Virginia Engineering Magazine, Fall 2004 Faculty Notes

Virginia Engineering
Fall 2004, Volume 17, No. 1

faculty notes & briefs

Mary Lou E. Soffa Is New Chair of Computer Science

A 1977 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, Mary Lou Soffa (CS) is the recipient of the 1999 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, given by the White House. She is an ACM Fellow, serves on the board of the Computing Research Association (CRA) and CRA-W and has served on the executive committees of both SIGSOFT and SIGPLAN. She has been active for many years on improving the participation of women in computer science.

Ethicist Receives Award for Contributions to Philosophy and Computing

The American Philosophical Association, through its Committee on Philosophy and Computers, awarded Professor Deborah G. Johnson (STS) the APA Barwise Prize in recognition of her significant and sustained contributions to areas relevant to philosophy and computing.

Johnson is a leading authority on computer ethics. She is the Anne Shirley Carter Olsson Professor of Applied Ethics and chair of the science, technology, and society department and is the author or editor of four books on ethics and computing or engineering. She has published more than 40 papers on these topics.

Roseanne M. Ford Appointed Associate VP for Research and Graduate Studies

Roseanne M. Ford (ChE) was appointed associate vice president for research and graduate studies by Dr. Ariel Gomez, vice president for research and graduate studies. She will be the chief adviser and representative in matters related to graduate studies.

Ford's responsibilities involve promotion of graduate education across Grounds, acting as a leader for pan-University graduate student issues, and ensuring that qualified and diverse graduate students are attracted to the University.

Over the past several years, Ford has been involved in two highly successful training grant programs that support biotechnology research and work in contaminant hydrogeology. These grants, from NIH, NSF and the U.S. Department of Education, support programs in the School of Medicine, the College of Arts and Sciences and the Engineering School.

Chromium Computer-Graphics Software Designer Wins Award

Greg R. Humphreys (CS) slices large problems into bite-size pieces. He works with sets of data to create visual displays, a process that requires major computing power. To do this without using an expensive supercomputer, he harnesses off-the-shelf PCs to work in a cluster on separate pieces of a problem and later puts the pieces back together again.

For his work developing "Chromium" computer-graphics software, he and a team of collaborators won a prestigious industry award, the R&D 100. The award, which recognizes the 100 "most technologically significant new products and processes of the year," is bestowed annually by R&D Magazine, a publication that reports on applied industrial research. The goal of the award program is to highlight technology that advances and supports humankind.

NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award

THE NATIONAL SCIENCE Foundation's Faculty Early Career Development Program recognizes and supports the activities of teacher-scholars, early in their careers, deemed likely to be academic leaders of the 21st century. The awardees are selected on the basis of creative career-development plans that integrate research and education. Twenty-one Engineering School faculty members have won NSF Career Awards since 1997.
2004
Hilary Bart-Smith, MAE
Leonid V. Zhigilei, MSE
Roseanna M. Neupauer, CE
Tetsuya Iwasaki, MAE
Giovanni Zangari, MSE
2003
N. Scott Barker, ECE
2002
Rosalyn W. Berne, STS
James P. Oberhauser, ChE
Kevin Skadron, CS
2001
Tommy Guess, ECE
David P. Luebke, CS
2000
Garrick E. Louis, SIE
Matthew R. Begley, CE
Susan E. Burns, CE
Brian L. Smith, CE
1999
Lori Graham, CE
1998
Nikolaos Sidiropoulos, ECE
1997
Maite Brandt-Pearce, ECE
Hui Liu, ECE
Matthew Neurock, ChE
Mircea R. Stan, ECE

U.Va. Patent Foundation Honors Haydn N. Wadley

The University of Virginia Patent Foundation named materials scientist Haydn N. Wadley (DO) the 2004 Edlich-Henderson Inventor of the Year.

Wadley was recognized for his path-breaking research, which has led to numerous patents (both issued and pending) for innovative materials with applications in the defense and transportation industries, and for his entrepreneurial spirit.

"In selecting a candidate for this award, the Patent Foundation's faculty advisory committee considers a number of criteria, including researchers' scholarship and innovations, and the novelty and potential impact of their inventions on human welfare," said committee chairman John C. Herr, director of the University's Center for Research in Contraceptive and Reproductive Health and himself the winner of the 1999 award.

Larry G. Richards Named Engineering School Instructor of the Year for Distance Learning

An award was presented to Larry Richards (MAE) at the October 2004 faculty meeting where he received an engraved plaque and monetary award in recognition of his exceptional performance. Richards has demonstrated a continuing commitment to distance teaching, delivering his ninth class this semester and has contributed to the distance learning program by serving on the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program (CGEP) Advisory Board. Additionally, he has written and published multiple articles on his distance education activities.

Technology Review Ranks Two U.Va. Scientists As Top Young Innovators

Two interdisciplinary researchers at the University of Virginia - Richard W. Kent, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and Shayn Peirce-Cottler, assistant professor in biomedical engineering - have been named to Technology Review's 2004 list of the world's 100 Top Young Innovators.

