Software is the soul of our computing devices. Without it, these devices are like dead bodies, said Herb Krasner, senior lecturer in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (ECE) at The University of Texas at Austin Cockrell School of Engineering. Krasner, along with Christine Julien, associate professor in ECE, is addressing this topic at the seventh annual Edison Lecture Series titled Software is Engineering.

Prof. Ted Rappaport, the William and Bettye Nowlin Chaired Professor at UT ECE and founder of UT's Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG), presented an invited plenary address on December 8 at the 2010 IEEE Globecom conference in Miami Florida. Rappaport's presentation described the future of wireless communications, and described the massive increases in bandwidth and carrier frequency that are being made possible by semiconductor technologies.

UT ECE student Fei Xue and Prof. Jack Lee received the Nicollian Award for best paper in IEEE Semiconductor Interface Specialists Conference SISC 2010. The award was for work on "InAs and In0.7Ga0.3As buried channel MOSFETs with ALD gate dielectrics" with H. Zhao, Y. Chen, Y. Wang, F. Zhou, and J. Lee.

UT ECE professor Deji Akinwande has been awarded a grant from the Office of Naval Research for his research on “High-Speed Digital and RF Carbon Electronics for Flexible Technology.” Prof. Akinwande joined UT ECE from Stanford in January 2010 as an Assistant Professor.

UT ECE professor Brian Evans has been named the winner of the 2011 Texas Exes Teaching Award for the Cockrell School of Engineering. Established to encourage quality teaching. This award publicly recognizes individuals whose teaching and interactions with students have had an effective, positive influence on the lives and educational experience of students at The University of Texas at Austin.

The EE 464 Senior Design Contest winners were recently awarded by Prof. Michael Becker. First place went to the Project BLOX team of Daniel Cleary, Ankita Kaul, Jesse Tannahill and Zachariah Wasson. Congratulations to all the participants for putting on a great open house.

First Place:
Project BLOX
Daniel Cleary, Ankita Kaul, Jesse Tannahill, Zachariah Wasson

Second Place:
DRMR: Drum Replicating Music Robot
Danwei Yuan, Andrew Wang, Kenaz Kwa, James Butcher

Janice Williams, ECE Senior Academic Advisor, is the recipient of the 2010 Cockrell School of Engineering Outstanding FIG Facilitator. Janice has served as an ECE “Squared for Success” FIG facilitator for nearly 7 years and loves the opportunity to connect with our newest members to our department.

Six UT ECE students have been awarded the first annual David and Ruth Beer Endowments for Student Excellence in Technical Communication. Students in EE 333T were recognized for demonstrating excellence in professional written and spoken communication in electrical and computer engineering.

The winners for 2010 were recognized by Chairman Tewfik, Dr. Beer and Prof. Mark Carpenter. They are:

Premier Endowment:
Palak Shah
Justin Koshy

Award of Excellence:
Tim Osborne
Sunny Patel

Dr. Robert W. Heath Jr. to be Elevated to IEEE Fellow

UT ECE professor Seth Bank recently attended the 22nd Annual Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium put on by the National Academy of Sciences and the Kavli Foundation. Since 1989, the Academy has organized annual symposia on Frontiers of Science. These symposia bring together some the very best young scientists to discuss exciting advances and opportunities in their fields in a format that encourages informal collective as well as one-on-one discussions among participants.