impact fall01

7/29/2019 Impact Fall01

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ACCORDING TO THE DEAN

The capital campaign

has ended, but the

transformation of th e

school h as just beg un.

New buildings are going

up, new eminent faculty

are joining us, more

students are receiving

scholarship suppo rt,

and our programs of

research an d edu cation

are stronger than ever.

And the generosity of

dono rs and friends show s

no sign of abating. It’s

truly an exciting time to

be an engineer at Virginia.

Richard W. M iksad

SEAS LIFTS OFFIn 1995, the planning committee for the EngineeringSchool Capital Campaign set a goal of $37 million.In retrospect they clearly underestimated the loyalty thatthe school inspires in i ts alumni and friends— as well astheir generosity. At the stroke of midnight on Dece mbe r 31,2000, the campaign books closed with a total of $75.4 million,more than do uble the original target.

Thanks to the campaign, we were able to endow 35 scholarships, supportingmore than 70 studen ts, create five new chaired professorships, and bu ild ne wfacilities for the departments of Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science,and Chemical Engineering.

This was just part of the pattern, however, in a year that exceeded expectations.Our researchers had unprecedente d success in securing f unding from privateand p ublic organizations.We received over $11 million in MURI awards fromthe Department of Defense for work in electrical engineering, materials science,and com pu ter science. And our selection by the National Science Founda tion tocreate an ambitious, $5 million Center for Nanoscopic Materials Design will impathe school for years to come.

We also bene fitted from the energy and enthu siasm of new leaders. We have nechairs for biomedical engineering, chemistry, mechanical and aerospace engineeand techno logy, culture, and commu nication. In addition,w e successfully launchedan undergraduate degree program in computer engineering,thanks to thecooperative efforts of faculty from electrical engineering and computer science,and our first cohort of graduates from our highly popular Executive Master’s DeProgram in Systems Engineering received their diplomas in May.

Our students also demonstrated, quite literally, their stellar abilities this year.In April NASA tested a 214-pound payload containing an infrared sensing packathat was designed and assembled by students at U.Va. and James MadisonUniversity. The sensor will be used for atmo sphe ric research projects. The paywas carried up 31 miles to the very edge of the atmosphere aboard a rocket laufrom the NASA Wallops Flight Facility on th e Eastern Sho re of Virginia. The p rohas been supported by nearly $600,000 in grants from Litton PRC, the VirginiaSpace Grant Consortium, NASA Wallops Flight Facility, NASA Langley, and Orbit

Sciences Corporation.In the last analysis, this yearof accomplishmen t has onlyraised our e xpectations.We can’t wait for next year!

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E N G I N E E R I N G A T U V A

VOLUMETHREENUMBERTWO

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Virginia Engineering Foundation w w w.seas.virginia.edu/vef

The University of Virginia Center for Nanoscopic Mat erials Design w w w.m rsec.virginia.edu/

Orion Rocket Launch new w eb.m ae.virginia.ed u/research/u virse/

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THE UNIVERSITY O F VIRGINIA

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERINGA N D A P P L I ED S C I E N C E

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in t h e ULTRASM ALL, ULTRAFLEXI BLE ULTRASOUND

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Electrical and comp uter en gineer Travis Blalock is an e xpert translator, bridgingthe communication gap between the natural, analog world and the computational,digital world. Using integrated sen sing and signal processing, the former principal project scientist for Hew lett-Packard Laboratories dmixe d-signal CM OS integrat ed circuits for m any ap plications,recently applying his expertise to developing a new type of ultrasound mac

Current ultrasound machines take analog information in the form of sound waves and analyze them digitally to produce a two-dimensat right angles to the p atient’s skin surface. Collaborating w ith Bill Walker and John Hossack o f the Dep artment of Biomedical EnginBlalock is working toward an ultrasound device capable of producing a two-dimensional image from any angle and, ultimately, a threimage that could greatly enhance the use of ultrasound for diagnosis of cancer, stroke, and heart disease.

On e of the limitations they face is space. High-quality ultrasoun d machines have a row of 128 transducers, which send and receive smillions of times a minute. This analog information is sent along a 128-wire cable to a co mp uter, where it is converted to d igital infoand processed to produce an image.

