Newsletter for Alumni, Friends and Silicon Valley Industry I 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 Google, 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 Intel, Lam Research and Novellus. I 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. I 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 I 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. I 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.