, to receive speech inspired me to follow in her in the U.S. Navy on the battleship USS a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the footsteps in Mississippi and later achieved the rank of University of Amsterdam in 1937. working Commander in the Navel Reserve Civil Kroger was a research scientist for Philips full time while Engineering Corp (Seabees). For more Electrical for 25 years in the Netherlands pursuing a than 40 years, he was a distinguished civil and the United Kingdom. In 1964, he graduate engineer specializing in water resources, moved to the U.S. to become a USC education at and eventually retired as chief design professor of electrical engineering. night and in engineer at the consulting firm Bookman The following year he became a professor becoming a Edmonston. Jim was an enthusiastic sailor of materials science in the engineering three-time and after retiring pursued world travel school’s new materials science depart- USC Trojan. and volunteer work. ment. In 1972, he was the first recipient of Mrs. Knowles He leaves behind his wife of 52 years, the Hewlett-Packard Chair in Electrical instantly Marian Griffith Cannon, his son and Engineering. became a role model for me as a woman daughter-in-law Frederick L. Cannon and His published books include The engineer and a woman in finance. Since Jean Mitchell, daughter Linda Cannon- Chemistry of Imperfect Crystals and then, I have obtained three USC degrees Reese and five beloved grandchildren: Luminescence in Solids and he authored — a BS in Civil Engineering Building Kyle Cannon, Griffith Cannon, Claire numerous research articles in his field. Science in 2000, a MS in Civil Cannon, Tyler Cannon-Reese and Tucker He was a member of the Royal Dutch Engineering Structural Engineering in Cannon-Reese. He was preceded in death Academy of Sciences and was awarded the 2001, and a Master of Business by his father, mother, step-mother Ruth Chandon Gold Medal from the French Administration in 2005, (both graduate Cannon and his brother William (Bill) Society of Mineralogy and degrees were fulfilled while I was Cannon. He will be sadly missed by all, Crystallography in 1979. In 1980, he working full time). Viterbi alumni like but his spirit and his commitment to his retired from his academic and adminis- Mrs. Knowles made a huge impact in my family will be long remembered. Jim was trative duties at USC. life. Thus, I continue to stay involved an exemplary husband, Kroger was preceded in death by his with the USC community by attending father, grandfather second wife, Inka Pietersz. His survivors Viterbi School mentoring dinners, being and friend. include his first wife, Elisabeth Nicholson part of the USC David M. Wilson of Carlsbad, California, son Frank Kroger Associates Civil Engineering Alumni Faculty of Seattle, daughter Catharine Kroger- Support Group, and speaking at the F. A. (Eddy) Diamond of San Diego, grandson Marshall School MBA.PM program Kroger, an original Matthew Kroger-Diamond, grandson recruiting information sessions. One member of the USC Robert Pietersz of the Netherlands, and day, I hope to make this same impact on Viterbi School’s granddaughter Solange Pietersz, his ‘little the younger generation.” materials science faculty and a professor angel’, of the Netherlands. emeritus, passed away on March 17, 2006 Services were held Monday, March 20, Visit http://viterbi.usc.edu/links/?113 in Encinitas, California of complications at Silverado Care Center in Encinitas, to add your favorite memory today! from a fall and Alzheimer’s Disease. He with ashes to be scattered in his beloved was 90. Pacific Ocean.

