In the Zotlight 2008

Samueli School faculty, staff, and students are frequently recognized with honors of distinction. We are pleased to announce and congratulate the following noteworthy achievements for 2008.



Awards, grants and other honors can be sent to eknapp@uci.edu to be considered for publication.


DECEMBER 2008

AGU Recognizes Dean Bras for his Exceptional Contributions to Hydrology



Rafael L. Bras, Sc.D., dean and distinguished professor of The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, was recently honored for his “outstanding contributions to hydrology,” at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Honors Ceremony in San Francisco, Calif.  AGU bestowed the prestigious Robert E. Horton Medal to Bras, as well as awarded UC Irvine Associate Professor Diane Pataki, Ph.D., of Earth system science, a distinguished James B. Macelwane Medalist Award.  Both Bras and Pataki were recognized for being respected leaders in their areas of expertise, and for their exceptional contributions to science.


UC Irvine Tops All Universities in Number of Researchers Named Fellows of Leading Scientific Society

Twenty new honorees named by American Association for Advancement of Science 



The 20 UC Irvine science and engineering researchers named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science represent the largest class in 2008 of any university or institution in the U.S.



The Henry Samueli School of Engineering faculty elected were: 

  • Said Elghobashi, Ph.D., professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering
  • Fadi J. Kurdahi, Ph.D., professor of electrical engineering and computer science

Read more >>


OCTOBER 2008

Academic Senates Bestows Distinguished Award to Professor Steinert

In recognition of his outstanding teaching

The Irvine division of the University of California Academic Senate awarded Roger F. Steinert, M.D., professor of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering, and chair of clinical ophthalmology, a prestigious 2008-2009 Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching in honor of his outstanding contributions in teaching.

Dr. Steinert, who is internationally recognized for his research and clinical expertise in the fields of cataract surgery, corneal transplantation, and refractive surgery, participated in the Academic Senate’s evening of distinguished faculty lectures on Oct. 14, and presented “Lasers and the Eye: Diagnosing and Treating with Light.”  Read more >>


AUGUST 2008

NASA's Prestigious Earth and Space Science Fellowship Awarded to CEE Doctoral Student

Ali Behrangi receives two-year renewable $60,000 fellowship to continue his advanced research in precipitation



Ali Behrangi, a third-year civil and environmental Ph.D. student, has been awarded NASA’s Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NESSF), which aims to ensure the continued training of a highly qualified workforce in disciplines required to achieve NASA’s scientific goals.  Behrangi was selected from a highly competitive pool of students in the area of Earth Science research to receive a two-year award – with the option to extend the fellowship to a third year – and will receive $30,000 annually to continue his research in precipitation estimation using remotely sensed satellite images. Behrangi is the first student in The Henry Samueli School of Engineering to receive this distinction.



The fellowship program allows NASA to solicit research involving data collected by space-based instruments during current and past NASA missions, relevant ground-based data and laboratory experiments, and theoretical modeling.  Read more  >>


Prestigious Amelia Earhart Fellowship Awarded to MAE Grad Student

Arezoo M. Ardekani receives $10,000 fellowship from Zonta International



Fourth-year mechanical and aerospace engineering graduate student, Arezoo M. Ardekani, has been awarded an Amelia Earhart Fellowship from Zonta International, a global organization of executives and professionals working together to advance the status of women worldwide through service and advocacy.  Ardekani, a student studying in Professor and MAE Department Chair Roger Rangel’s multiphase heat transfer and fluid dynamics laboratory, will receive $10,000 to continue her research in multiphase flows.



The fellowship was established in 1938 in honor of Amelia Earhart, famed pilot and Zonta club member, and is granted annually to women pursuing doctoral degrees in aerospace-related sciences and engineering with superior academic records and outstanding accomplishments.  Read more  >>


EECS Paper Showcased in Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering Highlights

Associate Professor Andrei Shkel and Ph.D. Student Jesper Eklund author paper chosen among 2007 highlights



Andrei Shkel, Ph.D., associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, electrical engineering and computer science, and biomedical engineering, and fifth-year electrical engineering Ph.D. student, Jesper Eklund, authored a paper that was chosen to be included in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering (JMM) 2007 highlights, a showcase of the top contributions to the field published in 2007.



JMM covers all aspects of micro-electro-mechanical structures, devices and systems, as well as micromechanics and micromechatronics.  The journal emphasizes the link between fabrication technologies and their capacity to create innovative devices.  Shkel and Eklund’s paper, titled “Single-mask fabrication of high-G piezoresistive accelerometers with extended temperature range,” was selected for the highlights list by the JMM editorial board, who chose papers that were the most accessed online and considered to be of the highest quality.  Shkel and Eklund’s paper was downloaded more than 300 times during 2007, and will be available free online for everyone to view until Dec. 31, 2008.  Their research was conducted with partial support from VIP Sensors, Inc., and UC Discovery, and has a patent pending.



