Newsletter for Alumni, Friends and Silicon Valley Industry Summer 2005

Google and Atmel Execs Honored at Engineering Awards Banquet

t was a full house in the Imperial Kordestani and Perlegos, this year’s ambassadors, linking the College with IBallroom at the downtown San José banquet, the College’s 25th, recognized industry. They are our benefactors, Fairmont Hotel last April when the 56 previous winners. providing our students and faculty with College of Engineering recognized many opportunities. We are honored “This is a very special night,” said two of its outstanding alumni for their to call them our own, and grateful for Dean Belle Wei to the some 500 dinner achievements in the field of engineer- the many ways in which they support guests. “Special, because gathered ing—Omid Kordestani (B.S. EE ’84), the College.” here are the key contributors to the senior vice president of Global Sales College of Engineering—friends from The dinner was supported in part by and Business Development at , industry, our alumni, our students, our the generous sponsorship of Platinum and Gust Perlegos (B.S. EE ’69), faculty and our staff. Tonight is also Sponsors Atmel, Cisco Systems, co-founder and executive vice president special because this year marks the Hewlett-Packard, Lockheed Martin, of Atmel Corporation (see page 4). 25th anniversary of the engineering Philips, and Rockwell Collins; Gold Since 1980, the College has honored awards banquet. Sponsors Applied Materials and outstanding engineers, business Marvell; and Silver Sponsors IBM, “Our alumni have built a reputation for executives and educators for their , Lam Research and Novellus. having a strong work ethic and solid achievements and contributions to the knowledge and skills in engineering,” practice of engineering at an annual continued Wei. “Today, they are our awards banquet. In addition to Inside this Issue

Message from the Dean 2 Pilot Error Reports Subject of Winning Thesis 2 Students’ Innovation Headed for Production in China 3 Saturn’s Rings “Remarkable to Behold” 4 College Awards Silicon Valley Engineering Scholarships 5 ISE Senior Sweeps Service Awards 5 New Faculty 6 College Joins NSF Cyber The College recognized alumni, faculty, staff and students at the 2005 Engineering Security Team 6 Awards Banquet. Shown (L to R) SJSU President Don Kassing, Google’s Omid Kordestani, ISE bachelor’s graduate Christine dela Cruz, Dean Belle Wei, SJSU Industry Leader Sets Pace Associate Professor Nicole DeJong Okamoto, Administrative Support Coordinator Kate for Next Generation 7 Shelton, CmpE bachelor’s graduate Linda Nguyen, Atmel’s Gust Perlegos and SJSU Professor Brings ‘Industry Professor Jacob Tsao. Practice’ into Classrooms 8

www.engr.sjsu.edu Message from the Dean

Dear Friends of the College, They also learned that there is a critical link between a country’s global competitiveness and the size of its market. As we assembled the news for And finally, they learned, that as hard as they are working this issue of the newsletter, we on their studies and jobs in the U.S., they may have to work were of course looking for stories harder to stay competitive. that would show you—our alumni and friends—our progress on the On the home front, we have been building relationships with many initiatives the College has our Silicon Valley industry partners who support us in student underway. What struck me in scholarships, laboratory and curricular development, as reviewing the stories, was the well as faculty projects. Also valuable are industry faculty extraordinary ways in which our who bring the real world into our classrooms every day. efforts are interconnected—the Lastly, we continue to recognize our alumni for their achieve- ways in which we have successfully created a learning ments, and our faculty and students for their commitment community that brings together our faculty, staff, students, to innovation, learning and service to the College. To see a alumni, friends and industry partners to create the best mechanical engineering design project finding its way to possible education for our young people. the production line in China may be the best testimony to Last June, I returned from Asia with the second group of the success of our collective efforts (see page 3). students participating in the Global Technology Initiative As always, I am grateful to all of you who have helped to Study Tour. Practically speaking, we visited 18 companies, create and support our community of learning so generously two universities and two of Asia’s most well-known cultural and in so many ways. You have been and will continue to be sites in two weeks. And we enjoyed being personally hosted critical to the College’s success. by industry leaders and academic colleagues. But what it all added up to was a unique opportunity for our students Sincerely, to see a competitive global economy in action. More specif- ically, our students saw in a concrete and compelling way Belle Wei that there is significant design and development work Dean, College of Engineering going on in China and Taiwan—besides manufacturing.

