The Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG), a research center within the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin's Cockrell School of Engineering, has been awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Industry/University Collaborative Research Center.

UT ECE Prof. Al Bovik has been named the IS&T/SPIE Imaging Scientist of the Year. Prof. Bovik was given the award for "his seminal contributions to the computational aspects of biological visual perception, specifically in the areas of image and video quality."

A message from Dean Gregory L. Fenves:

With the new year underway I want to reflect on what the Cockrell School of Engineering accomplished in 2010 and some of the challenges ahead. The accompanying video presents a sample of the amazing work by our students and faculty over the past year. I am proud of their achievements and am grateful to our alumni and friends for your support of the Cockrell School.

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.