2004 AR template annual report.pdf · place. By combining raw academic talent, research infrastructure for state-of-the-art facilities, and an explosion of new enterprise, expertise,

Ira A. Fultons c h o o l o f e n g i n e e r i n g

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Annual Report

Fulton School of Engineering 1

In last year’s report, I had the pleasure of summarizing for you a year of spectacular growth and change that began with the inauguration of a new president at Arizona State University and ended with the receipt of a $50 million naming gift from Ira A. Fulton, an entrepreneurial philan-thropist and founder of one of the nation’s most successful residential construction firms.

This year has been one of acceleration. With the increased level of funding from the Fulton endowment, we added another member of the National Academy ofEngineering, John Crittenden, to our faculty. Crittenden and his associates have advanced our efforts in urban sustain-ability engineering, and we are pleased to have begun construction on two new buildings that will house his programs, along with several other signatureresearch projects. We are close to securing another two NAE members and will be announcing those appointments shortly.

As we transform ourselves into exemplars of the New American University, we are reaping the rewards of our transdisci-plinary mindset and increasing agility. This year the U.S. Army awarded us a $43.7 million, five-year cooperative agreement to establish the FlexibleDisplay Center at ASU, the largest federal contract award in the university’s history. One of our faculty, Greg Raupp, led a pursuit team that assembled a brilliant team from across the university. Coupled with the acquisition of a state-of-the-art

flat panel display manufacturing facility from our long-standing industry partner, Motorola, we were able to deliver anexceptional proposal that extends our capabilities beyond research and into product development and manufacturing.

We increased our commitment to entre-preneurial programs. We created extra curriculum opportunities at both thegraduate and undergraduate level designed to enhance our ability to produce not only a technically skilled workforce, but one that combines that unique blend of cre-ativity, business acumen and leadership skills that lead to the formation of new products, services and businesses. Our third annual business plan competition was the richest in the nation, with funding from Intel of $100,000 and the commit-ment of more than $50,000 in additional services from other sponsors, enabling the winning teams to turn their ideas into operating businesses.

2004 annual report

Dd e a n ’sp e r s p e c t i v e

Arizona State University2

Together with ASU’s College of Archi-tecture and Environmental Design, and W.P. Carey School of Business, we started InnovationSpace, an entrepreneurial joint venture in which senior-level students work with internal and external partners to create new product concepts, complete with engineering prototypes, business plans and visual materials, and then work with Arizona Technology Enterprises to transfer their concepts to the privatesector for further development.

We increased our research, classroom and office space by more than 138,000 square feet this year with the acquisition of the Brickyard on Mill complex in downtown Tempe, Arizona. The Brickyard embodies our commitment to blur the boundaries between ourselves and the communities we serve, co-locating classroom and research space with businesses and retail operations in a vibrant urban setting. This facility has become the home of a number of important organizations, including our Department of Computer Science and Engineering; the university’s technology commercialization company, Arizona Technology Enterprises; the Institute for Computing and Information Sciences and Engineering, which provides a focus for computing-oriented research activities across the campus; and the engineering Dean’s Office.

Our global engagement initiatives ex-panded significantly. We established a partnership with POSCO, the world’s third largest steel producer, for our Six Sigma Black Belt program that has resulted in a dramatic expansion of our presence in South Korea. We have discussions underway for educational partnerships in China with several multinational corpora-tions, including Intel, Motorola, IBM and General Motors.

Our expansion in Latin America was no less significant. We received a USAID grant in partnership with the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) to create a master of

science program in the area of logistics that will result in the development of the technical human resources needed toconsolidate the emerging aerospace supplier base in Mexico and improve the global competitiveness of the North American aerospace industry. We also established strategic agreements with ITESM in the areas of faculty exchange, distance education and construction. Additionally, we started contacts with other academic institutions in Mexico, such as the Universities of Baja California and Guadalajara, as well as the Instituto Tecnologico de Sonora. These interactions are expected to significantly increase in the near future with the implementation of the recently signed agreement between Conacyt and ASU. With the assistance of the City of Phoenix, we started exploring strategic partnerships with the cities of Guadalajara and Guaymas in the areas of electronics and international logistics.

Lastly, it was a highly successful year for our academic programs and our students. We completed a successful ABET accredi-tation effort this year, and we expect a clean bill of health with the final report in August. We are fully engaged in redesigning our undergraduate curriculum, employing ABET’s EC2000 principles.

As one of the nation’s largest engineering schools, with more than 6,000 students and 28,000 alumni, we continue to prove that what matters most are not the incoming academic credentials of our freshmen but the value of the education they receive while they are here. And we continue to prove that you can embrace the educational needs of the entire population—not just a select group—and deliver excellence, one student at a time.

Warmest regards,

Peter Crouch

“As one of the nation’s largest engineering schools, with more than 6,000 students and 28,000 alumni, we continue to prove that what matters most are not theincoming academic credentials of our freshmen but thevalue of the education they receive whilethey are here.”

Dean Peter Crouch


Transition states do not occur

spontaneously — they take maximum

energy and effort. But one surefire way to speed up this statewide transition is

through a catalyst.

2003-2004:A TRANSIT ION STATEIn the simplest of chemical reactions (A + B -> product), the “transition state” is the blink in time when random colli-sions bring the reactants, A + B, together in a molecular dance to render the product. However, billiard ball collisions won’t do — the reactants must have purpose. There is a remarkable sense of purpose in Arizona’s “transition state” to a vibrant knowledge-based economy — with an influx of human and economic capital, research development and innovation never seen before. Transition states do not occur spontane-ously — they take maximum energy and

effort. But one surefire way to speed up this statewide transition is througha catalyst.

One such catalyst is Arizona StateUniversity under the leadership of President Michael Crow, a New American Uni-versity that takes responsibility for the social, economic and cultural health of the communities it serves. Arizona State University is a catalyst that has brought together the government, industry, philanthropists and creative individuals to lead the change to a knowledge-based, sustainable economy. Evidence of the onset of a chemical reaction abounds:

■ In 2000, the State of Arizona passed a sales tax initiative, Proposition 301, to fund education and research and technology at the state universities through the state’s Technology and Research Initiative Fund. This initiative will provide up to $1 billion dollars over its 20-year lifetime to fund science and technology initiatives at our state universities.

■ In 2003, at a time when other states faced fiscal uncertainty and budget crises, the

State of Arizona passed the $450 million state university research infrastructure bill, providing ASU with $185 million for research facilities and adding 1 million sq. ft. of world-class research space that has already begun attracting top scientists and additional revenue, as well as spawning new business and industry in Arizona.

■ In 2003, Arizona homebuilding entrepreneur Ira A. Fulton made a $50 million investment in the school of engineering, renaming the school and providing the support for scholarships, fellowships, research programs and investments in faculty to hire new talent and attract the best minds to our school.

We have leveraged our return on these investments in a knowledge economyby starting initiatives in biosciences, information technology, materials science and manufacturing. At Arizona State University, $300 million in new research centers, including the Biodesign Institute at ASU, the Institute for Computing and Information Sciences and Engineering (InCISE), and most recently, the Army Flexible Display Center (which is itself a catalyst for a potential multi-billion

dollar industry) are just some of the examples. All of the right components are in place. By combining raw academic talent, research infrastructure for state-of-the-art facilities, and an explosion of new enterprise, expertise, and initiatives, our growth as an intellectual center of excellence will continue to serve as a catalyst for the transition to a knowledge economy.



In the past year we consolidated progress in a number of areas and began to expand in others. Our research expenditures continued at a strong pace, as indicated in the chart below. We received a number of major awards this year, including a $43.7 million grant from the U.S. Army. Our seven research themes, which are covered in the next few pages of this book, have enhanced the focus of our research efforts.

Other highlights for the year include:

■ Ph.D. enrollment increased 15 percent, while our Ph.D. production increased 33 percent over the previous year.

■ We added another National Academy of Engineering member to our faculty. John Crittenden is a national leader in water quality and environmental sustainability, and he has been an excellent addition to our programs in urban sustainability engineering.

■ We doubled the amount of research and office space for our Department of Computer Science and Engineering. We also began building two new interdisciplinary science and technol-ogy research buildings, which will begin operation in early 2005.

■ Our freshman class contained nine National Merit Finalists. Arizona State University is now third in the nation among public universities in the number of National Merit Scholars in its student body.