Blalock, Walker, and Hossack reason that an ultrasound machine with a two-dimensional array, say of 128 by 128transducers, could produce an imageon virtually any plane desired.Their goal: square the number of transducers

while reducing the size of the machine.Blalock’s solution is to take advantage of modern high-density integrated circuit technology to bring the signalprocessing to the transducer and com bine sensing and signal processing on a single chip. “This approach w illprovide higher resolution, better signal-to-noise ratio, and greater imaging flexibility,” Blalock says.

With su pp ort from Carilion Biome dical Institute, Walker, Hossack, and Blalock ho pe to have a low-cost,first-generation handheld prototype ready by next year. “The work Bill, John, and I are doing together demonstrates oneof the real strengths of research at U.Va., interdisciplinary collaboration at the intersection of en gineering and med icine.”

h o b b e s . e e . v i rg i n i a . e d u / u l t r a / i n d e x . h t m l

Scott ie Ginn (SEAS ’80) follow s her ow n pat h. As an Echols Scholar, she had her run of theCollege of Arts and Sciences, but after a stint working in a semiconductor fabrication plant inSilicon Valley in t he lat e 1970s, she became passionate about engineering. “ It rea lly struck achord with me,” she says. “It took one conversation with people in the Engineering School,and I was on my w ay.”

a lu m n iPROFILE

Scottie Ginn has worked for one company sincefinishing graduate school—IBM—and she’s very clear

abou t the reason s she’s never mo ved on. “IBM has a culture of excellence,” she says. “We are not happ y unless we’re the best, soit’s a very exciting place from a technical point of view.” As the vicepresident and business line executive for pervasive computingat IBM Microelectronics, Ginn helps other companies build computingpower into a variety of everyday devices with the potential tocommunicate with each other. The goal is nothing short of creatingnetworks that reflect the way individuals live.

At the same time, Ginn values the company’semphasis on such human values as truth-tellingand on providing employees with the

opportunities to develop professionally andperson ally. “IBM takes its pe op le seriously,”she says. “It’s very good at providing themwith opportunities for growth.”

She feels tremendous loyalty to U.Va. for similar reasons. “U.Vof the be st educational institutions in the coun try,” she says. a deep understanding of the fundamental concepts of engineelearning how to co mmu nicate effectively with others.” At theGinn lauds the Honor System and the tone it creates on Grou“Integrity is an everyday part of life at the University,”she o bser

As a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council in the EngineerinGinn remains comm itted to the University. She’s working to e

current generations of students have tsame high-quality experience she enjo

YOUR N ETWORK M EETS YOUR LIFE

LAB

The family of the late John W. Matt hew s, an IBM researcher w ho he ld a po stdo cto ral po sition

schoo l, has pledg ed $ 500 ,000 in his m em ory to supp ort co nstruction o f a 1,00 0-sq uare-foot lin Wilsdo rf Hall. M atthew s’s son is roc k m usician Dave M atthew s.



GOINGGLOBAL

There’s no denying that the practice of engineering has go

global When you w ork for a compa ny like IBM, GeneralMotors, Sony, or Motorola, your colleagues and customers sthe globe. That’s why the Engineering School is increasingly

encouraging u ndergraduate and graduate students to take asemester abroad . No longer the province of the liberal arts ma

a semester ab road is as critical to th eir careers as an inte rnshipor co-op experience.

“Our students, especially our younger ones, appreciate the importanof gaining international exposure, and we’re committed to making it

available for them,” says David Morris, director of SEAS International Pand professor of civil engineering.

Four years ago, the Engineering School joined a group called the InnovativeMulticultural Curricula Consortium, a select group of European Community and

universities interested in increasing the exchange of students in engineering and science . As a result of this effort, the University has formal exchange program s wuniversities in England, France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, and Spain. Students payU.Va. tuition and fees and register free at the host institution.

The school is also working with the American universities in the consortium to ofan introductory trip to w estern Europe for students at the en d of their first year.The tour would consist of visits to partner universities and high-tech industries aswell as cultural sites. “The idea is to prep are more stude nts to take a sem ester abmost likely during the spring semester of their third year,” Morris says.

Most compu ter networks today are stationary. The comp uters and various input and output devices like keyand printers are wired together, and the protocols that orchestrate activity across these networks, while

means simple, are relatively straightforward.

