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NEWS FROM THE UC DAVIS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING March 2008

Engineers, by their very nature,

believe in the uture.

But the challenges ahead are di-

cult. Among them complex health

issues; a worldwide inormation

network that is both promising and

vulnerable; and a global community

that urgently needs renewable, clean

energy and ecient transportation.

The UC Davis College o

Engineering is striving to meet these

and other challenges with technical

solutions that will serve Caliornia, the

nation and the world.

D E A N S M E S S A G E

Through

international

educational

collaboration,

through partnership with industry to

bring technology more quickly to the

marketplace, through cutting-edge

research and excellent teaching, and

with the engagement and generosity o

alumni and riends, we are addressing

these socially signicant needs.

Together we are making a dierence

today and or the uture.

Enrique J. Lavernia, Dean,UC Davis College o Engineering

I N T H I S I S S U E

Paul Singhs research career has been

devoted to something we oten take

or granteduntil its gone, o course.

Food. Really a very complex material,

Singh says. The National Academy o

Engineering recognized the impact o

Singhs research about this undamental

part o lie by honoring him with one o

the highest distinctions or engineers in

the United States. Singh is the rst ood

engineer to be elected to the National

Academy.

A member o the UC Davis aculty

since 1975 in the department o bio-

logical and agricultural engineering,

the distinguished proessor has made

discoveries in energy conservation,

post-harvest technology, reezing pres-

ervation and mass transer in ood pro-

cessing. Singhs laboratory is currently

working on the design and develop-

ment o ood processing equipment or

NASAs manned mission to Mars, which

could allow crew members to saely and

eciently grow and process their own

ood. Research ndings will have ap-

plication to lie on Earth, as well, Singh

says.

Singhs textbook, Introduction to Food

Engineering, is in its 4th edition, has

been translated into our languages and

is used around the world. He consid-

ers teaching to be his greatest career

contribution. This is the compounded

contribution that universities make to

society, Singh says. We educate stu-

dents through our research and teach-

ing and they go on to make their own

contributions or 50 or 60 years. This is

why we are here.

Singh Elected to National Academy o Engineering

R. Paul Singh is recognized for his workin food engineering, with applicationsranging from food processing to spaceexploration.

For more news and information about UC Davis Engineering: http://engineering.ucdavis.edu

page3Alumni Honored

page5Technology Transer to

Marketplace

page6Distinguished Alumni Medal

Nomination Packets dueApril 11


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Nael El-Farra and Yayoi Takamura,

both assistant proessors in the

Department o Chemical Engineering

and Materials Science, have received

National Science Foundation (NSF)

CAREER Awards.

The pres-

tigious

ve-year

NSF award

supports

the early

career

Dick Walters, proessor emeritusin computer science, has been

appointed by College o Engineering

dean Enrique Lavernia to help UC Davis

develop collaborative agreements in

computer science, medicine and distance

NSF CAREER Awards Support Promising

Young Teacher/Scholarsdevelopment activities o

teacher/scholars who eec-

tively integrate research and

education, and serves as an

important indicator o the

quality and uture promise

o young aculty.

Takamura and

her students will

study the growth

and characterization

o nanometer scale

oxide lms grown by

a laser-assisted deposi-

tion technique. In particular, they will

investigate the unusual magnetic and

electronic properties that occur at the

interaces between two dissimilar lay-

ers. Takamuras research could lead to

improvements in the miniaturization,

Building Bridges with Middle East

learning with educational institutions in

the Middle East.

The appointment, at the request

o Bob Kerr, Assistant Vice Provost o

International Alumni and Development,

will support the revitalization o his-

toric academic ties between UC Davis

and Egypt. UC Davis Chancellor Larry

Vanderhoe launched the new collabora-

tion model with a visit to Egypt in 2007.

Walters has more than 40 years o expe-

rience in computer science, medicine, and

distance learning with our academic units

o the university the School o Medicine,

the College o Engineering and the College

o Letters & Science, as well as the School

o Education. He also has a rich interna-tional history, both personally and proes-

sionally. My commitment to promoting

international cooperation and to promot-

ing ties between UC Davis and the Middle

East is very strong, Walters says.

A Piece o the NobelI never dreamed I would ever be able

to claim a tiny piece o the Nobel, says

Daniel Sperling, proessor o civil and

environmental engineering and direc-tor o the Institute o Transportation

Studies, who contributed to the recent

lauded report by the United Nations

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change (IPCC). The Nobel Peace Prize

was awarded to the IPCC and ormer

Vice President Al Gore on Dec. 10, 2007.

