UCLA Engineering
Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
News Center
ds%20Dinner%202006.htm
[Photo]
2006 Alumnus of the Year Linda Katehi and Dean Vijay K. Dhir
UCLA Engineering Celebrates Accomplishments at
Annual Awards Dinner
The UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science
celebrated the accomplishments of alumni, students, and faculty at this
year’s annual awards dinner, held on Friday, November 3, at the Four
Seasons’ Beverly Wilshire Hotel ballroom.
With nearly 450 colleagues and friends in attendance, awards were
presented to 13 individuals, including provost and vice chancellor for
academic affairs at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Linda Katehi, honored as the 2006 Alumnus of the Year.
KNBC 4 reporter and engineering alumnus Patrick Healy, along with UCLA
Engineering Dean Vijay K. Dhir, emceed the event.
`We’re proud of the work our faculty and students do. The work we do
today makes a difference in the world tomorrow,’ Dhir told the crowd.
`In the past, they used to say the sun never set on the British Empire.
I say that the sun is always shining on UCLA Engineering, through its
exceptional alumni living and working all over the world.’
The evening’s big honor was given to Katehi, Alumnus of the Year, for
distinguishing herself in both academia and in integrated circuits and
systems.
`Linda Katehi’s work has been described as visionary, pioneering, and
innovative,’ said Dhir in his introduction. `She is a truly
extraordinary researcher and educator.’
Katehi, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, thanked the school for
honoring her achievements and talked of her journey to the United States
to attend school early in her career.
A humble Katehi said she was simply an average student who had an
extraordinary mentor during her time at UCLA. Her successes at UCLA, she
said, led her on to even greater things.
Dwight Streit, vice president of electronics technology at Northrup
Grumman and Ronald Sugar, chairman and chief executive officer of
Northrop Grumman took the stage together to present the 2006 Northrup
Grumman Excellence in Teaching Award to computer science assistant
professor John Cho and civil and environmental engineering assistant
professor Steven Margulis. The award honors junior faculty who
demonstrate a commitment to high teaching standards, reflected in the
positive course evaluation scores from students, as well as the
professor’s contributions to the curriculum.
Electrical engineering professor Behzad Razavi received the 2006
Lockheed Martin Excellence in Teaching Award from Lockheed’s
Aeronautical Engineering Director Larry Pellett. The award was given to
Razavi for dedication to his students; a vigorous commitment to high
academic standards; and his many contributions to electrical engineering
education.
James Plummer (BS ’66), dean of the Stanford School of Engineering,
received the Alumni Achievement in Academia Award from Associate Dean
Steve Jacobsen for his many contributions to engineering education.
Plummer was honored for his major contributions to the field of silicon
devices and technology, including the integration of CMOS logic and high
voltage lateral DMOS devices on a single chip, the development of
silicon process modeling standards, and designing nanoscale silicon
devices for logic and memory.
Associate Dean Greg Pottie introduced the Lifetime Contribution Award,
which he presented to computer science Professor Emeritus Gerald Estrin.
Dean Boelter recruited Estrin in 1956 to develop a computer engineering
research program. Estrin was honored for leading substantial research
activities in computer architectures, parallel processing, computer
instrumentation and computer networks, and importantly, for laying the
groundwork for the development of what is now the department of Computer
Science.
Last year’s winner of the 2005 Professional Achievement Award, Jeff
Lawrence, founder, president and CEO of Clivia Systems (BS ’79), this
year presented the 2006 award to the founders of Blizzard Entertainment:
Allen Adham(BS ’90), Michael Morhaime (BS ’90), and Frank Pearce (BS
’90). The three were honored for founding Blizzard Entertainment
(originally Silicon & Synapse) in 1991, just a year after they received
their bachelor degrees from UCLA Engineering. The company has since
become one of the most successful game development studios in the world.
Asad Madni, president of the Engineering Alumni Association, presented
the Distinguished Young Alumnus Award to Ani Garabedian (BS ’99) with a
heartfelt introduction. He cited Garabedian’s exceptional technical
skills, as well as an extraordinary drive to give back to UCLA. She
currently serves as chair of the UCLA Society of Women Engineers Alumnae
Advisory Committee, a member of the electrical engineering alumni
advisory board, and is active in the UCLA Alumni Association.
Friend of the school Edward K. Rice himself presented this year’s Edward
K. Rice Outstanding Student honors, which recognize excellence both in
and outside the classroom: 2006 Outstanding Undergraduate Student, Baley
Akemi Fong, 2006 Outstanding Master’s student, Christine Lee, and 2006
Outstanding Doctoral Student, Alireza Mehrnia.
The evening also included a video showcasing innovative faculty research
and new developments over the past year, featuring mechanical and
aerospace engineering professor Greg Carman and his work with thin film
nitinol heart valves for children, research on beach sand bacteria
conducted by civil and environmental engineering professor Jennifer Jay,
and electrical engineering professor Abeer Alwan’s efforts to develop a
computer speech program for kids whose native language is not English.
The film shared innovative new work by computer science professor Majid
Sarrafzadeh on computerized medical treatment devices, and focused on
two new interdisciplinary research centers headquartered at the School,
the Western Institute of Nanoelectronics and the NIH Nanomedicine Center
for Cell Control.
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11.06.06
-M.Abraham