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Knee Cartilage Research Pg. 8 • Content-Based Image Search Pg. 11

Origami LensEngineers at theJacobs School have folded up a telephoto lens in order to build a powerful yetultrathin digitalcamera.

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> dean’s column <

OCharting the Course: A Vision for 2010 and BeyondOver the past several months, I have been working with the Jacobs School’s leadershipto refine our vision and growth plans for the coming three years and beyond.Thisstrategic planning process is particularly critical as we approach the new decade andthe School’s projected steady state of more than 200 faculty, 4,600 undergraduatesand 1,700 graduate students.

We have outlined a vision and implementation plan to firmly establish and sustainthe Jacobs School as one of the world’s leading research engineering schools. It is notsufficient to drive innovation by just developing new intellectual property, but it isalso important to market and translate the research findings for the benefit of society.Similarly, it is not sufficient just to produce large numbers of engineering graduates.Rather, we must provide our students with a broad and balanced education, andequip our alumni with the depth and flexibility to compete globally for the besttechnology jobs.We must educate graduates who can provide engineering leadership.

Further, our role as human and intellectual capital provider must directly supportour regional and state-wide industry. Historically, the strength of engineering atUCSD has been in the applied sciences, in particular information science and materials science.These strengths helped catalyze the rapid development of San Diegoas an incubator and industry leader in communication technology and biotechnology.Our continued contributions in these areas are critical to our role as the region’sresearch engineering school. In addition, our state-wide economy, and indeed ournation, will be challenged by ever-increasing energy demands coupled with the need to sustain the integrity of our environment.We can and must apply ourstrengths in energy and combustion, nanotechnology, genomics and materials todevelop new energy technologies, improve energy efficiency, and advance energystorage and distribution.

These three overarching focus areas of Information Technology, Engineering inMedicine, and Environment and Energy Sustainability are areas where UCSD hasrecognized leadership components and where concerted developments and strategicinvestments will put us on top for many years to come.The need and potential forhuman and intellectual capital development over the next decade is enormous, andthe Jacobs School is ready to deliver with technology advancement and innovationacross traditional disciplinary boundaries. Our mission remains unchanged, namely,to educate tomorrows technology leaders, to conductleading edge research and drive innovation, and totransfer our discoveries to ensure societal benefit.

To view Charting the Course, A vision for 2010 and Beyond, visit http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/about/mission. Your comments are welcome.

Jacobs School of Engineering

LeadershipDean: Frieder Seible

Associate Dean: Jeanne FerranteAssociate Dean: Charles Tu

Assistant Dean for Administration & Finance: Steve Ross

Interim Executive Director of External Relations: Denine Hagen

Academic DepartmentsBioengineering: Andrew McCulloch, chairComputer Science and Engineering (CSE):

Keith Marzullo, chairElectrical and Computer Engineering (ECE):

Paul Yu, chairMechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE):

Paul Linden, chairStructural Engineering: Ahmed Elgamal, chair

Council of AdvisorsChair: Andrew E. Senyei, M.D.,

General Partner & Managing Director, Enterprise Partners Venture Capital

Vice Chair: Gregory M. Papadopoulos, ’79, Executive V.P. of Research and Development

& CTO, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Robert P. Akins, ’74, ’77, ’83, Chairman & CEO, CymerDaniel L. Alspach, ’70

Linden S. Blue, Vice Chairman, General AtomicsMalin Burnham,

Chairman, The Burnham CompaniesEugenio Clariond Reyes-Retana, Chairman, Versatec

Robert E. Englekirk, Chairman Emeritus, Englekirk Partners Consulting Structural Engineers

Hossein Eslambolchi, ’81, ’83, ’84, Chairman & CEO, Divvio Inc.

Peter C. Farrell, Chairman & CEO, ResMedGordon E. Forward

John J. Fratamico, Jr., Sr. V.P. & General Manager of the Advanced

Concepts Business Unit , SAICBernard M. Gordon,

Chairman, NeuroLogica CorporationIrwin M. Jacobs, Chairman, QUALCOMM

Paul E. Jacobs, CEO, QUALCOMMBrian A. Kenner, ’89,

President & CEO, Learning FrameworkRichard Kornfeld, ’82

Chief Strategy Officer, NextWave BroadbandDavid M. Lederman,

Managing Director, Analytical LLCRichard Levy, Chairman, Varian Medical Systems

Gregory L. Lucier,Chairman & CEO, Invitrogen Corporation

Catherine J. Mackey, Sr. V.P., Pfizer Global Research& Development, La Jolla Laboratories

Scott McClendon, Chairman, Overland StorageHenry L. Nordhoff,

Chairman, President & CEO, Gen-ProbeWilliam A. Owens,

Chairman & CEO, AEA Holdings ASIAAke Persson

William Rastetter, Chairman, IlluminaGene W. Ray, Managing Director, GMT Ventures

Ronald R. Taylor, Chairman, EMN8, Asteres, 3E Company

Ex OfficioSteve Hart, CTO & V.P. Engineering, ViaSat, Inc.