The Peace Prize is a great honor or all

o us who have worked or years to study

the link between transportation and

climate change, Sperling says.

storage capacity, speed, and energy

eciency o inormation storage

devices, sensors and uel cells.

El-Farras group will ocus on

wireless sensors and actuators

to control industrial chemical

processes. Control systems

in chemical plants cur-

rently rely on hard-wired

networks. Augmenting

these systems with wire-

less networks promises to

expand the capabilities o

process control technol-

ogy through high-density sensing and ac-

tuation in plant environments. El-Farras

research aims to overcome the existing

technical obstacles o designing ully

eective and aordable wireless process

control systems.Asst. Professor Yayoi Takamura

Asst. Professor Nael El-Farra

Professor Emeritus Dick Walters

Professor Daniel Sperling


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Three UC Davis undergraduate re-

searchers received Special Merit in

Research awards at the 2008 Statewide

Symposium or CAMP (Caliornia

Louis Stokes Alliance or Minority

Participation in Mathematics, Science

and Engineering) on February 22-23,

2008 at UC Irvine. The Symposium

annually recognizes minority student


Picnic Day 2008

Youre invited to visit the College o

Engineering on Picnic Day, Saturday,

April 19th!

Picnic Day is packed with un activi-

ties and exhibits, including crowd-pleas-

ing engineering student demonstrations

ranging rom the laser maze to liquidnitrogen ice cream. Watch or the engi-

neering foat in the parade, and stop by

the ront steps o Bainer Hall where the

Steel Bridge team will demonstrate their

latest competition entry.

From 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.,

engineering students at the welcome

station in the Kemper Hall lobby will

oer ree rereshments, inormation

about the days activities and the College,

special gits or alumni, and the chance

to enter a drawing.

Prospective students and their amilies

are also encouraged to visit the College

o Engineering Deans Tent near Freeborn

Hall along the parade route, where Dean

Enrique Lavernia, associate deans, sta

advisors and student peer advisors will

be present to answer questions.

For more inormation about Picnic

Day activities, go to http://picnicday.

ucdavis.edu/.

Engineering alumni Mahmoud Abu-

Zeid, minister o public works and

water resources or Egypt, and sotware

executive Timothy Bucher were amongsix UC Davis alumni honored with

Cal Aggie Alumni Association (CAAA)

awards at a ceremony on January 26,

2008.

Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, M.S.60, Ph.D.

62, received the CAAAs Emil M. Mrak

International Award or his distinguished

career and service outside the United

States. In addition to his ministry post in

the Egyptian government, Abu-Zeid is a

ounding member and president o the

World Water Council and has consulted

or the World Bank,

the World Health

Organization, the

United States

Agency or

International

Development,

and numer-

ous other

organizations.

Alumni Honored or Serviceand Innovation

Sotware executive Tim Bucher 86

was awarded the Cal Aggie Outstanding

Alumnus Award or displaying

outstanding achievement, promot-

ing innovative change, and making

proessional contributions to the

community and UC Davis. Bucher has

helped develop such innovative con-

sumer products as the iMac, Mac mini,

the iPod, WebTV and more. Buchers

Mountain View, Caliornia startup

company, Zing Systems, recently

purchased by Dell, developed

wireless technology that connects

consumers to their avorite music

and entertainment systems.

research or originality, depth o un-

derstanding, and likelihood o spark-

ing urther research. Graciela Cruz

was honored or her oral presenta-

tion (Physical Sciences/Engineering/

Computer Science), while Debi Thomas

and Alexandra Arreola received awards

or their poster presentations (Biological

Sciences/Lie Sciences).

Undergrad Researchers Claim Statewide Merit

The American Institute of ChemicalEngineers (AIChE) student chapter dem-onstrates the creation of liquid nitrogenice cream to local middle school stu-dents as a part of the Engineering JointCouncils National Engineering Weekevents on Feb. 2023, 2008.

Mahmoud Abu-Zied, M.S. 60, Ph.D. 62

Tim Bucher 86


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4

Child Family Tradition of GivingTwo new endowed proessorships

have been added to the roster o signi-

cant gits rom brothers Mike Child 76

and Je Child 82 and their wives. The

inaugural holders o each proessorship

will be announced later this year.