Selected by the editors of Technology Review, a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an elite panel of judges, the TR100 list comprises 100 individuals under age 35 whose work may have a profound impact on current technology. This year's honorees represent disciplines ranging from biotechnology and medicine to computing and nanotechnology.

U.Va. was one of a handful of institutions with more than one honoree on the list.

"In the five years since we began naming our annual selection of the world's top innovators under age 35, inclusion among the TR100 has become one of the most prestigious awards for young innovators around the world," said David Rotman, executive editor of Technology Review. "This year's winners are all pioneering fascinating

innovations in the fields of biomedicine, computing and nanotechnology, and were chosen after a rigorous selection and judging process. The result is an elite group whose visions and inventions will shape the future of technology."

Both U.Va. researchers work at the intersection of engineering and medicine.

Richard W. Kent holds a joint appointment in engineering and medicine, conducting research with the department of mechanical and aerospace engineering, and teaching in the department of emergency medicine. His research in the University's Center for Applied Biomechanics, which conducts a broad array of research related to automobile safety, focuses on developing "smart" seat belts and airbags.

Kent's efforts, built largely on creating new mathematical algorithms, will enable seat belts and airbags to process data rapidly during an impending crash - How fast is the car going? What is the shape of the object being hit? - in combination with data about the driver - size, weight, bone density, position, age, health - so as to determine the best response of the safety equipment given the circumstances of a particular driver in a particular crash.

Shayn Peirce-Cottler has developed complex, quantitative, predictive computer models that have the potential to speed up the development of new medical treatments relating to tissue growth and repair.

She has used the models to explore embryogenesis, the process of embryo formation, to learn about the mechanics that contribute to birth defects.

She also has used the models to predict blood vessel growth in response to changes in blood pressure and the presence of a growth protein.

For more information about Richard Kent's research, contact Richard W. Kent, rwk3c@virginia.edu. For more information on Peirce-Cottler's research, see story on page 11 or contact her at smp6p@virginia.edu.

faculty briefs

N. Scott Barker (ECE) was awarded the ECE Faculty Educational Innovation Award.

John C. Bean (ECE) received an All-University Outstanding Teaching Award.

James R. Brookeman (BME), with Dr. Harry Dorn of the department of chemistry at Virginia Tech, received an award from the U.Va. CBI-FEST to study a new class of MRI diagnostic contrasts agents based on nanotechnology.

Ioannis Chasiotis (MAE) and Leonid V. Zhigilei (MSE) with three other collaborators from Case Western Reserve University and Michigan Tech were awarded an NSF-NIRT (Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Teams) grant. This is a four-year grant with an original total budget of $1.6 million, which has a focus on the experimental and computational study of biological and organic nanofibers.

Michael J. Demetsky (CE) was elected president of the Council of University Transportation Centers. He also received the 2004 VEF Distinguished Faculty Award.

David E. Evans (CS) gave an invited talk at the USENIX Security Symposium on Biology and Computer Security.

Jose P. Gomez (CE) was named Engineering School Instructor of the Year for Distance Learning.

Tommy R. Guess (ECE) was awarded the ECE New Faculty Teaching Award.

William H. Guilford (BME) received a 2004 All-University Teaching Award.

Lester A. Hoel (CE) was appointed to the National Academies Coordinating Committee on Global Change, Division on Earth and Life Sciences.

Robert G. Kelly (MSE) received a 2004 All-University Teaching Award.

Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf (MSE) was awarded an honorary doctorate of science degree from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, in recognition of her long and prolific career in engineering.

Dr. Klaus F. Ley (BME) and Brian P. Helmke (BME) received funding for a four-year renewable grant to study the influence of the vascular endothelial surface layer (ESL) on microvascular hemodynamics in venules and arterioles, how ESL is expressed in cultured cells, and its role as a barrier to spontaneous rolling of leukocytes from the free stream in venules.

Mitchel C. Rosen (DO) was appointed as SEAS chief technology officer in recognition of the critical importance of information technology to the future of SEAS.

Edmund P. Russell III (STS) received the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the American Society for Environmental History and Forest History Society. The prize is for the best article published

in Environmental History in 2003. His interview on his book War and Nature was aired on NPR's Talking History's "Best Of Series" in August.

James A. Smith (CE) was selected to be the Kenan Trust Visiting Professor of Engineering at Princeton University for 2004-05. While in residence at Princeton University he is conducting research on the fate, transport and remediation of ground-water pollutants and teaching a course on water quality and supply in developing countries.

John A. Stankovic (CS) presented a course on wireless sensor networks in Pisa, Italy. He will be the 25th anniversary keynote speaker at the Real-Time Systems Symposium in Lisbon, Portugal. He also will present an invited lecture at Harvard.

Gang Tao's (ECE) book Adaptive Control of Systems With Actuator Failures was published by Springer.

Alfred C. Weaver's (CS) Internet Technology Innovation Center was awarded a $100,000 gift from Microsoft Research to support research on medical data privacy and security.

Houston G. Wood III (MAE) was quoted in a New York Times article headlined "How White House Embraced Suspect Iraq Arms Intelligence."