USC Viterbi Engineer 37 INm EMORIAM In Memoriam

Eberhardt Rechtin, (1926 – 2006) impossible. He and his group accomplished engineering” because of its emphasis on a USC Emeritus Professor and Honorary that feat with technology still in use today. conceptualization, design management Degree Recipient, who had academic All five were eventually elected to the and certification for use, and dealt appointments in three National Academy of Engineering. with problems that are ill-structured, departments, died April 14 Rechtin received his B.S. (with honors) and non-replicable and non-measurable. following a long illness. Ph.D. (cum laude) from Caltech where “In addition to writing some of the He was 80 years old. William Pickering, the director of JPL, defining literature on systems architecting, “All of us at the Viterbi which was administered by Caltech, was he was a superb teacher who never failed to School will miss Eb who his advisor. Rechtin started at JPL as an inspire students,” said Stan Settles, professor was a giant in the aerospace engineer in 1948 and left in 1967 as an of industrial and systems engineering who industry and a creative assistant director. currently directs the Systems Architecting force in the academic realm,” said Dean Rechtin moved to the Department of and Engineering Program. Yortsos. “It was through his leadership that Defense (DoD) where he was director of In addition to being an NAE member, the Viterbi School established the graduate the Advanced Research Projects Agency Rechtin was a fellow of the Institute of program in Systems Architecting and (ARPA, now DARPA), then principal Electrical and Electronic Engineers Engineering, which continues to be one of deputy director of research and (IEEE), the American Institute of our most successful programs today.” engineering, and finally, assistant secretary Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), At USC, Rechtin held joint appointments in of defense for telecommunications, each for the American Association for Advancement the Daniel J. Epstein Department of a term of two years. While at of Science and the Industrial and Systems Engineering and in the Pentagon, he met David Institute of the departments of electrical engineering Packard, co-founder of Environmental and aerospace and mechanical engineering. Hewlett Packard who was Sciences. He received He played a key role in the IEEE’s Alexander development of U.S. space Graham Bell Award, technology and had a storied At the time, Nobel laureates told the DoD Distinguished career in government Rechtin that communication Public Service Award, and industry before coming with spacecraft at the edge of the U.S. Navy to USC. Distinguished Public the would be “I first met him in January Service Award, the impossible. He and his group 1955 when he visited me at U.S. Air Force Harvard while I was a accomplished that feat with Exceptional Service graduate student,” said technology still in use today. Award and the Solomon Golomb, professor NASA Medal for of electrical engineering. deputy Exceptional Scientific Achievement. Rechtin was trying to recruit Golomb for secretary of defense and who recruited He was honored with Caltech’s his group at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Rechtin to become chief engineer for his Distinguished Alumni Award and the “I had just received a Fullbright Fellowship, company. AIAA’s von Karman Lectureship. but I eventually went to work for him in In 1977, Rechtin became chief executive Born in 1926 in New Jersey, Rechtin served August 1956.” officer of Aerospace Corp. for a term of 10 in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1943 to In addition to Golomb, Rechtin’s JPL group years. He tripled revenue while advising the 1958. He was an accomplished musician included future USC electrical engineering Air Force on the development of such big who played the piano, violin and other faculty William Lindsey and Lloyd Welch, technology projects as the Global instruments. A resident of Rolling Hills as well as Andrew Viterbi (Ph.D. EE ’62). Positioning System and Star Wars missile Estates, he is survived by his wife of 55 The group made fundamental advances in defense program. years, the former Dorothy Denebrink developing U.S. space technology, Upon retiring from Aerospace Corp. in (Deedee), five children, four grandchildren particularly deep space communications. 1987, he joined the faculty at USC where he and a sister, Joan Lincoln. At the time, Nobel laureates told Rechtin created the Systems Architecting and A memorial service was held April 23 that communication with spacecraft at Engineering Program. Rechtin said the field at the Neighborhood Church in the edge of the solar system would be was known as “the front end of systems Palos Verdes Estates.