Chair, Corporate Affiliates Program

F R I E D E R S E I B L E , D E A N

2 www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/pulse UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering > Spring 2007 <

CONTENTSCorporate Affiliates ProgramExecutive Board

Chair: Steve Hart, ’80 ’86, ViaSat

Vice-Chair: Bill Gang,Information Systems Laboratories

The Aerospace CorporationAT&T

ATA EngineeringBAE SYSTEMS

Booz Allen HamiltonBroadcast Microwave Services

Cisco SystemsCohu Electronics

CymerDelta Design

Entropic CommunicationsErisTechEyeSpot

Fair Isaac General Atomics

Gen-ProbeGoogle

Hughes Network SystemsIDEAL Industries

Information Systems LaboratoriesIntuit

InvitrogenKnowledge Systems Solutions

Kyocera AmericaLockheed Martin

Luminous MedicalNCR

Nokia Northrop Grumman

PenChecksQUALCOMM

Quartus EngineeringRaytheon

Rincon ResearchSAIC

Simon Wong EngineeringSkyworks Solutions

Solar Turbines Sony

SSC - San DiegoSun MicrosystemsSYS Technologies

U. S. Navy Recruiting—San DiegoViaSat

Websense

Newsletter TeamDenine Hagen (editor), Rex Graham,

Daniel Kane, Paul Laperruque

To Reply to the Editorsoecomm@soe.ucsd.edu, (858) 534-2920

9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0403

4 AROUND THE CAMPUS• Jacobs School ranks #9 in the world• Engineering a week to remember• Single photon detector wins top prize

at Research Expo

6 RESEARCH

6 “Origami lens” slims high resolution cameras7 LED action heats up8 Bone joint: use it to lube it9 Nanoparticles toxic to neuronal cells9 Composites engineer finds new application: teeth10 Build an interactive web site without coding11 Content-based image search engine11 Revenue from licensing doubles

12 FACULTY• Information theorist named to QUALCOMM Chair• Peter Asbeck elected to National Academy• Faculty Honors

14 ALUMNI• Finals week, without a final• Tech talks near you• Give online, anytime• Class Notes

16 BACK COVER• Alumni and friends invited to the annual

Junkyard Derby

> Spring 2007 < UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/pulse 3

4 www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/pulse UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering > Spring 2007 <

> around the campus <

TThe Jacobs School rates 9th best in the world for engineering, technology andcomputer sciences, according to the Academic Rankings of World Universities(ARWU) published February 2007 by the Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

The ranking is based on academic and research performance, including researchcitations by peers, articles published in top-tier journals, and total engineering-relatedresearch expenditures.

This is the first year the ARWU ranked by subject fields. In 2006, UCSD was ranked 13th among the world’s top 1,000 universities.

The Jacobs School also received highmarks in the annual U.S. News survey of graduate programs in the U.S. whichwas released March 31.With nearly $139million in research support in FY06, theJacobs School ranked 3rd in the nation forresearch expenditures per faculty memberand 10th in the nation for total researchexpenditures. Overall, the Jacobs Schoolwas ranked 13th among the nation’s top191 engineering schools, and the seventhbest public engineering school in the U.S.

Among the engineering specialties,the Department of Bioengineering once again ranked 2nd in the nation forbiomedical engineering. Other Ph.D.programs highly ranked in the JacobsSchool include: bioinformatics (13);electrical engineering and communica-tions (17); computer engineering (17);civil and structural engineering (20);mechanical engineering (21); aerospaceengineering (22); and materials scienceand engineering (26).

The Jacobs School’s Department ofComputer Science and Engineering(CSE) was ranked 13th in the nation andrated in the top 20 for all specialties sur-veyed including: computer systems (9);computer science (13); theory (14), pro-gramming language (17) and artificialintelligence (19).This computer scienceranking is based upon a survey conductedby U.S. News in fall 2005.

Student spirit is at an all-time high at theJacobs School, and nowhere was that moreevident than during National EngineersWeek February 19-23. From the firstannual E-Games that included a battle ofthe student organizations for the covetedgolden calculator; to the EUREKAundergraduate research exhibit; and aheavy-hitting career fair that drew 73companies and 2,000 students, JacobsSchool students celebrated “E-Week” in abig way.The Triton Engineering StudentCouncil (TESC) and the School’s 16student professional organizations were atthe heart of it all—from the games, to theresearch, to the work of recruiting compa-nies to attend the job fair.

“E-Week is about building a culture and sense of community among our JacobsSchool student body.We hope that it willbecome a big tradition and symbol of thevibrant environment here at UCSD,” saysTESC president Jeffrey Mounzer.“We wantstudents to leave with more than just anengineering degree—we also want them to

UCSD is #2 forbioengineering,

according to the annualU.S. News survey ofgraduate programs at U.S. universities.Overall, the JacobsSchool was ranked

as the 7th best publicengineering school

in the nation.

Jacobs School Ranks #9 in the World

Students Engineer

Engineering students on campus have developedtheir own version of Jacobs School logo-wear.

> Spring 2007 < UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/pulse 5

leave with a sense of commitment to theJacobs School, and a network of friendsthey can count on in their career.”

E-Week was the kick off to a host ofstudent-run activities at the Jacobs Schoolthis spring.To name just a few: the Societyof Civil and Structural Engineers hostedthe 2007 Pacific Southwest RegionalConference (PSWR) in April, bringinghundreds of college students on campus to compete in events ranging from steelbridges to concrete canoes; the bioengi-neering students put on a quiz bowl,lectures, and a career fair as part of theirBioengineering Day on April 14; and theTriton Innovation Network launched a$50K business plan competition, whichcumulates in the much-anticipated awardsbanquet this June.

a Week to Remember

Single Photon Detector Wins Top Prize at Jacobs School Research Expo

Google’s Sr. VP of Research AlanEustace spoke about innovation at Google during the School’s 26thannual Research Expo. Check outour post event website to viewstreaming video of his talk, as wellas search all 250 graduate studentresearch abstracts presented atResearch Expo.

Save the Date Research Expo 2008:February 21 www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/RE

Jacobs School alumni judgesat Research Expo.

With a flash of light, photons simultaneously fly toward the face of a person waiting to be identified for securitypurposes. The packets of light bounce off the face and land on a sensor that clocks when each photon arrivesin order to reconstruct a 3D image of the face almost instantaneously.