Pilot Error Reports Subject of Winning Thesis

aston Cangiano (M.S. Human Aviation Safety and Modeling Grant Diego with an eye on a career in com- GFactors and Linguistics ’05) was under the direction of Professor Kevin mercial research and development. one of two master’s candidates Corker, designed a computer program Cangiano, who was born and raised whose work was recognized that analyzed the free-text in Argentina, received his bachelor’s by University President content based on its syntax. degree from the University of Don Kassing at SJSU’s Cangiano is looking forward to Massachusetts-Amherst and was commencement ceremony collaborating with engineers employed as a Silicon Valley software last May. The focus of at the Pacific Northwest engineer from 1995 until 2001 when Cangiano’s thesis was the Regional Laboratory this he entered the master’s program at analysis of pilot-reported summer in Richland, Wash., SJSU. data in free-text fields in the to determine how the more NASA Aviation Safety traditional key word/key phrase Reporting System database. analysis can be complemented by his Current analysis tools rely on key words syntactical analysis. He is also entering and key phrases. Cangiano, whose a Ph.D. program in cognitive science project was supported by a NASA at the University of California-San

2 SJSU College of Engineering Newsletter Summer 2005 Students’ Innovation Headed for Production in China

hen it comes to sports equipment, Treadwell, Holmes and Musselman To reduce the weight and improve W Ken Liao, president of Titan Pro, started out with the goal of building the scooter’s portability, in the second a San José-based sports equipment the smallest possible go-kart. From prototype, the student designers manufacturer, has a keen eye for good there, they moved the idea forward switched to a battery-operated engine ideas. That’s why when he read about until they came up with the two-wheeled and lighter materials for the briefcase. the College of Engineering student- scooter design. “It was about five times the work designed and built Moto-Case motor- we had to do for the class,” says ized scooter, he decided to have a “The students had to Treadwell, “but we just kept on chal- look for himself. Now in its third proto- come up with the idea, lenging ourselves.” type, the scooter, an ME 154 student design it on paper, “The thing I like most about the scooter project, is headed for the production analyze the design and is how compact it is,” says Liao, who line in China. fabricate a prototype— is considering marketing the scooter Ideal for commuters and short trips, all in four months.” internationally. “This is the first time the Moto-Case is a lightweight, battery- I’ve worked with students. After this operated scooter that folds into a —Raymond Yee experience I would certainly consider 13” × 18” briefcase. Professor, Mechanical Engineering looking at more student projects.” “We wanted to do something that was The Moto-Case design was awarded “When we found out that the DMV fun and memorable,” says Jason the People’s Choice Award at the allowed two-wheel electric vehicles in Treadwell (B.S. ME ’05), who test-drove Silicon Valley Center for Entrepreneur- the bike lanes, we accidentally stumbled the scooter from his home to the ship Neat Ideas Fair last fall, and first on something people could actually Capitol Expressway Light Rail Station place in the ASME (American Society use,” says Holmes. Together, the team en route to campus two or three times of Mechanical Engineers) Region IX of designers worked its way up from a week this past spring. “Where I really Student Design Competition in two-dimensional sketches to actually got the reaction,” says Treadwell, “was Sacramento. Treadwell and Holmes manufacturing a prototype in Treadwell’s when I got to the station or off the train expect to present the design at the father’s home machine shop. The orig- and was folding the scooter into or out national ASME competition next inal prototype was operated by a small of the briefcase. That’s when people November. gas engine and weighed 29 pounds. would stop and say, ‘That’s really cool. Where did you get that?’” Treadwell’s team members on the project were Michael Holmes (B.S. ME ‘05) and Reed Musselman, now a senior in mechanical engineering. “It was a very ambitious project,” says Professor of Mechanical Engineering Raymond Yee. “The students had to come up with the idea, design it on paper, analyze the design and fabricate a prototype—all in four months.”

