ECE Newsletter – June 3, 2024

News  |  June 3, 2024

Professor Gregory Pottie is retiring

Professor Greg Pottie has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UCLA since 1991. He served in vice-chair roles from 1999-2003. From 2003-2009, and again from 2023-24, he was the Associate Dean for Research and Physical Resources of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, and from 2002-2012 he was deputy director of the NSF funded Center for Embedded Networked Sensing. He was the chair of the Department of ECE from 2015-2020. In 2005, he was elected to be a Fellow of IEEE.

We want to congratulate Professor Pottie on his well-deserved retirement! Wishing him all the best in the new chapter ahead! 

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Chief Administrative Officer, Jackie Trang, is retiring

Jackie has been with UCLA since 1985, graduating as a Bruin and then having a long career within UCLA. She has been with the HSSEAS for a total of 39 years and will finish with distinguished service to ECE since 2008. 

As Jackie concludes this significant chapter in her career, we extend our heartfelt gratitude for her years of dedication, commitment, vision and leadership to ECE. She is leaving a legacy to follow and will truly be missed.

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Welcoming Professor Ashwin A. Seshia: Leading Innovator in MEMS Technology

We are delighted to host Professor Ashwin A. Seshia, a distinguished figure in microsystems technology, currently visiting UCLA CHIPS. Professor Seshia holds the position of Professor of Microsystems Technology at Cambridge University and is a Fellow of Queens’ College, Cambridge. With a background that includes a B.Tech. degree in Engineering Physics from IIT Bombay, as well as MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley, his expertise is both broad and deep.

During his visit, Professor Seshia will contribute his extensive knowledge to our ongoing endeavors in revolutionizing semiconductor technology. His research focus on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), particularly in sensor design and systems, has garnered international recognition. Notable among his contributions are advancements in resonant and mode-localized sensing, frequency modulated gyroscopes, and vibration energy harvesting, among others.

Professor Seshia is not only a prolific researcher but also an entrepreneur, having co-founded 8power and Silicon Microgravity to bring MEMS innovations to practical applications. His accolades include the prestigious 2018 IEEE Sensors Technical Achievement Award, highlighting his significant impact on the field.

We are privileged to have Professor Seshia with us at UCLA CHIPS, and we eagerly anticipate the insights and collaborations that will undoubtedly emerge from his visit.

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Introducing Po-Shao Shih: Energizing Electronic Packaging at UCLA CHIPS

Po-Shao Shih is a distinguished PhD student in electronic packaging engineering from National Taiwan University and National Tsing Hua University. Po-Shao is now joining UCLA’s Center for Heterogeneous Integration and Performance Scaling (CHIPS) for a 12-month research program. With expertise in 3DIC Packaging, Electroless Deposition, and Cu Nanotwins, Po-Shao’s academic background promises significant contributions to advancing electronic packaging technology. His collaborative research aims to develop innovative Cu-Cu bonding techniques with applications in MEMS, optoelectronics, and 3D IC interconnections. Let’s extend a warm welcome to Po-Shao as he embarks on this journey of innovation at UCLA CHIPS!

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Rishi Pugazhendhi presented a Paper at IEEE iTherm Conference on Pulsed flash boiling for high heat flux electronics cooling

Rishi Pugazhendhi presented a paper titled “Pulsed flash boiling for high heat flux electronics cooling” at the 2024 IEEE Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems at Denver, Colorado.

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Ozcan Lab organized an annual Undergraduate Research Conference at the CNSI Auditorium

The annual undergraduate research conference took place at the CNSI Auditorium on May 31, 2024. During this event, close to 30 students from several departments on campus presented and demoed their research results in groups. These undergraduate students are selected each Fall quarter among 150+ applications and continue their hands-on research for at least 3 quarters in a row.

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Ozcan and Jarrahi Labs published a new paper on the design of a new type of imager that directly captures both the amplitude and phase of a scene

For more information, see UCLA’s press release and the full article published in Light: Science & Applications

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Awards

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Professor Puneet Gupta received the 2024 Research Week Faculty Mentor Award

We are thrilled to announce that Professor Puneet Gupta has been honored with the 2024 Undergraduate Research Week Faculty Mentor Award! This award celebrates the invaluable contributions of faculty mentors like Professor Gupta, in cultivating undergraduates in their research or career exploration.

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Jacklyn Zhu received the Outstanding BS Spring 2024 Award in Materials Science and Engineering

We are proud to announce that Jacklyn Zhu has received the Outstanding BS Spring 2024 Award in Materials Science and Engineering at the 60th Commencement of the Class of 2024. This prestigious honor recognizes her exceptional academic achievements, dedication, and contributions to the field. Join us in celebrating Jacklyn’s remarkable accomplishment!

