UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING ANNUAL REPORT 2005-06 TABLE OF CONTENTS SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING Annual Report Summary……………………………………………………….. 3 DEPARTMENTS Chemical Engineering Annual Report Summary……………………………………………………… 9 Archival Technical Journal Publications……………………………………… 11 Published Books, Book Chapters, Book Sections & Edited Volumes……….. 15 Conference Proceedings & Other Publications……………………………….. 17 Active Research Grants and Contracts………………………………………... 21 Awards, Honors, Patents………………………………………………….…... 25 Major Professional Activities………………………………………………… 27 Civil & Environmental Engineering Annual Report Summary………………………………………………………35 Archival Technical Journal Publications……………………………………… 37 Published Books, Book Chapters, Book Sections & Edited Volumes……….. 41 Conference Proceedings & Other Publications………………………………. 43 Active Research Grants and Contracts……………………………………….. 49 Awards, Honors, Patents………………………………………………….….. 55 Major Professional Activities………………………………………………… 57 Computer Science & Engineering Annual Report Summary……………………………………………………… 65 Archival Technical Journal Publications……………………………………… 69 Published Books, Book Chapters, Book Sections & Edited Volumes………... 73 Conference Proceedings & Other Publications……………………………….. 75 Active Research Grants and Contracts……………………………………….. 83 Awards, Honors, Patents………………………………………………….….. 89 Major Professional Activities………………………………………………… 91 Electrical & Computer Engineering Annual Report Summary……………………………………………………… 105 Archival Technical Journal Publications………………………………………109 Published Books, Book Chapters, Book Sections & Edited Volumes……….. 117 Conference Proceedings & Other Publications……………………………….. 119 Active Research Grants and Contracts……………………………………….. 133 Awards, Honors, Patents………………………………………………….…... 143 Major Professional Activities…………………………………………………. 145 Mechanical Engineering Annual Report Summary……………………………………………………… 155 Archival Technical Journal Publications……………………………………… 159 Published Books, Book Chapters, Book Sections & Edited Volumes………... 165 Conference Proceedings & Other Publications……………………………….. 167 Active Research Grants and Contracts……………………………………….. 173 1 Awards, Honors, Patents………………………………………………….…... 181 Major Professional Activities………………………………………………… 183 Metallurgy & Materials Engineering Annual Report Summary……………………………………………………… 189 Archival Technical Journal Publications………………………………………191 Published Books, Book Chapters, Book Sections & Edited Volumes………... 197 Conference Proceedings & Other Publications……………………………….. 199 Active Research Grants and Contracts………………………………………...201 Awards, Honors, Patents………………………………………………….…... 205 Major Professional Activities…………………………………………………. 207 CENTERS Booth Engineering Center for Advanced Technology……………………………. 215 Connecticut Global Fuel Cell Center……………………………………………… 217 Connecticut Transportation Institute……………………………………………… 223 PROGRAMS Biomedical Engineering…………………………………………………………... 225 Environmental Engineering Program…………………………………………….. 227 Management and Engineering for Manufacturing………………………………… 231 Undergraduate Programs Office…………………………………………………... 233 2 SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING ANNUAL REPORT SUMMARY 2005-06 The School of Engineering enjoyed another successful year, characterized by continuing high undergraduate enrollments, significant research expenditure, and a range of outreach activities. The School instituted one major structural change: the merger of the former departments of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering. STRATEGIC PRIORITIES Restructuring As an outgrowth of the School of Engineering’s Strategic Plan, in December 2005 Dean Amir Faghri formally announced the School would merge the departments of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering to form a new Department of Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering. To ensure proper planning and smooth transitioning, implementation commenced on January 1, 2006 and the merger was completed on July 1, 2006. Transitional committees were established, comprising an equal number of faculty from the two formerly distinct departments plus an external chair, to coordinate issues pertaining to curriculum, advising and accreditation, faculty searches, academic affairs and creation of a new degree program. The search committee was charged to recruit and hire five new tenure-track faculty members and a permanent Department Head before September 2006. This strategic action took advantage of the confluence of recent events, both internally and at the national level. The School anticipates that a merged department will provide better opportunities for faculty recruitment and retention, including much better startup packages enabled by cluster hiring; better