Research commercialization involves taking articles, documentation, know-how, patents, and copyrights, which are created during research activities and getting them to users and patients for real societal impacts.

In some cases, commercialization involved taking patents based on the research and licensing them to a company. This usually involves also having the researchers consult to the company.  In other cases, commercialization involves forming of creating a startup and applying to federally funded commercialization programs. In all cases, though, research commercialization typically involves defining the nature of the research being commercialized (e.g., in a patent or intellectual property agreement), establishing a commercial relationship with another party (e.g., employment, a sale or license), and negotiating a contract (e.g., compensation).

The Research Commercialization Course is recommended for all science, engineering and medical researchers in public or private research institutions (e.g., grad students, post-docs, and faculty). This is an indispensable course for S&E grad students looking for jobs in the next 6-18 months.

Areas covered in the course include intellectual property, patents, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, licensing agreements, employment agreements, consulting agreements, tech transfer, creating and funding companies, and federally funded Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs

Each lecture is a live 90-minute online class with Q&A.

Costs: This workshop course is offered free of charge but registration is required.

Click here to REGISTER for this course

Final Exam: If you would like to take the final exam and be issued a Certificate of Completion click on “Subscribe” at the top of this page.
Certificate: Registered students who achieve 60% or greater on the final online multiple-choice test at the end of the program will be granted a Certificate of Successful Completion for this course.

Class Schedule:

Lecture 1: The Importance of Commercializing Research
Tuesday, September 20, 2011, 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm ET
Panelists: Steve Ferguson (NIH), Henry Wixon (NIST), Frank Barros (DHS)

Lecture 2: Patents, Copyright, Trademarks and Trade Secrets
Thursday, September 22, 2011, 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm ET
Panelists: Henry Wixon (NIST), Bruce Goldstein (NIH)

Lecture 3: Employment and Consulting Agreements
Tuesday, September 27, 2011, 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm ET
Panelists: Yuri Rozenfeld (Rothman and Stulberg, LLP)

Lecture 4: Tech Transfer and Licensing Agreements
Tuesday, October 4, 2011, 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm ET
Panelists: Barry Rosenbaum (The University of Akron), Ashley Stevens (Boston University)

Lecture 5: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grants
Thursday, October 6, 2011, 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm ET
Panelists: Frank Barros (DHS), Ali Andalibi (NIH)

Lecture 6: The Research-Intensive Company and Early Stage Funding
Tuesday, October 11, 2011, 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm ET
Panelists: Ashley Stevens (Boston University), Julie Goonewardene (University of Kansas)

Lecture 7: Partnering with SBIR Companies/Large Companies
Tuesday, October 18, 2011, 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm ET
Panelists: Tony Boccanfuso (UIDP), E. Jennings Taylor (Faraday Technology Inc.)

We’re excited to welcome new and returning students, faculty & staff to the University of Connecticut.  You are joining a dynamic institution that is recognized for its commitment for engineering education, scholarship, research and community outreach.  As engineers, you’ll face many challenges in developing the appropriate technologies to address important global issues that will require solutions during your lifetime.  Training for these important tasks will require a sustained effort to strengthen and harness your technical expertise, creativity and diligence.  This will not be an easy task but we look forward to working with you throughout this endeavor and to provide the support and encouragement to meet your objectives.  As you begin your academic career at UConn, we encourage you to explore new opportunities in inter-disciplinary fields and meet the many faculty, students and alumni who have brought great distinction to UConn.  The School of Engineering has enjoyed a rich heritage of training innovative leaders and among our alumni we count such notable engineers as:

Our students continue to receive important recognition for their academic and research accomplishments including the Udall Scholarship for Ethan Butler, the CT Women of Innovation Award for Jackie Garofano and the NSF GRFP Fellowship for Adam Cywar.  Among faculty accomplishments, we note the significant developments in advanced detection of hardware/software Trojan Horses, simulation of seismically excited structures, bioreactors using microbiome technologies, advanced modeling of heart valve mechanics, and motif identification in biological data.  Not to rest on our laurels, our faculty and staff have focused on a number of important initiatives in new courses, professional development and innovative research.  We’re very excited to share some of these initiatives and highlights with you and we wish you a successful new academic year!

Best regards,

Mun Y. Choi (SoE)    Kazem Kazerounian (SoE)    Marty Wood (SoE)    Jun-Hong Cui (SoE)    Reda Ammar (CSE)    Rajeev Bansal (ECE)    Ross Bagtzoglou (CEE)    C. Barry Carter (CMBE)    Baki Cetegen (ME)

New Faculty and Staff Appointments:

Biomedical Engineering

• Dr. Krystyna Gielo-Perczak (Ph.D. Warsaw University of Technology), Assistant Professor in Residence.  Her area of expertise is in biomechanics, biomedical measurements and biomedical instrumentation.
• Dr. Zahra Shahbazi (Ph.D. UConn), Assistant Professor in Residence.  Her area of expertise is in protein mechanics, biomedical instrumentation, kinematics and control.

Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering

• Dr. Anson Ma (Ph.D. Cambridge University), Assistant Professor.  His area of expertise is in the experimental studies and numerical modeling of carbon nanotube (CNT) dispersions for applications in enhanced oil recovery and “smart” composites for aerospace applications.
• Dr. Aravind Suresh (Ph.D. UConn), Assistant Professor in Residence.  His area of expertise is in inorganic oxide synthesis, structural characterization, catalytic analysis and high-temperature processing.

Civil & Environmental Engineering

• Dr. Arash Zaghi (Ph.D. University of Nevada-Reno), Assistant Professor.  His area of expertise is in experimental and analytical investigation of the seismic response in complex structures, large scale experiments, accelerated infrastructure construction and advanced structural components.

Computer Science & Engineering

• Dr. Anasthasios Bamis (Ph.D. Yale University), Assistant Professor – Hired through the Provost’s Biomedical Informatics Initiative.  His area of expertise is in the areas of human activity/behavior recognition, wireless sensor networks, embedded systems, pattern recognition, and data mining.
• Dr. Mohammad Khan (Ph.D. University of Illinois), Assistant Professor – Hired through the Provost’s Biomedical Informatics Initiative.  His area of expertise is in the integration of wireless sensor networks, distributed systems, cloud computing, failure analysis and data mining.

Electrical & Computer Engineering

• Dr. Shalabh Gupta (Ph.D. Penn State University), Assistant Professor.  His area of expertise is in cyber-physical systems, distributed intelligent systems, robotics, autonomous systems, statistical learning and perception, information fusion, and structural health monitoring.