All that’s about to change , thanks to advances in wireless networking and m iniaturization.network devices small enough, equip them with sensors, actuators, and computing pow

connect them wirelessly, andyou have a netw ork that’s both dy namic and self-directinDeploy eno ugh o f these devices, and you have created an intelligent environmen

This is clearly an important frontier for computer scientists, and that’s exactlywhere several teams of researchers assembled by Jack Stankovic, the BP A

Professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science, have positiothem selves. They will be investigating key issues that must be resolve

to create the protocols and controls needed to make these unimaginacomplex systems function effectively.

During the last six months, Stankovic and his colleagues fromU.Va. and such computer science powerhouses as Carnegie MellUniversity an d th e Un iversity of Illinois h ave a ttracted $8.6 millfunding, including awards from DARPA and the NSF as well asa Dep artment of Defense MURI award. Approxima tely $2 miwill be used for research at U.Va.

The DARPA award, for instance, is to develop protocols thatenable large num bers of n odes containing sen sors, actuatorand com puters to interact dynamically and autonom ously osmart battlefield. “You ne ed to find a new way of thinking ab out p rotocols to m eet the d emand s of this projStanko vic obse rves. “And that’s what we inten d to do.”

M ore than 7,800 alumni and friends (including faculty and staff) as we ll as 295 corporations endow ed scholarships and professorships, donated equipment,

AWARDEDg r a n t s

CLASSROOM

and funded buildings

as the Engineering School Capital Campaign far surpassed its original goal of $37 million.

LET YOUR SURROUNDINGS DO THE THINKING

H E R E S U LT S A R E I N :

C A M PA I G N R A I S ES $ 7 5 . 4 M I L LI O N

in t h e

w w w.cs.virginia.edu/brochure/ profs/stankovic.html

toryE N G I N E E R I N G A T U V A

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http:/ / minerva.a cc.virgi nia.edu/ ~ intstu/ OVERSEAS/ O



e n g i n e e r i n g t h a t m a k e s a d i f f e r e n c e

The University of VirginiaSchool of Engineering and Applied ScienceThornton HallCharlottesville, Virginia 22904-4246

804.924.3072www.seas .v i rg in ia .eduw w w. sea s. v irg i n i a .e d u / i m p a c t

U . S . P O S T A G E

N ON PROFIT ORGAN IZA

P A I DC H A R L O T T E S V I L L

P E R M I T N O . 1 6 4

Th e U.Va . Eng inee r ing Schoo l comple te s record $ 7 5 . 4 M I LLI O N C A P I T A L C A M P A I G N

f e a t u r e d i n s i d e

vo lume th reenumber two

THE NUM BERS TELTHE STORY

This year, four of our facu

members won Natio

Science Foundation Car

aw ards, four won U

teaching f ellowshi

and three won U.

teaching awar

EXECUTIV E M ASTER’S PROGRAM TAKES OFF

It’s the classic win-win situation. High-tech companies in Northern Virginia w ant a w ay t oretain their best people and build their skills. Bright young employees wit h five t o sevenyears on the job w ant the know ledge to take them to the next career step. The solution:U.Va.’s Executiv e M aster’s Degree Program in System s Engineeri ng.

CONNECTIONin d u str y

“We’ve designed this program with two goals in mind,” says Jerry Learmonth, the executive director of the Executive Master’s DegreeProgram. “We wa nted to m ake it possible for working professionals to enroll in the p rogram without interrupting their careers. And wewan ted to make su re they receive the very best educational experience po ssible.” The two-year program is offered at the Xerox Docum entUniversity in Northern Virginia. Studen ts meet on Fridays and Saturdays every other w eek during the scho ol year and receive their diploma s20 mon ths after stepping into the classroom for the first time. Tuition covers bo oks, software, lodging, and m eals.

At the same time, the course draws exclusively on tenured and tenure-track facultyfrom the Engineering School, the D arden Schoo l of Business Administration, a nd theMcIntire School of Commerce and features a unique blend of management, e-business,systems engine ering, and decision analytics. “This is the only off-groun ds degree -grantingprogram that the Engineering School offers,” Learmonth notes, “and we wanted to bevery sure that it represents the best of what we can provide.”

The first cohort received their master’s of engineering degrees inMay, and interest in future classes is at an all-time high.

w w w.executivemasters.com

impact fall01

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