This is just one potential application of a new single-photon detector created by electrical and computerengineering Ph.D. candidate Hod Finkelstein. He won the the Rudee Outstanding Poster Award—the top prize at the Jacobs School Research Expo held February 22. In all, 250 Jacobs School graduate students presentedposters at the event, where a panel of industry judges, including 25 Jacobs School alumni, selected best posterwinners from each of the School’s five academic departments. The potential applications for Finkelstein’s singlephoton detector extend well beyond face recognition and include biological imaging for cancer detection.

The 26th annual Research Expo, part of National Engineers Week at the Jacobs School, is a research openhouse where recruiters, venture capitalists, engineers and project managers can get an inside look at leadingedge innovations.

The highlight of the first annual E-Games was a race to build a structure out of household items that wouldbest protect a tomato during a drop from a helium-filled balloon floating 125 feet above Warren Mall.

> research <

EEngineers at the Jacobs School havefolded up a telephoto lens in order tobuild a powerful yet ultrathin digitalcamera that may find its way into cellphones, unmanned surveillance aircraft or infrared night vision applications.

“Our imager is about seven timesmore powerful than a conventional lens of the same depth,” says Eric Tremblay, aUCSD electrical and computer engineer-ing graduate student and the first authorof a recent Applied Optics paper describ-ing the new technology.Tremblay workswith professor Joseph Ford in thePhotonic Systems Integration Lab at theJacobs School.The research is funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced ResearchProjects Agency (DARPA) as part of the “MONTAGE” imager program.

“This type of miniature camera is verypromising for applications where youwant high resolution images and a shortexposure time.This describes what cellphone cameras want to be when theygrow up,” says Ford.“Today’s cell phonecameras are pretty good for wide angleshots, but because space constraints

6 www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/pulse UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering > Spring 2007 <

“Origami Lens” Slims High Resolution Cameras

Cameras with the new slim folded lenses takedigital photographs, such as the one on the lap-top screen, that are comparable—in terms ofresolution, color and quality—to photographstaken by cameras with traditional lenses.

ANNUALAPERTURE

CONCENTRICZONEREFLECTORS

IMAGE

require short focal length lenses, when youzoom them in, they’re terrible.They’reblurry, dark, and low contrast.”

To reduce camera thickness but retaingood light collection and high-resolutioncapabilities,Tremblay and colleaguesreplaced the traditional lens with a “fold-ed” optical system that bends and focuseslight within a single mirror-coated, 5-mil-limeter thick calcium fluoride opticalcrystal. In contrast, traditional zoom lensesgenerally rely on a series of separate mir-rors and lenses to bend and focus light.

The term “folded” refers to the fact thatthe light bending and focusing elements—

the optic surfaces—are all etched onto the same side of the crystal, thanks to recent advances in the mechanicalmachining process of diamond turning.

This design forces light entering thering-shaped aperture to bounce back-and-forth between the two mirrored surfaces.The light follows a predetermined zigzagpath as it moves from the largest of thefour concentric optic surfaces to the smallest and then to the digital camera’sCMOS light sensor.

Folding the optic addresses perform-ance issues facing today’s cell phone cam-eras by increasing the “effective focallength”—the zooming power of the cam-era—without increasing the distance fromthe front of the optic to the light sensor.

In the laboratory, the engineers com-pared a 5 millimeter thick, 8-fold imageroptimized to focus on objects 2.5 metersaway with a conventional high-resolution,compact camera lens with a 38 millimeterfocal length.

At best focus, the resolution, color and quality of digital photographs taken

Traditional lens vs Folded lens: The engineers reduced camera thick-ness but retained good light collection and high-resolution capabilitiesby replacing the separate mirrors and lenses used in traditional lensdesigns (left) with a “folded” optical system (right) in which all lightbending and focusing elements are etched onto one surface.

LED Action

HEATS UP at Jacobs SchoolAs energy-efficient light sources from themacro to nano scale, LEDs (light emittingdiodes) are red hot. A Jacobs Schoolresearch group led by electrical and com-puter engineering professor Deli Wang ispushing hard to make an LED that has thusfar eluded researchers: LEDs made fromzinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires. These LEDscould compete with today’s widely usedgallium nitride LEDs as well as serve ashigh efficiency nanoscale light sources foroptical data storage, imaging, and biologi-cal and chemical sensing. To build an LED,you need holes from positively chargedsemiconductors and electrons from nega-tive semiconductors. When an electronmeets a hole, the electron falls into a lowerenergy level and releases a photon of light.In the January 2007 issue of Nano Letters,Wang and colleagues at UCSD and PekingUniversity documented a critical step for-ward towards the goal of ZnO nanowireLEDs: synthesis of “p-type” ZnOnanowires—which, by definition, areendowed with free or positively chargedcarriers or holes. The race is now on toengineer nanoscale applications from com-binations of p-type and n-type (negativelycharged carriers or electrons rich)nanowires. In related work to be publishedin Nano Letters, members of the Deli Wangand Yu-Hwa Lo research groups at theJacobs School have demonstrated ZnOnanowire UV photodetectors with ultrahighsensitivity and high internal gain.

ECE Professor Joseph Ford (left) leads the Photonic Systems Integration Laboratory at the Jacobs School,where research combines opto-electronic devices with free-space and guided-wave optics, for applicationsin communications, remote sensing and compact visible and infrared imaging systems. Ford earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering/Applied Physics from UCSD, working as a student in the same basement lab he nowruns. His current graduate students (second from left to right) are Trevor Chan, Eric Tremblay and Jason Karp.

with the two cameras are comparable,the authors report.