Research expenditures for the Fulton School of Engineering have risen significantly over the past five years. Our total amount of federal award expenditures has grown 43 percent, while our industry partners’ investment in our school has risen 30 percent. Overall, the federal contribution to the Fulton School also accounts for the largest share of research expenditures with 60 percent of the total while industry support provides another 20 percent. Our goal over the next five years is to raise the bar even higher, continuing this upward trend by doubling our current level of total research expenditures.

Research Expenditures


According to Dr. Norma Faris Hubele, the new Director of Strategic Initiatives and professor of Engineering and Statistics in the Department of Industrial Engineering, the investment made by valley entrepre-neur and Fulton School namesake Ira A. Fulton is “the fertilizer on the plant. We (the Fulton School) could grow without it, but we might not thrive.” And when Mr. Fulton gave $50 million to the School of Engineering, thriving is just the vision he had in mind. As Director of Strategic Initiatives, Dr. Hubele has been tasked with the stewardship of Ira Fulton’s investment in the School, or as she puts it, “promoting organizational thinking to maximize the student experience, state and Fulton

investments, and our impact on society.” As a catalyst, Dr. Hubele’s work focuses on realizing the potential in the institu-tion, its resources and students. “This includes institutionalizing ideas and measuring successes to make the Fulton School a place where investment can make a difference,” said Dr. Hubele. Dr. Hubele’s initial concepts for optimizing stewardship and strategic opportunities in the School include enhancing undergradu-ate education and research opportunities, building innovative scholarship programs, developing more extensive entrepreneurial programs, upgrading facilities, attracting renowned faculty and designing faculty incentive programs.

Stewardship and Strategic Initiatives A d d i t i o n t o t h e d e a n ’ s o f f i c e p l a n t s t h e s e e d f o r s c h o o l g r o w t h

Brickyard Leads Infrastructure ExpansionThe Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering has vastly increased its research infrastruc-ture and classroom space including the 130,000 sq. ft. at the Brickyard, housing ASU’s Institute for Computing and Infor-mation Science and Engineering (InCISE), technology transfer (Arizona Technology Enterprises), Entrepreneurial Programs, Business Administration, Development, Marketing, Engineering Research Services and the Dean’s office. The building offers faculty, staff and students state-of-the-art facilities in a unique, mixed-use urban set-ting combining retail, office and living space.

Dr. Norma Faris Hubele, Director of Strategic Initiatives.



7Signature r e s e a r c h t h e m e s

At the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, we are engaged in use-in-spired research that transcends the traditional departmental boundaries found in engineering. Although the backbone of university research remains the creative endeavors of individual faculty and their graduate students, there are a growing number of interdepartmental teams, cross-department collaborations and research centers of excellence we wish to highlight.

We have organized these large, multi-discipline, multi-departmental research areas into seven research themes that demonstrate our strengths and are deserving of international recognition. In the future, we will continue to expand on these themes, maintaining our world-class level of research while growing and expanding these areas by attracting new or top talent within these centers of excellence.

The seven research themes are:

■ Communications Systems■ Human Health■ Exploration and Discovery■ Computing and Informatics/Information Science■ Nanotechnologies and Nanoelectronics■ Sustainable Urban Engineering■ Technology Enhanced Lifestyles (The Human Repair Shop)

Fulton School researchers are actively

engaged in use-inspired research to aid in

the efforts to ensure that our world

becomes a connected planet. We are

making the Internet safe, securable and

reliable through work on embedded

systems, network security, information

assurance and communications systems/

networking. For mobile technologies, we

are developing new, low power devices

and integrated circuit (IC) designs, mobile

computing advances, and sensor systems

for the next generation of computers, cell

phones and embedded systems —from the

smallest chip to the largest network.

COMMUNICATIONSR E S E A R C H



This past year, the U.S. Army awarded Arizona State University a $43.7 million, five-year cooperative agreement —the largest in ASU’s history— to establish and lead the Flexible Display Center at ASU. This major collaborative univer-sity-government-industry partnership is designed to develop flexible, low-power, light weight information displays for the future warfighter and other military and commercial applications.

The Flexible Display Center at ASU will be a national asset and technologydevelopment force through the combined intellectual capacity, technologicalcapacity, and financial resources of the Army, ASU and industry. Industry partners in the proposal effort included DuPont Displays, Kodak, Honeywell, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Universal Display Corporation, Kent Displays,E Ink, FlexICs, Three-Five Systems,General Atomics, Optiva, ECD, South-wall, the U.S. Display Consortium and Abbie Gregg, Inc. A substantially expanded partnership is anticipated as the Center achieves full capability.

With the lead efforts of the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering faculty, the partnership will provide innovative technology development in backplane electronics, novel materials for high per-formance thin-film transistors (TFT) on flexible substrates, and flexible reflective and emissive displays. Within the first year, the Center will have a fully opera-tional 6-inch TFT backplane pilot line, as well as a state-of-the-art R&D laboratory and design and testing laboratories.

Transition to larger display size will occur two years later, as a GEN II

FLEXIBLE DISPLAY CENTER AT ASUL A R G E S T F E D E R A L G R A N T I N A S U ’ S H I S T O R Y

pilot line processing 370 mm x 470 mm substrates becomes operational. The first full color, conformal display technology demonstrator will be built in 30 months, with later phases of technology develop-ment creating true flexible displays capable of withstanding repeated flexing and bending, and paper-like displays (e.g., a paper road map) that can be folded and/or crumpled.

Flexible display technology will soon be integrated in a wide variety of applications, from command centers and rollable maps to vehicle platforms and display-embed-ded uniforms to revolutionize the way in which information is disseminated. In addition to military uses, flexible display technology promises to assist U.S. display companies by creating future commercial applications such as automotive, portable information devices, mobile phones, tablet PCs, PDAs and more. As such, the FDC is also chartered with providing a foundation to facilitate corporate alliances that encourage genuine collaborations necessary to help accelerate the manufac-turing of flexible display technologies for the commercial market.

The Flexible Display Center at ASU will be a national asset and technology develop-ment force through the combined intellectual capacity, technological capacity, and financial resources of the Army, ASU and industry.

The Flexible Display Center is located at a state-of-the-art 250,000 square foot multifunc-tional display manufacturing facility at the ASU Research Park.


The past decade has witnessed anexponential growth in the fields of biosci-ence and biomedical research aimed at improving the quality of life. Today’s engineers are utilizing advances in genomics, proteomics and pharmacoge-nomics to help combat disease. At the Fulton School, our researchers are focused on

H u m a n H e a l t h

fundamental research in novel biomaterials, protein engineering, biosensors and bioin-formatics to lead the way towards disease prevention. We have particular strengths and research thrusts in neuro-degenerative diseases, rehabilitative therapies, protein-based therapeutics, tissue engineering and musculoskeletal mechanics.

Researchers at ASU, led by Lokesh Joshi, an associate professor in the Harrington Department of Bioengineering and a member of the Biodesign Insitute at ASU, have found a pathway whereby plants can generate human-like proteins. This discovery could lead to an effective means of producing proteins that are medically important – with a method cheaper than traditional pharmaceuticals. A common problem with plant-produced proteins is that they are often rejected by the human body’s immune system, which sees them as foreign. Joshi, and his graduate student Miti Shah, found that by adding specific sugar groups, called sialic acids, to pro-teins produced in plants, there is no im-mune response to reject the proteins. The research is working on multiple human proteins, including an immune activator, a type of collagen and a heat shock protein, working in three different plants; tobacco, Arabidopsis and alfalfa. Now, the group is focusing on “metabolically engineering” plants to enhance the levels of sugars put on the proteins to get the maximum yield. Joshi’s work was published in the December 2003 issue of Nature Biotechnology.

Bioengineering Professor UncoversBreakthrough to Produce Plant-BasedPharmaceuticals

In the future, an apple a day might be just what the doctor ordered.



A team of researchers is combining non-invasive brain imaging techniques with sophisticated data analysis methods to help in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease. A $4 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health is headed by Dr. Eric Reiman, a brain imaging researcher and psychiatrist at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center. Dr. Gerald Farin, professor from the Department of Computer Science and En-gineering, is helping with the imaging tech-nology at the heart of the research, which uses both positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) non-invasive brain scanning proce-dures. Before the mapping can take place, Farin first must mathematically “flatten” the brain region necessary for our higher functioning, the cortex. Farin and his associates achieved this by constructing a geodesic Voronoi diagram, a computer-ized model that wraps a mesh around an object, in this case a brain, and divides it into specific regions on the cortical surface. Once the brain is “flattened” and fits the computer model of the standard brain,

Eric Guilbeau, chair of the Harrington Department of Bioengineering and ASU undergraduate and top 25 USA Today scholar Lubna Ahmad are leading a team of researchers that is developing breath biosensors that measure acetone levels for those dieting, glucose levels for those with diabetes and alcohol levels for those who want to drink responsibly. They are hoping to develop the next stage of their prototype through the ASU Innovation Fund, which is sponsored by Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTe) and ASU Research Park to help faculty inventors commercialize their discoveries. The fund is dedicated to proof-of-concept and prototype development funding to faculty in order to ready ASU technology for commercialization.

