Transmissions - Winter 1998
In this Winter 1998 issue...
As last year's newsletter went to press, we were awaiting (somewhat anxiously) a visit from ABET (the Accrediting Board for Engineering and Technology) which accredits EE and other engineering programs at WPI. We were one of only two schools to be visited last year as test sites for entirely new set of accreditation criteria, called Engineering Criteria 2000. These criteria replace the previous set of descriptive curriculum requirements with two major requirements: (1) a system for establishment of educational objectives, assessment of results against the objectives, and continuous improvement, and (2) a comprehensive outcomes assessment plan to demonstrate that the objectives are being achieved. Further ABET specifies a list of educational outcomes that must be accomplished.
This philosophy, as well as most of the objectives listed by ABET, matches quite well with WPI's approach to education. One way to summarize the new criteria is to note that in the past all we had to demonstrate was that "we gave it [the curriculum] to our students." Now we have to demonstrate that "they got it!" This represents a major change in pedagogical thinking, and while we have substantial pieces in place, there's a lot of work remaining for us to do.
The ABET visit went well, the final report was quite positive, and the electrical engineering program continues to be fully accredited. As a result of this process, we are definitely looking at our new curriculum in a different way than we did a few years ago.
John A. Orr, Department Head.
As part of its continuing involvement with Professor Peder Pedersen's research work in medical ultrasound, Hewlett-Packard recently provided Peder's lab with a state-of-the-art ultrasound diagnostic scanner, specially modified for experimental data aquisition. From left, Ted Fazioli '85 and Ronald Gatzke of HP, and Peder Pedersen.
Labonte Is WPI's First Professor of Practice
Robert C. Labonte '54, who has been a visiting associate professor in the department since 1992, has been named the first Professor of Practice at WPI. Creating last spring, the professorship does not fit into the traditional tenure track mode, according to Provost John F. Carney III. It was set up, he explains to attract distinguished professionals, exemplified by Labonte, to teach and to share their expertise. "This new professorship provides WPI with a mechanism to tap the experience of successful professionals," Carney says. "You could say it's a talent bridge to connect proven leaders in industry and government with academia."
ECE Professor Alexander E. Emanuel says that Labonte not only has the professional expertise necessary for the post, he is, first and foremost, truly committed to the nurturing of his students. "Bob's goal is to pass the torch on to his students," says Alex. "He wants to teach him how to get the most of their WPI education so they will be able to enjoy success in their chosen professions, as he did before them. "
Bob has had a distinguished career. From 1955 to 1959, he was a member of the technical staff in MIT's Laboratory Division. In 1959 he joined the Bedford-based MITRE Corp. when it was formed out of MIT's Lincoln Laboratory. He retired from the year 1993 as department manager, Security Intelligence Engineering. But received his B.S. in electrical engineering in 1954 and his M.S. in 1959, both from WPI. At this point in time, WPI's first Professor of Practice can think of no other place he'd rather be than at WPI working with students. "Students," he says, "are the architects of the future."
Greene Gets Back to Studies
This February, WPI was on the front pages (newspaper and Web) around the country after the announcement that ECE student Paul Greene '98 had discovered a major security flaw in Microsoft's web browser.
As Paul said at the time, "All I wanted to do was connect to my web page; instead, I discovered a bug in Microsoft's Internet Explorer that could allow anyone to build a booby trap into a web page."
The results have been widely reported, with a complete summary in the Summer 1997 issue of the WPI Journal. For Paul, the results included a total immersion into the media, some disruption in his studies, and a substantial number of inquiries potential employers, including Microsoft. This fall, Paul is completing his MQP in the area of computer networking, and following up on those jobs possibilities.
Camp REACH Broadens the Horizons of Young Women
They may not be able to solve all the world's problems, but the 30 young women who attended Camp REACH last summer have some great ideas for making life easier and healthier for their own and future generations.
Professors Denise Nicoletti (ECE) and Chrys Demetry (mechanical engineering) created and directed this residential engineering and technology program for junior high school girls. Camp REACH was funded by a $73,165 grant from the National Science Foundation. All of the campers entered seventh grade in Worcester County schools last September.
In addition to teaching them about engineering, the program was designed to help young women develop self-esteem and self-confidence in mathematics and science. It stresses that engineering is a collaborative, problem-solving process that is used every day to help people.
"Campers spent much of their time on design projects for customers in the Worcester community," says Denise. The two-week residential program was full of hands-on workshops and field trips. One highlight was a trip to Fallmouth, Mass. on Cape Cod, where Daniel Gibson, assistant professor of biology and biotechnology, led a weekend workshop on the building dynamics and material properties of sand. The campers built towers and walls and learned to buttress and crenelate in "Sand Castle is an Engineering Experience." In "Round, Round, Get Around, I Get Around," the campers explored how mechanical, rehabilitation and architectural engineering is used to accommodate the needs of individuals with physical disabilities.
