ISSN 2010-1651 MARCH 2014 ISSUE 8 A BI-ANNUAL PUBLICATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING DR QIU CHENG WEI PAGE AND HIS NUS ECE IS RANKED 6TH IN THE QS WORLD COLLABORATORS 08 DEVELOPED A NEW MECHANISM UNIVERSITY RANKINGS BY SUBJECT 2014 FOR EMPLOYING A SINGLE NATURAL UNSTRUCTURED LIGHT BEAM ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING PROFESSOR T. VENKY VENKATESAN APPOINTED PROVOST CHAIR PROFESSOR THE ECE PAGE PROFESSOR T. VENKY VENKATESAN DEPARTMENT ORGANISED A TWO- 16 APPOINTED PROVOST CHAIR DAY WORKSHOP ON “EMBEDDED SYSTEMS WITH ARDUINO” PROFESSOR FOR SENIOR INTEGRATED PROGRAMME (IP) AND JUNIOR COLLEGE STUDENTS THE ECE DEPARTMENT PAGE HELD ITS 6th ALUMNI FAMILY DAY AT UTOWN 17 ON 31 AUGUST 2013 PAGE PROF. T. VENKATESAN IS CURRENTLY THE DIRECTOR OF THE NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE AT THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE (NUSNNI) WHERE HE IS A PROFESSOR OF 02 ECE AND PHYSICS. CONTENTS HoD SPEAKS... DEPARTMENT 01 Award of ECE Scholarships While ranking of universities Appointment of Provost Chair 02 can be rather subjective Professor depending on the parameters Introducing Professor Krishna measured, this particular V. Palem ranking shows that we are well- 03 Engineering Educator Award regarded by our peers, employers Young Faculty Research rate our graduates highly and that Award our research has been rather impactful. 04 New Appointments and Promotions 05 Celebrating SONDRA’s 10th Anniversary 07 Assoc Prof Tan Kay Chen Prof Chua Kee Chaing Elevated To IEEE Fellow Head, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, NUS RESEARCH I am happy to note that NUS’ Electrical Engineering 08 Dr Qiu Cheng Wei Wins the program is now ranked 6th globally (up from 10th last SNAS Young Scientist Award year) according to the latest QS Global Universities 09 New Innovation Enables Bigger ranking announced just last week. While ranking of and Longer Lasting Memory in universities can be rather subjective depending on the Electronic Systems parameters measured, this particular ranking shows that 10 NUSwan – A Tool for Persistent we are well-regarded by our peers, employers rate our Monitoring of Water Bodies graduates highly and that our research has been rather impactful. All these are results of the quality of our staff, STUDENT students and alumni, and I congratulate everyone for this 11 Graduate Student Achievements very fine achievement. 12 CEG Students Win First and Once again, in this issue you will read some examples of Second Prizes at iCreate the fine achievements of our faculty and students over the Mobility Challenge 2013 last six months. I would particularly like to congratulate 13 NUS DCP Teams Emerge Associate Professor Tan Kay Chen on his elevation to Victorious in Taiwan and Fellow grade of the IEEE, Professor Thirumalai Venky South Korea Venkatesan on his appointment to a Provost Chair, 14 Victory at the Singapore Space Associate Professor Aaron Danner on being conferred Challenge 2013 the Engineering Educator Award, and Dr Qiu Cheng Wei 15 NUS ECE Open House 2014 on being conferred both the Singapore National Academy 16 ECE Outreach Workshop on of Science’s Young Scientist Award and the Faculty’s “Embedded Systems with Arduino” Young Researcher Award. ALUMNI Over the last six months, we have also welcomed a number of new colleagues to the ECE family. Among 17 ECE Alumni Family Day 2013 these are Distinguished Professor Antonio Helio Castro- ANNOUNCEMENT Neto, Director of the NUS Graphene Research Centre, 18 7th ECE Alumni Family Day who now holds a courtesy joint appointment with ECE, Adjunct Professor Quek Gim Pew, Chief Executive Officer NUS Engineering Charity Golf 2014 of DSO National Laboratories, and Professor Krishna V. Palem of Rice University who is now Visiting Professor to ECE funded through the GlobalFoundries Singapore Pte. Editorial Team Assoc Prof Dipti Srinivasan Ltd. Professorship in Engineering. Assoc Prof Xiang Cheng Assoc Prof Marc Andre Armand Assoc Prof Ng Chun Sum Ms Eunice Wong Photography Mr Abdul Jalil Bin Din Advisors Prof Chua Kee Chaing Assoc Prof Tham Chen Khong AWARD OF ECE SCHOLARSHIPS ECE Scholarships were awarded to three outstanding local students who have performed well academically. The award is bond-free and each recipient receives $10,000 per annum. The ECE scholarship was launched in August 2012 and is made possible by generous donations from staff, alumni and corporate partners. Let us meet our new scholars. Chandini Manoharan (EEE1) Apart from tennis, I play many other sports for leisure. DEPARTMENT I’m also currently a resident in Temasek Hall and have Hello! I am Chandini. I’m from represented the hall in Inter-Hall Games for both tennis Anderson Junior College and I and squash. Outside of school, I love to swim, bike and 01 am proud to be accepted into run, and