Their paper outlines a fabrication process for micro-accelerometers, designed primarily to measure large accelerations.  Read more  >>


JULY 2008

MAE Graduate Student Receives Martin Summerfield Graduate Award

Award given from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics



Sadegh Dabiri, a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, was recently awarded the prestigious American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Martin Summerfield Graduate Award for Studies in Propellants and Combustion.  Dabiri will be recognized during the Awards Luncheon at the 44th AIAA/American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)/ Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)/American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit, July 21-23, 2008, in Hartford, Conn.



The Martin Summerfield Graduate Award for Studies in Propellants and Combustion, a $5,000 award funded through individual memorial gifts and the AIAA Foundation, is given to students who actively participate in research endeavors in propellants and combustion as part of their graduate studies.  Read more  >>


EECS Professor Honored With Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award

Syed Jafar will receive $300,000 over three years for communication network research



Syed A. Jafar, Ph.D., assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, was named one of 27 recipients of the 2008 Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) Young Investigator Awards.  The Young Investigator Program (YIP) seeks to attract outstanding new university faculty members to naval research by supporting and encouraging their research careers.



The awards recognize research achievements, the potential for continued outstanding research efforts, and strong support and commitment from honorees’ home research institutions. Recipients receive up to $100,000 a year for a period of three years, with additional funding for equipment or collaborative research with a Navy lab.



Jafar was honored for his research proposal, “Interference Alignment and the Promise of Unlimited Secure Spectrum Access for Tactical Communication Networks” within the Command Control Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance category.  This year's YIP awardees were also named in four other naval priority research areas:  Ocean Battlespace Sensing; Sea Warfare and Weapons; Warfighter Performance; and, Naval Air Warfare and Weapons.  Read more  >>


Samueli School Honors Outstanding Faculty at Annual Awards Banquet

Selected engineering professors received Fariborz Maseeh best teaching and research awards



Three outstanding faculty members were recognized for their numerous contributions in teaching and research at The Henry Samueli School of Engineering’s annual dinner and awards banquet held in the Engineering Gateway Plaza on campus. The banquet took place following the seventh annual “California: Prosperity Through Technology” Industry Research Symposium, themed “Disruptive Technologies for the 21st Century:  Engineering the Life Sciences.”



Martha Mecartney, Ph.D., professor of chemical engineering and materials science, received the Fariborz Maseeh Best Teaching Award, and Andrew Putnam, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical engineering and chemical engineering and materials science, and Lizhi Sun, Ph.D., vice chair of civil and environmental engineering and associate professor of civil and environmental engineering and chemical engineering and materials science, were each honored with the Fariborz Maseeh Best Faculty Research Award.  Read more  >>


Best Student Poster Winners Announced at Annual Samueli School Awards Banquet

Five engineering students recognized for outstanding research project posters



On May 19, 2008, The Henry Samueli School of Engineering honored five student recipients of the 2008 Fariborz Maseeh Best Student Research Poster competition.  Winners were chosen from among 56 entries, as part of two engineering student poster sessions held during the Samueli School's "California: Prosperity Through Technology" seventh annual industry research symposium, providing both undergraduates and graduates an opportunity to prominently display their research.  Poster award winners included:  Ekaterina Kniazeva, Biomedical Engineering; Nicholas Gunn, Biomedical Engineering; Jente Lu, Biomedical Engineering; Ali Behrangi, Civil and Environmental Engineering; and, Helen Chen, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.  Read more  >>


JUNE 2008

The American Electronics Association Honors Dean Alexopoulos with an Engineering the Future Lifetime Achievement Award

Alexopoulos recognized at the 15th Annual AeA High-Tech Innovation Awards



Nicolaos G. Alexopoulos, Ph.D., dean of The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, was presented with a prestigious Engineering the Future Lifetime Achievement Award during the 15th Annual American Electronics Association (AeA) High-Tech Innovation Awards Dinner and Technology Showcase, in honor of his numerous contributions made in education, research, investment, and innovation.



“It is a privilege to be recognized by AeA Orange County for my contributions to engineering science and to the community,” said Alexopoulos. “This award essentially recognizes the importance of The Henry Samueli School of Engineering and its impact to the technology business sector, not only in Orange County, but also across the nation and the world."  Read more  >>


MAY 2008

Engineering Graduate Students Part of Winning Team in Business Plan Competition

2009 Merage School of Business Campus-Wide Business Plan Competition



The 2009 Merage School of Business Campus-Wide Business Plan Competition is one of the nation's premier business plan competitions offering all UC Irvine students, staff and researchers the opportunity to form a team, create a business plan and potentially fund their business idea all within seven months.  The second place team, WANZO, was coached by Goran Matijasevic, Ph.D., director of research development for the Samueli School, and included BME students Mark Merlo and Nick Gunn.  Read more  >>


APRIL 2008

Rafael L. Bras Named Dean of UC Irvine School of Engineering

Acclaimed scholar to join UCI on Sept. 1



Rafael L. Bras, a prominent MIT hydrologist and hydroclimatologist, has been named dean of The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine, effective Sept. 1.