Mike and Rene Child endowed

the Child Family Proessorship in

Engineering and Entrepreneurship

to honor proessors who emphasize

developing technology with value tosociety. This is Mike and Renes second

endowed proessorship. They started the

tradition o extraordinary amily philan-

thropy in 1995 when they rst created

the Child Family Proessorship to reward

outstanding engineering aculty inter-

ested in the interrelationship o engi-

neering and entrepreneurship. Proessor

Biswanath Mukherjee o the Department

o Computer Science currently holds this

proessorship.

Je and Dianne Childs rst endowed

proessorship, the Child-Whitaker

Proessorship in Chemical Engineering

and Materials Science, will honor the

exceptional qualities o Je s avor-

ite teacher, Proessor Emeritus Steve

Whitaker, and continue Je and Diannes

practice o giving. Initially inspired by

Mikes example, Je and Dianne cre-

ated the Child-Whitaker Fund or

Distinguished Teaching and Scholarship

in 1999 to provide nancial resources to

outstanding aculty members within theDepartment o Chemical Engineering

and Materials Science. It is currently held

by Proessor Tonya Kuhl. Je and Dianne

also endowed the Child-Whitaker

Scholarship to encourage undergraduate

excellence.

Endowed proessorships are support-

ed by gits that are invested in perpetuity.

Each year income rom the und is ex-

pended to support the holders academic

activities. The minimum git to establishan endowed proessorship at UC Davis is

currently $500,000.

$4.25 Million Gift for MachineTool Research

The Mori Seiki Company, one o the

worlds largest manuacturers o ma-

chine tools, will donate $4.25 million

during the next ve years to support

Proessor Kazuo Yamazakis research

in the Department o Mechanical andAeronautical Engineering.

The git will support Yamazakis work

on machine tools controlled by comput-

ers. But while Yamazakis laboratory is

developing sophisticated, applied tech-

nology, his real goal is to develop human

resources, he says.

The aim o our lab is to develop top-

notch engineers, not just academics, and

we must work closely with industry to

do that, Yamazaki said. Industry needs

students who have experience in all

areas o machine tool technology, rom

mechanics to sotware design, and who

understand how these machines are used

in practice, he says.

Adam Hansel 00, president o Mori

Seikis subsidiary DTL Corp. in West

Sacramento, says supporting such un-

damental research enables the company

to secure a supply o enthusiastic and

well-trained engineers, beneting not

just Mori Seiki but the manuacturing

industry as a whole.

Blacutt-UnderwoodProfessorship

Alumnus Brian Underwood, M.S. 91,

and his wie, Carol Blacutt-Underwood,

have established the Blacutt-Underwood

Proessorship to support research and

teaching in materials science.

Underwood has helped ound and

grow a number o successul ven-

tures. Most recently he advised JigsawTechnologies, a productivity-optimi-

zation sotware company or the min-

ing industry, acquired by Leica out o

Switzerland. Blacutt-Underwood holds

law degrees rom the Universidad Mayor

de San Andres in Bolivia and Santa Clara

University, and she has worked as a cor-

porate attorney or Inormix.

The College o Engineerings mission is to teach, perorm research and serve society.The human and fnancial investment required to accomplish that mission is consid-

erable. While the base o the Colleges budget comes rom state allocation, an importantmainstay is the generosity o corporations, alumni and riends or whom a thrivingCollege o Engineering is a philanthropic priority. Here are some o their stories:

To learn more about how your git,

o any amount, can benet the

UC Davis College o Engineering,

contact:

Amy McGuireAssoc. Director of Development

[email protected] Brian Underwood, M.S. 91, and wife

Carol Blacutt-Underwood

Professor Kazuo Yamazaki

Support or the College o Engineering Mission


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The University o Caliornia has a long history o working with industry to bring

research to the marketplace. UC Davis InnovationAccess, as part o the Universitys

Ofce o Research, plays an active role in this missionocusing particularly on

protecting and commercializing intellectual property and ostering entrepreneur-

ship within the campus community. Recently there has been a notable increase in thenumber o startup companies emerging rom campus research and technologies, with

nearly 20 new companies ounded since 2005. Through InnovationAccess, engineer-

ing aculty have accelerated the transer o technology to the marketplace, as the

ollowing stories illustrate.