have taken part in a number of races, such as the NUS Electrical Engineering the Standard Chartered Marathon and the Sundown Half Programme. Electrical Engineering Marathon. Sports relaxes my mind and I strongly believe interests me because, to me, that the lessons gained from sports can be applied to our electricity is today’s defining daily lives, in studies or work. Sports taught me to remain ISSUE 8 wonder. In fact, I find the virtues mentally strong when the going gets tough. It also taught of electricity much more stunning me to focus on the task at hand and not be distracted by than computer chips. other things. This training has proven to be useful, not only in the sporting arena, but also in my studies here in NUS. I marvel at how much electricity has achieved. Small MARCH 2014 wonders like real time radio communications across Beyond sports and academics, I enjoy playing the guitar in continents, man’s ability to replicate and re-live sounds my free time. I’m part of a band outside of school and we CT and sights, even the lighting up of a city by millions of E would meet up occasionally for a jam session. I also play bulbs, all these have been made possible by electricity. some drums, having attended a crash course in secondary ONN Electricty has transformed all of humanity in a few short school. Jamming to songs and listening to music allows E.C and increasingly hectic generations. There might be a time me to re-energise after a long, challenging day. when we need more electrical engineers than ever before and I would be immensely glad to contribute, and make a positive difference in this field. Mohamed Faruq Bin Mohamed Rasid (CEG2) In my free time, I read books and volunteer with SINDA Hello! I am Faruq Rasid. I and the Children’s Cancer foundation. My love of books graduated from Republic stems from the freedom it gives my imagination. I enjoy Polytechnic with a Diploma in the process of evolving my own images and views from an Information Technology. I have author’s words based on my own experiences and reasoning. always been fascinated by technology since I was young, especially by the potential I do volunteer work because being able to make even a technology has to change the small difference to the lives of others gives meaning to world. It is my lifelong goal to my existence and takes me beyond myself. For me, it invent something that can make constantly teaches me something different about the world a better place. individuals, collaboration and sympathy while I learn more about myself. In serving others, I am reminded that we are all in this world together and we need to remember While I have adequate software knowledge, I have to support one another. Life has so much to offer if we close to none when it comes to hardware knowledge. remember to look beyond ourselves. Hence, I enrolled myself in NUS’ Computer Engineering programme. I was very excited when I found out that my application had been accepted! So far, my journey Marcus Tay Hock Boon (EEE1) in NUS has been a fun experience. I love the Electrical Engineering modules I am taking, especially the ones with Hello! I’m Marcus Tay. Before practical lab-time for me to get my hands ‘dirty’. coming to NUS, I studied in Raffles institution where In my opinion, it is easier to understand and learn through I discovered my interest in a hands-on approach. I think actions commit better to physics. School also gave me memory than words read from lecture notes or textbooks. the opportunity to further my For that reason, I also like to take on mini-projects, both interest by allowing me to enrol hardware and software, during my weekends in the spirit in courses, one of which involved of gaining knowledge. building a FM radio from scratch which I thoroughly enjoyed. When I am not tinkering with Arduino or building my next Android application, I enjoy cycling and watching movies. I have a strong passion in sports. In secondary school On rare occasions, I try to learn to play the piano by and junior college, I was part of the school tennis team. referring to YouTube tutorials. I think we should constantly keep our brain active to prevent it from degenerating! APPOINTMENT OF PROVOST DEPARTMENT CHAIR PROFESSOR Professor T. Venky Venkatesan Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Prof. T. Venkatesan is currently the Director of the Nano Institute at the National University of Singapore (NUSNNI) where 02 he is a Professor of ECE and Physics. Before joining NUS, he held various appointments at Bell Labs and Bellcore for about 17 E.C years before becoming a Professor at the University of Maryland ONN (UMD) for another 17 years. E CT As the inventor of the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) process, he has produced over 550 MARCH 2014 papers and 30 patents in the area of science and application of oxide thin films.