Faculty Accomplishments

 

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EXTERNAL

Avram Bar-CohenMechanical Engineering (ME) Chair and Distinguished University Professor Avram Bar-Cohen has been announced as the recipient of the International Centre for Heat and Mass Transfer 2008 Luikov Medal, for his exceptional contributions to the field. The medal is awarded to one individual every two years.


Ashwani GuptaDistinguished University Professor Ashwani Gupta (ME) is the 2008 recipient of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Worcester Reed Warner Medal. The medal is presented to an individual for exceptional contributions to the literature of engineering.


Associate Professor Luz Martínez-Miranda (materials science and engineering [MSE], Maryland NanoCenter and Graduate Program in Bioengineering) was elected President of the National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP). Her term will span 2010-2012. Martínez-Miranda has been a member of NSHP's board since 1998, and previously served as its president from 2002-2005.

Research Associate Stanley Young (civil and environmental engineering [CEE]/Center for Advanced Transportation Technology) was elected president of the Advanced Transit Association (ATRA) for 2009. ATRA promotes the use of completely automated transit to meet the demanding mobility, environmental and social challenges facing the world's urban areas.

Associate Professor Min Wu (electrical and computer engineering [ECE]/University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies [UMIACS]/Institute for Systems Research [ISR]) has been selected by the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as the winner of the 2009 IEEE Mac Van Valkenburg Early Career Teaching Award. The award recognizes members of the IEEE Education Society who have made outstanding contributions to teaching unusually early in their professional careers, as evidenced by teaching performance, development of new teaching methods and curricular innovation in fields of interest to the IEEE.

Professor Isaak Mayergoyz (ECE) has received the Achievement Award of the IEEE Magnetics Society. This is the highest award of the Magnetics Society and is given to an outstanding member each year to honor his or her lifelong professional achievement, and to recognize scientific, technical and service contributions to the society.

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The National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering presented Darryll Pines, Clark School Dean and Nariman Farvardin Professor of Engineering (aerospace engineering [AE]), with its Alumni Circle Award. The award honors those who have demonstrated significant commitment and dedication to increasing the representation of under-represented minority students in engineering careers.

Professor John Baras (ECE and ISR) was named 2009 Innovator of the Year by the Maryland Daily Record. Baras was recognized for his cryptographic key exchange system to improve digital video broadcasting. Baras also has been appointed to the IEEE-wide Systems Council, on which he will represent the IEEE Control Systems Society.

Professor and Associate Chair Jim Milke (fire protection engineering [FPE]) received the Society of Fire Protection Engineers John L. Bryan Mentoring Award. The award is named after the Clark School's first chair of FPE.

The Virginia Department of Transportation has appointed Philip Tarnoff, director of the Center for Integrated Transportation Systems Management in CEE, to chair a 10-member panel to review operations and procedures for good management of the Interstate 64 West Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. The panel will review and provide recommendations regarding existing policies and procedures relating to tunnel operations, technology and management.

Professor Shapour Azarm (ME) has recently been awarded the 2009 ASME Design Automation Conference Best Paper Award. Co-authored by Research Associate Mian Li and Research Specialist Nathan Williams, the winning paper was titled “Interval Uncertainty Reduction and Single-Disciplinary Sensitivity Analysis with Multi-Objective Optimization.”

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INTERNAL

Isaak MayergoyzProfessor Isaak Mayergoyz (ECE) has been appointed as the Alford L. Ward Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland. Prof. Mayergoyz received the professorship in recognition of his sustained and influential work as a scholar and educator. The appointment began on January 1, 2010.


John FisherJohn Fisher, associate professor in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BioE), won the Best Inventor Pitch at the 2009 Bioscience Research and Technology Review Day at the University of Maryland with a tissue engineering bioreactor system that grows bone and other types of tissue for implantation.

Professor John Baras (ECE/ISR) and his former student, Paul Yu, are the first recipients of the Jimmy Lin Award for Innovation and Invention. The two researchers won the prize for their invention, "Wireless Communication Method and System for Transmission Authentication at the Physical Layer."

A new technology that measures the radiation absorbed into the human body from cell phones faster and for far less money than current methods was awarded first prize at the ECE Research Review Day Faculty Venture Fair. Christopher Davis, a professor of ECE, pitched the technology he developed to a judging panel comprised of venture capitalists and leaders in the region's entrepreneurial community.

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FELLOWS

Darryll PinesClark School Dean and Nariman Farvardin Professor of Engineering Darryll Pines (AE) was recently elected as a fellow of ASME and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). ASME recognized Pines's contributions in smart structures, navigation and control research, technical program management and academic vision and leadership. AIAA fellows are persons of distinction who have made notable and valuable contributions to the arts, sciences, or technology of aeronautics or astronautics.