Mechanical Engineering

• Dr. Ikjin Lee (Ph.D. University of Iowa), Assistant Professor.  His area of expertise is mechanical design, reliability-based design optimization, design under uncertainty, and optimized hardware components.
• Dr. Zhuyin Ren (Ph.D. Cornell University), Assistant Professor – Hired through the Eminent Faculty Program in Sustainable Energy.  His area of expertise is in large eddy simulation of reacting and non-reacting flow, development of subgrid models for turbulence-molecular mixing and turbulence-chemistry interactions.

School of Engineering

• Mr. Donald Swinton was appointed as the Associate Director of Development.
• Ms. Heidi Douglas was appointed as the Director of Engineering Alumni Relations.
• Ms. Kylene Perras was appointed as the Program Director of Leadership Giving.

 Faculty Highlights:

• Dr. Baki Cetegen was appointed as the UTC Chair Professor in Thermal Fluids Engineering.
• Dr. Krishna Pattipati was appointed as the UTC Chair Professor in Systems Engineering.
• Drs. Mehdi Anwar, Howard Epstein, Hanchen Huang, John Ivan and Jackie Sung were elected to the Connecticut Academy of Science & Engineering.
• Dr. Mekonnen Gebremichael was selected as the Al Geib Professor in Environmental Engineering.
• Drs. Jiong Tang, Rampi Ramprasad and Mike Renfro were selected as UTC Professors of Engineering Innovation.
• Dr. George Bollas was awarded the NSF CAREER award.
• Dr. Jeffrey McCutcheon was selected for EPA STAR award and the 3M Faculty Grant.

Undergraduate Program Highlights & Initiatives:

In 2011:

• Freshmen application increased by 24% to 3810.
• Percentage of admitted women students increased to 29%.
• Percentage of admitted under-represented minority students increased to 11%.
• Percentage of admitted out-of-state students increased to 52%.
• Average class standing of admitted students is in the top 11^th percentile.
• Average SAT of enrolled students increased to 1293.

More than 90 students enrolled in the 2011 Husky Pegasus Distance Learning Courses in MSE, ME, ECE and CEE.  These offerings allow students to reduce the time to graduation (POC: Assoc. Dean Kazem Kazerounian, Asst Dean Marty Wood, Mr. Ed Swindelles).

Two new NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduate Student site programs were awarded.  These programs will support more than 25 outstanding students from UConn and other top institutions to pursue advanced research with UConn SoE faculty.

• Dr. John Chandy leads the Computer Security REU program.
• Drs. Kevin Murphy and Mike Renfro leads the Sustainable Energy for the Future REU program.
• Renovation of teaching labs for Biomedical Engineering for biomechanics and bioinstrumentation (POC: Dr. Donald Peterson).
• Renovations of teaching labs in Chemical Engineering for Senior Design (POC: Drs. Barry Carter and Dan Burkey).
• Renovations of teaching labs in Civil Engineering for concrete and advanced materials (POC: Dr. Ross Bagtzoglou).
• Renovation of teaching labs in Mechanical Engineering for wind energy, IC engines, gas turbines, optical flow measurements & visualization (POC:  Drs. Baki Cetegen, Robert Gao & Jackie Sung).
• Renovation and equipment upgrade for Senior Design Labs in Castleman (POC: Mr. George Assard).
• Renovation and equipment upgrade for the Central Machine Shop (POC: Mr. George Assard and Mr. Serge Doyon).
• First in Family Undergraduate Scholarship program (POC: Vice Provost Doug Cooper, Assoc. Dean Kazem Kazerounian and Ms. Aida Ghiaei).
• UTC Engineering Ambassadors program to mentor K-12 students in local school districts (POC: Asst Dean Marty Wood).
• GRE preparation course for national fellowship applications (POC: Asst Dean Jun-Hong Cui and Ms. Sonya Renfro).
• National fellowship proposal writing workshops (POC: Asst Dean Jun-Hong Cui and Ms. Sonya Renfro).

Graduate Program Highlights & Initiatives:

• Professional Development for Graduate Students in leadership, communication, proposal writing, teaching and professional development (POC: Asst Dean Jun-Hong Cui and Ms. Sonya Renfro).
• 12 Ph.D. fellowship positions available through the NSF GK-12 Graduate Fellows program.  This program provides up fellows with a deeper understanding of research in sustainable engineering through teaching and outreach activities (POC: Vice Provost Doug Cooper, Assoc. Dean Kazem Kazerounian and Ms. Aida Ghiaei).
• 30 Ph.D. fellowship positions available through the Dept. of Education GAANN Fellows program.  This program provides Fellows with opportunities to pursue advanced research in energy, environment, biomedical informatics, advanced sensor networks, computer security and cloud computing (POC:  Ms. Kerrie Alberts).
• 5 Ph.D. graduate fellowships available through the Koerner Family Fellowship program (POC:  Ms. Kerrie Alberts).
• SoE and the School of Business launched the Master of Engineering degree with a concentration in Innovation and Management.  This program provides practicing engineers with training to enhance their managerial skills and understanding of emerging technologies (POC: Assoc. Dean Kazem Kazerounian).
• All departments in the School of Engineering were ranked highly in the 2010 NRC Rankings of Graduate Programs.  These rankings serve as an important confirmation of the quality of our faculty, students and their accomplishments.

Research Program Highlights:

• New Engineering Building will break ground in 2012.  This $60M building will feature advanced laboratories for research in emerging topics (POC:  Assoc. Dean Kazem Kazerounian).
• Tech Park initiative will enable faculty, students and industry partners to pursue developments in advanced manufacturing and materials (POC: Vice President Suman Singha).
• Funds were secured from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund to install a 400 K UTC fuel cell to provide power and heat for the Depot Campus.  This $4M effort will increase energy efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint at UConn (POC:  Dr. Prabhakar Singh and Ms. Tricia Bergman).
• BECAT and SoE developed a $750K High Performance Computing initiative that will enable advanced transformational computational research using 768 Intel Xeon X5650 Westmere cores on 64 compute nodes (POC: Dr. Sanguthevar Rajasekaran, Ms. George Assard, Mr. Ed Swindelles and Mr. Justin Neumann).
• Innovations in Emerging Frontiers is a new program to develop innovative and cutting-edge ideas for future research directions.  In 2011, three projects of strikingly original and transformative ideas that address grand challenge problems in engineering were selected (POC:  Dr. Kazem Kazerounian).

o   Smart Building Smart Grid (Drs. Peter Luh, Yunsi Fei, Robert Gao, Ramesh Malla, Laurent Michel, Sung Yeul Park, Krishna Pattipati, Bing Wang, Peng Zhang).

o   Stroboscopy for 3-D Rheology of Bio-Engineering Solutions (Drs. Bryan Huey, Yusuf Khan, Mei Wei, Leslie Shor, Dave Knecht).

o   Tunable Magneto-electronic Microsensors and Nanowire Arrays (Drs. Yu Lei and Menka Jain).