One initial drawback with the newfolded camera was its limited depth offocus. Digital post-processing techniquesand design changes implemented in thelatest generations of the camera areaddressing these issues.

The team is also designing variable-focus folded optical systems that have gel

or air between the reflective surfaces of theimager. Such imagers may be especiallyuseful for lightweight, inexpensive infraredvision applications.The all-reflective sys-tems also enable ultra-broad-spectrumimaging and thus may be useful for ultravi-olet lithography—an emerging techniquefor squeezing more transistors onto siliconin order to create more powerful chips.

This work is part of a larger Multi-Domain Optimization research project led by Mark Neifeld at the University ofArizona, which includes a related UCSDresearch effort on nanophotonics led byJacobs School electrical engineering pro-fessor Shaya Fainman, and researchers fromCDM Optics and MIT.To create fully-functional prototype imagers, the UCSDengineers partnered with Illinois-basedoptics company Distant Focus.

> Spring 2007 < UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/pulse 7

P-type zinc oxide nanowires.

Ph.D. candidate Eric Tremblay examines a newfolded lens prototype he designed. Light enteringthe ring-shaped aperture is focused as it bouncesback-and-forth between two mirrored surfaces.

8 www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/pulse UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering > Spring 2007 <

TTaking a cue from machines that gently flex patients’ knees to help them recoverfaster from joint surgery, UCSD researchershave shown that sliding forces applied tocartilage surfaces prompt cells in that tissueto produce molecules that lubricate and protect joints.

The results reported in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage are important in the ongoingefforts of the group led by Robert Sah,a Howard Hughes Medical Institute(HHMI) professor of bioengineering in the Jacobs School.

“We have shown that shear forces on cartilage prompt chon-drocyte cells in it to produce proteoglycan 4,” says Sah.“This isan important step toward our goal of eventually growing jointtissue for transplantation.”

Proteoglycan, which is made of protein and polysaccharidecomponents, comprises connective tissue throughout the body.Chondrocyte cells of cartilage make several forms of proteogly-cans, including several that build up in cartilage and contributeto its stiffness. However, proteoglycan 4 is primarily secreted intothe joint fluid where it coats and lubricates cartilage surfaces.

The team measured up to a three-fold increase in chondro-cytes secreting proteoglycan 4 in continuously flexed joints

compared to immobile con-trols.The flexing motioncaused cartilage on the

surfaces of opposing bones to slide against each other, creatingso-called shear forces. In one continuously sliding cartilage sur-face, 40 percent of the chondrocytes were secreting proteoglycan4, whereas in immobilized joints only 13 percent of the chon-drocytes were secreting it.

Scientists know that defects in a gene for proteoglycan 4 result in a type of childhood joint failure that resemblesosteoarthritis in the elderly. Sah’s goal is to stimulate healthychondrocytes in cartilage tissue grown in the laboratory to form robust tissue that makes proteoglycan 4 and has a smooth,well-lubricated surface.

The Osteoarthritis and Cartilage paper was co-authored by Sah, Gayle E. Nugent-Derfus, now an engineer at Genentech,Inc., Dr.William D. Bugbee, associate adjunct professor oforthopaedics at UCSD, and 13 researchers at UCSD, includingsix undergraduates.

> research <

Bone Joint: Use It to Lube It

Bioengineering professorRobert Sah supervises alaboratory where under-graduates learn fromgraduate students andpost-doctoral fellows.

BELOW: Cartilage subjected to continuous passive motion(right) has more chondrocyte cells producing a lubricant calledproteoglycan 4 than when cartilage is not moved (left).

LEFT: The surface (top) of joint cartilage has the highestconcentration of chondrocyte cells, which are crucial tomaintenance of a wear-resistant surface.

Researchers at UCSD have discovered that iron-containing nanoparticles beingtested for use in several biomedical applications can be toxic to nerve cells andinterfere with the formation of their signal-transmitting extensions.

“Iron is an essential nutrient for mammals and mostlife forms and iron oxide nanoparticles were generallyassumed to be safe,” says Sungho Jin, a professor ofmaterials science at UCSD and senior author of apaper published in the June issue of Biomaterials.“However, there are recent reports that this type ofnanoparticle can be toxic in some cell types, and ourdiscovery of their nano-toxicity in yet another type of cell suggests that these particles may not beas safe as we had once thought.”

Nerve growth factor prompts rat cells used in the study to express neuron-specific genes andgenerate thin sprout-like extensions called neurites, which are up to several millimeters in length.

The cells engulfed specially coated nanoparticles via an inward pouching of the cell membranecalled endocytosis.The ingested magnetic particles provide a way to manipulate cells remotely withmagnetic force. Eventually the UCSD team had hoped to use nanoparticle-laden nerve cells tobridge regions of damaged neurons. However, when they added nerve growth factor to the cells,some died and many of the survivors exhibited a diminished ability to produce neurites.

In addition, neurites produced in the presence of iron oxide nanoparticles were less well formedand showed abnormal morphology and neurobiological characteristics.

While studies of iron oxide nanoparticles have focused primarily on their many potential uses,the UCSD researchers said more attention should be paid to their safety.“Our experience leads us to conclude that any analysis of the biocompatibility of nanoparticles should include not just atoxicological study of the component parts,” says Thomas R Pisanic, II, a co-author of the paper and a recent Ph.D. graduate,“but also an examination of the total structure as a whole.”

When cells were exposed to increasing concentrationsof iron oxide nanoparticles,their ability to form thread-like extensions called neu-rites was impaired.

Fiber-reinforced composites are tough enough thatdental bridges made with them can be attached with

less invasive techniques to adjacent teeth.

