-COE News
-Awards and Honors
-Seminars and Events
-Other News
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DEAN'S COLUMN

Dear alumni and friends:

May was a month with several important and joyous events. On Friday, May 9th, we had our spring COE Advisory Board meeting. The primary focus of this meeting was the college’s student recruitment effort and our internship and co-op programs. The highlight of the day for our Advisory Board members was the meeting with engineering student organizations’ representatives; more interaction with students will be included in future meetings.

May 9th was also the date of the investiture of Professor Philip Yu, Professor of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering, by Interim Chancellor Eric Gislason as the inaugural holder of the Peter L. and Deborah K. Wexler Endowed Chair in Information Technology. Philip comes to UIC from the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, where he was manager of the Software Tools and Techniques group. His research interests include data mining, Internet applications and technologies, database systems, multimedia systems, parallel and distributed processing, and performance modeling. Philip Yu has published more than 500 papers in refereed journals and conferences. He holds or has applied for more than 300 U.S. patents. He is a Fellow of the ACM and the IEEE. A study appearing in the December 2007 SIGACT news lists Philip as both one of the ten most central computer science authors of all time, and of the past five years.

The Chancellor also presented COE alumnus Peter Wexler with the Peter L. and Deborah K. Wexler Endowed Chair in Information Technology Medal.

Click here for the complete AB meeting photo coverage

The College of Engineering held its 41st commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 10, 2008. Congressman Dan Lipinski, Third Congressional District, delivered an engaging keynote speech.

It was a very joyful ceremony for everyone – the graduates, their friends and families, and the faculty. Over six hundred degrees were awarded, including 349 B.S., 195 M.S. and M.Eng., and 68 Ph.D. degrees.

Alumnus Richard S. Hill, CEO of Novellus, received an honorary doctorate in engineering. Rick is the first recipient of an honorary doctorate in engineering to be awarded by UIC. We are very proud of Rick’s outstanding innovation in the field of semiconductors, and we also appreciate his continued support of the College of Engineering. Most recently Rick has served as Chair of the COE Advisory Board. Rick gave a very inspirational speech after receiving his honorary degree.

For the commencement ceremony video, please click here
For photos click here

We also paid special tribute to Lucy Trevino who received her B.S. in Bioengineering. Lucy has battled a terrible disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy since the age of four and has been unable to walk since age nine.  In the midst of unbelievable challenges, Lucy has completed her Bioengineering degree. Lucy’s classmates and the entire audience gave her a standing ovation. We also recognized Lucy’s mother, Rosa Trevino, for her tremendous dedication in attending every class, lab, and study session with Lucy over the past six years and wished her Happy Mothers Day. Click here to read the Sunday, May 11 Chicago Tribune’s front-page story about Lucy.

After hearing about the story of Lucy and her mother Rosa, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees established a scholarship named for Rosa Trevino. The $1,000 scholarship will assist a student with disabilities each year. Information on his announcement is available here.

Over the past year it has been exciting to serve as Interim Dean of the College of Engineering. I appreciate the tremendous support I have received from faculty and staff, as well as from alumni, friend and our Advisory Board. I have enjoyed having the chance to meet and interact with outstanding students from each of our six departments.

Earlier this spring I was honored to be one of four finalists for the permanent deanship for the College of Engineering. On June 2nd, UIC Provost Michael Tanner announced that he is appointing me Dean of Engineering, effective July 28, 2008 pending approval of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. Information on his announcement is available here.

Many of you have already received word of this announcement. In this short newsletter I will not try to articulate the many opportunities, challenges, and bright future I see for the COE. During my two-day interview in April, I had the chance to present and discuss these ideas with faculty, staff, students, alumni and Advisory Board Members. Briefly here, I would like to restate five of my core values and beliefs with respect to the deanship and COE:

1. The most significant impact we will have on society is educating our students.

2. A diverse university is an exceptional place for both educating students and conducting research.

3. A research university is an outstanding place to receive both an undergraduate and graduate education.

4. The future of Illinois public higher education is the University of Illinois at Chicago.

5. The economic vitality of Chicago and Illinois is critically dependent on the UIC College of Engineering.

In the future we will have more detailed discussions and communications on the exciting opportunities ahead. I am very excited to serve as Dean of Engineering, and together we will continue to improve our outstanding College of Engineering and its impact on the world around us.

Sincerely,

Peter C. Nelson
Dean and Professor, College of Engineering

COE NEWS

Professor Derong Liu of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department was named General Chair of 2008 IEEE Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control on April 6-8, 2008.

Derong Liu was the General Chair of 2008 IEEE Conference on Networking, Sensing and Control, held in Sanya, China, April 6-8, 2008. The conference is sponsored by the IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society. This year's conference is the fifth one in its series. The main theme of this year's conference is advanced technologies for emergency planning and response. The conference featured plenary speeches given by world renowned scholars, regular sessions with broad coverage, and some special sessions focusing on popular topics.

AWARDS & HONORS

Professor Philip Yu of the Computer Science Department was the recipient of the best paper award

Philip Yu has received the best paper award at the SIAM Data Mining Conference for a paper entitled “Proximity Tracking on Time-Evolving Bipartite Graphs.” For more coverage, click here.