• New initiatives in Multi-Scale Computational Science and Engineering (POC: Drs. Hanchen Huang, Reda Ammar, Sanguthevar Rajasekaran).
• Expansion of support provided by the School of Engineering for multi-investigator proposals (POC: Ms. Kerrie Alberts and Ms. Nan Cooper).
• Research Statistics:

International Program Highlights:

• Study Abroad programs with 80 universities around the world through Global Engineering Education Exchange (POC: Dr. Reda Ammar and Asst. Dean Marty Wood).
• A new dual M.S. program with Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (Spain) funded by the U.S. Department of Education (POC: Drs. Reda Ammar and Elizabeth Mahan).
• Eurotech Engineering-German degree programs (POC: Asst Dean Marty Wood).
• Engineers Without Borders outreach programs in developing countries (POC:  Mr. Ethan Butler).
• Universitas 21 research and education programs (POC: Dr. Ross Lewin).

Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program Highlights:

• Dr. Hadi Bozorgmanesh (UConn R&D Director of Engineering and Physical Sciences) will provide engineering and science faculty with assistance in bringing their technologies to market (POC: Dr. Hadi Bozorgmanesh).
• Entrepreneur in Residence Ms. Robin Bienemann to assist faculty and students in innovation to commercialization processes (POC: Ms. Robin Bienemann).
• Springboard Manager Mike Wisniewski will support faculty and students in formulating ideas for new companies and partnerships based on their research and expertise (POC: Mr. Mike Wisniewski).
• Opportunities for students and faculty to participate in the CT.
• Monthly Innovation Connection networking functions to engage industry partners, entrepreneurs, faculty and students on new research collaborations and innovation development (POC: Ms. Noreen Wall).

Please join us for this seminar sponsored by BME and BEACON.

Thank you

Mun Choi

Dr. Semahat Demir, Program Director, Biomedical Engineering

National Science Foundation (NSF) Funding Opportunities:

An overview of NSF

NSF’s current investment areas and funding

A summary of different NSF funding opportunities, including interagency

NSF Merit Review Criteria.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Presentation 2:00 – 4:00 PM

UTEB, Room 150, University of Connecticut, 191 Auditorium Road, Storrs, CT

Dr. Semahat Demir is the Program Director for Biomedical Engineering at National Science Foundation (NSF).   She has lead and participated in 17 other NSF and interagency funding programs. She was the solicitation coordinator for Interagency Opportunities in Multi-Scale Modeling in Biomedical, Biological, and Behavioral Systems (NSF # 04-607).  At NSF, she received two awards: Program Officer Excellence Award and Director’s Award for Collaborative Integration.  Before joining NSF, Dr. Demir has held the positions of professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Joint Biomedical Engineering Program of University of Memphis and University of Tennessee, Expert Scientist and Consultant (for the Bioinformatics) for The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, Technical Manager and Medical Laser Engineer for Messerschmidt Bolkow Blohm and Rodenstock in Turkey, and Research and Development Engineer in the X-Ray Division of the Medical Engineering Center of Siemens Company in Erlangen, Germany. Her academic research expertise is computational modeling of bioelectricity in cardiac cells and bursting neurons. She has developed simulation-based teaching and learning resources including the interactive cell modeling resource, iCell.

Dr. Demir received her BS degree in electronics engineering from Istanbul Technical University, MS degree in biomedical engineering from Bosphorous University, and second MS degree, and PhD degree in electrical and computer engineering from Rice University and postdoctoral training at Biomedical Engineering Department, Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Demir has held leadership roles at IEEE EMBS, BMES, ASEE BED, and SWE. She served on the governing boards of 6 technical organizations including IEEE EMB AdCom, ASEE Bioengineering Division and SWE. She is an AIMBE fellow and an US Embassy Science Fellow selected by the State Department.

I’m writing to share information about the new awards in SoE.  We are all very impressed with the breadth and depth of expertise of our faculty members in emerging fields of engineering and science.  Please join in me in congratulating our faculty for their accomplishments.  You can find additional information about our faculty and their research interests at http://www.engr.uconn.edu/facultylist.php.

Best regards,

Mun Choi

P.S.        If your new grants or contracts are not included in this list, please contact Kerrie Alberts so that we can include it in our next announcement.

New Awards as of March 4, 2011

Biomedical Engineering

• Donald Peterson, Covidien, Ergonomic Evaluation of Surgical Staplers, 2/11-9/12, $173,494.

Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering

• Patricia Diaz (UCHC PI), Anna Dongari-Bagtzoglou (UCHC), Douglas Peterson (UCHC), Rajesh Lalla (UCHC), Joseph Burleson (UCHC), Ranjan Srivastava (CMBE), and Linda Strausbaugh (Molecular & Cell Biology) NIH/UCHC, The Oral Microbiome During Cancer Chemotherapy and Its Role in Oral Mucositis, 9/10-8/14, $3,100,000.

Civil and Environmental Engineering

• Richard Christenson, DoD/Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Real-Time Hybrid Substructuring of Marine Systems, 1/11-12/14, $513,246.
• Mekonnen Gebremichael (PI), Michael Accorsi, Ross Bagtzoglou, Manos Anagnostou, Guiling Wang, Carol Atkinson-Palombo (Geography), Jeffrey Osleeb (Geography) and Farhed Shah (CANR), USAID-HED, The Ethiopian-U.S. Partnership in Sustainable Water Resources: Capacity Building in Education, Research and Outreach, 1/11-12/12, $1,100,000.Baikun Li, NSF/Fuss & O’Neill, Inc., SBIR Phase I: MnO2 as Novel Cathode Catalysts for Power Generation and Wastewater Treatment in Microbial Fuel Cells (MCFs), 7/10-5/11, $25,000.