Widely Used NanoparticlesToxic to Neuronal Cells

> Spring 2007 < UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/pulse 9

Vistasp Karbhari has a job any playful child wouldlove. The professor of structural engineering at the Jacobs School makes and breaksthings. He studies materials at the level of microns to get a better understanding of howbridge decks and other structures break, and uses that knowledge in novel ways.

After talking to dentists, Karbhari thought, “What about dental bridges?” An expert in applying fiber-reinforced polymer composites as strong, lightweight materials forindustrial applications, Karbhari used a type of polyethylene fiber that is used in bullet-proof vests as reinforcement in dental composites.

Dentists are using fiber-reinforced composites in restorations, crowns, and bridges,but Karbhari says current tests are not suited to understand the complex behavior ofthese materials. He reported in Dental Materials that braided polyethylene fibers boostedtoughness of dental composites by up to 433 percent compared to the composite alone.

TeethComposites Engineer Finds New Application:

Recent Ph.D. graduate Thomas R Pisanic, II (left) andmaterials science professor Sungho Jin.

> research <

Build an Interactive Web SiteWithout Coding

NNon-programmers rejoice! In just a few minutes, you can whip up acustomized interactive Web applica-tion without touching a line ofcode or a database, thanks to a newWeb 2.0 service spinning out ofUCSD’s Web & Databases lab.

“We envision that small busi-nesses can take control of companyhiring, sales lead tracking, eventplanning and more—all withoutpaying for a programmer or data-base and application servers,” saysYannis Papakonstantinou, the JacobsSchool computer science professorwho is now launching the beta ver-sion of his patented app2you soft-ware system.

A variety of UCSD studentgroups are already involved in thebeta testing, including an intramuralindoor soccer league that is usingthe new system to register teamselectronically, schedule matches,post scores and build Web pages forteams and individual players.

App2you builds database-drivenWeb applications based on user-provided sketches that describe thepage structure and the flow ofinformation in the Web applicationin simple, non-technical terms.Sophisticated algorithms automati-

cally determine the back-end data-base design and the interaction ofthe database with the pages. Usersown the live Web applications gen-erated from sketches, and the appli-cations are hosted by app2you.

Boosted by seed funding fromthe Jacobs School’s von LiebigCenter, the cooperation ofTechTIPS and the hardworkingapp2you team, Papakonstantinou(who is a second-time technologyentrepreneur) has turned theapp2you project into a start-upenterprise.

“App2you saves you from cod-ing, database design and the hassleof installing and maintaining data-bases and application servers,” saidCSE graduate student and app2youteam member Kian Win Ong.

“Database design is an abstractactivity that is hard to learn.app2you takes it out of the picture,”said Papakonstantinou, whose teamalso includes CSE alumni GauravBhatia, Keith Kowalczykowski and

Michalis Petropoulos.The SanDiego Supercomputer Center’sData Intensive Computing thrustunit is also collaborating.

Jacobs School alumni and friends areinvited to participate in the app2you betatest and explore this new era of database-driven Web application development atwww.app2you.org.

Yannis Papakonstantinou (left), a CSE professor who is on leave to launch app2you —anapplication that lets users create database-driven Web sites without doing any programming,sits with app2you team members (second left to right) Gaurav Bhatia, Kian Win Ong and KeithKowalczykowski, who are all current or former Jacobs School students.

app2you eliminatesdatabase design,

an abstract activity that is hard to learn.

10 www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/pulse UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering > Spring 2007 <

Revenue from Licensing EngineeringDiscoveries DoublesRevenue from Licensing EngineeringDiscoveries DoublesRevenue from the commercialization of intellectual property developed

at the Jacobs School more than doubled from $602,700 taken in during

the 2004 fiscal year to $1.3 million a year later, according to

UCSD Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property

Services (TechTIPS).

During the same period, total UCSD revenue from

commercialization of discoveries made at the uni-

versity rose 43 percent to $21 million in the year

ended June 30, 2005. UCSD’s invention port-

folio totaled 1,913, more than 25 percent of

the total for the 10-campus University of

California system, for the year ended

June 30, 2005, the most recent year for

which statistics are available.

1999

$57,

563

2000

$102

.548

2001

$294

,845

2002

$236

,811

2003

$408

,270

2004

$602

.713

2005

$1.3

mill

ion

Revenues Generated by the Commercialization

of Intellectual Property, UCSD Jacobs School

of Engineering

A Google image search for “tiger” yields lots of tiger photos—but also returnsimages of a tiger pear cactus stuck in a tire, a racecar, Tiger Woods, and manyothers. Why? Today’s large Internet search engines look for images using text linkedto images rather than looking at what is actually in the picture.

Electrical engineers from the Jacobs School are making progress on a differentkind of search engine—one that analyzes the images themselves. This approach may be folded into next-generation image searchengines for the Internet; and in the shorter term, could be used to annotate and search commercial and private image collections.

At the core of this Supervised Multiclass Labeling (SML) system is a set of simple yet powerful algorithms developed at UCSDby a team led by Nuno Vasconcelos, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Once the system istrained, it can be set loose on a database of unlabeled images. The system calculates the probability that various objects or“classes” it has been trained to recognize are present—and labels the images accordingly. After labeling, images can beretrieved via keyword searches. Accuracy of the UCSD system has outpaced that of other content-based image labeling andretrieval systems in the literature. The SML system also splits up images based on content—for example, separating a landscapephoto into mountain, sky and lake regions.