Bioengineers Develop Breath Biosensors

Brain Imaging Team Provides a Window into Alzheimer’s Disease

comparisons are made to identify specific regions in the brain that are preferentially vulnerable to the early stages of Alzheim-er’s. These images may help doctors diag-nose the disease earlier and may provide a target to evaluate potential treatments and prevention therapies. Farin’s techniques can help the researchers identify physical changes in the brain over time, including those individuals who carry a gene, apoli-poprotein E e4 (APOE e4) that is consid-ered a susceptibility factor and is present in many Alzheimer’s patients. The ASU team also includes associate professor of Psychology Gene Alexander and psychology professors Leona Aiken, Steve West and Rosemary Renaut.

These images mayhelp doctors diagnose the

disease earlier and may provide

a target to evaluate potential treatments and

prevention therapies.

Images A-D. The MRI brain slice (A), is to be mapped on the one to the right (B). Result of the map (C). The amount of detail needed to locally map areas of varying agreement (D).

A B C D

Lubna Ahmad and Stephanie Robb, bioengineering undergraduate students.

Dr. Gerald Farin


The research work of Ranu Jung and James Abbas, both associate professors in the Harrington Department of Biomedical Engineering and co-directors of the Center for Rehabilitation Neuroscience and Rehabilitation Engineering at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, aims to better understand how the nervous system is affected in people who have experienced spinal cord trauma, and in the process, help people rehabilitate and regain some of their lost function.

Abbas, who also has a joint appointment as director of Clinical Rehabilitation Engineering at the Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix, and Jung focus on clinical outcomes as they collaborate with other basic scientists, engineers and physicians to improve the quality of life for people with spinal cord injury. Their “neuromorphic engineering” concept, attempts to mimic how the body’s’ own nervous system functions and uses this knowledge as the foundation for

Technology Enhanced LifestylesThe Fulton School focuses

on improving the quality of

life of those with disabilities

through the use of engi-

neered equipment interfaced

with the user. Whether it is

enabling those with spinal

cord injuries to walk through

the use of rehabilitative

muscle-machine interface

circuits or designing novel

book readers for the visu-

ally impaired, our neural,

computer science, chemical,

electrical and bioengineers

are committed to developing

these very personal inter-

faces to help people with

disabilities.

Researchers Help People with Spinal Cord Injuries

designing engineering systems. Cells in the spinal cord create electrical signals in order to get muscles to contract. By recording these electrical signals and measuring the biomechanical movements generated by the contractions in animal studies, they can determine the signal characteristics needed to create a desired response. Jung and Abbas apply the results from these animal studies into designing devices that help people with spinal cord injury regain function. Another useful feature inte-grated into the control system is an adap-tive logic that responds to an individual’s rehabilitation program needs.

This approach is also being applied to help other patients with neurological disabilities like Parkinson’s disease. Abbas and his collaborators from clinical sites around Phoenix are developing new techniques to improve deep brain stimulation systems, which are implants that alleviate the tremors associated with Parkinson’s disease.


Dr. Ranu Jung Dr. James Abbas


Urban living in Arizona would not be possible without the achievements of 20th century engineers in climate control systems and the Central Arizona Project, which brought both cool air and plentiful water to desert communities. Futurechallenges revolve around the critical need for a sustainable environment and proper uses of air, water, land and power in burgeoning desert cities such as

S u s t a i n a b l e U r b a n E n g i n e e r i n g

Phoenix and Las Vegas. Our Fulton School engineers are poised to meet those challenges by contributing towards research advances in environmental engineering; understanding pollution and emission control through environmen-tal fluid dynamics; residential building through our geotechnical groups; and improving the efficiency, storage, utilization and transmission of energy.

Fulton School Lands Leader in Sustainable Engineering

John Crittenden, a national leader in water quality research and environmental engineering, National Academy of Engineering (NAE) member and expert in sustainable urban engineering, joined ASU this past academic year. The concept of sustainability —creating economic and human vitality while being environmentally sensitive— is becom-ing more visible and the need to balance sustainability with our quality of life more apparent. Phoenix is a great laboratory for urbanizing regions, as harsh desert life and land usage have been challenged with a 40 percent increase in its population since the early 1990s. Crittenden is a leader in air and water treatment technologies, particularly the development of processes for the removal of toxic organic com-pounds. Crittenden and his colleagues have developed and patented a variety of technologies that remove dangerous compounds such as benzene from drinking water supplies. At ASU, Crittenden has become co-director of the Sustainable

Technologies Program (STP) along with ASU researcher Jay Golden as part of the Consortium for the Study of Rapidly Urbanizing Regions. The STP is a collaboration of ASU researchers who work with government, industry and community stakeholders to evaluate tech-nologies to address the challenges of rapidly urbanizing communities.

Dr. John Crittenden

Arizona State University12 Arizona State University12

New NanoscalePlatform forMolecular Sensors

Nanotechnologies and Nanoelectronics

Advances in physics and engineering technologies have enabled researchers to conduct and manipulate experiments on a scale of a billionth of a meter – a nanotechnology world. Federal govern-ment funding opportunities and initiatives have provided the impetus of research dollars to aid Fulton School researchers in exploring all things small. Our research focus is on technologies such as nano-manufacturing, nanoelectronic systems packaging, micro electromechanical machines (MEMs), spintronics, molecular electronics and computational materials. We hope to advance in areas such as quantum computing and the next generation of computer chips and electronics.

Fulton School researcher Nongjian Tao, an ASU professor of electrical engi-neering, has successfully demonstrated chemical and biological sensors that can detect the presence of specific compounds on a nanoscale. The work could lead to smaller and faster integrated sensors that could provide an early warning system for the presence of pollutants or metabolic conditions in the body. At the heart of the sensor technology are nanojunctions, tiny gaps between two materials that are only a few molecules thick connected to integrated chips that detect a current change. The sensors are highly sensitive, able to detect concentrations on the order of a few parts per trillion. Tao’s research, sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has been successful in detecting lead in the water and glucose levels in blood. Tao published his finding in the prestigious journal Science and presented his findings at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Seattle.

Fuel Cell Technology Advanced by Going Small ScaleFuel cells, which cleanly and quietly generate electric power by passing fuels like hydrogen over one electrode while passing air over a second, have been around for more than a century, yet their development has been delayed by costs and safety concerns. Now, researchers Don Gervasio and Frederic Zenhausern, director of the Center for Applied Nanobioscience (ANBC) at the Biodesign Institute at ASU, are applying the principles of nanotechnology to the design of fuel cells. Gervasio, who has worked on a variety of fuel cell technologies for the past 20 years, is using microfluidics to develop a new kind of hydrogen fuel cell. In his prototype, he has used a new water-based hydrogen storage system, an aqueous borohydride fuel that has a comparable energy density to gasoline and methanol, yet is nonflammable. They have fashioned a microfluidics reactor to release the hydrogen from the solution. Other key materials being studied are low cost, lightweight microfluidic housings, nanocatalysts and advanced proton conductors. If successful, the device would supply more energy than batteries alone and could be used in any number of portable electronic devices such as cell phones, sensors, radios and laptop computers.

The work could lead

to smaller and faster

integrated sensors that

could provide an early

warning system for the

presence of pollutants

or metabolic condi-

tions in the body.

This hydrogen fuel cell (held in the palm of the hands) uses a new microfluidics, water-basedhydrogen storage system that is a fraction of the size of conventional cells (center block)


Computing and Informatics/Information Systems

Fulton School faculty are performing state-of-the-art research needed to meet the demands of the information age. Our researchers recognize the importance of the design and analysis of algorithms and systems to process information and the application of that information towards economic and societal benefits. We are focused on providing new transdisci-

plinary research to advance the fields of 3D modeling and visualization; information and cyber security; database and data mining; natural language processing and recognition; communications; networks and signal processing; embedded systems; decision theory; enterprise manufacturing modeling; and supply networks.