Computer Science and Engineering

• Sanguthevar Rajasekaran and Ion Mandoiu, NSF, First International IEEE Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and Medical Sciences (ICCABS) – Travel Awards, 2/11-1/12, $20,000.
• Dong-Guk Shin, NIH/Yale University, Mechanisms of FGRFR2 Signaling in Salivary Gland Branching Morphogenesis, 7/10-6/15, $86,627.

Connecticut Transportation Institute

• James Mahoney, DoT/CT Department of Transportation, Pooled Fund Purchase of PG Binder Testing Equipment for the Northeast States – Phase 1, 2/11-6/12, $42,263.
• Donna Shea, CT Department of Transportation, Technology Transfer Center at the University of Connecticut, 1/11-12/11, $349,000.

Electrical and Computer Engineering

• Yaakov Bar-Shalom and Peter Willett, Ministry of Defense (Israel), Impact Point Prediction for Short and Medium Range Thrusting Objects, 1/11-12/11, $100,000.
• Steven Boggs, HV Technologies, Influence of the Chemical Composition of Aged Oil on Partial Discharge Characteristics for Diagnostic Purposes, 1/11-12/12, $20,000.
• John Chandy, NSF, REU Site: Trustable Computing Systems Security Research and Education, 2/11-1/14, $350,073.
• Sung Yeul Park, DoE/University of Minnesota, Participating in a Consortium for the Power Electronics Laboratory, 7/10-6/13, $24,999.
• Sung Yeul Park, United Technologies Research Center, Integration of the Distributed Power Systems, 3/11-1/12, $41,000.
• Mohammad Tehranipoor, NSF, Collaborative Research: CI-ADDO-NEW: Trust-Hub: Design of Trust Benchmarks, Hardware Validation Platforms and a Web-Based Dissemination Portal, 3/11-2/14, $447,693.
• Quing Zhu and Michael Smith (Chemistry), CT Department of Public Health, Mapping Breast Tumor Hypoxia using a Novel Dye-Imidazole Hypoxia Probe: Preclinical Investigation, 9/10-4/12, $309,625.

Mechanical Engineering

• Chengyu Cao, Pratt & Whitney, Adaptive Control Logic for Engines, 1/11-12/11, $42,000.
• Brice Cassenti, Pratt & Whitney, Theoretical Development of Phase Field Theory for Application to Single Crystal Components, 1/11-12/11, $30,662.
• Baki Cetegen and Michael Renfro, Pratt & Whitney, Bluff Body Stability Investigation, 1/11-12/11, $50,000.
• Robert Gao, NIH, ZigBee-Based Energy-Efficient Wireless Communication for Physical Activity Measurement, 8/10-7/11, $123,095.
• Robert Gao, NSF, Workshop/Collaborative Research: 2011 NSF Career Proposal Writing Workshop, 2/11-1/12, $25,000.
• Robert Gao, Pratt & Whitney, Enhanced Electrical Capacitance Tomography for Combustion Visualization, 1/11-12/11, $66,500.
• Eric Jordan, Pratt & Whitney, Life Prediction for Ceramic Coating, 1/11-12/11, $60,000.
• Jiong Tang and Robert Gao, Pratt & Whitney, Dynamic Analysis of IBR Type Structures, 11/10-12/10, $25,000.

I’m writing to share the exciting news that one of our distinguished faculty members and a distinguished alumnus have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

We’re very proud of this important honor bestowed upon Dr. Cato Laurencin, Dean of the School of Medicine and Professor of CMBE, and Dr. James Barger, Chief Scientist at BBN.

Additional details regarding this important development will follow.

Best regards,

Mun Choi

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

National Academy of Engineering Elects
68 Members and Nine Foreign Associates

WASHINGTON — The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has elected 68 new members and nine foreign associates, announced NAE President Charles M. Vest today.  This brings the total U.S. membership to 2,290 and the number of foreign associates to 202.

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer.  Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature,” and to the “pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education.”

A list of the newly elected members and foreign associates follows, with their primary affiliations at the time of election and a brief statement of their principal engineering accomplishments.

New Members

James F. Albaugh, executive vice president, Boeing Co., and president and chief executive officer, Commercial Airplanes, Renton, Wash.  For technical leadership in defense and commercial aerospace industry.

John E. Allison, senior technical leader, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering, Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Mich.  For contributions to automotive casting technology and computational materials engineering.

Nadine N. Aubry, Raymond J. Lane Distinguished Professor and head of the mechanical engineering department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.  For contributions to low-dimensional models of turbulence and microfluidic devices, and for leadership in engineering education.

David D. Awschalom, Peter J. Clarke Professor, director of the California NanoSystems Institute, and director of the Center for Spintronics and Quantum Computation, University of California, Santa Barbara.  For contributions to the understanding of spin coherence and spintronics.

William Frasier Baker Jr., structural and civil engineering partner, Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill LLP, Chicago.  For leadership in the development of innovative structures for high-rise buildings worldwide.

James Edwin Barger, chief scientist, BBN Technologies, Cambridge, Mass.  For applications of acoustic technology and engineering solutions for the benefit of national security and society.

Jeffrey S. Beck, manager, Corporate Strategic Research Laboratory, ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co., Annandale, N.J.  For discovery and commercialization of selective, environmentally beneficial catalytic routes to major petrochemicals and for leadership in industrial engineering.

John R. Birge, Jerry W. and Carol Lee Levin Professor of Operations Management, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, Chicago.  For contributions to the theory of optimization under uncertainty.

Lawrence D. Burns, retired vice president of research and development and strategic planning, General Motors Corp.; and professor of engineering practice, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  For leadership and technical contributions to automotive technologies.

Albert Carnesale, chancellor emeritus and professor of public policy and mechanical and aerospace engineering, University of California, Los Angeles.  For bringing engineering excellence and objectivity to international security and arms control, and for leadership in higher education.

Michael J. Cima, Sumitomo Electric Industries Professor of Engineering, department of materials science and engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.  For innovations in rapid prototyping, high-temperature superconductors, and biomedical device technology.

James Joseph Collins, professor of biomedical engineering and co-director, Center for BioDynamics, Boston University, Boston.  For contributions to synthetic biology and engineered gene networks.

William John Cook, Chandler Family Chair Professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.  For theoretical and computational contributions to discrete optimization.

Stuart L. Cooper, University Scholar Professor and chair, department of chemical and biomolecular engineering, Ohio State University, Columbus.  For contributions to polymer chemistry, biomedical polyurethanes, blood compatibility, and academic administration.