Art JohnsonProfessor Emeritus Art Johnson (pictured; BioE), and Professors Mark Shayman (ECE and ISR) and Mario Dagenais (ECE) have been elected as fellows of IEEE. Johnson was cited for his leadership in bioengineering education. Shayman was recognized for his contributions to the theory of Riccati equations and discrete-event dynamic systems. Dagenais was elected for his contributions to photon correlation, semiconductor devices and integration technologies.

Professor and Associate Chair Balakumar Balachandran (ME) has been named an AIAA fellow for furthering the understanding of nonlinear phenomena in aerospace sciences and structural dynamics over the last two decades.

ECE Visiting Research Scientist Igor Smolyaninov has been named a fellow of the Optical Society of America. Smolyaninov was recognized for outstanding research contributions in the areas of plasmonics, optical metamaterials and transformation optics, and for his distinguished record of service to the optics community.

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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Anthony EphremidesProfessor Anthony Ephremides (ECE/ISR) gave a keynote address at the 10th IEEE International Symposium: A World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks. Ephremides spoke on "Cooperation at the Network Level." He also participated in the Distinguished Lecture Tour of the IEEE Communications Society in June and delivered lectures on "Cooperation at the Network Level" in Finland, Portugal, and Greece.

Rama ChellappaMinta Martin Professor of Engineering Rama Chellappa (ECE/UMIACS/computer science) was a keynote speaker at the 16th biannual Scandinavian Conference on Image Analysis. The title of his talk was "Video-based Modeling and Recognition of Human Actions." Chellappa also was invited to give a plenary talk at the British Machine Vision Conference. The title of the talk was "Compressive Sensing for Computer Vision: Hype vs. Hope."

Professor Eyad Abed (ECE/ISR), current dean of the College of Information Technology at United Arab Emirates University, gave a plenary lecture on "Monitoring the Vulnerability of Complex Uncertain Systems" at the IEEE Multi-Conference on Systems and Control.

Michael L. Pack (Center for Advanced Transportation Technology Laboratory [CATT Lab]/CEE) gave a keynote presentation at the Advanced Learning Institute's Social Media for Crisis Communications in Government Conference. The subject of his presentation was "The Role of Social Media in Planning for and Supporting Emergency Communications and Situational Awareness." Pack also was invited to give the keynote luncheon address at the Federal Highway Administration 2009 Operations and Safety Bi-Annual Meeting, and was asked to speak on "Open Source Software for Large Scale ITS Systems Integration in the National Capital Region – What Worked and What Didn’t” at the 12th International IEEE Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems.

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MEDIA PRESENTATIONS

Evan UlrichSeveral Baltimore and Washington, D.C., television stations aired stories about a maple seed-inspired robotic flying device developed by Evan Ulrich (pictured), a graduate student advised by Dean Darryll Pines and Assistant Professor Sean Humbert (AE). The story also was picked up by media outlets across the nation such as the Baltimore Sun, Discover Magazine and MIT's Technology Review.

Rama ChellappaSeveral other Clark School stories also received quite a lot of national attention on television and in video on the web. Prof. Rama Chellappa (pictured; ECE) and his camera technology that recognizes suspicious activity were featured on the Science Channel's "Popular Science: The Future of Security." BioE Associate Professor John Fisher and his student, Martha Betz, were interviewed in a Discovery.com video on creating building blocks for the regrowth of bone and other tissue. J.R. Sellers, a fire protection engineering undergraduate student, volunteered with a local project featured on ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

ECE Professor Bruce Jacob received nationwide coverage for the launch of his company, Coil LLC, which produces guitars capable of producing more types of sound than any other type of electric guitar currently on the market. The Associated Press, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Washington Post and many other media outlets picked up the story.

AE Chair Mark Lewis was quoted by Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine regarding the Space Shuttle program, and by Scientific American Magazine regarding communication blackouts during spacecraft re-entry. He also wrote a column in Aerospace America Magazine about greening military aviation.

Director Jewel Barlow (AE) and the Glenn L. Martin Wind Tunnel were featured in several reports by local TV stations and the Washington Post, whose reporters experienced for their audiences the hurricane-force winds the facility can produce. The tunnel is used by companies and researchers across the country to test vehicles, materials and structures.

Michael L. Pack (CATT Lab/CEE) was featured on ABC News Radio and ABC News on the web to discuss common traffic issues during major holidays, including Labor Day. The radio interview was broadcast to affiliates across the country. CEE's regional integrated transportation information system and the CATT Lab’s timelines for real-time and historical incident visualization and 3D, real-time traffic monitoring were highlighted during media coverage of the tragic Washington, D.C., Metro accident over the summer.

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