research opportunities; and better use of common resources. Emerging from the joined department will be a new undergraduate degree offering in Biomolecular Engineering. The distinctive identities of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science & Engineering will remain intact, and the two sub-units will be overseen by program directors under the direction of the Department Head. Research During the year, faculty and units of the School of Engineering garnered major research funding from federal agencies. The Connecticut Transportation Institute (CTI) received $2 million as part of a six-year federal transportation bill signed into law August 10 by President Bush. The CTI funding is allotted under an established University Transportation Centers (UTC) Program administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Research & Special Programs Administration. Activities of the UTC at UConn will center on smart transportation, air quality and congestion mitigation. Dr. Lisa Aultman-Hall was appointed Director of the University Transportation Center at UConn. Assistant professor of Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering (CMBE) Mei Wei won two major grants, from Connecticut Innovations and NSF, in the amounts of $220,000 and $300,000, respectively, for work involving bone repair. Pamir Alpay, associate professor of CMBE and a former NSF CAREER Award recipient, was awarded a $266,000 DOD grant to develop tunable, temperature- insensitive ferroelectric film for joint tactical radio system packs and handheld radios. Electrical & Computer Engineering faculty also landed major grants. Assistant professor Yunsi Fei was awarded her first NSF grant, worth $275,000 as a sole PI. Her colleague, professor Krishna Pattipati, 3 was awarded $720,000 from the Department of Defense (DOD) for design of agile command and control organizations for innovative command structures. Faquir Jain, also of Electrical & Computer Engineering, won a $450,000 grant from DOD to conduct research into next generation analog and digital circuits for advanced radar and communications systems. Robert Magnusson landed a $240,000 grant from NSF for research into resonant leaky-mode photonic crystal devices with engineered spectra. Several Mechanical Engineering faculty won major awards. Nigel Sammes, UTC Chair Professor of Fuel Cell Technology, won $1.2 million from the Fine Ceramics Research Association for research into ceramic reactors. Trent Molter, research scientist and business development officer for the Connecticut Global Fuel Cell Center, won a $595,000 award from DOD to research reconfigurable marine fuel cells and biological fuel reformers. Department Head Ranga Pitchumani landed a $324,000 award from NSF for investigations into transport phenomena governing fabrication of microstructures. Horea Ilies won a $320,000 grant from NSF to conduct research in the area of “constrained geometric morphing of product families of mechanical design.” In addition, two faculty members won NSF Early Career Development (CAREER) Awards: assistant professors Ion Mandoiu of Computer Science & Engineering, and Jeong-Ho Kim of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Dr. Mandoiu’s $554,500 award will support his research into methods for quickly processing high volumes of genomic diversity data. Dr. Kim’s $400,000 award will support modeling and experiments in functionally graded solid oxide fuel cells. FACULTY SUPPORT Initiatives The School of Engineering once again offered all engineering faculty the option of acquiring a new computer, if needed. Three options were available under this initiative: a Dell computer, an Apple iMac, or a laptop. Numerous faculty availed themselves of this opportunity. During the year, the School presented a new initiative intended to ensure all departments have sufficient TA support for the fall ’06 term. Under this initiative, each department will be allotted support for a total of 10 full-time Level 1 TAs – including current TAs – for a period of nine months. Another new initiative announced in 2005-06 focused on enhancing teaching labs. A total of $300,000 was allocated toward this purpose, and each department and program was permitted to submit up to two proposals detailing ways to improve either existing or proposed new undergraduate teaching labs. The initiative funded a total of 10 proposals. New Supercomputer To initiate its long-planned Connecticut Institute for Supercomputing and Visualization, the School of Engineering purchased and installed two SGI® Altix® systems from Silicon Graphics, Mountain View, CA, a leader in high performance computing that recorded revenues in 2005 of $730 million. The new system is located in the Booth Engineering Center for Advanced Technology (BECAT) under the direction of BECAT’s Director, Dr. Sanguthevar Rajasekaran,