Armen Der Kiureghian, Taisei Professor of Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley.  For contributions to risk and reliability and earthquake engineering to advance the practice of civil and structural engineering.

Susan T. Dumais, principal researcher, adaptive systems and interaction group, Microsoft Research, Redmond, Wash.  For innovation and leadership in organizing, accessing, and interacting with information.

Daniel C. Edelstein, IBM Fellow and manager, BEOL Technology Strategy, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, N.Y.  For contributions to implementation of copper/low-dielectric chip interconnects.

Abbas Firoozabadi, senior scientist and director, Reservoir Engineering Research Institute, Palo Alto, Calif.  For contributions to oil and gas recovery processes through application of surface science and thermodynamics.

Christodoulos A. Floudas, Stephen C. Macaleer ’63 Professor in Engineering and Applied Science and professor of chemical and biological engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.  For contributions to theory, methods, and applications of global optimization in process systems engineering, computational chemistry, and molecular biology.

Jacqueline Gail (Berg) Gish, director of special projects, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, Redondo Beach, Calif.  For technical and programmatic contributions to high-power diode-pumped solid state lasers for defense applications.

John C. Gore, Hertha Ramsey Cress University Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, and Physics; and director of the Center for Imaging Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn.  For contributions to the development and applications of magnetic resonance and other imaging techniques in medicine.

Linda G. Griffith, professor of biological and mechanical engineering and director, Biotechnology Process Engineering Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.  For contributions to 3D functional biomaterials, engineered hepatic tissues, and cell transplant devices.

Daniel M. Hancock, vice president, Global Strategic Product Alliances, General Motors Corp., Pontiac, Mich.  For contributions to automotive engines and transmissions and leadership in advanced powertrain technology and engineering education.

James S. Harris Jr., James and Ellenor Chesebrough Professor of Electrical Engineering, Materials Science, and Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.  For contributions to epitaxial growth of compound semiconductor materials and their applications.

Chris T. Hendrickson, Duquesne Light Company Professor of Engineering and co-director, Green Design Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.  For leadership and contributions in transportation and green design engineering.

Michael R. Hoffmann, James Irvine Professor of Environmental Science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.  For oxidative treatment technologies for the removal of organic and inorganic contaminants from water.

Mark S. Humayun, professor of ophthalmology, biomedical engineering, and cell and neurobiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.  For contributions to development and clinical implementation of the visual prosthesis for restoration of sight.

Linos J. Jacovides, retired director, Delphi Research Labs, Delphi Corp., Gross Pointe Farms, Mich.  For research on the interactions between power electronics and electrical machines in electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and locomotives.

Keith P. Johnston, M.C. (Bud) and Mary Beth Baird Endowed Chair and Professor of Chemical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin.  For advances in science and technology of particles and colloids used in drug delivery, biomedical imaging/therapy, microelectronics, and energy applications.

Min H. Kao, chairman and chief executive officer, Garmin Ltd., Olathe, Kansas.  For leadership in developing and commercializing compact GPS navigation systems.

Henry Z. Kister, senior fellow and director of fractionation technology, Fluor Corp., Aliso Viejo, Calif.  For leadership in distillation technology and for transforming distillation troubleshooting into an engineering science.

Daphne Koller, professor, department of computer science, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.  For contributions to representation, inference, and learning in probabilistic models with applications to robotics, vision, and biology.

Jindrich Kopecek, Distinguished Professor of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Distinguished Professor of Bioengineering, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.  For contributions to the design of hydrogel biomaterials and polymeric drug delivery systems.

Mark J. Kushner, George I. Haddad Collegiate Professor and director, Michigan Institute for Plasma Science and Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  For contributions to low-temperature plasmas for semiconductors, optics, and thin-film manufacturing.

Cato T. Laurencin, Van Dusen Endowed Chair in Academic Medicine; Distinguished Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Chemical, Materials, and Biomolecular Engineering; dean, School of Medicine; and vice president for health affairs, University of Connecticut, Farmington.  For biomaterial science, drug delivery, and tissue engineering involving musculoskeletal systems, and for academic leadership.

Fred C. Lee, University Distinguished Professor, Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and director, Center for Power Electronics Systems, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg.  For contributions to high-frequency power conversion and systems integration technologies, education, industry alliances, and technology transfer.

Henry M. Levy, Wissner-Slivka Endowed Chair in Computer Science and Engineering and department chair, University of Washington, Seattle.  For contributions to design, implementation, and evaluation of operating systems, distributed systems, and processor architectures.

Donald Liu, retired executive vice president and chief technology officer, American Bureau of Shipping, Houston.  For finite-element techniques for ship structural designs and contributions to the principles for safer ships.

Lester L. Lyles, independent aerospace consultant, The Lyles Group, Vienna, Va.  For leadership in advancing air and space technology and for national service in space exploration.

Asad M. Madni, retired president and chief technical officer, BEI Technologies, Inc.; and independent consultant, Los Angeles, Calif.  For contributions to development and commercialization of sensors and systems for aerospace and automotive safety.

Joanne M. Maguire, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Littleton, Colo.  For individual and team leadership of successful space programs.

Jitendra Malik, Arthur J. Chick Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley.  For contributions to computer vision and image analysis.

Ralph D. Masiello, senior vice president and innovation director, KEMA Inc., Chalfont, Pa.  For online analysis, operator training simulation, and modern market development for secure operation of electric power grids.

Nicholas William McKeown, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.  For contributions to the design, analysis, and engineering of high-performance routers.

Richard B. Miles, professor, department of mechanical and aerospace engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.  For development of laser-based flow field diagnostics and contributions to hypersonic testing technologies.

Donald A. Norman, Allen K. and Johnnie Cordell Breed Senior Professor in Design, professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and co-director of the Segal Design Institute, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.  For development of design principles based on human cognition that enhance the interaction between people and technology.

Amedeo R. Odoni, T. Wilson Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and professor of civil and environmental engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.  For contributions and global leadership in air traffic control and airport systems.

John Arthur Orcutt, professor of geophysics and Distinguished Researcher, San Diego Supercomputer Center, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla.  For international leadership in development of new ocean-observing infrastructure and environmental and geophysics research.

Parker H. “Pete” Petit, president, The Petit Group, Roswell, Ga.  For developing and manufacturing the first home Sudden Infant Death Syndrome monitor and for pioneering pediatric home health care.

Karsten Pruess, senior scientist, earth sciences division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif.  For advances in modeling and engineering performance assessment of subsurface heat and mass transport processes.