38 USC Viterbi Engineer HONORS& AWARDS

President Sample and Andrew Viterbi Become Eminent Members In separate ceremonies, USC President Steven University of Sheffield, England and Canisius “I am honored to be selected for inclusion B. Sample and Viterbi School alumnus and College, Buffalo. Sample has also received a among such a distinguished group of my naming donor Andrew J. Viterbi (Ph.D. EE number of awards from civic organizations professional peers. Interestingly, this is the ’62), were both honored with Eminent Member and educational institutions, including the fiftieth anniversary of my election to Eta Kappa status by Eta Kappa Nu (HKN), the 100-year- Chancellor Charles P. Norton Medal from Nu as a student at MIT and the three old national honor society for electrical and SUNY Buffalo, a Distinguished Alumnus birthday of the eminent “founder” computer engineering. Award from the Department of Electrical of our discipline, Benjamin Franklin.” Eminent Member status is HKN’s highest Engineering at the University of Illinois Viterbi is a co-founder and retired vice membership classification and requires “attain- and the Humanitarian of the Year Award chairman and chief technical officer of ments and contributions to society through from the National Conference for Community QUALCOMM Incorporated. He spent equal leadership in engineering that have resulted in and Justice. portions of his career in industry, having significant benefits to humankind.” previously co-founded Linkabit Sample became the 108th Corporation, and in academia, Eminent Member of HKN on Oct. as a professor in the Schools of 31, 2005 in a noontime celebration Engineering and Applied Science, held in the Ronald Tutor Hall first at UCLA and then at UCSD. Dean’s Boardroom. An electrical He is currently president of the engineer who is on the faculty of Viterbi Group, a technical advisory the Viterbi School, Sample was and investment company. honored by 40 fellow Eta Kappa Viterbi has received numerous Nu members, including about two honors both in the United States dozen USC student members. Also and internationally. Among these attending were USC trustee are six honorary doctorates from Malcolm Currie and USC alumnus universities in Canada, Israel, Italy Marcus Dodson, who are also and the United States. He is a Eminent Members. Sample was member of the National Academy cited for his extraordinary leader- of Engineering, the National ship skills as 10th president of the Academy of Sciences and the University of Southern California. Andrew Viterbi and President Steven B. Sample at the American Academy of Arts and “It’s wonderful to be with my 100th anniversary gala of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Sciences. He has received the Marconi fellow Eta Kappa Nu members,” International Fellowship Award, the Sample said in accepting the award. “That Eta Andrew Viterbi was presented with the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell and Claude Kappa Nu had its roots at my alma mater — HKN Eminent Member award on January 17 at Shannon Awards, the NEC C&C Award, the the University of Illinois — makes this award the 2006 IEEE Radio and Wireless Symposium Eduard Rhein Foundation Award, the especially meaningful.” in San Diego. Viterbi’s principal original Christopher Columbus Medal and the Sample became president of USC in research contribution, the Viterbi Algorithm, Franklin Medal. March of 1991. He is an electrical engineer, a has changed the world. The algorithm is used in He has also received an honorary title musician, an outdoorsman, a best-selling most digital cellular phones and digital satellite from the President of Italy, and he has served author and an inventor. He has been elected to receivers, as well as in such diverse fields as on the U.S. President’s Information Technology the National Academy of Engineering for his magnetic recording, voice recognition and DNA Advisory Committee. Viterbi serves on boards contributions to consumer electronics and sequence analysis. More recently, he has concen- of numerous other non-profit institutions, in leadership in interdisciplinary research and trated his efforts on establishing CDMA as the addition to USC. He also serves on the education. He earned B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. multiple access technology of choice for cellular California Council on Science and Technology, degrees in electrical engineering from the telephony and wireless data communication. the MIT Visiting Committee for Electrical University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. With his wife Erna, Viterbi, who holds the Engineering and Computer Science, the He has received honorary doctorates from USC Presidential Chair of Engineering, made a Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, the University of Notre Dame, Northeastern record-setting $52 million gift to name the the Burnham Institute and the Scripps University, the University of Nebraska, Purdue USC Viterbi School of Engineering in 2004. Research Institute. University, Hebrew Union College, the In accepting the HKN award, Viterbi said, —DA and EM

USC Viterbi Engineer 39 nOTEBOOK

Celebrating 100 Years with Humor

On October 28, 2005, the Viterbi School launched its centennial celebration with a black-tie gala held at the California Science Center. The evening culminated with a performance by comedian and engineer, Don McMillan. Don uses PowerPoint slides packed with charts, graphs and metrics resulting in a hilarious presentation. Here is a highlight from his performance that evening.