“Rafael Bras is an internationally renowned scientist and educator with extensive expertise on water and the environment – two tremendously important topics to our community, state and to the world at large,” said Chancellor Michael V. Drake. “I am excited to welcome this distinguished leader and scholar to our university.”  Read more  >>


Orange County Engineering Council Recognizes UC Irvine Engineering at Annual Awards Banquet

Engineering faculty, students, and alumni highlighted for engineering accomplishments and contributions



The Orange County Engineering Council (OCEC), a non-profit umbrella organization established in 1962 to promote and improve the image of engineers and scientists as professionals, while recognizing the work they accomplish locally and nationally, honored four UC Irvine alumni, one current engineering student, and two Samueli School faculty members at their 2008 annual awards banquet.



UC Irvine alumni Jamie Yoshida, Joan Wada, and John Hanrahan received the Outstanding Engineering Merit Awards, and Duke Young was given the Young Engineer Award.  Masanobu Shinozuka, Ph.D., distinguished professor of civil and environmental engineering and chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was awarded the Distinguished Engineering Educator Award and J. Michael McCarthy, Ph.D., professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, received the Outstanding Engineering Educator Award.  The Outstanding Engineering Student Award was given to undergraduate student Justin Little.  Read more  >>


MARCH 2008

CEE Professor Honored by the American Society of Civil Engineers

Ayman Mosallam highlighted for contributions to education and the civil engineering profession



Ayman Mosallam, Ph.D., professor in residence of civil and environmental engineering at The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, received the Outstanding Civil Engineering Faculty Advisor award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) on Feb. 19 in Sacramento, Calif.



The award is given to ASCE faculty advisors with outstanding records that include ASCE university chapter achievement; student services, including advising and mentoring; contributions to the civil engineering profession; outstanding teaching records; high quality technical publications; and, civic contributions.  Mosallam’s involvements in ASCE include authorship of the ASCE Structural Design Manual for Composite Joints, co-authorship of the ASCE Prestandard Documents for Pultruded Composites and developing and chairing the ASCE 5th International Engineering and Construction Conference.  Read more  >>


BME Graduate Student and UC Irvine College Bowl Club Celebrate Competition Successes

Team competes at tournaments to secure rank with top national schools



The UC Irvine College Bowl Club enjoyed a very successful fall 2007 quarter, competing against some of the best players in the nation in several College Bowl tournaments.  The team started off strong by winning a tournament at UCLA before competing at UC Berkeley and tying for third place with Berkeley’s team.  They also tied for third place with Stanford in a competition held at Stanford University.  The team includes Dwight Wynne, first-year biomedical engineering graduate student from The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, and ten other students from other schools at UC Irvine.  Read more  >>


Samueli School Names First Associate Dean for Research

Professor William Tang to begin this spring



The Henry Samueli School of Engineering is pleased to announce that William C. Tang, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering and electrical engineering and computer science, has been appointed the first associate dean for research in the Samueli School.  He will begin his new position at the beginning of the 2008 spring quarter.



Tang will primarily assist faculty in their efforts to attract, raise, and obtain research funding, as well as help them establish, build, and maintain quality research programs.  Read more  >>


FEBRUARY 2008

Biomedical Engineering Professor Elected Fellow of the SPIE

Michael Berns acknowledged for contributions to biomedical optics



Michael Berns, Ph.D., professor of biomedical engineering, surgery and developmental and cell biology has been elected a Fellow of the International Society of Optics and Photonics (SPIE).  Berns was acknowledged for his major contributions in the field of biomedical optics, especially regarding light interactions with cells and tissues.  Berns is also the co-founder of the Beckman Laser Institute and Medical Clinic, which focuses on the use of light and lasers as applied to biology and disease.  Read more  >>


UCI to Study Links Between Freight Traffic and Pollution, Health Risks Near Southern California Ports

Project will investigate alternative freight strategies to lessen health impacts of port-related operations, improve quality of life for nearby residents



Pollution and public health concerns around the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports are being targeted by researchers at UC Irvine’s Institute of Transportation Studies, who have received a grant to study commercial traffic patterns along routes serving the ports and evaluate alternative freight strategies that could help alleviate traffic and improve the quality of life for nearby residents.