ASU’s Institute for Computing and Information Sciences and Engineering (InCISE) was established in 2003, a direct result of the State of Arizona’s efforts to leverage its investment in research and technology through Propo-sition 301 funds. Built upon a core of the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC), Information Assurance and Security (IAS), Intel-ligent Information Integration (ET-I3), the Partnership for Research in Spatial Modeling (PRISM) and the ASU Soft-

ware Factory (SF), InCISE fosters interdis-ciplinary collaborations, entrepreneurship and industry partnerships. Other affiliated research groups include the Center for Research in Arts, Media and Engineering (AME), Center for Advancing Business through Information Technology (CABIT) and the Consortium for Embedded Systems (CES). Dr. Jeremy Rowe, director of IT Research, Strategic Planning, and Policy, was added this year to serve as InCISE’s associate director, reporting to InCISE director Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan.

InCISE Continues to Build on Success ofInterdisciplinary Computer Science and IT Research

One of InCISE’s affiliated research groups, the Center for Advancing Business through Information Technol-ogy (CABIT), is playing a key role in widening the geographic reach and functional capability of the Amber Alert public service system. The Am-ber Alert is an internet-based system that enables public safety agencies to efficiently “distribute information about child abductions using multiple communications devices such as cell phones, highway signs and broadcast outlets. CABIT will host the redundant real-time Amber Alert system and is partnering with Earth 911, E2C and the Arizona Broadcasters Association

CABIT Co-Hosts Pilot Amber Alert System

in this effort. Researchers at the center will be able to study the operation and evaluate its potential for other security initiatives, such as an all-alert system that could be employed during a national security crisis.


Facial recognition could be a useful feature to the office of homeland security and the field of biometric access control. Dr. Anshuman Razdan is developing new and intelligent methods of using the uniqueness of human faces for the querying and matching of 3D facial shapes for authentification. Razdan, is the director of PRISM, the Partnership for Research In Spatial Modeling, a transdis-ciplinary group that has taken the field of computer-aided geometric design (CAGD) outside of traditional engineering uses such as car designs and airplane wings and successfully applied it to the fields of archaeology, anthropology, cell biology and bioengineering.

For this latest interdisciplinary project, Razdan is working with co-investigators Gerald Farin, also with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and Charles A. Lockwood, of the Department

Study for 3D Face Authentif icationof Anthropology at University College London (formerly of Arizona State University) to develop better ways of identifying faces. Razdan’s current methods are focusing on authentication efforts, that is, methods to validate the identity claim of an individual.

The technology involved in the project includes a combination of on-the-market 3D scanning technologies and research oriented software applications developed at PRISM for metrics analysis for use in comparative analysis scenarios. Razdan is trying to uncover methods of facial recognition that would work regardless of the facial expression or hair style.

His group is relying on methods which compute a set of curves of the face and other techniques to identify significant regions of the face which won’t change over time or facial expression. For the current project, Razdan is building a database of over 1500 faces with about 800 already completed.

PRISM

Razdan is developing

new and intelligent

methods of using the

uniqueness of human

faces for the querying

and matching of

3D facial shapes

for biometric

authentification.

Dr. Jeremy Rowe (left) and Dr. Anshuman Razdan (right) discuss a 3D stereo model of the Phoenix water basin.

A 3D face scanning session with Scott Van Note (left) and Dr. Gerald Farin (right).


Study for 3D Face Authentif ication

E x p l o r a t i o n a n d D i s c o v e r yThe need for humans to explore their planet and beyond has led to scientific achievements and discoveries that give new insight into our very existence. Fulton School researchers are pushing the boundaries of air and space exploration and encouraging innovation and research beyond traditional engineering research themes. In addition, we are training the

next generation of explorers through improvements in education in science, mathematics and engineering. Whether launching satellites into space for the past decade in collaboration with NASA, or developing renewable energy sources, ASU is committed towards future explo-ration and discovery.

The new ASU Flight Research Center (FRC) is the nation’s only fully dedicated flight research enterprise aligned with a major research university. Led by Professor William Saric of the Depart-ment of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, the center will deploy a fleet of three unique aircraft involved in interdisciplinary research.

Saric’s long-term NASA, Air Force and DARPA supported research in this area focuses on reducing fuel consumption and extending the range of military and commercial airplanes. One of the key research areas is on boundary-layer stability and transition to turbulence with emphasis on the laminar-turbulent tran-sition. As air flows over a wing during flight, it forms small vortices, which flow smoothly across the wing. The vortices begin as tight columns and later become more turbulent as they dissipate, causing drag on the wing. By better controlling the flow, turbulence can be prevented, creating greater fuel efficiency and range for an aircraft. The research aircraft can also be fitted with air-based environ-

metal sensors, giving the Fulton School’s Environmental Fluid Dynamics Group (EFD) an opportunity to take sensors directly into the air and measure real-time environmental air pollution data. These programs will contribute significantly towards improved fuel economy of aircraft and help to better understand environmental pollution in major metropolitan areas such as Phoenix.

ASU Flight Research Center Takes Off

A Velocity XL-5 will be built with hard points on the wings and cabin and instrumentation channels through the wings, making it especially suited for in flight measurements.


Social Embeddedness:Community Opportunities in Education

P P A T H W A Y St o s u c c e s s

It used to all be on television. Do you remember the years, not so long ago, when anyone wanting to continue their formal education outside of a classroom had to do so by watching distance learning programming on the local learning cable channel? Now the web has transformed the way we offer professional education, and engineers from the Southwestern U.S. and around the world are benefiting.

The Center for Professional Develop-ment (CPD) in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering offers a number of online education programs from professional, noncredit certification programs and short courses to graduate engineering degrees and customized programs for corporate entities. These programs offer research-driven courses from the re-nowned Fulton School faculty members leveraging web-streamed lectures, exercises and interactive dialogue through an advanced course portal. These programs are advancing the skill sets available in the workplace and creating opportunity for advanced engineering education in a flexible “anytime, any-place” delivery mode supporting the demanding schedules of today’s engineer.

Jim Collofello is one of the faculty members featured in the online Master of Science in Engineering for Execu-tives—Embedded Systems program. “I am very excited to be a part of this program,” said Collofello. “The virtual classroom is the wave of the future, and it provides a lot more opportunities for learning...through discussion boards, video lectures and specialized homework assignments. It is also a more challenging

“The virtual

classroom is the

wave of the future,

and it provides a lot

more opportunities

for learning...”


Dr. Jim Collofello in a media-equipped, Artisan Court classroom.


t o s u c c e s s

environment where professional students bring real-world problems and experi-ences into the learning process.”

Professionals in local industry are not only being offered new opportunities in obtaining professional education, they are also being offered the opportunity toinfluence what is being taught in the Fulton School through organizations like the Consortium for Embedded Systems, formerly the Consortium for Embedded and Inter-Networking Technologies (CEINT). In the Consortium, industry advisors join forces in determining what curriculum would best prepare outgoing students to enter the workforce and be productive in the shortest amount of time.

Scott Coleman, executive director of the Consortium, is pleased with the progress the Consortium has made so far. He said, “The Fulton School is embedding itself in the community through student intern-ships; industry-advancing research;open-to-the-public, distinguished lectures; and continued education opportunities,

with a substantial portion of this activity occurring through the Consortium.”

The key to social embeddedness through CPD, the Consortium and similar organizations within the School are the result of opportunities created for and through education for the community.

In the Consortium,industry advisors join forces in determining

what curriculum would best prepare outgoing students to enter the

workforce and beproductive in the

shortest amount of time.

Scott Coleman, executive director of the Consortium for Embedded Systems, ensures that the Fulton School’s curriculum in embedded systems meets industry needs for a career ready workforce.


Entrepreneurship

Being in motion has put two Fulton School graduate students into business. After winning the Fulton School’s third annual entrepreneurship competition last spring, Prem Kuchi and Raghuram Hiremagalur set out to turn their

business plan for a simplified motion capture system into a successful start-up company. After winning approximately $100,000 in financial backing and $60,000 in donated professional services, the students now hold the honor of winning the richest university entrepreneurship competition in the entire country.