The two week program left Denise and Chrys exhausted but exhilarated--and ready to do it again next summer.
Faculty Notes
Professors Jin-Fa Lee and Denise Nicoletti received tenure; Nicoletti was also promoted to associate professor.Assistant professors John McNeill and Christof Paar received prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation. These awards (each over $200,000) will assist in developing their research and teaching careers. McNeill specializes in analog microelectronics and Paar's interests include cryptography and data security.
Professor Alexander Emanuel was elected an IEEE fellow "for advances in the theory of power quality, real-time measurement, and effects of power system harmonic distortion. "
Professor Emeritus Archie McCurdy was elected a Thermal Conductivity Fellow at the 24th International Thermal Conductivity Conference, held in Pittsburgh in October 1997.
Professor Kaveh Pahlavan served on the Committee on the Evolution of Untethered Communications of the National Research Council. The committee's report has been just been published in book form by the National Academy of Sciences.
Professor John Orr was appointed the educational activities board of the IEEE.
Freeman Recieves Newell Award
H. Richard Freeman '61 has been selected by the faculty of WPI's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department as the seventh recipient of the 1996-97 Hobart Newell Award, which recognizes "outstanding contributions to the electrical and computer engineering profession."
Dick received his B.S. in EE at WPI in 1961, followed by a Master of Engineering at Yale in 1962 and a Ph.D. in EE at the University of Maryland in 1970. He joined the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in 1964 as design engineer on the Nimbus weather satellite system, and advanced through several positions with the space shuttle and other satellite systems.
Between 1983 and 1989, he served with the Central Intelligence Agency, before returning to NASA. He is currently chief engineer, Engineering Directorate, at Goddard.
Dick has received numerous awards, including the NASA Exceptional Service Medal and the Presidential Federal Design Achievement Award.
Recipients of the Newell Award include William R. Grogan '46, Paul Allaire '60, Ronald Zarella '71, Robert McIntosh '62, John Lott Brown '46 and Donald Foley '66. This year's award was presented at the annual ECE faculty dinner, May 10, 1997.
After a long absence, the tradition of an annual senior-faculty banquet was reinstated in 1996. Its success was exceeded by the large participation of both students and faculty in May 1997. Besides providing an opportinuty to reminisce about the experiences of four years, the banquet was the setting for the presentation of ECE MQP awards and the Outstanding Teaching Assistant award.
Rulnick Named Satin Fellow
John Rulnick, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been selected the Joseph Samuel Satin Fellow for the 1997-98 academic year.
John joined the department in August 1996 after completing his Ph.D. at UCLA. He received his B.S. in EE at MIT in 1986, followed by his M.S. at UCLA in 1991. His research interests are in the area of system performance, with particular application in the important area of wireless networking. He is also quite interested in teaching, particularly in the areas of signals, systems, and communications.
John has considerable engineering experience in industry, having held positions at United Engineers, Roncell Corp. and the Rand Corporation. He is the 16th recipient of the annual Satin Fellowship.
The award was endowed by Joseph Samuel Satin Jr. '68 EE and his family. It recognizes outstanding early performance and promise for future contributions by a new faculty member in both teaching and research. The award includes substantial funds to support the recipient's teaching and research initiatives.
Student Awards
The Salisbury Prize, presented to WPI's most meritorious seniors, was awarded to 14 students in 1997, two of whom majored in electrical engineering: Nicholas G. Bulat and Christine M. Manganis.
Lucia M. Kimball of Westford, Mass., a doctoral candidate in mathematical sciences, was honored with the Sigma Xi Ph.D. Research Award for her thesis, "Optimal Unit Commitment and Economic Dispatch with Transmission and Energy Constraints." Her advisors were Kevin Clements of ECE and Paul Davis of the Mathematical Sciences Department.
The Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding ECE Teaching Assistant Award was presented to ECE graduate student Ryan C. Tomasetti. The following ECE projects were selected to receive the Provost's MQP Awards as well as the ECE Alumni MQP Awards:
First Place: "Single and Three-Phase Power Metering," Dawn Ostenberg, Rajan Kumar, Neil O'Rourke; advisor, John McNeill.
Second Place: "Distributed Audio Control System," Stephen Richardson; advisor, William Michalson.
Third Place: "A GPS-based Remote Hazard Detection System," William Brother, Jonathan Day and John Zaghi; advisors, William Michalson, Willy Eggimann, William Grogan.
Fourth Place: "Control of Simultaneous Motions in Upper Extremity Prosthesis," Colleen Fox, Nicole Robert and Jason Wening; advisor, Fred Looft.