Ramamoorthy Ramesh, Plato Malozemoff Chair Professor in Materials Science and Physics, University of California, Berkeley.  For contributions to the science and technology of functional complex oxide materials.

Aristides A.G. Requicha, Gordon Marshall Chair in Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles.  For contributions to solid modeling and programmable automation at the macro- and nano-scales.

Thomas J. Richardson, vice president, engineering, Qualcomm-Flarion Technologies, Bridgewater, N.J.  For contributions to error control coding theory and their application to multiple access wireless systems.

Franklin D. Robinson, retired president and chairman, Robinson Helicopter Co., Torrance, Calif.  For the conception, design, and manufacture of low-noise, low life-cycle cost, and high-reliability helicopters.

John A. Rogers, Lee J. Flory-Founder Chair in Engineering, department of materials science and engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.  For novel electronic and optoelectronic devices and systems.

Ares J. Rosakis, Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics and professor of mechanical engineering, and chair, division of engineering and applied science, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.  For discovery of intersonic rupture, contributions to understanding dynamic failure, and methods to determine stresses in thin-film structures.

Joan B. Rose, Homer Nowlin Endowed Chair of Water Research, co-director of the Center for Water Sciences, and co-director of the Center for Advancing Microbial Risk Assessment, Michigan State University, East Lansing.  For contributions to improving water quality safety and public health.

Joseph C. Salamone, chief scientific officer, Rochal Industries LLP, San Antonio.  For advances in ophthalmological devices and wound healing therapies and for distinguished academic and professional service.

Fred B. Schneider, Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Computer Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.  For contributions to the design of trustworthy and secure computer systems.

Terrence J. Sejnowski, Francis Crick Professor and director of the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, Calif.  For contributions to artificial and real neural network algorithms and applying signal processing models to neuroscience.

Alexander J. Smits, Eugene Higgins Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and chair, mechanical and aerospace engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.  For contributions to the measurement and understanding of turbulent flows, fluids engineering, and education.

James C. Stevens, research fellow in core research and development, Dow Chemical Co., Freeport, Texas.  For contributions to the discovery and commercialization of polyolefins and polyolefin products.

John M. Undrill, independent consultant, John Undrill LLC, Scotia, N.Y.  For the development and application of testing methods and power system analysis tools in the electric utility industry.

Wallace R. Wade, consultant; and retired chief engineer and technical fellow, Powertrain Systems Technology and Processes, Ford Motor Co., Novi, Mich.  For implementation of low-emission technologies in the automotive industry.

Yulan Wang, founder, chairman, and chief executive officer, InTouch Health, Santa Barbara, Calif.  For creation of remotely operated surgical robots and telemedicine devices.

Mihalis Yannakakis, Percy K. and Vida L. W. Hudson Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University, New York City.  For contributions to algorithms and computational complexity.

Gregory J. Yurek, founder, chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer, American Superconductor Corp., Devens, Mass.  For engineering and leadership in development of high-temperature superconductor commercial products.

Mark D. Zoback, Benjamin M. Page Professor of Geophysics, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.  For advances in the application of geomechanics to oil and gas production, geothermal stimulation, and carbon dioxide sequestration.

New Foreign Associates

Ronald Bullough, consultant, Goring, Reading, U.K.  For contributions to understanding irradiation effects in solids and leadership in nuclear technology.

M. Elizabeth Cannon, president, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta.  For innovative use of GPS data for a wide range of applications and for pioneering the field of geomatics.

Guilherme de Oliveira Estrella, director of exploration and production, Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. Petrobras, Rio de Janiero.  For leadership in development of deepwater technology and discovery of giant oil fields offshore Brazil in the pre-salt formations.

Prabha S. Kundur, president, Kundur Power Systems Solutions Inc., Toronto.  For contributions to modeling and control techniques to enhance the stability and reliability of large electric power systems.

Ingemar Lundström, professor emeritus, IFM-Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.  For contributions to the development and commercialization of sensing platforms for biological interactions.

Jacob H. Masliyah, University Professor Emeritus, department of chemical and materials engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton.  For advancing the science and technology for recovery of bitumen from oil sands.

D. Roger J. Owen, professor in civil engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, U.K.  For contributions to computational solid mechanics and industrial application of finite and discrete element methods.

Jonathan Scott Rose, professor, department of electrical and computer engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto.  For contributions to research and engineering of field-programmable gate array architectures and computer-aided design tools.

Michael J. Rouse, independent international consultant, Oxford, U.K.  For international leadership in water governance, regulation, and research to ensure safe drinking water.

As you know, the NRC Rankings of Graduate Programs was released this week.  You can find a very useful tool at http://graduate-school.phds.org/ to determine the various program rankings.  As with all rankings of academic institutions, there are controversies surrounding the methodologies that were used and potentially inaccurate data submission (these issues are being addressed by the NRC and revised rankings will be provided in the near future).  But, the NRC rankings are perhaps the most data-centric method available for assessing graduate academic programs.

I’m happy to report that all of our programs did very well, and our rankings with respect to other public institutions are even more impressive!  Below are some of the highlights for each of our programs.

These rankings serve as an important confirmation of the quality of our faculty, students and their accomplishments – particularly when we consider that the data collection began in 2006 and do not reflect the sustained and notable accomplishments of our faculty during the last four years.  I have every confidence that our true rankings are even higher, given the growth in our research and scholarly activities.

Thank you.

Mun Y. Choi

Dean

Selected Highlights

Biomedical Engineering (77 programs evaluated)

Minority Students             Overall: 14 (18^th percentile)           Public University: 12

Female Faculty                  Overall: 27 (35^th percentile)           Public University: 17

Citations                             Overall: 30 (39^th percentile)           Public University: 15

Chemical Engineering (106 programs evaluated)

Student Outcomes           Overall: 4 (4^th percentile)               Public University: 2

Academic Jobs                  Overall: 16 (15^th percentile)           Public University: 12

Female Students               Overall: 32 (30^th percentile)           Public University: 16

Civil Engineering (135 programs evaluated – including environmental)

Placement rate                 Overall: 13 (10^th percentile)           Public University: 7

Female Faculty                  Overall: 21 (16^th percentile)           Public University: 15

Student Outcomes           Overall: 28 (20^th percentile)           Public University: 17

Computer Science & Engineering (126 programs evaluated)

Female Faculty:                 Overall: 17 (13^th percentile)          Public University: 11

Female Students:              Overall: 19 (15^th percentile)          Public University: 8

