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AlumniNEWSLETTER Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Fall 2016
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| Hello from the ECE Department
As the year nears its end, we look back with pride at a period of unprecedented growth in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UC San Diego. Over the last two years, we welcomed eight new faculty members to ECE, this brings our total faculty count to 56.
Part of this growth is in our undergraduate programs that build on strong theoretical fundamentals while complimenting this knowledge with courses and programs that provide hands-on applications. With the addition of several new courses, a new maker facility, and several extra-curricular activities, we are creating a multi-faceted curriculum with threads that extend throughout the entire undergraduate experience.
We also celebrate the achievements of our graduate students, we are eager to share our recent efforts to expand activity in the areas of robotics, nanoelectronics, adaptive computing and embedded systems, big data, flexible electronics, signal processing and machine learning. Our new faculty have strong systems backgrounds in diverse research areas and are instrumental in our efforts to create a robust hands-on experience for our students. More details can be found at our annual ECE brochure here.
We invite you to explore the work and accomplishments of ECE faculty and students featured in this newsletter.
Sincerely,
Truong Nguyen, Chair
Kevin Quest, Vice Chair
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| Announcing the New ECE Website
ECE is proud to announce the launch of our newly redesigned website, ece.ucsd.edu. The primary objectives of our site were to focus on traffic flow, aesthetic, content simplification and an overhaul of our brand to realign with the campus look.
Explore our site and take a look at all of our new programs and visit the older ones. Find out about how classes have changed as well as lab spaces. Also, take a look at our new alumni pages and find out how to keep in touch.
We look forward to your comments and hope that you enjoy perusing your alma mater.
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We are proud to introduce our new ECE faculty this year, Assistant Professor Nikolay Atanasov, Assistant Professor Piya Pal and Professor of Practice, Todd Hylton.
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Starting in the freshman year, ECE undergraduates can now take at least one experiential, project-based course or lab annually, whereas such courses were reserved for graduating seniors in previous years. To accommodate the need for more hands-on training, ECE is adding three new team-based project courses. The goal is to better equip students for industry and internships as soon as possible. “ECE has hired half a dozen junior faculty in the past few years with strong experience in teaching hands-on courses, and they have been involved in designing the new curriculum,” says ECE Chair Truong Nguyen. “Experiential learning gives our students the skills, experience and confidence necessary to get great engineering jobs when they graduate or go for an internship, and we’re hearing about the value of hands-on experience from partners in industry as well.” The new courses – ECE 5, ECE 16, and ECE 115 – are targeted at students in their freshman, sophomore and junior years, respectively. In order to graduate, seniors can still take the capstone group project course, ECE 191, but the department is also launching an upper-division course, ECE 196, which is set to launch in Fall 2016. Read on to learn more about the rapidly changing face of education in the ECE department, including new maker spaces.
For more information on our hands-on courses, follow the link here.
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UC San Diego showcases real-world applications of research at Maker Faire
Maker Faire is an all-ages gathering of tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, students and many others. The Faire is part of Innovate San Diego, a week-long series of events showcasing innovation in the Cali-Baja region, and has become part of pop culture- a place for experiential marketing, debuting new technologies and inventions and celebrating geekdom of every stripe.
Researchers from QI and the Jacobs School exhibited their work at venues throughout Balboa Park. ECE showcased our hands-on curriculum. ECE 5, ECE 16, ECE 115, and ECE 196. The attendees had fun trying out various projects as well as playing with the pinball machines designed in ECE 115.
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| The objective of the 2nd annual design competition is to design a device or platform that improves the quality-of-life for senior citizens.
Students have been attending monthly update meetings led by the Design Competition Committee. At the most recent update meeting on November 30th, teams shared a brief presentation on their interactions with senior citizens so far, problems they have identified and would like to solve, and initial product ideas.
There are 20 teams total, with about 88 students participating. The students are from a variety of departments: ECE, Cog Sci, CSE, Visual Arts, BioEng, Mech Eng, Structural Eng, Rady, Political Science, Anthropology, BioInformatics, Math, Econ, Psychology, Environment Eng, and International Studies.
Two meet & greets with senior citizens have taken place: one on campus with members of the UCSD Retiree Association; the second at La Costa Glen Community in Carlsbad. Some students have also scheduled time on their own to meet with senior citizens, such as lunch at the Faculty Club, which they are allowed to do once a month, courtesy of Professor Nguyen. A third meet & greet is scheduled for mid-January on campus.
Microchip (a sponsor of the competition) will be hosting a workshop on January 9th for students who would like to learn how to use their hardware.
The final proposal is due January 16th, and the final presentation, including demonstration, is scheduled for the alumni weekend, Saturday, June 10th, 2017. Stay tuned for more information in the Winter Alumni Newsletter.
For more information click here.
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Summer Research Internship ProgramThe ECE Department is very pleased to announce an exciting new Summer Research Internship Program (SRIP) for continuing ECE undergraduate and MS students. This new program will launch in the summer of 2017 and will fund fifty undergraduate and fifty MS students. It is a 10-week program that runs from July 3rd through September 8th, 2017. ECE Summer Research Internships will be in labs where interns will have the opportunity to observe and participate in the research activities of a research group under the supervision of the PI or another member of the research team. The program includes an enrichment component for students consisting of workshops on research communication, research writing, and other pertinent topics. In addition, students are required to present their work at the Summer Research Conference on August 17th, 2017. Research interns selected for this program will receive a summer stipend in the amount of $5000. More information on the summer research internship program for graduate students can be found here and for undergraduate students here.
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| Support Your School
We would like to thank you, our alumni, for your gracious continued support. Please consider us for your 2016 charitable donation.
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