(L to R) ME students Jason Treadwell, Michael Holmes and Reed Musselman on campus with first Moto-Case prototype.

www.engr.sjsu.edu 3 2005 Alumni Award Winners Saturn’s Rings

Omid Kordestani “Remarkable As the individual Kordestani joined as director to Behold” responsible for of OEM Sales. During his four-year Google’s revenue career at that company, he was respon- generation efforts, sible for establishing major customer ssam Marouf, professor of electrical Omid Kordestani relationships with Citibank, AOL, , Eengineering and member of the leads the company’s , Travelocity, Intel, @Home, eBay NASA Cassini-Huygens radio science international sales and . Prior to Netscape, team, took center stage last May at effort and has Kordestani held positions in marketing, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in brought Google to profitability in product management, and business Pasadena, where scientists were inter- record time. Kordestani has more development at The 3DO Company, preting radio signals in order to map than a dozen years of high-technology Go Corporation, and Hewlett-Packard. the structure of Saturn’s rings. The consumer and enterprise experience, observations that scientists were able Kordestani, who was born in Iran, including key positions at Internet to make as a result of the team’s exper- emigrated with his family to the U.S. pioneer Netscape Communications. iments are at the heart of Cassini’s when he was 14 years old. Kordestani As Vice President of Business Devel- fundamental science objectives—to credits SJSU EE professors Michael opment and Sales, Kordestani grew characterize and understand Saturn O’Flynn and Art Davis for influencing Netscape’s website revenue from an and its ring system. his academic and professional annual run-rate of $88 million to more achievements. Kordestani also holds than $200 million in 18 months. an M.B.A. from .

Gust Perlegos Since 1985, when he It also has numerous design centers in co-founded ATMEL the United States, France, Norway, Corporation with his Finland, Greece and China. brother George, Before co-founding Atmel Corporation, Gust Perlegos has Perlegos held positions at a number of served as the com- Silicon Valley technology companies, pany’s Vice President including AMD, Amdahl, Intel, and Seeq “The structure of those remarkable rings of Technology and Technology. He also served in the U.S. is a sight to behold,” says Marouf. “All Product Development. As Executive Air Force Reserve from 1970 to 1976. ring features appear to be populated Vice President and General Manager, by a broad range of particle sizes that he oversees the new developments In addition to his B.S. in electrical engi- extend to many meters in diameter at and operations for the company’s neering from San José State, Perlegos the upper end.” Professor Marouf has nonvolatile memories, microcontrollers, holds an M.S. degree in electrical celebrated the Cassini-Huygens’ mile- Si-Ge BiCMOS RF, Smart card IC’s, engineering from Stanford University, stones since 1989 when the mission and system-on-a-chip VLSI used in and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering was first conceived. such consumer products as digital from Santa Clara University. cameras and wireless networking. For more information on the mission A native of Greece, he came to and its experiments, visit Atmel, headquartered in San José, the U.S. in 1962. He enjoys grape http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and has 8,000 employees worldwide, with farming and spending time on the http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. manufacturing facilities in Colorado Mediterranean Coast. Springs, the south of France, the north of England, and in Heilbronn, Germany. Photo: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA-JPL)