Kuchi and Hiremagalur developed their initial product, MotionEase, after spending five months in an ASU research lab capturing and analyzing five different gaits. “The process took way too long,” said Kuchi. “It was frustrating to put so much work into the process and see so little return. Now, with MotionEase, our future clients will be able to capture and analyze motion in a much shorter time frame and with an easier process.”

i n m o t i o n

The MotionEase product uses video cameras to capture motion and will allow medical practitioners to afford what was once only afforded by motion picture and television studios. “We plan to pursue chiropractors as our main clients, but the product can be easily modified for any type of motion-capture use,” said Raghuram. “We are just so thankful that we have been given the opportunity to develop our product and, through it, help others in their pursuit for professional growth.”

That pursuit for professional growth comes through the opportunities made possible by the entrepreneurial programs office in the Ira A. Fulton School of En-gineering. “The entrepreneurial programs office provides a great opportunity to spur local entrepreneurialism and fuel economic growth and development in the commu-nity,” said John Mascarenas, strategic investment manager for Intel Capital, Intel’s strategic investment program. “Entrepreneur 2004 was the perfect example of that opportunity.”

Now that the competition is over, the incubation process for the company has begun. Sethuraman Panchanathan, chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at ASU, has been mentoring the students as a partner in MotionEase, and volunteer coaches from local law, communication and business development firms have stepped up to aid the start-up company in any way possible.

“The students have a good chance at succeeding in this endeavor,” said Pan-chanathan. “With the support of ASU and the local entrepreneur community, we hope the winners of Entrepreneurship 2004 will set a benchmark for the future.”

Raghuram Hiremagalur and Prem Kuchi of MotionEase, winners of the Entrepreneurship 2004 competition.


In a world that is increasingly economi-cally connected, global engagement has been one way the Fulton School continues to produce competitive students and professionals for the future growth of engineering in the U.S. Fulton School students continue to take advantage of study abroad programs through the university, but now the opportunities for a cross-cultural, special-ized education are expanding through strategic relationships with the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Monterrey Tech) in Mexico, Shanghai Jaiotong University in China, Hanyang University in Korea, the Korean Standards Association (KSA), IntelCorporation, Motorola, NationalSemiconductor Corporation-Singapore, American Express Corporation and others. “The Center for Professional Devel-opment (CPD) is leading the effort to establish ties with these universities and organizations to further leverage the possibilities for Fulton School students to obtain degrees that will apply to the global market we live in,” said Jeffrey Goss, assistant dean and executive director of CPD. “These ties will allow for student and faculty exchanges, collaborative research and distance learning programs linking Tempe to students globally. Both professional programs and innovative, academic programs are being designed which will allow for globalization of faculty and students through a growing partnership network of corporations,

governments and universities situated around the world. We bring the Fulton School graduate engineering programs to the workplace, providing a research-driven curriculum through the flexibility of the Internet.” CPD has also built strong ties with POSCO, the third largest manufacturer of steel in the world, through its profes-sional Six Sigma certification programs. Headquartered in Seoul with operations situated globally, POSCO managers and executives have pursued training in both Korea and Arizona, and plan to continue training well into the future with hundreds of executives pursuing programs. “Of all the programs we researched, the Fulton School’s Six Sigma program was better in terms of experience, knowledge and focus on problem-solving and mind-set change,” said Mr. Jinil Kim, chief information officer and vice president of POSCO. “Looking at the results, I think the relationship is promising and will need to be further cemented.” In June, CPD collaborated with the Korean Standards Association offering a Six Sigma Mega Conference in Seoul at-tracting more than 400 mid-level executives. Keynote presentations included ASU In-dustrial Engineering faculty and industry executives representing LG Electronics, Samsung, Ford Motor Corporation, KSA, POSCO and General Electric. Other pro-grams are being delivered in Singapore.

growing engineer ing’s fu ture across the g lobeGLOBAL ENGAGEMENT

“Of all the programs we researched, the Fulton School’s Six Sigma program was better in terms of experience, knowledge and focus on problem-solving and mindset change.”—Mr. Jinil Kim, CIO and VP of POSCO



AA C A D E M I C U N I T SThe Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering is comprised of eight academic units: the Harrington Department of Bioengineering, Chemical and Materials Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, the Del E. Webb School of Construction, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

BIOENGINEERING

Bioengineering bridges engineering and physical, life and medical sciences to solve biological and medical problems. Although it is a new discipline to many universities, ASU is among the pioneers in this field, with programs that started in the late 1960s. Over time, we have built an exceptional faculty and excellent facilities to support research and education at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

This is an exciting time for the Harrington Department of Bioengineering at ASU. According to the 2004 U.S News and World Report’s university rankings, the bioengineering department was ranked 20th in the country. Research funding opportunities are at an all-time high. The bioindustry is expanding at an ever-in-creasing rate in response to new research discoveries in the Harrington Department of Bioengineering and progress in the fields of molecular and cell biology. We are rapidly increasing the size of our fac-

ulty and facilities to insure that we continue to deliver the highest quality educational experience for our students. We are doing this by developing partnerships with the bioindustry via an active industrial internship program and by continuing to secure research funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, DARPA, and other national, regional and local funding agencies.

The bioengineering department is playing a major role in an ambitious building plan developed to provide the physical infra-structure necessary to become a state-of-the-art research institution. Phase I of the design of the 170,000 square-foot Biodesign Institute at ASU building has been completed. Six new buildings that fall under the nano-bio-info themes are planned beyond this initial phase. Researchers in the Biodesign Institute will perform use-inspired fundamental bioscience and engineering research and discovery for

H a r r i n g t o n D e p a r t m e n t o f

Dr. Eric Guilbeau, chair of the Harrington Department of Bioengineering.


BIOENGINEERING

Assistant professor inHarrington Department of Bioengineering and researcher at the Biodeign Institute at ASU, Alyssa Panitch was one of six Arizona State University researchers to receive the prestigious 2003 Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The award is given annu-ally by the NSF to young faculty members who are within their first five years of a tenured-track position and are considered to become the academic leaders of the 21st century. Panitch, who has been in the bioengineering depart-ment since 1999, developed a five-year plan of bioma-terials research and com-munity college educational outreach in her CAREER proposal titled “Biomimetic Self-Assembling Hydrogels for Delivery of Bioactive Molecules.” She is develop-ing soft, pliable materials, known as hydrogels, which can be injected as a liquid into the body, where they will solidify or spread over a wound like ointment.The material shows promise as a delivery method for medication to aid in treat-ing disease and improving organ transplants.

intentional manipulation of living systems to meet a human health need.

The Whitaker Foundation is investing heavily in order to strengthen our neural engineering research thrust and develop a new thrust in molecular, cell and tissue engineering research. We are doing this in partnership with the Mayo Clinic Scott-sdale, the Barrow Neurological Institute, the Harrington Arthritis Research Center and our colleagues in ASU’s Molecular and Cell Biology Program.

We continue to build our relationship and opportunities with Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE), which brings ASU inventors and industry together to trans-form scientific discoveries into marketable products and services for the benefit of the university, our faculty and society. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, AzTE ranked in the top ten nationally in the following categories:

■ Number of inventions disclosed per $1 million spent on research

■ Number of start-up companies formed per $10 million spent on research

■ Number of U.S. patent applications filed per $1 million spent on research

PanitchReceivesCareer Award

Dr. Alyssa Panitch



The Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering (CME) is one of the most dynamic academic units in the school. We continue to develop and maintain high quality teaching and interdisciplinary research programs for educating students who will become leaders in academiaand industry.

The chemical engineering program at ASU focuses on novel methods for the production of advanced materials, environmentally-benign processing, applications of chemical engineering to biotechnology, air pollution, water desali-nation and process control. The program particularly excels in our thematicresearch areas that include micro- and nanofabrication, environmental technology and biomolecular engineering. There are many strong industrial interactions at the core of the graduate research experience in chemical engineering, including collab-orations with Motorola, Intel, Honeywell, Mayo Clinic, the Barrows Neurological Institute and the Salt River Project.

CHEMICAL AND MATERIALS ENGINEERING

Materials science and engineering is con-cerned with the fundamental relationships between structure-processing-properties-performance of materials. Our research thrusts are in electronic materials, deformation behavior of materials at different length scales and computational materials science. The program on electronic materials is broad and one of the best in the country. It has strong inter-actions with Intel, Motorola, Boeing and General Electric.

The chemical engineering program was ranked 50th in the U.S. News and World Report’s 2004 university rankings. As we strive for a top 25 ranking, we are expanding our curriculum in the areas of materials and energy, polymer materials for flexible displays and materials for medicine as they evolve into areas of signature re-search. 2003 marked a record year for research dollars as the department increased expenditures to $4.5 million. Recently, ASU received large scale funding on flexible displays and

The programparticularly excels in our thematic research areas that include micro- and nanofabrication, environmental technology and biomolecularengineering.

