Virginia Engineering Magazine, Fall 2004 School Notes

Virginia Engineering
Fall 2004, Volume 17, No. 1

school notes

James H. Aylor Named Interim Dean of Engineering School

James H. Aylor (EE '68, '71, '77), Louis T. Rader Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Programs, has been named interim dean of the Engineering School, following the retirement of Richard W. Miksad.

Aylor is a familiar face at the Engineering School, having served on the faculty of the Charles L. Brown Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering since 1978, including serving as chair for six years. He is an active researcher in the area of complex computer system design, including computer technology for healthy aging. His major accomplishments include participating in the development of the VHSIC hardware description language (VHDL), the development of new "mixed-level" modeling technology to support the early phases of the computer systems design process, and the development and implementation of automatic test-pattern generation techniques.

He was instrumental in founding the Center for Semicustom Integrated Systems, which under his leadership was established as one of the first Technology Development Centers of the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology.

He served as president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society, is a fellow of the IEEE, and while chair of ECE, served as president of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association.

"It is both a pleasure and a delight to serve as interim dean of the Engineering School, and I look forward to the many opportunities ahead to work with School and University faculty, staff and students in advancing the excellence of engineering research and education at the University," Aylor said.

Three Women Win Top Honors in the 2004 Undergraduate Research Design Symposium

The Engineering School Undergraduate Research and Design Symposium is an annual presentation and selection of the best of the Undergraduate Research theses. Each finalist in the competition delivers a 15-minute oral presentation, and three awards are given at the end of the symposium.

1st Place-Neda Cvijetic
Space-Time Coding Against Fading in Free-Space Optical Channels

2nd Place-Alla Aksel
Monitoring Tremor in Parkinson's Disease Patients Via a Wearable Assessment Device

3rd Place-Sally Moffett
Wavelet-Based Analysis of the Turbulent Energy Cascade as Described by Burger's Equation

Interns, Faculty and Alums Celebrate Success of D.C. Internship Program

A reception was held at the Vinson & Elkins Law Office in the Willard Office Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., to honor Richard W. Miksad and James H. Turner, co-founders of the Science and Technology Policy Washington, D.C., Program. Current and past D.C. interns, University faculty, and invited D.C. area alums attended.

Science and Technology Policy Washington, D. C., Interns 2004

Kaveh Ardalan, Arts and Sciences
National Institutes of Health
Daniel Bowman, SIE
Center for Technology and Engineering
Amanda Constantino, SIE
Federation of American Scientists
Danielle Fallon, SIE
Council on Competitiveness
Alex Genetos, MAE/History
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Erwin Gianchandani, CS
National Science Foundation Office of the Director
Jason Manto, BME
Office of Congressman David Wu
Peter Milligan, ChE
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Brigitte Hoyer, SIE
International Relief and Development
Brock Riggs, CE
National Academies: Transportation Research Board
Brooke Yamakoshi, CE
EPA Office of Research and Development

Weisner Wins Truman Scholarship

Markus Weisner, a third-year systems and information engineering student, has won a Harry S. Truman Scholarship. Truman Scholars are selected from among candidates nominated by 300 colleges and universities. The scholarship program was created by Congress in 1975 and is supported by a special trust fund of the U.S. Treasury. This is the first time a SEAS student has received this prestigious award.

Weisner was a 2001 U.Va. Science and Technology Policy Washington (D.C.) Intern, where he worked in the office of U. S. Senator George Allen (Va.). He has also served as a volunteer for the Red Cross, the Charlottesville Fire Department, and Madison House, among others. He is currently a U.Va. submission for a Mitchell Scholarship and plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Emergency Services Policy.

Engineering and McIntire Students Excel Abroad

A team of Engineering School and McIntire School of Commerce students participated in an entrepreneurship class in Singapore last summer as part of Universitas 21 activities. The team placed second out of 18 teams.

Undergraduate Students Are Problem-Solvers

With support of a $70,000 grant from Lockheed Martin Corp., seven undergraduate multidisciplinary teams from the Class of 2004 participated in year-long Capstone projects to design and develop integrated technical and social solutions to real-life problems.
Lockheed Martin began collaborating with SEAS in 1999 to better prepare undergraduate engineering students for the professional world. The resulting program, "Engineering in Context," emphasizes engineering design within a realistic context.
First place went to the team that created a nuclear, chemical and biological sensor communications network. The group designed, developed and tested a "network node" to collect information from remote locations that could detect a nuclear, biological or chemical attack.