4 SJSU College of Engineering Newsletter Summer 2005 College Awards Silicon Valley Engineering Scholarships

ive incoming freshmen and one According to Associate Dean for continue their education with us this F transfer student were selected as Undergraduate Studies Ping Hsu, the fall,” says Hsu. “Being able to provide the latest recipients of the College’s College received more than 250 appli- such substantial scholarships to top- Silicon Valley Engineering Scholarships. notch students interested in engineer- The scholarships were made possible “Setting high expectations ing careers is an important competitive by the generous contributions of nearly is important, but it means advantage for the College. We are a dozen Silicon Valley companies. extraordinarily grateful to those nothing if you are not willing companies whose support has made Scholarship awardees include: to work hard to make your this possible.” Marissa Anne Dayton of Livermore High School in Livermore; Harish goals a reality.” “Our support of the Silicon Valley Ganesan of Lynbrook High School in Engineering Scholarships is part of a —Sean Masterson San José; Diane Frances Hammond Scholarship Recipient company-wide corporate citizenship of Deer Valley High School in Antioch; initiative,” says John Borghese, VP John Laporga of Allan Hancock and general manager of Display cations and conducted some 100 on- College in Santa Maria; Christopher Systems for Rockwell Collins in San campus interviews in order to identify Earl Martin of Monte Vista Christian José. “One of the big issues facing the award finalists. “We were fortunate High School in Watsonville; and Sean Silicon Valley companies is access to to have so many talented applicants Patrick Masterson of Freedom High good engineering talent. I think it’s up from which to choose, and we are School in Oakley. eager to have the six students selected continued on page 7

ISE Senior Sweeps Service Awards

hen Christine dela Cruz (B.S. ISE al SWE for Highest Net Increase in “Christine has the ability and willing- W ’05) walked across the stage at Membership in 2004 and 2005; the ness to stand up for herself and to say the College’s annual banquet to receive Award for Largest Growth, 2005; and what she is thinking,” says Professor the Scott T. Axline Memorial Student an Honorable Mention for Highest Louis Freund, ISE chair. “But, she is Award for Excellence in Service, it was Retention, 2005. also a very good listener and is willing the fifth time she had been honored to consider others’ ideas when it comes “I took everything for her contributions to the College to addressing particular issues. I think I learned in my and the University. those skills have been important to her sorority about successes in her club and committee Dela Cruz, who cut her teeth in stu- recruiting and pro- work, as well as in her team projects dent organizations as a freshman at gram management as a student in the ISE program.” sorority Alpha Phi, remembers the first and put it to work officer position she held as Director of for SWE,” says dela SWE was one of eight organizations Sports on Panhellenic. “It was a lot of Cruz. “In one year dela Cruz devoted time to as a senior. work, but I loved it,” says the 23-year- we grew our membership from 20 to Others included the Black Alliance for old graduate. “It gave me a tremendous 66 members. Some months we had Science and Engineers and the Gay, amount of confidence.” four or five different activities including Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender membership drives, company guest Alliance. In addition to the Axline and It was that confidence and determina- speakers and tours, high school SWE awards, in May 2004 dela Cruz tion that, as a senior, dela Cruz brought outreach and résumé building.” received the College’s Applied to the College’s fledgling Society of Materials Silicon Valley Engineering Women Engineers (SWE). Conceived “Every time I turned around Christine Scholarship. She also received the as an organization to support women was heading up another SWE activity,” 2005 SJSU Associated Students in engineering through mentorship says Associate Dean for Undergraduate “A.S. 55 Award.” and special programs, dela Cruz took Studies Ping Hsu. “When we reviewed her leadership role seriously. The her nomination for the Axline Award, results? Four regional SWE awards, there was just no question that her including: recognition from the nation- contributions were worthy.” www.engr.sjsu.edu 5 New Faculty College Joins NSF Sotoudeh Hamedi-Hagh Cyber Security Team