Student Outcomes:          Overall: 30 (24^th percentile)          Public University: 15

Electrical Engineering (136 programs evaluated)

Awards                                Overall: 10 (7^th percentile)             Public University: 4

Student Outcomes           Overall: 15 (11^th percentile)           Public University: 8

Quality Survey                   Overall: 33 (24^th percentile)           Public University: 17

Environmental Engineering (135 programs evaluated – including civil)

Diversity                             Overall: 9 (7^th percentile)               Public University: 7

Placement Rate                Overall: 14 (10^th percentile)           Public University: 8

Grants                                 Overall: 31 (23^rd percentile)           Public University: 18

Materials Science & Engineering (88 programs evaluated)

Female Students               Overall: 8 (9^th percentile)               Public University: 4

Grants                                 Overall: 9 (10^th percentile)             Public University: 5

Academic Jobs                  Overall: 17 (19^th percentile)           Public University: 14

Mechanical Engineering (128 programs evaluated)

Awards                                Overall: 19 (14^th percentile)           Public University: 5

Publications                       Overall: 27 (21^st percentile)           Public University: 14

Research Productivity      Overall: 37 (29^th percentile)           Public University: 19

Dr. Robert Gao, Pratt & Whitney Chair, and SoE will be hosting the NSF Proposal Writing Workshop at UConn on April 3-5, 2011.  The workshop will provide new and continuing faculty members with the opportunity to interact with NSF program managers and to share best practices for successful proposal writing.  I’ve attached a proposal writing presentation from Dr. George Hazelrigg of NSF (who is one of the organizers of the workshop) which may be of use as you develop your proposals during the coming year.

Best regards,

Mun

Attachment: NSF Proposal Writing Presentation

The event will feature:

• An informal forum to network with industry partners including:
  • Connecticut Light and Power
  • UTC Power
  • EGen
  • Precision Combustion
  • NERAC
  • Greentech Energy Solutions
  • Iron Duck
  • Hamilton Sundstrand
  • Environics
  • etc
  • Meet the new faculty, staff and students at C2E2 (http://www.energy.uconn.edu/)
  • Tour the new facilities and characterization equipment at C2E2

For additional information, please see the attached flier and event website.  Please RSVP online http://www.engr.uconn.edu/minical/showevent.php?id=510.

Best regards,

Mun Choi

We’re excited to welcome the new and returning students and faculty to the University of Connecticut.  You are part of a dynamic School of Engineering that is poised to provide you with the resources and support to fully realize your potential in engineering education, scholarship, and outreach.  Our School of Engineering is an institution with a rich heritage of accomplishment and continues to produce some of the best engineers in the country.  Among our alumni, we count such notable engineers as IBM Vice President of Big Green Innovations Sharon Nunes, Chief Engineer at NASA Langley Research Center Dennis Bushnell, President of GE Energy Infrastructure John Krenicki, Priceline.Com co-founder Scott Case and astronaut Richard Mastracchio.  Among faculty accomplishments, we note the development of advanced target tracking for commercial radar systems, advanced fuel cells, electronic nose for explosives detection, biomedical and healthcare informatics, and water resource management.  Not to rest on our laurels, our faculty and staff have been focused on myriad efforts to add to our offerings in new courses, professional development and initiatives in innovative research.  We’re very excited to share some of these initiatives with you.

We wish you a successful new academic year!

Best regards,

Mun Y. Choi                 Kazem Kazerounian    Marty Wood                 Jun-Hong Cui

Dean                             Associate Dean              Assistant Dean            Assistant Dean

Reda Ammar               Rajeev Bansal              Ross Bagtzoglou          C. Barry Carter

CSE Dept Head             ECE Dept Head             CEE Dept Head             CMBE Dept Head

Baki Cetegen
ME Dept Head

New Faculty Recruitment:

• Biomedical Engineering
  • Dr. Donald Peterson (Ph.D. UConn) as the Interim Director.  His areas of expertise include biomechanics, human-device interactions, computer input devices, sports and space medicine.
  • Dr. Terry Hennessy (Ph.D. UConn), Assistant Professor in Residence.  Her areas of expertise include biomaterials, physiological modeling and bio-instrumentation.
  • Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering
    • Dr. Radenka Maric (Ph.D. University of Kyoto), SoE Named Professor in Sustainable Energy was hired through the Sustainable Energy Program.  Her areas of expertise include next generation semiconductor, advanced fuel cell materials production, high temperature ceramics and electrochemistry.
    • Dr. Christopher Cornelius (Ph.D. Virginia Tech), Associate Professor.  His areas of expertise include transport through materials, synthesis and characterization of polymers, hydrophobicity in materials, electrospinning of nanofibers, and controlling electro-wetting on conductive surfaces.
    • Dr. Ashish Mhadeshwar (Ph.D. University of Delaware), Assistant Professor. His areas of expertise include selective catalytic reduction of NO_x, hollow fiber membranes for CO₂ capture, fuel processing for hydrogen production.
    • Dr. Mu-Ping Nieh (Ph.D. University of Massachusetts), Associate Professor, was hired through the Polymers Program.  His areas of expertise include biocompatible polymer thin films, polymer hydrogels, proton exchange membranes, solution proteins and cholesterol orientation/location in biomembranes.
    • Civil & Environmental Engineering
      • Dr. Shinae Jang (Ph.D. University of Illinois), Assistant Professor.  Her areas of expertise include structural dynamics, health monitoring networks and algorithms, systems identification and modeling.
      • Dr. Kay Wille (Ph.D. University of Leipzig), Assistant Professor.  His areas of expertise include ultra high-performance concrete, reinforced novel composites, fracture mechanics and fire resistance of building materials.
      • Computer Science & Engineering
        • Dr. Jinbo Bi (Ph.D. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute – Troy), Associate Professor.  Her areas of expertise include medical image analysis, clinical data integration, machine learning, bioinformatics, and probabilistic reason.
        • Mr. Jeff Meunier (M.S. University of Connecticut), Instructor.
        • Electrical & Computer Engineering
          • Dr. Peng Zhang (Ph.D. University of British Columbia & Tsinghua University), Assistant Professor, was hired through the Sustainable Energy Program.  His areas of expertise include power transmission, alternative energy integration to the grid, and simulation of dynamic systems.