Content-Based Image Search

Engine

> Spring 2007 < UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/pulse 11

12 www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/pulse UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering > Spring 2007 <

> faculty <

Peter Asbeck:Thanks for the Slim Cell Phones

If you like your slim cellphone, one of the many peopleyou have to thank is Peter Asbeck, an electricalengineering professor at the Jacobs School.Andwhile you’re at it, congratulate him on earningone of the highest professional distinctions possi-ble for an engineer—election to the NationalAcademy of Engineering (NAE).

Asbeck’s technical innovations have madetheir way into about 95 percent of the approximately one billioncell phones sold in 2006.Without the technology he pioneered first at Rockwell International Science Center and later atUCSD—heterojunction bipolar transistors or HBTs—we might be walking around with cell phone batteries the size of bricks.Asbeck’s work is also influencing the field of optical networking,and it will likely turn up in many of the uncharted regions of ourwireless, handheld future.

HBTs amplify cell phone signals to the point that they are strongenough to travel from a cell phone antenna to the closest cell phonetower.As HBTs have improved, cell phone batteries, and thus cellphones themselves, have decreased in size.

Asbeck heads UCSD’s High-Speed Device Group and holds theSkyworks Chair in High Speed Semiconductor Devices and Circuits.A member of the Jacobs School’s Center for Wireless Communi-cations,Asbeck founded the UCSD Power Amplifier Workshopwhich has now become a major component of the IEEE “RadioWireless Week” conference.

Peter Asbeck (center, back row) and his students at a celebration for Asbeck’s election to the National Academy of Engineering.

MInformation TheoristNamed to QUALCOMMEndowed ChairMore than 500 researchers from around the world gathered atCalit2 Jan. 29-Feb. 2, 2007 for the second annual InformationTheory and Applications Workshop.The event was organizedby UCSD’s Information Theory and Applications (ITA) Centerdirector Alon Orlitsky, and coincided with his appointment tothe new QUALCOMM Endowed Chair for InformationTheory and its Applications.

“Information theory hastransformed the world andinfluenced advances rangingfrom digital cell phone tech-nology to direct-broadcastsatellite transmission,” says Irwin Mark Jacobs, a formerprofessor of engineering atUCSD who went on tofound two companies basedon principles from informa-tion theory—Linkabit andQUALCOMM.“ProfessorOrlitsky’s expertise andresearch are at the intersectionof theory and its practicalapplications, and we hope thatthis endowed chair will helphim continue to engage stu-

dents in this seminal field while also leading the ITA Center as a proactive force in spreading awareness of the potentialreal-world benefits of information theory.”

At the 2007 ITA workshop, some 270 talks were deliveredduring a diverse program that reflected interest in new fieldssuch as machine learning and quantitative finance that couldbenefit from information theory, as well as traditional fieldssuch as communications and storage that trace many of theirkey advances of the last 40 years to the theory that underliesthe digital revolution.

Visit Pulse online for on-demand viewing of several of thetalks from the workshop.

Alon Orlitsky directs UCSD’sInformation Theory and Application Center.

> Spring 2007 < UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/pulse 13

The National Academy ofEngineering recently hon-ored Yuan-Cheng “Bert”Fung with the 2007 Fritz J.and Dolores H. Russ Prize.Fung, a professor emeritusof bioengineering and

the “father of modern biomechanics,” wasacknowledged “for the characterization andmodeling of human tissue mechanics andfunction leading to prevention and mitigationof trauma.”

Dean Frieder Seible hasreceived a 2006 HumboldtResearch Award. The prizefrom the Alexander vonHumboldt Foundation is oneof the most prestigious sci-entific honors in Germany,

given to eminent foreign scholars in recogni-tion of their lifetime academic achievements.Winners are invited to carry out researchprojects with a host university in Germany.Seible plans to investigate fundamental designconcepts to improve structural performanceunder extreme loads caused by natural andmanmade disasters. He will be hosted by thefaculty of Civil Engineering at the Bauhaus-University Weimar.

Two Mechanical andAerospace Engineering(MAE) professors wererecently honored for theircontributions to materialsscience. Sungho Jin,director of the MaterialsScience and Engineeringgraduate program, willreceive the Minerals,Metals & MaterialsSociety’s (TMS) 2007 JohnBardeen Award, which rec-ognizes an individual who

has made outstanding contributions to thefield of electronic materials. Sia Nemat-Nasser received the American Society ofMechanical Engineer’s 2006 Robert HenryThurston Lecture Award. Nemat-Nasser wasrecognized for distinguished contributions tothe art of experimental, theoretical and com-putational applied mechanics, including bio-mimetic multifunctional materials.

Computer Science andEngineering (CSE) professorLarry Smarr, director ofCalit2, received the presti-gious Tsutomu Kanai Awardfrom the world’s largestassociation of computer

professionals. He was cited for outstandingcontributions in the area of distributed com-puting systems. Smarr accepted the awardMarch 21 when he gave a keynote lecture atthe IEEE International Workshop on FutureTrends of Distributed Computing Systems inSedona, AZ.

CSE’s Andrew Chien was elected a 2007Fellow by IEEE. Chien was recognized for hiscontributions to high-performance cluster and grid computing software. He is currentlyon leave from UCSD serving as director ofIntel Research.

The Association forComputing Machinery(ACM) has named foundingCSE faculty member VictorVianu a 2006 Fellow, one ofjust 41 researchers world-wide to be awarded the

prestigious distinction. Vianu was recognizedfor his long-time contributions to databasemanagement systems.

Two Jacobs School facultyhave received 2007 EarlyCareer Development(CAREER) Awards from theNational Science Founda-tion. The awards, eachtotaling $400,000, supportinnovative research direc-tions. Shayan Mookherjea,professor of electrical andcomputer engineering (ECE),will focus on developingchip-scale nonlinear opticsutilizing micro-resonators

and coupled resonators. The research mayeventually enable ultra-high-speed optical net-working functionality to be performed by end-user devices rather than only at the networkcore. MAE professor Prabhakar Bandaru willuse his CAREER award for nonlinear carbonnanotube and nanowire morphologies forunique nanoelectronics.