Assistant Professor he College of Engineering has Meldal, among the strengths that SJSU Electrical Engineering T been selected as one of eight brought to the table was its experience institutions across the country to in curriculum development. “Once [email protected] participate in a National Science discoveries are made and methods Foundation research effort focused on created for improving the nation’s Prof. Hamedi-Hagh improving the reliability of the nation’s infrastructure, that information is going joined the faculty computer infrastructure to protect to have to be transferred to students of the Department against cyber attacks. and other professionals who will be of Electrical Engi- asked to implement and expand on neering in January TRUST, the Team for Research in the discoveries,” says Meldal. “That’s 2005. He received Ubiquitous Secure Technology, is funded the only way to ensure that what we his Ph.D. in electri- by a five-year, $19 million NSF grant learn can be broadly cal and computer as part of its national applied. We have to engineering from the University of science and technol- be sure that the next Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in ogy centers initiative. generation of scien- 2004. His areas of research are design TRUST will be led by tists and engineers of RF, analog and mixed-signal inte- a team of researchers are prepared to take grated circuits and systems for wireless, from UC-Berkeley. on these problems and continue to wireline and optical communications, Joining SJSU and UC-Berkeley in the design and build workable systems.” using CMOS, SiGe and GaAs tech- TRUST center are Stanford University, nologies. While earning his Ph.D., he Cornell University, Carnegie Mellon “Our participation in such a high profile developed a new phase-shifted trans- University, Smith College, Mills center is the result of tremendous effort mitter architecture for long range College and Vanderbilt University. on the part of our faculty to have the communication systems. During his College be seen as a place where In addition to detailed research on a postdoctoral fellowship, and while important research is taking place,” says wide range of security tools and systems, studying for an M.A.Sc. degree at the Dean Belle Wei. “This project provides the center will address social science University of Toronto, he also worked the perfect opportunity for our faculty questions involving economics, public on the design of high-speed and high- and students to showcase their talents policy, human-computer interfaces resolution SiGe and CMOS A/D con- and at the same time make an impor- and privacy. The TRUST center will verters. Hamedi-Hagh has worked on tant contribution. We are pleased and also have an education and outreach research and development projects in honored to be a part of it.” component to K–12 schools, under- industry and academia ranging from graduate students and institutions serv- More information about the TRUST the design of three-dimensional sonar ing underrepresented populations. Center can be found online at and radar systems to the design of http://trust.eecs.berkeley.edu/ digital modulators and demodulators Sigurd Meldal, SJSU professor and for wireline data communications. He chair of the Department of Computer was the recipient of the best paper Engineering, has been named co- award at the 2000 Micronet annual director of the project. According to workshop in Aylmer, Quebec, Canada. An article he authored received the best paper award at the 2004 IEEE “Our participation in such a high profile International Symposium on Personal, center is the result of tremendous Indoor and Mobile Radio Communica- tions in Barcelona, Spain. At San José effort on the part of our faculty to have State, Hamedi-Hagh will help develop the College be seen as a place where the College’s Nanoelectronics Research important research is taking place.” Center where students will have the opportunity to work on state-of-the-art —Dean Belle Wei circuits and systems of current interest to Silicon Valley industry.

