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Honorary Doctorate, Howard University Control systems design pioneer and higher education leadership authority John Brooks Slaughter has received an honorary doctorate from Howard University, bringing his total of such degrees to nearly 30. Slaughter, a professor of electrical engineering and education with a joint appointment in the USC Rossier School, joined the faculty in 2010. The former president and CEO of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, president emeritus of Occidental College, and former chancellor of the University of Maryland, Slaughter was also the first African-American to serve as director of the National Science Foundation (NSF). Appointed by former president Jimmy Carter in 1980, Slaughter established the NSF’s Engineering Directorate, giving the discipline “organizational equity” within the foundation and beyond. Slaughter, a career-long champion of the increased representation of minorities and women in the sciences and engineering, was once described in the media as “a gentle man, efficient administrator, and an advocate powerfully devoted to minority causes.” |
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Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Young Electrical and Computer Engineer Award The 2010 Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Young Electrical and Computer Engineer Award will go to Bhaskar Krishnamachari, a wireless network specialist and a Ming Hsieh Faculty Fellow in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering. Krishnamachari, an associate professor with a joint appointment in the Department of Computer Science, will be presented the award this summer “for meritorious service in the interests of humankind, as evidenced by his past record and future promise, as well as for outstanding achievements in his chosen profession.” Krishnamachari received the Frederick Emmons Terman Award of the American Society for Engineering Education in 2010, which also acknowledges both research and contributions to teaching, and a USC Mellon Award for Excellence in Mentoring Graduate Students in 2008. |
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Best Paper – 2011 International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems Milind Tambe, an expert in artificial intelligence and autonomous and multiagent systems in the Computer Science and Epstein Departments, members of his TEAMCORE Research Group, and members of USC Viterbi’s National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorist Events (CREATE), have received yet another award for their Game-Theoretic Unpredictable and Randomly Deployed Security system (GUARDS). Tambe; his Ph.D. student/first author James Pita; co-author Chris Kiekintveld of the University of Texas at El Paso; Erin Steigerwald of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA); and Shane Cullen of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Division all contributed to the Best Paper in the Innovation Track category entitled “GUARDS: Game Theoretic Security Allocation on a National Scale.” Presented at the 10th Annual International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS) last month, the work proposes deployment of the system around the nation. The GUARDS randomization system for scheduling security checks and other measures in airports and other gateways that makes such monitoring unpredictable to observers, would replace the TSA’s outmoded system. GUARDS, which is an enhanced iteration of the earlier Assistant for Randomized Monitoring over Routes system (ARMOR), is currently in testing at Los Angeles and Pittsburgh International Airports. Tambe also received a Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation Homeland Security Award in 2010. |
