Dr. Gregory L. Fenves, international expert in structural engineering and former chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, has been appointed dean of the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin.

Fenves’ appointment, which follows an international search, is effective Sept. 1. Fenves, 51, replaces Dr. Ben Streetman who served 12 years as the Cockrell School dean.

R. Gary Daniels—ECE adjunct professor since 1999 and strong friend of ECE since his days as Senior VP at Motorola—was recently named an ECE Fellow for his service to the department. Daniels came to us via the External Advisory Committee, which he chaired. There he tackled operational and educational issues and raised $1M in start-up money to help recruit a senior faculty member. He is also a popular teacher, famous for his first lecture of the semester—an inspirational slide show of his house, boat, and cars.

ECE's External Advisory Committee recognized Professor Gary Hallock with the annual High Gain Award. The High Gain Award was established to recognize exceptional contributions to the mission of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Gary is an inspiring teacher and a stalwart champion for the Department. says Chairman Tony Ambler. In the past year alone, he developed an undergraduate course and revamped our graduate recruitment efforts. He always steps up.

Professor Hao Ling and his team are developing algorithms that would use radar to detect human activities inside an enclosed space, such as inside a building. The algorithms would convert the radar signals to virtual renderings similar to that of a video game. Eventually, the technology could end up in a device that could be mounted on a vehicle and would monitor activities in a building as it traveled down a street.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced that two of UT-ECE's assistant professors have been awarded 2008 Young Faculty Awards. The awards were established to identify the next generation of researchers working in microsystems technology.

Professor Sanjay Banerjee was named a 2007 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society. AAAS fellows are chosen annually by their peers to recognize their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

ECE Ph.D. Candidate Wins Inaugural Engineering Graduate Student Leadership Award

Chan-Byoung Chae, supervised by Prof. Robert W. Heath, Jr., was awarded the Gold prize in the 2007 Humantech paper contest sponsored by Samsung. The contest receives about 900 submissions every year in fields including signal processing, analog circuit design, communications and networks, computer science, computer engineering, mechanical engineering, material science and process, physical devices, and physical science. Only six graduate students are awarded the Gold prize annually, and thirty four graduate students share the Silver, Bronze and honor prizes.

Microsoft's chairman gave a lecture entitled Bill Gates Unplugged: on Software, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Giving Back to computer science and ECE majors on Wednesday, Feb 20th at 9:30 AM - 10:45 AM in the Texas Union Ballroom.

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Professor Derek Chiou has been awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER award for his proposal entitled Transforming Computer System Design.