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Professor Derong Liu of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department receives best paper award from the 2nd International Conference on BioInformatics and Biomedical Engineering

Derong Liu received the best paper award from the 2nd International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering, held in Shanghai, China, May 16-18, 2008. The paper is entitled "Seizure Prediction Using a Dynamic Model with Hidden Variable," and was coauthored with his former Ph.D. student Zhongyu Pang.

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Tim O’Brien and Peter Ifft, two engineering athletes received Award of the Year

Tennis team member Tim O'Brien of the Chemical Engineering Department and baseball pitcher Peter Ifft of the Bioengineering Department were two athletes tied for the Male Academic Athlete of the Year Award awarded by Intercollegiate Athletics. They both had G.P.A. of 4.0.

They were also the recipients of the Aileen Andrew Athletic Award given by the Andrew Foundation for Athletics.

Tim O'Brien was also the recipient of the Avery Brundage Award (for Athletes in the UI system).

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Professor Sudip Mazumder of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department receives ONR DURIP 2008 Award

Sudip Mazumder received an ONR DURIP Award for a project entitled “A High Performance Real-Time Simulation System for Multiscale Analysis of Advanced Power and Control Networks and Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing.” The single-PI award is worth $310,000.
He was invited to NSF to serve on the Power Control and Adaptive Network (PCAN) Panel and to an Invited Workshop on Advanced Power Conditioning held at the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology). He has also been invited to serve as an Associate Editor for the prestigious IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

Sudip Mazumder received two other research grants; one is from US Hybrid Inc. for $224,509 and entitled “Bi-directional Dc/Dc Converter for Plug-in-Hybrid Vehicle (PHEV) Applications;” the second is from the California Energy Commission for $193,000 and entitled “Modular and Efficient Power Converter with Source Ripple-Current Mitigation.”

SEMINARS & EVENTS

Professor Andreas Linninger of the Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering departments was the keynote speaker at the Medical Innovations Conference Vienna 2008.

Andreas A. Linninger delivered a keynote presentation entitled: “MedicaI Imaging for Targeted Delivery of Macro-molecules to the Human Brain” at the Medical Innovations Conference Vienna 2008 on Friday, May 30, 2008.

More details can be found here. For the Abstract click here.

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OTHER NEWS

College Recruitment Broadens its Reach

For the third year in a row, the college recruitment team has broadened its reach. The college sponsored three Fall Open Houses, a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Career EXPO (FermiLab), a High School Student Visitation Day, a dinner for underrepresented women and minorities, GATES Millennium event with CPS, the AIChE’s (American Institute of Chemical Engineers) Recruitment/Symposium, visitations to the top 10 high schools and community colleges, individual appointments with perspective students and parents, faculty recruitment team visits to the College of DuPage, Triton College, and Harold Washington College, a Phone-a-Thon, a Navy Pier Recruitment Event, UIC Saturday Preview Days, Challenge of the Dean’s Prospective Visits, IACAC Recruitment Conference, etc…For more information on these events, please contact Dr. Denise R. Hayman, Assistant Dean for Recruitment, or Nubia Raygoza, Assistant Director at 6-2201.

2008-2009 Recruitment Plans in the Works

As we end the spring semester, committees are working to plan two of the College’s largest recruitment events for the Fall 2008, the AIChE Symposium and the GATES Millennium College Fair. With the assistance of college faculty from ChE, ECE, and MIE, along with student society support, the AIChE event brought about 250 students from city and suburban high schools to campus to learn something about engineering. This year’s high school and community college students will be invited to attend. For more information on these events please contact Nubia Raygoza or Dr. Denise R. Hayman at 6-2201.

Four-Year Performance Metrics Prove Successful

NACME, the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc., supports our nation’s colleges and universities through corporate scholarship support. In 2003, UIC’s College of Engineering received a NACME block grant for $300,000 for five years through a grant proposal written and submitted by Dr. Denise R. Hayman for underrepresented ethnic minority students. UIC was one of 13 institutions nationally to receive this award. The scholarships are awarded to students based on financial need and academic performance for a total of five years and rang from $1,000 to $5,000 a year. Companies that fund and support NACME’s efforts include 3M, The Boeing Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Dupont, Deloitte & Touche, Exxon Mobil Corporation, and Toyota. Recently, NACME noted that the retention rate for UIC graduating scholars was 79% for freshmen and 94% for transfer students. NACME and UIC’s relationship officially began in the mid 1980s with over one million dollars donated to support recruitment and graduation efforts for engineering students. For more information about NACME click here.

UIC Alum Provides Student Support

1997 alumnus Rick Mendoza has facilitated $84,000 in grants to SHPE since becoming a corporate liaison manager for Xerox Corporation. These successful grant proposals, written by MERRP, allow SHPE to provide individual members with scholarships that recognize their academic performance and service contributions.

EAA Golfing For a Cause – A Nine Hole Afternoon For Engineering Scholarships

Join the Engineering Alumni Association on Friday, August 15th at the Historic Downers Grove Golf Course in support of scholarships. For more information, click here.

Give the Gift of Education!  Make your annual donation to the College of Engineering, your academic department or the Engineering Alumni Association Scholarship Fund on-line.

Join the Brilliant Futures Campaign and give others a chance! Make your gift to the College of Engineering, today!

Newsletter Editors, Carolyn Griffith and Nancy Singer
Please submit news items to cgriffi@uic.edu
www.engr.uic.edu