University of Texas
ECE

Spring 2008 Newsletter

Spring 2008 Newsletter

Welcome back! We hope you had a fun and restful holiday and return full of energy for what promises to be an exciting semester. The UT-ECE faculty, staff, and students continue to inspire us with their accomplishments. Congratulations go to:

  • J.K. Aggarwal, winner of the 2007 Okawa Prize
  • Sanjay Banerjee, 2007 Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
  • Al Bovik, winner of the IEEE Signal Processing Society's Education Award and new Fellow of the Society of Photo-Optical and Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)
  • Ramakrishna Kotla, winner of two Best Paper Awards in a five month period
  • Alexis Kwasinski, winner of best technical paper award at the 29th International Telecommunications Energy Conference (INTELEC)
  • Janice Williams, winner of The Eyes of Texas Excellence Award for Fall 2007
J.K. Aggarwal Sanjay Banerjee Al Bovik Ramakrishna Kotla Alexis Kwasinski Janice Williams

Lamar Smith comes to Campus

U.S. Congressman Lamar Smith (TX-21) just announced that $1.2 M has been earmarked for broadband wireless integrated circuit research at UT-ECE. The money is part of the National Technology Competitiveness Act which was passed to close the gap in research funding between the US and other countries.

The research at UT will focus on combining the expertise of wireless communications researchers with that of radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) designers. Drs. Ted Rappaport, Sriram Vishwanath, Ranjit Gharpurey, Jacob Abraham, and Robert Heath will collaborate on research crucial to the design and development of cutting-edge massively broadband wireless devices of the future.

ENS gets another Facelift

The bad news is we have to move the labs out of the Shed, aka ACA, this summer. The good news is they will be moved into a newly refurbished area at the back of the third floor. The University has pledged enough money to totally reconfigure the third and sixth floor of the ENS. The sixth floor will be vacated by the Department of Biomedical Engineering this semester.

ECE Welcomes New Chairholder

Dr. Julian Cheng has accepted our offer of a position as professor and the holder of a Chair in Microelectronics. Dr. Cheng has over twenty-five years of experience in optoelectronics and fiber optic communications technology, at AT&T Bell Laboratories, as a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of New Mexico, as Vice President of Research and Development at E2O Communications, and as Vice President of engineering at OptiComp Corp.

Professor Cheng's accomplishments include publishing over 230 journal and conference papers, authoring a book on VCSEL technology, receiving over 20 U.S. patents and earning a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from M.I.T. and a Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard.

Upcoming Events

Spring Engineering Expo 2/8 Spring Engineering Expo

For UT Austin students interested in gaining valuable work experience, including full-time, intern, and co-op opportunities.

National Engineers Week 2/17-23 National Engineers Week The yearly celebration of all engineerish things and people
ExploreUT 3/1 ExploreUT See a solar car designed and built by undergraduates. Find out how fast your fast ball really is. Robots! An exploded computer! The human battery! and more.
AMD 3/26 AMD Day Find out about AMD from the guys who work there plus a resume workshop, free lunch, lecture by AMD's CTO, and a raffle for big prizes!
ECE Spring Banquet 4/10 ECE Spring Banquet The annual celebration for our graduating seniors and external advisory committee
Austin Conference on Integrated Systems and Circuits 5/7-9 Austin Conference on Integrated Systems and Circuits ACISC covers the latest in electronic technology at chip, board and system levels, covering design, CAD methodology, and test.