6 SJSU College of Engineering Newsletter Summer 2005 Engineering Scholarships continued from page 5 Industry Leader Sets Pace for Next Generation to us and companies like us to help sponsor events and activities such as efore a packed house in the Engi- brother from Asia, more than 9,000 miles student scholarships that help stu- neering Auditorium, Jen-Hsun across the Pacific Ocean, to a private dents get a better understanding of B Huang, CEO, president and co-founder school in Oneida, Ky. His parents did our company and what we do, and of Nvidia, shared his enthusiasm for not know that the “private school” was ultimately consider working for us.” the field of engineering and what he a home for troubled kids. “I spent a year “After high school I wanted to become anticipates will be the next era of com- and a half with a bunch of juvenile an automobile mechanic, but then I puting—lifestyle technology. delinquents,’’ Huang said in a 2000 asked, ‘Why work on cars if you can Business Week interview. “It taught me “I wanted to create a digital medium design them’? Then I decided to go to be really tough.” for artistic expression,” said Huang of into automotive engineering,” says his interest in starting his own company Even though a generation separated John Laporga, scholarship recipient. in early 1993 at the age of 30. “This Huang from most of the students in type of technology reaches everyone. the room, his words fell on enthusiastic Lifestyle technology is about using ears. “Meeting Mr. Huang is like a Mac technology to build a user meeting Steve better lifestyle.” Jobs,” said John Lee, “I wanted to create a senior in computer Under Huang’s lead- engineering and avid ership, Nvidia has a digital medium for video game player. become one of the artistic expression” largest fabless semi- “Huang was able to —Jen-Hsun Huang conductor companies CEO, president convey the excite- in the world and a and co-founder of Nvidia ment of engineering,” worldwide leader in said Sigurd Meldal, graphics and digital chair of computer media processors. Nvidia semicon- engineering. “Being in touch with that ductors are the technology that drives passion is what motivates so many of ultra-realistic gaming, 3-D imagery, our students to be successful.” and video in PCs. In the last five years, “Mr. Huang is a recognized technology- John Laporga, Silicon Valley the company has been recognized by business leader who was willing to Engineering Scholarship recipient, numerous business and technology shares his gratitude with fellow take time from his busy schedule to awards, including Fortune’s Fastest students and MESA staff during share with our students his secrets for Growing Companies (2003), Wired the 5th Annual MESA Recognition success and his vision for the future of Magazine’s Top 40 (2003), Stanford Banquet at Allan Hancock College technology,” said Ahmed Hambaba, Business School’s Entrepreneurial in Ventura, CA, last May. associate dean for graduate studies. Company of the Year (2003), and “Students in the College are in a Fortune’s Best Companies to Work The College gratefully acknowledges unique position to be inspired by and For (2004). the support of the Silicon Valley Engi- learn from Silicon Valley engineer- neering Scholarships by the following Huang told the crowd of students that entrepreneurs like Mr. Huang.” corporations: Applied Materials, Atmel, a passion for learning, perseverance Mr. Huang’s presentation was part of Cadence, Cisco Systems, Hewlett- and an understanding of one’s personal last Spring’s Silicon Valley Leaders Packard, Lam Research, Lockheed strengths and weaknesses were key Symposium series. For more information Martin, National Semiconductor, factors in achieving one’s goals. For and a schedule of next Fall’s lectures, Rockwell Collins, Solectron and Xilinx. Huang these lessons came at an early visit the College website. age. When Huang was nine years old, his parents sent him and his 10-year-old

www.engr.sjsu.edu 7 Professor Brings ‘Industry Practice’ into Classrooms

ndustry Professor Morris Jones has a single objective listed EE professor on sabbatical. For him, he says, teaching is Ion his personal vita: Share engineering knowledge with a lot of fun. students at a graduate level. According to his students, “I work with students on their class work and I am also Jones is getting high marks toward achieving that goal. co-advisor to a number of students on their master’s projects,” “There are not many professors like him says Jones. “Seeing the students grow and develop and be with such great industry experience,” able to achieve so much gives me a great deal of satisfaction. says Jenny X. Chang (M.S. EE ‘05), who On a more practical level, if I want to have qualified people is working on micro-architecture for to work in industry, I have an obligation to give back.” low-power base-band communications Jones estimates that altogether he has taught and advised and network applications at Intel. “He more than 1,000 students since he started teaching master’s teaches us how to solve real problems, classes in circuit design seven years ago. not boring equations.” “Professor Jones is up-front and demands a lot of his students,” Says Rodger Stamness (B.S. EE ’02), says Stamness. “But that’s the way it works when you’re on third year master’s student and member of Intel’s the job. Coming from industry, he’s got a wealth of experience Microprocessor Design Group, “His classes went straight to that’s really helpful.” the meat and potatoes, which is what you’d get in a real job. He’s super practical.” Before joining Intel in 1996, Jones was a Senior VP and CTO at Chips and Technologies, Inc. He holds bachelor’s and mas- Jones, a strategic planning architect at Intel, took his first ter’s degrees in engineering from Brigham Young University. SJSU teaching assignment in 1998 when he covered for an

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