MQP Site Created at NASA/Goddard
Professor Fred J. Looft III initiated an exciting new residential project program in August 1997 with the founding of the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Major Qualifying Program. Twelve WPI students in four teams inaugurated the MQP program. "We're excited about this opportunity to work with one of NASA's premier centers," says Looft, the program's first director. "This site, a world-renowned research facility for unmanned spaceflight, was a natural choice for this expansion of our off-campus programs to include more MQPs (the design and research project) in addition to IQPs (interdisciplinary projects). The multi-disciplinary MQP program provide an opportunity for WPI students to satisfy their project requirement during one term of intensive, focused team project work in a professional, technical environment.
NASA administrators praised the high level of science and engineering expertise the WPI students brought to their projects, as well as their professional approach and hard work. The success of the 1997 projects laid a strong foundation for the program's future years. Looft served as faculty advisor to two projects: "Automation of Vacuum Chamber at GSFC Diffraction-Grating Evaluation Facility" and "Demonstration of an Absolute Rotary encoder disc by Dynamic Optical Lithographic Means." Two other projects were advised by faculty in the Computer Science and Chemical Engineering departments.
ECE students participating in the program were (far left photo, from left) Michael Hills '97 of Salem, Ore., Damian Dobric '98 of Owls Head, Maine, and Ryan Abraham '98 of Rochester, Mass.; (right photo, left to right) Michael Kowalchik '98 of Virginia Beach, Va., Paul Yeaman '98 of Uxbridge, Mass., and Brandon Hallen '97 of Holden, Mass., and Doug Leviton, optical physicist at NASA.
Ken Matsuo Scholarship
The Ken Matsuo Memorial Scholarship Fund has been endowed in the amount of $100,000 by Ken's widow, Shigeko Matsuo. It will be used to provide financial assistance to deserving undergraduate EE students.
Ken received his EE degree from WPI in 1925 and then returned to Japan where he pursued a distinguished career.
Gifts such as this obviously benefit the scholarship recipients, but their effect is much broader, enabling the ECE department and WPI to admit and educate the academically qualified students without regard to financial need.
Research Grants
The following new research grants were received by ECE faculty in 1996-97 and to date in 1997-98.
Cyganski, D., "CORBA: Real time and Fault Tolerant Design," Lockheed-Martin Corp., $27,937, February 1997.
Cyganski, D., "Intuitive Information Visualization for 2-D and 3-D ATC," Lockheed-Martin Corp., $102,426, July, December 1996.
Cyganski, D., "TCP/IP Parameter Tuning Assessment Tools," Lockheed-Martin Corp., $42,390, December 1996.
Cyganski, D., "Distributed Tactical Assesment Display System," Lockheed-Martin Corp., $71,956, April 1997.
Cyganski, D., "Investigation of Pose-Invariant Algorithms," Textron Systems Corp., $54,986, April 1997.
Cyganski, D., "LSD/DOA Based Intelligent Data Analysis System for Spacecraft," Accurate Automation Corp., $15,004, December 1996.
Cyganski, D., "Smart-Pump Vision System," Textron Systems Corp., $20,630, June, November 1997.
Lee, Jin-Fa, "Efficient and Reliable 3D FEM Algorithms for Computation Electromagnetics," $100,000, January 1997.
Ludwig, R. (Co-PI), "Gradient Coils for Diffusion Weighted MRI of Stroke," Medical Advances Inc., $49,735, May 1997.
Ludwig, R. "Design and Development of a Pulsed Hysteresis Graph System," Walker Magnetics Group Inc., $16,484, April 1997.
Ludwig, R. "Feasibility Study of Applying Electromagnetic Nondestructive Evaluation," Gillette Co., $53,483, November 1997.
McNeill, J. A., "CISE Research Instrumentation," NSF, $108,434, January 1997.
McNeill, J. A., "Analog ASIC-Based CD Camera," EG&G Reticon, $5,158, October 1997.
McNeill, J. A., "High Speed Digital Output Camera-on-a-Chip," EG&G Reticon, $62,816, July 1997.
McNeill, J. A., "Research in Low Noise Integrated Circuit Design," NSF, $254,443, August 1997.
Nicoletti, D. W., "Engineering Summer Camp for Middle School Girls," NSE, $73,165, July 1996.
Paar, C., "Security in ATM Networks," Lockheed-Martin Corp., $41,743, October 1996.
Pahlavan, K., J. Mathewls, J. F. Lee, "Antenna Design and Ray-Tracing Analysis for Shelf Labeling Systems," Electronic Retailing Systems International, $15,193, March 1997.
Pahlavan, K, "Wireless LANs for UMTS," University of Oulu/Finland, $115,575, April 1997.
Pahlavan, K., J. Matthews, "Urban Geolocation System: Propagation Analysis and Measurements," TASC, $226,508, October 1997.
Pedersen, P. C., "Ultrasound-based Osteoporosis Detection," NSF, $56,986, September 1997.
Rulnick, J., "Workstation and Server Memory Reliability: Software Tool," Usenix Asoc., $3,990, October 1997.
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