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Jacklyn Zhu received the Outstanding BS Spring 2024 Award in Materials Science and Engineering

At ACM’s Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2024) this month, two papers led by UCLA students won best paper honorable mention awards:

Watch Your Mouth: Silent Speech Recognition with Depth Sensing, led by Xue Wang (https://xueewang.github.io/), a PhD student advised by Prof. Yang Zhang

Paper link: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642092

Human I/O: Towards a Unified Approach to Detecting Situational Impairments, led by Bruce Liu (https://liubruce.me/), a PhD student advised by Prof. Anthony Chen

Paper link: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642065

This recognition is awarded to top 5% of a total of 3,458 submissions. The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, often referred to as CHI (pronounced “kai”), is the premier international conference in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). This annual event brings together researchers, practitioners, and industry leaders from around the globe to share the latest advancements and innovations in interactive technologies.

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Professor Mani Srivastava part of $12M NSF Expeditions in Computing Project on Computational Decarbonization of Societal Infrastructures

Professor Mani Srivastava is part of a team recently awarded a five-year, $12 million research project by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to decarbonize the complete life cycles of infrastructure. The NSF Expeditions in Computing for Computational Decarbonization of Societal Infrastructures at Mesoscales, or CoDec for short, will develop new AI methods, sensor processing techniques, computer systems, and software cloud services for reducing carbon emissions across multiple infrastructure domains, including computing, transportation, buildings, manufacturing, and the electric power grid. Expeditions in Computing projects are funded by the NSF CISE for pursuing ambitious, fundamental research agendas that promise to define the future of computing and information. CoDec is part of a recently announced $36 million investment by the NSF in advancing sustainability via innovations in computing (https://new.nsf.gov/news/nsf-invests-36m-computing-projects-promise). The multi-institutional CoDec team, led by UMass Amherst, includes CMU, MIT, U. Chicago, and U. Wisconsin. From UCLA, Srivastava is joined by Professor Deepak Rajagopal, an associate professor in the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. Together, they will analyze carbon emissions across entire life cycles of various infrastructures via methods for sensing, tracking, and optimizing carbon emissions while maintaining usability, privacy, intellectual property, and economic viability. The project will also further develop the Los Angeles Computing Circle outreach program, which was co-established by Srivastava under another Expeditions in Computing award.

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Associate Professor Sam Emaminejad received the American Heart Association Innovative Project Award for innovation of cardiovascular disease diagnostic technologies

Associate Professor Sam Emaminejad has received a prestigious award from the American Heart Association (AHA) for the innovation of cardiovascular disease diagnostic technologies at his Interconnected & Integrated Bioelectronics Lab (I²BL). The AHA Innovative Project Award (IPA) recognizes and supports unexplored ideas and highly innovative, high-impact research with the potential to lead to critical discoveries or major advancements in the fields of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular research. This award seeks to promote research that introduces new paradigms, challenges existing ones, addresses current problems from novel perspectives, or exhibits other uniquely creative qualities.

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Seminars

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Upcoming Ph.D. Oral Defenses

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Job Opportunity

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Design Verification Engineer Position at Apple

Do you have a passion for invention and self-challenge? This position gives you an opportunity to be a part of one of the most cutting edge and key projects that Apple’s Silicon Engineering Group has embarked upon to-date. As a Design Verification Engineer on our team, you’ll be at the center of the verification effort within our silicon design group responsible for crafting and productizing state-of-the-art Cellular SoCs! You will have the opportunity to contribute to the verification effort of a set of complex SOCs delivering the Cellular solution. You will integrate multiple sophisticated IP level DV environments, craft highly reusable best-in-class UVM based test bench, implement effective coverage driven and directed test suites, deploy new tools and methodologies to deliver chips that are right-first-time. By collaborating with other product development groups across Apple, you can push the industry boundaries of what cellular systems can do and improve the product experience for our customers across the world!

Through this experience, you will learn all aspects of a large scale SOC design, Complex verification test benches, different types of SOC architectures, multiple high speed protocols, industry-standard low power architecture, best in class DV methodology, verification on accelerated platforms, knowledge on Cellular protocol, FW-HW interactions, complexities of multi-chip SOC debug architecture, etc.

Key Qualifications:

MS in EE or CS. Coursework in Digital Design, Computer Architecture, Object Oriented Programming, Networking Protocol. Programming experience in SystemVerilog or Python or C++ or Java.

Must be graduating by May or Dec ’24.

If interested, please send your resume to Junhui Lou at j_lou@apple.com.

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Newsletter Submissions

To be included in future newsletters, please send the latest news, awards, publications and any upcoming PhD oral defenses to the Chair’s assistant, Winda Mak, at wmak@seas.ucla.edu. Please include “newsletter submission” in the subject line. The ECE newsletters will be sent bimonthly on the first and third Mondays of the month. Please ensure all submissions are received by the Wednesday before distribution to be included in the newsletter.