Media Contact: Troy Anderson, (858) 822-3075 or tanders@soe.ucsd.edu

JACOBS SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING SHINES WITH SEVEN ELECTED AS IEEE FELLOWS

Seven faculty members from UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering have been honored as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) Fellows for the class of 2000; by far the largest number of any university in the world. Professors Walter Burkhard, Larry Carter, and Chung-Kuan Cheng represent the Computer Science and Engineering Department (CSE), while Professors Peter Asbeck, Larry Larson, Bhaskar Rao, and Kenneth Zeger are from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE).

Each of the four electrical and computer engineering fellows is also a member of UC San Diego’s Center for Wireless Communications, a cross-disciplinary program of research and education targeted at the emerging needs of the cellular and wireless communications industry. The Center’s 13 industrial participants represent some of the biggest names in wireless communications today. The CWC has a variety of research programs unified by the vision of broadband wireless access to the Internet. Wireless Internet access will provide an untethered means of acquiring and exchanging useful information as society continues to become more and more mobile.

Supporting this vision, Asbeck’s research involves high-frequency microelectronic devices and circuits while Larson’s research focuses on microwave and RF devices and circuits. Zeger works on various areas in information theory including source and channel coding, with applications to image and speech compression. Rao’s area of expertise is digital signal processing with applications to communications, speech coding and recognition.

Carter was honored for co-inventing Universal Hashing which has become the basis for provably secure authentication systems, a type of cryptography that is relevant to the Internet due to the fact that it provides secure communication with authenticated recipients (a feature which is critical in the absence of “face-to-face” interaction). Carter currently focuses on high-performance scientific computing and is Chair of the Computer Science and Engineering Department.

Burkhard was elected for his work in the theory and practice of data organization algorithms for database and digital storage system design. He heads the Gemini Storage Systems Laboratory at UC San Diego which conducts experimental and theoretical studies of data layout organizations and algorithms that provide suitable run-time performance and reliability. Burkhard is currently working on disk array storage systems.

Cheng’s research interests lie in the following areas of VLSI (very large scale integration) CAD (computer-aided design): partitioning, placement and floorplanning, routing and interconnect organization, and switching network design as applied to rapid-prototype systems using FPGAs (field-programmable gate array). The partitioning methods help in deciding what components to put where with regards to VLSI systems.

This distinguished IEEE class of 2000 is composed of 248 of the finest engineers from universities, corporations and government laboratories “whose contributions to the art and science of electro and information technologies have improved the quality of daily life” (IEEE). Nominations are initiated by members and the public, then reviewed by a panel of peers. Their recommendations are submitted to the IEEE Awards Board prior to ultimate approval by the IEEE Board of Directors. More information on this prestigious award can be found on the IEEE’s web site at http://www.ieee.org/about/awards/fellows.htm.

Ranked among the nation’s top ten engineering schools according to the most recent National Academy of Sciences survey, the Irwin and Joan Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego is an excellent institution in the midst of vibrant growth. Its mission is to educate young men and women to be industry and academic leaders, and to create new innovations that fuel economic prosperity and improve quality of life. The Jacobs School of Engineering awards B.S., M.Eng., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees through five academic departments, providing the largest and most comprehensive engineering education program in San Diego. UC San Diego consistently ranks among the top 10 universities in the nation for research productivity. To learn more about the Jacobs School of Engineering, visit its web site at www.soe.ucsd.edu.