Ffnds a Home at Illinois

NEWSNEWSW FORFORR ECEECE ILLINOISILLLINI OIS ALUMNIALUMMNII ANDANDD FRIENDSFRIENE DSD SPRING 2008 finds a home at Illinois Also in this issue: A chorusing crowd: frogs help researchers study hearing Cancer-detecting ultrasound under development ECE students take up residency on the National Mall NEWS FOR ECE ILLINOIS ALUMNI AND FRIENDS TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 A chorusing crowd: frogs help researchers study hearing A foundation for more students 6 Researchers set new record for brightness of quantum dots 6 New flat-panel display fabrication technique Dear Friends, 7 Cancer-detecting ultrasound I hear all the time from alumni that a degree from ECE Illinois under development provided the foundation necessary for a successful career. Those 8 Blue Waters finds a home at Illinois careers often take place in the technology sector as electrical and 10 Cangellaris invested as computer engineers. But many times the foundation also helps Van Valkenburg Professor our alumni find success as patent attorneys, business leaders, and academicians. No matter the environment, the skills learned here 11 Four new faculty members join ECE at Illinois are an important part of future success. 12 Faculty News 13 Researchers awarded grant to study A major factor in having not just successful alumni, but successful research on effects of blast exposure campus is quality students. Competition for the best students is constantly increasing. For this reason, the department is in the process of initiating a campaign to tell the 14 ECE students take up residence story of ECE Illinois in order to continue drawing the best of the best to Everitt Lab. on the National Mall 16 Jonathan Hill: Supporting our students One tool in our arsenal is a new program, supported by the Grainger Foundation of Lake Forest, Illinois, that will lighten the burden for our incoming freshmen and 16 ECE scholarship to benefit hopefully provide further incentive to choose ECE Illinois. Starting in the fall, any incoming freshmen freshman enrolling in electrical or computer engineering at Illinois who is a U.S. 17 Donor Profile: Mike Kaskowitz citizen or permanent resident will receive a $1,200 scholarship. I anticipate awarding 18 Donor Honor Roll this scholarship to almost 300 students each year. (Read more on page 16.) 20 Alumni board president’s letter ECE alumni and friends can help us tell our story and continue to attract outstanding 21 New alumni board members named students to ECE Illinois. All of our more than 20,000 living alumni are evidence 22 Distinguished alumni class includes that a degree from our department provides a solid foundation for future success. educators, industry leaders You are our greatest champions. Talking about your experiences here is a great way to let others know about the strength of our program. There are more ways to assist 24 Alumni Leaders: Jordan Plofsky us starting on page 16. Alumni and corporate partners have the ability to make a and John Day difference for the next generation of ECE Illinois students. 26 Alumni Class Notes Best Regards, 29 Remembering Bardeen and superconductivity theory 30 The sound of music: Beauchamp slices, dices, puts it together again Richard E. Blahut 31 Campus Roundup Department Head Henry Magnuski Endowed Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Resonance is published twice a year by the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Comments and suggestions are University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign welcome. Contact Brad Petersen, editor, at [email protected] or mail to the address at right. 53 Everitt Laboratory Editorial Board: Jeannette Beck, Assistant to the Head; Stephen G. Bishop, Associate 1406 W. Green Street Head; Richard E. Blahut, Department Head; Jonathan Hill, Director of Development; Jamie Urbana, IL 61801 Hutchinson, Publications Office Editor; Jill Jarboe, Coordinator of Alumni and Student Relations; Beth Katsinas, Director of External Relations; Tom Moone, Publications Office Assistant Editor; Brad Petersen, Assistant Director of Communications Contributing Writers: Lauren Eichmann, ECE Illinois; Kim Gudeman, Coordinated Science Lab; Jim Kloeppel, U of I News Bureau; Rick Kubetz, College of Engineering; Bridget Maiellaro, ECE Illinois; Roxanna Ryan, ECE Illinois SPRING 2008 ECE NEWS BRIEFS NEW ANECHOIC CHAMBER BUILT ECE unveiled a new Last summer, ECE submitted lengthy “self-study” reports for its anechoic chamber on the fourth floor of Everitt Laboratory in undergrad programs, and the process wrapped up in the fall with September 2007. Created to help students and faculty design the campus visit of the ABET evaluators, who toured facilities, wireless protocols and test them against other protocols in the interviewed faculty and students, and reviewed documentation same environment, the new chamber is a protective room with prepared by the department. absorbing foam cones on every inch of its inner walls. The cones serve as