“Most stand-up comics would rather have root canal than For example, ‘Al Pacino’ minus ‘Brains’ equals ‘Keanu perform for a crowd of 500 engineers. Not me. I love Reeves’.Or ‘Hermie the Dentist’ from Rudolph the Red- engineers — the more the better. Nerd herds are my life. Nosed Reindeer plus ‘$50 Billion’ equals ‘Bill Gates’.Isn’t I am Don McMillan: Engineer/Comedian. That alone math more fun this way? makes me pretty unique. Nobody ever thinks, ‘Engineer — In addition, if we took the time to do math, we would this guy has got to be funny!’ or not get duped by marketing people who manipulate data ‘We’re having a party and we’re only to send the wrong message. For example, your chances of inviting engineers!’ You see, a lot of getting Alzheimer’s by age 85 are ‘1 in 10’.But, the average people think engineers are boring, cigarette smoker lives to be age 66. So, if you were in but we’re not boring. We just get excited about boring things: A 512MB memory upgrade can make me jump for joy. The sale ads for Fry’s Electronics make me giddy! In fact, I love Fry’s so much, that when I got married, we registered at Fry’s. But, that is exactly why I had the honor of being invited to speak at the Viterbi School of Engineering’s Celebration of 100 years of Engineering at USC — I think engineering is funny. 100 years is very impressive. 100 years! That’s marketing at a cigarette company, you could say, ‘Smoking ‘1.0 x 102’ in scientific notation. ‘1100100’ in binary. lowers the chance of getting Alzheimer’s.’ But, it’s only ‘64’ in hexadecimal. I am all for using In conclusion, there is perhaps no field that is richer alternate base systems. Just think, the USC football team in comedy than engineering. Engineers are creating the could defeat Washington State by ‘110100’ to ‘0’.They world of tomorrow and with that come tomorrow’s jokes. could defeat UCLA by Avogadro’s number. (That’s 6.02 x And for an engineer/comedian that is a good thing. Happy 1023 — that’s’ a blowout!) Anniversary, Viterbi — keep those jokes coming!” To learn more about Don and his engineering humor, please visit www.technicallyfunny.com.

This is the kind of comedy that most engineers can relate to. Even math can be fun. In the next 100 years of Engineering, I think we need to change the way we teach math. Nowadays, kids think in images and graphics — not symbols. We can teach what I call ‘Multi-Media Math’.

40 USC Viterbi Engineer A rare opportunity to leave your mark on the USC campus.

The chance to make your name a permanent part of the USC Campus sometimes only comes around every 100 years. That time is now. Surrounding the magnificent Ronald Tutor Hall are 16 new benches representing a unique naming opportunity. With a pledge or gift to the Viterbi School of Engineering, your name or the name of a loved one can be placed on a special plaque, creating an everlasting legacy with USC and the Viterbi School. This rare opportunity will not last long. Please contact Matt Bates today at (213) 821-2730 or via email at [email protected] to reserve your bench and receive more information. Class Notes are now On-line too! Visit http://viterbi.usc.edu/alumni/alumni/classnotes/ and fill us in on your news.

What have you been doing since graduation? Just promoted? Been honored or awarded? New baby? Recently relocated? We want to hear about what is going on in your life, and so do your fellow alumni. Sharing your news and photos through our on-line Class Notes feature has never been easier.

A selection of class notes will be published in USC Viterbi Engineer and on the Viterbi website, so write to us today with your news!

(You may still communicate with us via regular mail. Please send your news to: USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Alumni Relations Office, Olin Hall 500, Los Angeles, California, 90089-1451. If requested, all photos will be returned).

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