The research team includes six faculty experts in engineering, economics, planning and public health. The team will focus efforts on the three major freight pathways that provide access to and from the San Pedro Bay ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach: The Harbor (110) and Long Beach (710) freeways, which accommodate thousands of trucks daily, and the Alameda Corridor, a 20-mile, rail-cargo expressway between the ports and the city of Los Angeles that currently carries about 50 trains each day. Read more  >>


EECS Assistant Professor Receives CAREER Award

Rainer Doemer recognized for his research in computer system modeling



Rainer Doemer, Ph.D., assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science in The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine, has been honored by the National Science Foundation with a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award.  Doemer was recognized for his research in modeling embedded computer systems, specifically, “Result-Oriented System-Level Modeling for Efficient Design of Embedded Systems.”



Doemer’s CAREER award will support a project that he hopes will move research and education on embedded system design forward in the area of system-level specification and modeling. While traditional work largely has focused on simulation and synthesis from a given system model, his project addresses the creation and optimization of the model itself for effective use in existing design processes. The results of his project will be directly applicable to established system design flows in the industry and fit well into existing and new courses in computer engineering education.  Read more  >>


CAREER Grant Furthers Network Coding Research

Athina Markopoulou, UCI assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, is the newest Calit2 academic affiliate to receive the prestigious CAREER award from the National Science Foundation



The five-year, $450,000 grant will further Markopoulou’s research in network coding for the Internet. She and her five graduate students are working on a way to alter the current communications network packet-switching paradigm that governs information delivery. Instead of simply forwarding data packets, network coding creates intermediate nodes that can process and re-combine multiple incoming packets into one or more outgoing packets. This idea can increase throughput and make distributed scheduling easier in several contexts. Markopoulou and her group are exploring ways to apply this idea to the areas of network security and multimedia delivery.  Read more  >>


JANUARY 2008

EECS Professor Elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Keyue Smedley recognized for contributions to electrical engineering



Keyue Ma Smedley, Ph.D., professor of electrical engineering and computer science in The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine, has been elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE).



Smedley's research focuses on electronic circuits for high current and high voltage power processing.   This is a critical area covering all electrical applications large and small, from cell phones to utility power grids.  Her groundbreaking work on one-cycle control led to professional audio amplifiers one-seventh the size of previous models with a ten-fold efficiency improvement in 1998, and a unified controller for three-phase AC-DC, DC/AC, harmonic filtering, and reactive power generation in 2003.  These inventions lay the groundwork for substantial improvements in efficiency, performance, the stability of power processing for power use, power generation, and power quality control to enable substantial reductions in the carbon footprint and raw material consumption.  Read more  >>


EECS Professor Receives Distinguished Alumnus Award

Chen Tsai recognized by National Taiwan University for research achievement in applied science and engineering



Chen Tsai, Ph.D., in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, was recently awarded the 2007 Distinguished Alumnus Award for Research Achievement from the National Taiwan University (NTU).  There were three awardees in the category of scholarly research achievement; Tsai was recognized in the area of Applied Science and Engineering for his seminal contributions in integrated optics and ultrasonics science and technology.



Tsai was also named a UC Irvine Chancellor’s Professor, a title that is designated for professors who have “achieved acclaim for their accomplishments and who are highly likely to continue producing notable achievement in scholarship.”  Read more  >>


UC Irvine Scientists Find New Way to Sort Stem Cells

Method could speed the production of future stem cell therapies



UC Irvine scientists have found a new way to sort stem cells that should be quicker, easier and more cost-effective than current methods. The technique could in the future expedite therapies for people with conditions ranging from brain and spinal cord damage to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.



The method uses electrodes on a tiny, inch-long glass slide to sort cells by their electric charges and has been used in cancer research. The stem cell field suffers from a lack of tools for identifying and sorting cells. This important discovery could add a new tool to current sorting methods, which generally require expensive, bulky equipment.



A strong collaborative partnership between UCI biologists and engineers made this discovery possible. With input from biologists, engineers built the device in UCI’s Integrated Nanosystems Research Facility. “This represents truly an interdisciplinary effort that expands the horizon in both biology and engineering fields,” said Abraham Lee, a study co-author affiliated with the Department of Biomedical Engineering in The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UCI.



Jente Lu, a doctoral graduate student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, is co-first author of the study. Lisen Wang, Steve Marchenko and Noo Li Jeon of UCI also worked on this study, which was supported by the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund of California.  Read more  >>


UCI to Help Develop New Technologies in Armor for U.S. Army

Five-year, $5.5 million contract will fund campus research center



UC Irvine professor Maria Feng has received a five-year contract from the U.S. Army worth up to $5.5 million to establish a research center that will help develop the next generation of protective armor for soldiers.



The facility, called the Center for Advanced Monitoring and Damage Inspection, will develop sensor technology and advanced analysis tools for detecting damage and assessing the integrity of protective armors. Knowledge gained from this research will aid the design of new, superior-performing armor.  Read more  >>