Dr. Nathan Newman is an expert in the synthesis, characterization and modeling of novel electronic material systems for a variety of microwave, photonic and high-speed applications.


CME chair Subhash Mahajan (shown left) received the 2004 Educator Award for outstanding contributions to education in materials science and engineering and was appointed the coordinating editorship position for Acta Materialia journals. Mahajan will serve in this position for a five-year period.

mathematics and science education, andthe CME faculty is actively involved in these programs.

The department has exceptional faculty who are internationally recognized for their achievements in research and education. Many of them are leaders in their respective

areas of research and have been awarded the highest honors by engineering organi-zations and societies. In 2004, the CME department successfully recruited five new faculty members who will bring their unique experiences and diverse research interests to both the students and the faculty of the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering.

Nikhilesh Chawla, associate professor of materials engineering, received the 2004 Bradley Stoughton Award for Young Teachers, which is presented by the American Society for Materials Interna-tional. The $3,000 award, presented to a teacher 35 years of age or younger, recog-nizes excellence in the teaching of materials science, materials engineering and design and processing. Chawla is director of ASU’s Interdisciplinary MechanicalBehavior of Materials Facility. He also has received the National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award and the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award.

Chawla Receives Prestigious Award

CME ChairMahajan Named as Coordinating Editor

Prof. Nik Chawla (center) works with graduate research associate Matt Kerr (left) and postdoctoral fellow Jason Williams (right) on a microforce testing system.


CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

The civil and environmental engineering program strives for excellence in education and research through quality contribu-tions in the area of integrated solutions to societal infrastructure and environmental problems, focusing on arid-region and urban issues. The department has a broad based program in civil engineering,offering undergraduate degrees in general civil engineering or civil engineering with a concentration in either environmental engineering or construction engineering.

Our graduate programs include studies in structures, geotechnical, water resources, transportation materials and pavements, environmental engineering in water and air quality, and construction engineering. We also have our first fully online Masters of Engineering Program in Transportation Engineering in collaboration with the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University.

We are building a comprehensive civil and environmental engineering program for education and research of sustainable urban engineering and rapid urban growth

by developing world-class, use-inspired research programs. The CEE department was ranked 41st in the U.S. News and World Report’s 2004 university rankings. As we close in on a top 25 ranking, it is our mission to recruit more NAE-caliber faculty in environmental, transporta-tion, construction and water resources engineering. As we work towards this goal, we are building the infrastructure that is needed to support an internation-ally recognized research program. These

include, but are not limited to, laboratories, endowed professorships and graduate student fellowships.

In 2004, the department successfully recruited three distinguished faculty members who will bring their vast knowl-edge and accomplishments to the school. Dr. John Crittenden, who was named the Richard Snell Presidential Chair, has directed more than 36 research projects totaling more than $20 million dollars. Dr. Braden Allenby, who most recently served as vice-president for Environment, Health, and Safety at AT&T, is a Center Faculty

In the last five

years, research

expenditures

have grown

almost 420

percent.


Sandra and William Houston’s National Science Foundation research on unsaturated soils is being funneled into a concurrent project with the Homebuilder’s Association of Central Arizona. Slab housing construc-tion can be vulnerable to the ground shifts due to the change in the moisture content in the soil, leading to major headaches for builders and owners. The Houston’s group has shown that unsaturated soils provide reduced construction costs and efforts due to their ability to withstand heavierbuilding loads. But in arid regions, where the majority of moisture comes from

Fellow with broad interests in environ-mental and science policy and law. Ed Kavazajian, who is an expert in waste containment systems and the mechanical properties of waste, as well as geotechnical earthquake engineering, is the co-author of the U.S. EPA document RCRA (258) Seismic Design Guidance for Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Facilities. Since 1999, the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has had

the second highest per faculty research expenditures in the school. In the last five years, research expenditures have grown almost 420 percent. In the same time period, our Ph.D. program enrollment has grown by more than 50 percent and our Ph.D. production has almost doubled. The department is committed to continuing growth in research as a key element in our efforts to attract, support, and develop top-level students for our program and profession.

Building on Solid GroundCEE assistant professor Jordan Peccia was the recipient of a five-year $400,000 National Science Foundation Early Career Development (CA-REER) Program Award, given to researchers deemed most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century. Peccia’s research will provide the first detailed environmental analyses of a wastewater treat-ment product, or biosolids, on agricultural land. He hopes to gain a true understanding of the physical and environmen-tal properties that contribute to biosolids aerosolization to help ensure that the practice is safe and sustainable. Addition-ally, he will take his results directly into the curriculum to use as case studies for envi-ronmental engineering courses and expand offerings to the non-scientist by focusing on environmental issues. Peccia also plans to expand the inter-national scope of the project through continued collabora-tions with the University of Baja California in Mexico that look at water issues in developing countries.

irrigation, the moisture content of the soil can shift. Understanding the nature of this effect could be beneficial to the homebuilding industry. The unsaturated soils research group is developing computer modeling capabilities that will test different types of soil systems for arid climatic conditions as well as ways of educating builders, home owners and engineers. As more people move into arid or semi-arid climatic regions of the southwest, the need for an understanding of unsaturated soils will continue to grow.

Dr. Jordan Peccia



This has been an amazing year for the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE). The department has built upon ASU President Michael Crow’s blueprint for the New American University and has endeavored to rapidly achieve world-class ranking. The depart-ment is working closely with the Institute for Computing and Information Science and Engineering (InCISE) to foster inter/multi/transdisciplinary interactions between researchers in the computer and information sciences and those in other disciplines across the university. InCISE and CSE are housed in the new, state-of-the-art Brickyard building in downtown Tempe. This new venue has doubled CSE’s space and enabled the department to embark on exciting newresearch projects.

CSE researchers focus on several key areas: embedded systems, information assurance, intelligent information integra-tion, ubiquitous computing, bioinformat-ics, and spatial modeling and enterprise computing. Faculty also collaborate on transdisciplinary projects with Trans-lational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Herberger College of Fine Arts, W. P. Carey School of Business, as well as departments within the Fulton School, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Disability Resources.

Our department is home to a vibrant student body with 1,300 undergraduates and 400 graduate students, including 26 National Merit Scholars. CSE students have been recipients of many prestigious awards including the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, AT&T Labs Fellow-ship and Department of Homeland Security Scholarship. In Fall 2004, students will be offered new graduate concentration in media arts in collabora-tion with the Arts, Media and Engineering Program.

COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

CSE is hiring several new faculty and recruiting top quality students whose talents will help accelerate our efforts to be ranked in the top 25 by U.S. News and World Report. The department is rede-signing and strengthening the curriculum, instituting new professional entrance requirements for our undergraduate students and enhanced graduate student admission standards. The department is collaborating with the Center for Professional Development and has offered the first Executive program in Embedded Systems for a cohort of students from industry. Plans are underway for masters programs in software engineering, enterprise computing, and simulation and

Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan, chair of the Department of Com-puter Science and Engineering and director of InCISE.


In July, the American Association of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) honored computer science professor Subbarao Kambhampati as an AAAI Fellow during their annual Fellows Dinner in San Jose, California. Kambhampati, who won the National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award in 1994, is being recognized as a fellow for his research contributions to automated planning in artificial intelligence. Kambhampati has been with the Fulton School since 1991 and directs the Yochan research group, which is supported by grants from NASA, NSF, Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) and Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).

Under the guidance of the Center for Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC) faculty, four students in the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering and the College of Technology and Applied Science placed third overall in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup 2004 national software design competi-tion. Students Vish Ramachandran, Srinivas Vadrevu, Swami Venkataramani and Sriram Thaiyar won a $2,000 prize for their product Holding Hands, a personal mobile device that helps the visually impaired to navigate their environment. The device can be used in everyday navigational and functional scenarios. Smart features are also included in the device, allowing the system to identify and predict user action over time.

Microsoft’s Imagine Cup awards a $25,000 grand prize for inventing a product that affects lives through smart technology and mobile devices.

modeling, as well as offering an expanded array of online courses.