Transerring Research to the Marketplace


A New Frontier in Plug-inHybrid Technologies

Pioneering inventions in plug-in

hybrid vehicle technology and transmis-sion systems developed at UC Davis have

been licensed to Ecient Drivetrains

Inc. (EDI) o Palo Alto. The technology

draws on more than 30 years o work by

Andy Frank, proessor o mechanical and

aeronautical engineering, and EDI was

ounded in 2006 specically to com-

mercialize his technology. The company

plans to partner with auto designers and

manuacturers so they can rapidly intro-

duce advanced plug-in hybrid technol-ogy into their vehicles.

Franks designs or a parallel hybrid

powertrain allow signicant increases

in uel eciency compared with

hybrids currently on the

market. The licensing

package also includes an

intelligent, continu-

ously variable transmis-

sion that automatically

selects the right power

ratio and eliminates gear

shiting. The plug-in

hybrid displaces

more oil than any

other technique,

without a change

in inrastructure,

Frank said.

Solar TechnologyPerformance Advantage

Q1 NanoSystems o West Sacramento

is creating higher perorming, lower-costsolar technology. Their exclusive licens-

ing agreement with UC Davis covers de-

velopments that allow the manuacturing

o extremely thin and very small wires,

lms and other structures with a precise

chemical makeup.

Inventions or the company were

generated by Pieter Stroeve, proessor o

chemical engineering and materials sci-

ence, along with postdoctoral researcher

Ruxandra Vidu and Sai Islam, assistantproessor o electrical and computer en-

gineering. Graduate student Jie-Ren Ku

also worked on the project. Vidu, Stroeve

and Ku are among the co-ounders o

Q1 NanoSystems.

SynapSense InnovatesData Center Cooling

Raju Pandey, associate proes-

sor o computer science, lever-

aged his research to co-ound

SynapSense Corp., a Folsom

startup company that devel-

oped a system o wireless

sensors to help rein in the

burgeoning power drain

exerted by electricity-hun-

gry computer data centers.

By some estimates, electricity used to

cool data centers accounts or nearly hal

o the power such acilities consume.

The acilities themselves gobbled up 1.5

percent o all electricity consumed in the

nation in 2006, a percentage expected todouble in the next ve years. SynapSense

projects that its technology could cut a

data centers cooling costs by 30 percent.

Electromagnetic Goes High-Tech

For more than a century, hundreds

o millions o components that isolate

and shape signals were made by wind-

ing wire by hand around a circular piece

o magnetic material. PlanarMag Inc.,

a new startup company in Sacramento,is developing higher perormance, fat

electromagnetic components that can

be produced at lower cost with more

advanced manuacturing technologies.

PlanarMag grew out o talent at UC

Davis and local electronics companies.

Anh-Vu Pham, associate proessor o

electrical and computer engineering, is

the companys part-time chie technology

ocer. There is a several billion dollar

market or electromagnetic components,used in prod-

ucts such

as cable

television

boxes,

Ethernet

hardware

and stream-

ing video

devices.

Assoc. Professor Raju Pandey (left) andAssoc. Professor Anh-Vu Pham (above)


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ALUMNI

Recognize a Distinguished Alum

The Distinguished Engineering

Alumni Medal is awarded each year

to an alumnus whose proessional and

personal achievements bring special

honor to the College o Engineering.

The medal, sponsored jointly

by the College o Engineering and

the Cal Aggie Engineering Alumni

Association, is presented as part o the

June commencement ceremony or

undergraduate students.

Each nominee must be a UC Davis en-

gineering graduate with 15 or more years

o proessional experience; have a record

o outstanding proessional or techni-

cal achievement; and have rendered

distinguished service to the College o

Engineering, the engineering proession,

or to the community at large.

Any UC Davis alum or aculty mem-

ber may nominate a candidate. We invite

you to participate in this important rec-

ognition by submitting your nomination

or the award. Please use the online orm

at https://secure.engineering.ucdavis.edu/

coe/alumni/deam/

This orm will be submitted directly

to the College o Engineering Deans

Oce. You may submit the candidates

curriculum vitae, letters o support, and

other supporting materials electronically

to [email protected]; via ax at

530-752-3849; or by mail to:

Amy McGuire

Engineering Deans Ofce

Distinguished Engineering Alumni Medal

One Shields Avenue

Davis, CA 95616-5294

Nomination packets

must be submitted by

Aprl 11, 2008

#1800

One Shields Avenue

Davis, CA 95616

UPCOMING DATES

PICNIC DAYSaturday, April 19, 2008

SPRING COMMENCEMENTFriday, June 13, 2008

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EngineeringLink Spring08-RGB