THE VITERBI NEWSWIRE - 7/12/05
SITeC Starts Registering Student Entrepreneurs-To-Be
Just seven months after its founding, USC's Mark and Mary Stevens
Institute for Technology Commercialization (SITeC) has begun enrolling
students - undergraduates and graduates - for innovative, multidisciplinary programs in engineering entrepreneurship.
Ultra-wide Band Specialist Wins IEEE Sumner Medal
Robert A.
Scholtz, holder of the Fred H. Cole chair, has been named a
co-recipient of the 2006 IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award "for
pioneering contributions to ultra-wide band communications
science and technology." For nearly a decade, Scholtz has been studying
how to use ultra-wide band - brief signal pulses spread over a very
wide band of the radio spectrum - for imaging, data transmission and
other tasks.
George Bekey Receives IEEE's Highest Robotics Honor
George Bekey, who once remarked that he found robotics fascinating
"because you learn so much about humans," has earned IEEE's highest
honor in robotics, the IEEE Technical Field Award in Robotics and Automation. He is the very first academic to receive it.
Yannis
Yortsos, the dean of the Viterbi School, paid tribute to Bekey's
enormous impact as an academic administrator. He noted that George was
the first chair of electrical engineering/systems at USC when the
department was firstm formed. Bekey also chaired the computer science
department and was instrumental in founding the biomedical engineering
department. He
founded the robotics research and teaching program at USC, and later
served as the Viterbi School's associate dean for research.
Medvidovic and Prasanna Win Okawa Research Grants
A pair of talented Viterbi School engineers has won $10,000 Okawa computer science grants.
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Departments of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Merge
The
departments of chemical engineering and materials science have merged
as the result of parallel interests and the natural evolution of the
two disciplines. Professor Theodore Tsotsis, Vivian Chair in Energy
Resources at USC, will chair the new Department of Chemical Engineering
and Materials Science.
"We
believe that this fusion will create a great deal of new synergy to the
work of the faculty previously in the two departments, enlarge the
visibility of their exceptional research, and increase resources for
even greater growth," Yortsos said.
Professor Theodore Tsotsis, Vivian Chair in Energy Resources at USC,
will chair the new Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials
Science. A
key member of the Viterbi faculty for the last 25 years, Tsotsis will
hold the position for a three-year term ending June 30, 2008.
Tsotsis
holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois,
Urbana-Champaign. Since joining USC, he has done groundbreaking
research in chemical reaction engineering, catalysis and membrane
reactors.
"One
of Theo's first priorities will be to work with the faculty in the very
near future to formulate a blueprint of the administrative, educational
and research structure for the new department," Yortsos said.
"I
am very optimistic that with Theo's leadership, the combined
department, with its innovative research and educational programs in
chemical
engineering, materials science and petroleum engineering, will flourish
and become among the elite departments in the nation in these important
research areas," he added.
Keith Uncapher's Legacy
A short film produced by the Viterbi School for the 2005 Awards
Luncheon, "An Information Legacy: Keith Uncapher and the ISI
Revolution," can now be viewed online at the ISI website:
Mapping the California Tsunami Threat
Jose Borrero, a member of the USC tsunami research team headed by
Costas Synolakis, is mapping the tsunami threat to California and
according to the San Jose Mercury News he is the only one doing it.
The Bionic Builder
And KCBS-TV Channel 2 reported recently from ISI on Behrokh Khoshnevis' Contour Crafting project to build houses robotically.