Research expenditures have doubled since 2001, to over $7 million. FY 2004 saw a 63 percent increase in research proposals submitted by faculty. CSE faculty have also received a number of highly com-petitive and prestigious research grants from funding agencies such as National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Health (NIH), DoD, DARPA, Office of Naval Research, NASA, FAA, and industry, including Intel, Motorola, Microsoft and Boeing. Other indicators of the culture of excellence that permeates our department in 2003-04 include:

■ our success in three highly competitive NSF-ITR grants

■ three faculty served as editors-in-chief of premier journals in their

research areas

■ two faculty published books by Cambridge press and Springer publishers

■ four faculty chaired prestigious conferences

■ two faculty members were awarded the status of fellow of AAAI

and IEEE ■ one faculty was awarded the prestigious IEEE Kanai award.

Kambhampati HonoredIn Area of ArtificialIntelligence

“Holding Hands”design earns students recognition



DEL E. WEBB SCHOOL OF CONSTRUCTION

The Del E. Webb School of Construction at Arizona State University (DEWSC) has a national reputation for excellence in education and research. With nearly $3 million in scholarship endowments—it leads all other construction programs in student scholarships, awarding nearly

$200,000 annually. The caliber of DEWSC graduates and the quality of its research have resulted in extraordinary support from alumni, the construction industry and government. DEWSC is particularly proud of the fact that fully twenty percent of the school’s graduates have gone on to become CEOs or high-ranking executives of their companies, or owners of their own companies. The percentage is even higher for women who have graduated from DEWSC. This shows the range of oppor-tunity for graduates from the school. The DEWSC, with assistance from members of its Industry Advisory Council is currently engaged in developing a five-year plan to transform the School into one of thepremier construction managementprograms in the world. This effort was initiated by ASU President Michael Crow and Dean Peter Crouch, Dean of the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering. A steering committee directed by Provost Milt Glick and including representatives from the colleges of engineering, architecture, business, law, and ASU Polytechnic Campus is directing and reviewing the plan as development proceeds.

DEWSC is particularly

proud of the fact that

fully twenty percent of

the school’s graduates

have gone on to become

CEOs or high-ranking

executives of their

companies, or owners

of their own companies.


The Del E. Webb School of Construction chair Dr. William Badger was awarded the CFMA’s prestigious 2004 Con-struction Industry Pioneer Award. The award is given to honor an individual who has made extensive contributions to the construction industry and the community.

DEWSC is also developing a Ph.D. pro-gram in construction management with hopes of implementation by fall of 2005. One of the centerpiece elements of the Ph.D. program is a joint Ph.D. currently under development with Tecnológico de Monterrey as part of President Crow’s pan American initiative. This Ph.D., the first in the US in Construction Manage-ment, is also aimed at addressing the growing need for new faculty at construction management programs across the US.

DEWSC is one of 79 construction programs accredited by the American Council for Construction Education (ACCE), and one of only three Schools of Construction in the country. Enrollment has grown from 209 students in 1989 to the present enrollment of approximately 510, including 65 graduate students. The enrollment of minorities and women have also increased during this same time period, with women accounting for eleven percent of our enrollment and minorities representing 21 percent of the student body. This outstanding growth rate is certainly a result of the excellent reputation of the School, the amount of scholarship support from alumni and businesses, and the fact that students have consistently experienced a 100 percent placement rate upon graduation at an excellent starting salary.

In an attempt to satisfy construction professionals who want to continue their formal education while pursuing their active careers, the Del E. Webb School of Construction has developed an Acceler-ated Master of Science Program (AMS). This program is offered at the IAFSE Center for Professional Development. The accelerated 36-hour M.S. degree can be completed in 46 weeks. The School

D i r e c t o r W i n s A w a r d

B a s h f o r d R e c o g n i z e dProfessor Dr. Howard Bashford was recognized by the Valley Forward Association for his efforts in teaching the ASU Sustainable Housing Course. In the category of Students, Educators and Non-Profit Organizations, Bashford was presented with the “Crescordia”, given for outstanding support of these groups.


Dr. Howard Bashford

Dr. William Badger

intends to offer this course of study online in the near future.

DEWSC is also on the verge of initiating a capital campaign. This effort is being undertaken with the assistance of a construction industry group consisting in large part of DEWSC Alumni. This group has set a goal of raising $25 million over the next 5 years in support of the School’s goal to become a world-class program. These funds will be used to build a state-of-the-art facility exclusively for DEWSC on the ASU Tempe campus, to provide named chairs and professorships to assist in efforts to continue to attract outstanding faculty, and to increase the scholarship and fellowship funds for students.


The department’s high quality graduate

program offers students a Master’s of

Science in Engineering, a Master’s of

Science and a Ph.D. degree. Doctorate

enrollment has increased steadily since

1996 to its highest enrollment of more

than 200 students in 2003. Graduate

courses and programs are offered in arts,

media, and engineering; control systems;

electromagnetics, antennas and microwave

circuits; electronic and mixed-signal

circuit design; power engineering; signal

processing and communications and

solid-state electronics. The department

also participates in EE Online and the

Master of Engineering degree program.

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

U.S. News and World

Report ranked the

Department of Electrical

Engineering (EE) 37th in

the nation in its 2004

report. The department

has experienced more

than a 100 percent

increase in research

awards and expenditures

since 1996 as last year’s

expenditures closed

in on the $9.2 million

mark and awards totaled

nearly $10 million.

Centers of research excellence have been

established in several areas and continue

to thrive. The centers closely affiliated

with electrical engineering include the

Center for Solid State Electronics

Research, the Center for Low-Power

Electronics, the Power Systems Engineering

Research Center, Connection One: NSF

Center on Communication Circuits and

Systems, and the Center for Research in

Education in Science, Mathematics,

Engineering and Technology.

The department maintains an active

program of research and development

supported by funds from federal agencies,

Opportunities forresearch are offered to students whose goals are research, development, design, manufacturing, systems, engineering management, teaching or other professional activities in electrical engineering.


private foundations, private corporations

and the university. Opportunities for

research are offered to students whose

goals are research, development, design,

manufacturing, systems, engineering

management, teaching or other profes-

sional activities in electrical engineering.

Significant research activities exist in

arts, media, and engineering, control

systems, electronic and mixed-signal

circuit design, electromagnetics, antennas

and microwave circuits, power engineering,

signal processing and communications, and

solid-state electronics.

During the 2003-04 academic year, the

EE department continued its objective

of recruiting top quality faculty, hiring

five new faculty members. Gang Qian,

whose research interests include human

motion and computer vision, joined the

ASU faculty as an assistant professor in

August 2003. Assistant professor Abbas

Abbaspour-Tamijani, who joined the EE

department in 2004, has many research

interests including microwave electronics,

millimeter wave imaging and biomedical

applications. Associate Professor Bertan

Bakkaloglu, who also joined the ASU

faculty in 2004, has three patents and

is an expert in RF and mixed-signal IC

design and wireless and wireline com-

munication circuits and systems. Prior

to joining the EE department in 2004,

assistant professor Hugh Barnaby was an

active researcher in the radiation effects

field for almost 12 years in both industry

and academics, presenting and publishing

more than 40 papers during that time.

Associate professor Lawrence Clark, who

received a Ph.D. in 1992 and M.S. in

1987 in electrical engineering from ASU,

has 40 patents and 20 pending patents and

conducts research on low power and high

performance VLSI circuit design.

Electrical Engineering chair Stephen Goodnick



INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

The IE department has produced the top IE student in the nation three times in the last ten years and last year had the second highest rated student in the country.

The Department of Industrial Engineering (IE) is among the top 20 engineering programs in the nation. Currently, the department is ranked 14th—third among Western U.S. research universities—by U.S. News & World Report. The depart-ment is establishing a strategic role for each educational product offering and a national reputation for our primary research clusters, which include industrial statistics, information and systems engineering, semiconductor and electronics manufacturing and enterprise level modeling.

The IE department has produced the top IE student in the nation three times in the last ten years and last year had the second highest rated student in the country.Our student chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE) has won the “Gold Award”—the highest honor a chapter can receive—an unprecedented five years in a row. The Industrial Engi-neering program at ASU is accredited by the Accrediting Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) under its EC2000 guidelines, which are based on continuous improvement.

In 2003, research awards and expenditures hit a four-year high mark. Research awards increased nearly 49 percent from 2002 to just over $2 million and expendi-tures increased 29 percent from 2002 to nearly $1.8 million. We have a medium sized undergraduate program, with more than 200 students, and a large graduate program, with about 200 students and more than 50 Ph.D. candidates.