CSE’s Geoff Voelker andECE’s Rene Cruz have beenselected as the JacobsSchool’s first EricssonDistinguished Scholars.Both are working on newconcepts in advanced wireless networking, andsecurity issues in large-scale wireless networks.This award is a part ofEricsson’s long-termengagement with the UCSD division of Calit2.

Along with recognition, the award supportsteaching, research, and service activities. The Distinguished Scholar program was created to recruit and retain outstanding faculty and students to the Jacobs School.

Several structural engineer-ing faculty were recentlyhonored for their contribu-tions to the constructionindustry. Vistasp Karbharireceived the President’sAward from the Interna-

tional Institute of Fiber-Reinforced Polymer(FRP) in Construction (IIFC) in recognition byhis peers for his “outstanding contributions as the Editor-in-Chief of FRP Internationaland through other IIFC activities.” Additionally,Karbhari was recently elected a Fellow of the IIFC.

Joel P. Conte has beenawarded a Fulbright Scholar grant. The FulbrightProgram, a flagship interna-tional educational exchangeactivity, is sponsored by theU.S. Department of State,

Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The American Institute of Steel Constructionannounced SE professorChia-Ming Uang as recipient of the SpecialAchievement Award for hiscontributions in structural

steel design, research, and education.

Faculty Honors

14 www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/pulse UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering > Spring 2007 <

> alumni <

AFinals Week, Without a FinalJacobs School initates program to encourage networking among alumni within their own corporationsAs Jacobs School engineering students slugged through the last exams of the winterquarter, QUALCOMM employees who weathered finals weeks at UCSD in years pastreturned to campus—but this time no studying was required.

As part of a new initiative to encourage networking among Jacobs School alumni withintheir own corporations, the QUALCOMM group lunched and toured the engineeringcourtyard and Calit2 with Larry Larson, incoming chair of the Department of Electricaland Computer Engineering.The alumni learned about hot projects at the Jacobs School;including nanowires for next-generation LEDs, phased array chips for high-bandwidthtelecommunication links, and new Internet epidemiology research. In January, many ofthese same alumni came together at QUALCOMM for a technology talk by JacobsSchool ECE professor Truong Nguyen on new strategies for wireless video coding.

“It’s useful to hear about what’s going on and to see how closely the Jacobs School andindustry are working together,” says Chuck Han, director, engineering, QUALCOMMCDMA Technologies.At UCSD, Han earned computer engineering and economicsundergraduate degrees in 1984 and a master’s degree in computer science in 1987.“I haven’t seen this many young people so full of dreams all in one place in a long time.It makes me feel young,” says Han.

The Jacobs School has also started alumni activities at SAIC and Cymer. If you areinterested in forming a Jacobs School engineering alumni group at your company,contact Mary Jo Ball at (858) 822-4562 or mjball@ucsd.edu.

Tech Talks Near YouConnect with your fellow UCSD engineeringalumni at our regional receptions. Each event features a technical talk by a faculty or industry leader, and an overview of the latest news from the Jacobs School by Dean Frieder Seible.

Oregon Area AlumniIntel CorporationHillsboro, ORMay 1, 20075:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.

Tech Talk:“Exploratory Research at Intel”Andrew A. Chien, Director, Intel Research

Bay Area AlumniYahooSunnyvale, CAJune 6, 20075:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.

Tech Talk:William GriswoldProfessor, Computer Science

Boston Area AlumniBoston ScientificNatick, MAOctober 30, 2007

To register for one of these events visithttp://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/alumni/

For more information or to suggest aregional reception in your town, pleasecontact Mary Jo Ball at 858-822-4562;mjball@ucsd.edu.Give Online, Anytime

www-er.ucsd.edu/givetoUCSDMaking your gift to the Jacobs School innovation fund is now easierthan ever. The new online giving form (www-er.ucsd.edu/givetoUCSD)allows you to make a secure gift by credit card to the engineeringdepartment innovation fund of your choice, as well as to several stu-dent support opportunities including the Teams in Engineering Serviceprogram, Ken Bowles scholarship fund in computer science, and bio-engineering BEGS poster display fund. In addition to the online option,we’ve provided a gift envelope in this issue of Pulse. Your gift in anyamount helps sustain the excellence of education and research at theJacobs School.

> Spring 2007 < UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/pulse 15

1991 Michele A. Vaineharrison (Vaine)B.S., MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

2007 brings Vaineharrison’s 10th year as senior soft-ware engineer at CACI. She is Technical Lead on theNavy Comptroller Financial Resource ManagementSystem (FRMS II). This year she and her husband,fellow alumnus Joseph Vaineharrison celebrate their15-year wedding anniversary.

1992 Kosal KrishnanPH.D., STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

Dr. Krishnan is an associate vice president and manages the structural engineering group of DMJMHarris in Orange, CA. He is currently managing amajor wharf upgrade and backlands improvementproject at the Port of Los Angeles.

1992 Limin HePH.D., STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

Dr. He joined DMJM Harris in Orange recently towork with his former classmate Kosal Krishnan. Heworks on various highway bridge projects andenjoys playing with his grandchildren April (age 4)and Aaron (age 1 ?) when he is visiting his daugh-ter's family in San Diego.