Faculty Highlights:

• New faculty initiative in Biomedical Informatics (POC: Drs. Kazem Kazerounian, Steve Demurjian and Reda Ammar)
• Appointment of Dr. Eric Jordan as the UTC Chair Professor in Advanced Materials Processing
• Appointment of Dr. Manos Anagnostou as the Northeast Utilities Chair in Environmental Engineering
• Appointment of Dr. Nick Lownes as the Director of the Center for Transportation & Livable Systems (CTLS), a U.S. Dept. of Transportation center focused on sustainable infrastructure development and policies (POC: Dr. Nick Lownes)
• Search for the UTC Professor in Systems Engineering (POC: Dr. Yaakov Bar-Shalom)
• Search for the UTC Professor in Thermal Fluids Engineering (POC: Dr. Prabhakar Singh)

Undergraduate Highlights & Initiatives:

• 488 freshmen will join the School of Engineering this year, which represents a 13% increase over fall 2009.  Other statistics include an average SAT of 1275 and percentage of out-of-state students of 32%.
• Renovation and equipment upgrade of the Machine Shop (POC: Mrs. George Assard and Serge Doyon)
• Renovation and equipment upgrade of Shared Senior Design Laboratories in Castleman (POC: Mr. George Assard)
• New scholarships from Cantor Colburn LLP (Mr. Michael Cantor), Dr. Tom Martin, Dr. Sharon Nunes, Mr. Craig Ashford, Mr. Harry Bennett, Pratt & Whitney, Hamilton Sundstrand, TYCO, and UTC among others (POC: Asst. Dean Marty Wood)
• Research scholars program to engage sophomores in experiential learning through laboratory discovery (POC: Asst. Dean Marty Wood)
• First in Family Undergraduate Scholarship program (POC: Vice Provost Doug Cooper and Assoc. Dean Kazem Kazerounian)
• Engineering Ambassadors program to mentor K-12 students in local school districts (POC: Dr. Baki Cetegen, Program Coordinator Sonya Renfro and Director of Diversity Kevin McLaughlin)
• Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship (iCE) in freshmen engineering curriculum in ENGR 1000 and ENGR 1166 (POC: Asst. Dean Marty Wood and Director of Diversity Kevin McLaughlin)
• National fellowship proposal writing workshops (POC:  Asst. Dean Jun-Hong Cui and Program Coordinator Sonya Renfro)

Graduate Highlights & Initiatives:

• Professional Development for Graduate Students in leadership, communication, proposal writing and teaching (POC: Asst. Dean Jun-Hong Cui and Program Coordinator Sonya Renfro)
• 12 Ph.D. students appointed through the $2.7M NSF GK-12 Graduate Fellows program, which provides Fellows with a deeper understanding of research in sustainable engineering through teaching and outreach activities (POC: Assoc. Dean Dr. Kazem Kazerounian and Program Coordinator Aida Ghiaei)
• 35 Ph.D. students appointed as Dept. of Education GAANN Fellows.  This program provides Fellows with opportunities to pursue advanced research in energy, environment, biomedical informatics, advanced sensor networks, computer security and cloud computing (POC:  Program Coordinator Kerrie Alberts).
• 5 Ph.D. graduate fellowships through ENN Corporation (POC: Associate Dean Dr. Kazem Kazerounian)

Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program:

• Dr. Hadi Bozorgmanesh (UConn R&D Director of Engineering and Physical Sciences) will provide engineering and science faculty with assistance in bringing their technologies to market (POC: Dr. Hadi Bozorgmanesh)
• Entrepreneur in Residence Ms. Robin Bienemann to assist faculty and students in innovation to commercialization processes (POC: Ms. Robin Bienemann)
• Springboard Manager Mike Wisniewski will support faculty and students in formulating ideas for new companies and partnerships based on their research and expertise (POC: Mr. Mike Wisniewski)
• Opportunities for students and faculty to participate in innovative projects through the School of Business and GE Edgelab (POC: Dr. Tim Dowling)
• Monthly Innovation Connection networking functions to engage industry partners, entrepreneurs, faculty and students on new research collaborations and innovation development (POC: Ms. Katherine Weeks)

International Programs:

• Study Abroad programs with 80 universities around the world through Global Engineering Education Exchange (POC: Dr. Reda Ammar and Asst. Dean Marty Wood)
• A new dual M.S. program with Politecnico di Milano (Italy) and Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (Spain) funded by the U.S. Department of Education (POC: Dr. Reda Ammar)
• A new exchange program with Universitas 21 partner, University of Lund (Sweden) (POC: Dr. Reda Ammar and Asst. Dean Marty Wood)
• Partnership in developing undergraduate programs in energy and nanotechnology with King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia (POC: Dr. Reda Ammar)
• Fellowships for graduate student recruitment from Egypt, Turkey and Thailand (POC: Dr. Reda Ammar)
• Graduate Recruitment Initiative with Chongqing University (China) (POC: Drs. Jiong Tang and Baki Cetegen)

Research Highlights:

• New Pratt & Whitney Center of Excellence on Advanced Sensors, Diagnostics and Controls (POC:  Dr. Baki Cetegen)
  • UConn faculty members will lead a $7 million project from U.S. Department of Defense’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI).  The objective of the team is to employ computational methods to develop new classes of polymeric films for supercapacitor applications (POC: Dr. Rampi Ramprasad)
  • USAID Center on Infrastructure Development of Water Resources in Ethiopia (POC: Drs. Mekonnen Gebremichael and Mike Accorsi)
  • Selection as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Research (CAE-R) by the National Security Agency and the Dept of Homeland Security.  Through the CAE-R, we’ll be able to participate in IT, telecommunications and information security research designated specifically for member institutions (POC: Dr. John Chandy)
  • Multi-Scale Computational Science and Engineering (POC: Drs. Hanchen Huang, Reda Ammar, Sanguthevar Rajasekaran)
  • Industry match program for sustainable energy R&D collaboration (POC:  Dr. Prabhakar Singh)
  • Establishment of the UConn Consortium of Transportation Centers (UCTC) to provide innovative solutions for transportation systems and infrastructure (POC: Dr. Mike Accorsi)
  • Expansion of support provided by the School of Engineering for multi-investigator proposals (POC: Kerrie Alberts, Amy Smith and Nan Cooper)
  • Research Statistics:

I’m writing to share the exciting news regarding our external research programs.  For the period covering July 1, 2009 through April 30, 2010, our research programs have grown significantly:

• Proposal submission increased from $183M to $229M
• New awards increased from $23.8M to $33.4M

I want to thank the hard work and dedication of our faculty, students and SoE & OSP staff for their effort and support in making these impressive gains.

Best regards,

Mun