The faculty of the Department ofIndustrial Engineering includes nationally and internationally recognized experts in their fields. We hold eighteen associate or area editorships and serve on another eighteen editorial boards, providing strategic direction for some of the most influential publications in industrial engineering. We have the finest faculty in industrial statistics in the world. Our diverse faculty is moderately large, with more than 17 full-time equivalents. Faculty development is a major point of emphasis with the department. In the past eight years, there have been 12 promotions in rank/tenure within the department, along with 12 new faculty hires.

Industrial Engineering Chair Gary Hogg

Professor William Moor, who just completed his 35th year at ASU, received the Department’s annual award for Outstanding Teacher of the Year (The Pritsker Award).


In January, ASU and the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering will host the 2005 National Science Foundation Design, Service and Manufacturing Research and Grantees Conference. The conference, “Manufacturing in the New Millenium: New Products, Technolo-gies, and Economic Development,” is the most attended engineering conference in the country and will bring the nation’s attention to ASU and the Arizona universities as leaders providing new products, new technologies and econom-ic development for the state and nation. The conference will be co-chaired by Dr. Jami Shah from Mechanical Engi-neering and IE professor Dr. J. Rene Villalobos, who were both instrumental in attracting the 2005 conference to ASU.

ASU alumni Mikel Harry, a founderof Six Sigma at Motorola, and ASU Foundation Professor Doug Montgomery have joined with the Center for Profes-sional Development (CPD) to create a group of online comprehensive Six Sigma professional certifications.

Six Sigma, the statistical approach focused on increasing profitability by improving efficiency, is changing the way people around the world are doing business. The programs feature Harry’s third generation concept of Six Sigma and Montgomery’s global expertise in statistics. This new application combines older Six Sigma techniques, including defect and cost reduction, with the modern metric in Six Sigma success — value creation.

Six Sigma in the Ful ton Schoo l o f Engineer ing

Industrial engineering professor George Runger and one of his former Ph.D. students, Ben Nelson, were recipients of the Martin A. Brumbaugh Award, annually given out by the American Society for Quality forthe most important journal paper inthe field.

The award winning journal article, “Predicting Processes When Embedded Events Occur: Dynamic Time Warping,” was published in the Journal of Qual-ity Technology in April 2003. Runger and Nelson developed an analytical technique that used historical patterns of events along with dynamic time warping, and then they applied it to real-world and real-time problems in industrial manufacturing processes.

T o p R e s e a r c hP a p e r A w a r d

ASU professor Nong Ye is continuing her research on Cyber Indications and Warning (I&W). The year-long project, which is funded by a $610,000 grant from the Air Force Research Laboratory, focuses on detecting I&W observables that indicate a pending cyber attack, modeling strategic cyber attackscenarios and prediction technologies.

The research objective is to produce innovative solutions based onscientific analysis methods, whichenable a significant increase in the warning time for a pending cyber attack, thus providing IC security analysts and decision makers with time to take preventative steps for minimizing the impact and losses from cyber attack.

N o n g Y e F o c u s e s R e s e a r c h o nC y b e r I n d i c a t i o n s a n d W a r n i n g

Six Sigma founder, Mikel Harry


MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

Arizona State University students who study mechanical engineering draw upon a number of basic sciences and materials to analyze, design and manufacture the devices, machines, processes, and systems that produce mechanical work. The goal of the aerospace engineering program is to provide students with an education in technological areas critical to the design and development of aerospace vehicles and systems.

Fiscal year 2003-04 marked an excel-lent year for sponsored research project awards as the department was granted more than $7 million, an increase of 33 percent from the previous year. In fact, the award totals were the most in the last five years, nearly $1 million more from its previous high set in 2000.

Major research areas within the MAE department include aerodynamics, design automation, energy systems, environ-mental fluid dynamics, nanomechanics and smart structures. New applications in space and information systems are expected to foster more multidisciplinary research initiatives.

To celebrate the 100-year anniversary of Orville and Wilbur Wright’s first powered human flight and to continue the spirit of the Wright Brothers’ advancement of sci-entific research, Arizona State University launched the ASU Flight Research Center in December 2003 to embark on the next century of aerospace advancement. The new Flight Research Center is the nation’s only fully dedicated flight research enterprise in the country aligned with a major research university.

Undergraduate education has also im-proved through the program assessment and accreditation process. The department implemented a design elective component in thermal and mechanical systems for mechanical engineering majors. A joint program with the Barrett Honors College that allows MAE honors students to earn honors course credit by participating in undergraduate research also is continuing to expand. Student professional organiza-tions such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Society of Automotive Engineers continue to thrive.

Existing partnerships established with General Dynamics, Raytheon, and Spectrum Astro, along with cooperatives with Intel, Motorola, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin and Boeing add to the growing list of MAE industrial affiliates. Generous support from industry in the form of scholarships, laboratory equipment, internships, design projects and research grants provides sub-stantial benefits to the educational quality and economic impact of MAE programs. Overall, the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering continues to provide a comprehensive educational experience for a growing, diverse student body and to expand the scope of research activities to address the needs of industry and society in the 21st century.

U.S. News and World

Report’s 2005 Guide

to the Best Graduate

Schools ranked the

Department of Mechanical

and Aerospace Engi-

neering 27th nationally

among public institutions,

up six spots from the

previous year. In

addition, the Aerospace

Engineering Graduate

Program ranked among

the top 25 Graduate

School programs in the

entire country.

Professor Tom Sugar (background) is an expert in mechanical system design and controls, specializing in robotics.


In November 2003, emeritus professor Don Evans was one of three engineers appointed Engineering Education Senior Fellow at the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Evans will report on progress toward classroom implementation of effective

assessment strategies called Concept Inventories, which measure students understanding of important engineering concepts in physics, biology andgeology. Evans, who retired in July 2003, was a professor at ASU for 37 years and still remains active ineducational issues and activities.

Evans Named as Senior Fellow at the National Academy of Engineering

James Anderson, an as-sociate research scientist, received a $146,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study aerosols in East Asia. The project, part of a larger collaborative called “Rain in Cumulus over the Ocean” (RICO), will be conducted from November 2004 to January 2005 near Antigua. Anderson’s objective is to understand warm-rain formation, assess the importance of min-eral-dust particles, sea-salt particles, and particlescontaining elemental carbon and organic species. The results will be used tounderstand how largeaerosol particles influence the formation of rain in trade-wind Cumulus clouds.

AerosolsGrant forAnderson

Professor William Saric was selected as the recipient of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronau-tics (AIAA) Fluid Dynamics Award for 2003. The award, which was presented at the 33rd AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference in Florida, is presented for outstanding contributions to the under-standing of the behavior of liquids and gases in motion as related to needs in aeronautics and astronautics.

AIAA Awardfor Saric

Students examining the Fulton School Society of Automotive Engineers’ (SAE) formula-style race car on ASU’s Engineering Awareness Day. Students design, fabricate, and compete with small formula-style race cars.

Professor Tom Sugar (background) is an expert in mechanical system design and controls, specializing in robotics.



The unique program’s original goal was to give students the opportunity to design, build, test and launch small satellites. Ten years later, that mission has been accomplished. With more than 650 students, the program has successfully launched ASUSat1, has delivered the soon-to-be-launched Three Corner Satellite, and is currently building ASUSat3. According to the program’s founding faculty member, Dr. Helen Reed, the sat-ellite program was always “all about the students.” Each semester about 30 students in a variety of majors come together to build satellites, balancing academic stud-ies with extra-curricular activities and part-time work. “The students get to learn the non-book stuff,” said Jeff Ganley, Air

NASA Space Grant StudentSatellite Program

Force lead for the University Nanosat program (in which the ASU Student Satel-lite Program collaborates). “They learn real-world systems engineering by building satellites. They get a chance to experience working in teams, scheduling and budget constraints, and the students are great at coming up with crazy innovative solutions, which fit perfectly with a developingtechnology area like small satellites.” It is that same innovation that led one graduate student and a supportive professor ten years ago to launch the ASU Student Satellite Program. Now, the program is recognized both internally and externally as a significant contribution toward education and excellence.

AA D E C A D E O F D I S C O V E R Y

Dr. Helen Reed, ASU Student Satellite Program founding faculty member

“They learn real-world

systems engineering

by building satellites.

They get a chance to

experience working in

teams, scheduling and

budget constraints,

and the students are

great at coming up

with crazy innovative

solutions...”

Students Jasmine Figueroa, Erik Henrikson and Lisa Tidwell with the 3 Corner Satellite.

Documents

2004 AR template annual report.pdf · place. By combining raw academic talent, research infrastructure for state-of-the-art facilities, and an explosion of new enterprise, expertise,