1993 Philippe J. LalondeB.S., STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

After two years of moonlighting, Lalonde haslaunched Lalonde Engineering Inc. StructuralConsulting Engineering. His firm approaches theconsulting engineering world from a modern view-point where “sticks-and-bricks” offices will giveway to Wi-Fi networks and internet communicationwith clients. Lalonde handles nearly all aspects ofthe design process through the internet using soft-ware enhancements.

1999 Sonya Summerour ClemmonsM.S., PH.D., BIOENGINEERING

Summerour Clemmons isPresident & CEO of SSCEnterprises BiopharmaBusiness Solutions. She wasthe winner of San DiegoBusiness Journal’s 2006“Women Who MeanBusiness” Award, and was

featured in the November 2006 supplement/issue of “The Scientist” magazine.

2002 James HurtB.S., M. ENG., ELECRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

Hurt is working as a Staff Engineer at QUALCOMM,in the Modem Technology Systems Group. Hurt hasbeen with QUALCOMM since 1997. He and his wife,Seung Park Hurt, also a UCSD Jacobs School alum-nus (B.S., Computer Science 1999), recently had ababy girl and are now the proud parents of two girls!

2002 Cathy LyB.S., STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

Ly is currently working for Pacific Gas & Electric Co.out of San Francisco as one of their civil engineers.She is also pursuing a master’s degree in civil engi-neering from Norwich University.

2002 Jack RoanM.S., ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

Jack and Maureen married in August 2003 andreturned to San Diego after living in the SanJose/Bay Area for several years. Roan is nowemployed by Agilent Technologies as a senior appli-cations engineer for RFIC since Agilent’s August,2006 acquisition of Xpedion Design Systems, wherehe had worked since 2003. In 2005, Roan started hisown company designing and building custom vacu-um tube amplifiers for professional and touringmusicians (nobleAmps.com).

2003 Diego ArbelaezB.S., MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

Arbelaez is currently a graduate student at UCBerkeley in the Department of MechanicalEngineering where he obtained an M.S. in mechan-ical engineering and advanced to Ph.D. candidacy in May 2006. He married fellow alumnus MonicaLozano (B.S. Chemical Engineering), on July 22, 2005.

2003 Monica M. LozanoB.S., CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Lozano is currently a graduate student at UC Davisin the Department of Chemical Engineering andMaterials Science. She obtained an M.S. in chemi-cal engineering in June 2005 and advanced to Ph.D.candidacy in Oct. 2005. She married fellow alumnusDiego Arbelaez (B.S. Mechanical and AerospaceEngineering), on July 22, 2005.

2003 Casey WeberB.S., M.S., STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

Weber has been working at DMJM Harris for nearlythree years and has worked on various highwaybridge and marine projects. He enjoys working withfellow UCSD alumni Kosal Krishnan and Limin He.Weber also recently acquired his PE license.

2004 Eugenio SchusterM.S., PH.D., MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

Schuster, advised by Miroslav Krstic and GeorgeTynan, has received the NSF CAREER award for theproposal “Nonlinear Control of Plasmas in NuclearFusion”. Schuster is on the faculty of theDepartment of Mechanical Engineering andMechanics at Lehigh University.

2005 Shengpin HsiehB.S., BIOENGINEERING-BIOTECHNOLOGY

Hsieh is currently working at Applied Biosystems asa manufacturing quality control scientist on enzymemanufacturing.

2006 John “Jack” T. Davis B.S., M.S., MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

Davis recently accept-ed a job working forNASA at their JetPropulsion Laboratorylocated in Pasadena asa mechanical designengineer, and will beworking on the MSL(Mars ScienceLaboratory) rover thatwill be launched to

Mars in 2009. Davis specifically designs instrumen-tation and structures in the rovers’ search for waterand past signs of life. Davis is engaged with plans tomarry in summer 2007.

2006 Natalie Hurlen (Duarte)B.S., PH.D., BIOENGINEERING

Natalie Duarte and her husband Erik Hurlen(Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering) successfullydefended their Ph.D. theses and are looking forwardto their new jobs in Phoenix, AZ. Natalie will beworking at Exponent.

Class Notes

What’s New with You? Jacobs School alumni, we want to hear fromyou! Send us updates on your professionalactivities and personal achievements. Yourinformation will be included in the next Pulsemagazine and posted on our alumni website.While supplies last, we’ll send you a JacobsSchool T-shirt when you submit a class note.

Email:soecomm@soe.ucsd.eduOn the Webwww.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/alumni/

Alumni relations team Mary Jo Ball and Kelly Briggs

Address Service Requested

Nonprofit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDSan Diego, CAPermit #1909

Junkyard DerbyMark your 2007 calendar for Friday, May 18, and a day of all-out engineering fun at the fourth annual Triton Junkyard Derby.Competing teams will scour the UCSD “junkyard” and havetwo days to build the perfect boxcart . . . or any vehicle capable of making it down the hill from Peterson Hall to the GeiselLibrary Walk finish line.The Junkyard Derby, organized by the Triton Engineering Student Council and UCSD AlumniAssociation, is becoming a campus tradition that kicks off theannual Sun God Festival.

Our engineering teams need your support! Contestants are judged not just on speed, but also for creativity and crowdsupport. Bring your family and come cheer on your favoriteengineering team.The final tournament race begins at noon.

Team Gotham: 2006 Junkyard Derby Winners

Get in on the Action! The Derby is not just for students. Alumni and friends can join the fun. To reserve parking and VIP viewing, RSVP to www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/alumni.

Got Junk?Our junkyard for the builders won’t becomplete without your treasures: bikes,couches, wood, metal scraps, appliances,kayaks, and more. Clean out yourgarage and contribute to a worthy cause. To schedule a pick up of your junk, contact sabhatia@ucsd.edu