Third Generation U.Va.
Alum at Home in MAE

Richard T. Gregory '78, computer support technician with the MAE department and IPM Labs in the MSE department, has roots that go way back in the history of this country and this University. He, his father, Warren C. Gregory '49, and his grandfather, Richard V. Taylor Jr. '10, all graduated from U.Va.

His great-great-grandfather (Edgar Woods) was pastor of the Columbus Ohio Presbyterian Church in 1862, spent some time during the Civil War in an interment camp, and was pastor of Charlottesville Presbyterian Church from 1866 to 1878.

His grandfather Taylor married Anne Russell Sampson in 1912. She was a Charlottesville native whose people came to America in the 1730s, entering Albemarle County via Woods/Jarman's Gap in 1734. His grandparents' wedding photos were taken by Holsinger Studios and are part of the U.Va. Library online collection: see http://www.lib.virginia.edu/speccol/collections/holsinger/.

Rich holds a degree in organic chemistry from U.Va. and worked for Avtex Fibers in Front Royal, Va., as a chemist before joining U.Va.'s Academic Computing in 1980. He has worked for MAE and IPM as a computer systems engineer since 1998, where he provides user support, administers servers and manages Web servers. For more information on Rich, see http://www.people.virginia.edu/~rtg2t.

Engineering and Education Schools Win NSF Grant in the Bridges for Engineering Education Program

The Engineering and Education Schools won an NSF Planning Grant that will allow the schools to expand the Virginia Middle School Engineering Education Initiative.

The Engineering School has added a new senior design course focused on developing Engineering Teaching Kits (ETKs). Twenty-four students enrolled in Spring 2004. ETKs created include Solar Car Design, Design for Sustainability, Simple Machines, Gels and Brain Perfusion, and the Manta Ray Submersible Vehicle.

Alumni Donations Provide Fund for Fellowships

The Virginia Engineering Foundation awarded fellowships in the amount of $5,000 each to C. Thomas Schamp, Shawn M. Russell, Amy Throckmorton and Mark Loeffler.

Accelerated Master's Students Create Solutions

Sixteen students in the 2004 Accelerated Master's Program, working in two teams, developed models of complex systems as their final projects. The program is a collaboration between the systems and information engineering department and the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. Students in this program traditionally work full-time jobs during the week and meet in Charlottesville every other weekend for their class meetings at Darden. The Accelerated Master's Program emphasizes both business and engineering skills, primarily for technical professionals and managers, and includes courses in business strategy and functionality combined with mathematics and computer modeling.

The first team designed a system that would monitor the development of new technology anywhere in the world. The second group developed a system to determine the benefits of creating a mental-health court for the City of Charlottesville.

Undergraduate Students Finalists in the IEEE Computer Society International Design Competition

Professors Mircea R. Stan and Ronald D. Williams mentored a team of undergraduate students who entered the IEEE Computer Society International Design Competition this year. The team was one of the 10 finalists who traveled to Washington, D.C., in late June for the final stage of the competition, where they were awarded an honorable mention.

SEAS teams have entered twice before (in 2001 and 2002) and were selected as finalists on both previous entries. The team was made up of three CS majors (Kedar Hirve, Parth Thacker, and Kirill Orlov) and one CpE major (Nick Johnson).

Virginia Space Grant Consortium Awards Students

Colin P. Bateson, fourth year Aero, for research on the prognosis of crack-failure in microdevices designed for lightweight, low-cost space applications.

Patrick E. Hopkins, Grad Aero, for research on using information collected from the MicroMAPS instrument on board the Proteus aircraft in conjunction with the radiative theoretical model of the atmosphere.

Daniel B. Lee, Grad Aero, for research on flow dynamics within an isolator-combustor assembly of a scramjet engine.

Steven A. Tangen, fourth year Aero, for research on a theoretical model for carbon monoxide measurements with MicroMAPS.

Graduate and Undergraduate Students Win Prestigious Scholarships

Coire Maranzano, an SIE Ph.D. student, and Robert Stevens (MAE) won the ARCS Scholarship for outstanding Ph.D. students.

Barb Tawney, a Ph.D. SIE student, won the All-University Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award. SEAS GTA's compete with the science departments in the College for this award.

Arsalan Tavakoli, a CS/Economics student, won a scholarship from the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program.

Elizabeth Strunk (CS) won a Ballard Jr. Fellowship, offered to a graduate student who has demonstrated academic excellence, leadership qualities, and financial need.

The Harrison Undergraduate Research Awards Program funds outstanding undergraduate research projects. Seven Engineering students are recent Harrison Award winners. MAE students are Colin Bateson, Thomas Bliss, Laine D'Augustine, John Hardcastle and Katherine Timpano. BME students are Michael Simmers and Amber Turner.