absorbers to prevent electromagnetic waves Typically, programs that pass muster with ABET still must shore from reflecting. The room, which is 20 feet wide, 30 feet long, up areas of weakness identified by the inspection. But in ECE, the and 12 feet high, has a metal exterior. evaluators found no areas of weakness. “The primary goal is to establish Associate Head Steve Bishop coordinated the ABET preparations an experimental test bed that is in ECE. “They knew coming in that we were highly ranked,” interdisciplinary,” ECE Associate said Bishop. “And what they really appreciated was that we didn’t Professor Jennifer Bernhard said. tell them that. We let the quality of the faculty, students, and “Instead of having people just study programs show them.” antennas, now we can actually ECE LABS VIDEOS NOW study system performances. It’s ONLINE Short, introductory important because as systems get videos are now available more complicated, they have more online for eight ECE lab complex requirements put on them.” courses. The videos are The old anechoic chamber, also located on the fourth floor of meant to help with student Everitt, is no longer in use. recruitment but may also be useful for current students. STAMP HONORS BARDEEN A U.S. postage stamp commemora- ting the achievements of former ECE faculty member and two- “These videos provide a quick and fun look at what actually time Nobel Prize winner John Bardeen (1908–1991) was unveiled happens during these labs,” said Marie-Christine Brunet, ECE at a ceremony on campus in March. Bardeen was recognized lecturer, ECE 110 course director, and undergraduate advisor. for his co-invention of the transistor and his contribution to the “They may even bring back some memories for alumni who took first fundamental these classes years ago.” explanation of Footage for the videos was compiled a few years ago, and Ravi superconductivity. Thakkar (BS CompE ’07) edited the video and sound prior to “Bardeen was arguably graduating. You can view the videos—which include ECE 110: the greatest master ever Introduction to Electrical and Computer Engineering; ECE of the quantum theory 444: IC Device Theory and Fabrication; and ECE 486: Control of the conductivity of Theory—at www.ece.uiuc.edu/video. solids, which is at the ILLIAC PIONEER RAY DIES Sylvian Ray core, the very heart © 2007 USPS. All Rights Reserved. (MSEE ’57, PhD ’61), professor emeritus of all of electronics,” said Nick Holonyak Jr., the John Bardeen in the Computer Science Department at Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Physics. Illinois, passed away on December 12. Ray “Perhaps more vital to everyone on the planet is the transistor, and was a professor in the Electrical Engineering all it has spawned,” Holonyak said. “No one sought so little for Department, predecessor to ECE, prior to himself, gave so much, and was so generous and considerate of the creation of the CS Department in 1964. his fellow man.” In his early career, Ray was involved ECE ACCREDITED FOR ANOTHER SIX YEARS Last fall, in hardware-related research. He was a ECE renewed its stamp of approval from the Accreditation primary researcher on the ILLIAC III system, a fine-grained Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), a federation of SIMD pattern recognition computer built at Illinois in 1966. technical and professional societies that accredits undergraduate engineering degree programs in the U.S. on a six-year cycle. NEWS FOR ECE ILLINOIS ALUMNI AND FRIENDS A chorusing crowd: frogs help researchers study hearing By Lauren Eichmann CE Professor Doug Jones “How we are able to attend to one any frogs were chirping. Each sound and Rama Ratnam, assistant person talking when there are so many clip could be transferred to a computer professor in neurobiology at competing sounds is not known,” said screen via a “sound movie” in which the University of Texas at San Ratnam. “In fact, how the brain is able small boxes showed where frogs were Antonio, have developed technology that to unscramble the sounds and extract visually spotted. These boxes helped further enables biologists to study frog the voice of one person from all the to confirm the sound algorithm was chorusing behavior. background noise is one of the major correct in pinpointing location. Actual research areas in auditory neurobiology. sound recordings from the microphones Jones said frogs call for two reasons: so This phenomenon is called the “cocktail- simultaneously visually recognized females can find males, and so males can party effect.” Female frogs trying to define their territory and threaten other select mates from a chorus face the same males. “While biologists have been able situation. It turns out that many of the to study the interaction between small basic pathways for processing sounds in numbers of frogs, they have not been the frog’s brain are similar to those of able to reliably study the interaction humans—and indeed to those of other between large numbers of frogs spread vertebrates.

Load more