ISR News archives: 1999

These ISR news stories predate the current "news engine" system and are outside the search system. You may search internally on this page for people and items of interest. We hope someday to put all these stories into the news engine. Please note that many of the links on this page no longer work. | Go to ISR news search | Go to ISR news archive page |

January

January 13, 1999
Visit the web site of ENME 489x, the Human-Powered Vehicle course taught by Assistant Professor Jeffrey Herrmann (ME/ISR) and Assistant Professor Linda Schmidt (ME), an ISR affiliate faculty member. Class members are preparing a vehicle to race in the 1999 HPV competition sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in California this coming April.

January 15, 1999
Congratulations to ISR's founding director, Professor John Baras (ECE/ISR), recipient of the University of Maryland's Mancur Olson Research Achievement Award. The award was created to recognize faculty whose research achievements have been extraordinary.

January 15, 1999
The National Science Foundation has just released a report finding foreign-born students who earn science and engineering (S&E) doctoral degrees from U. S. academic institutions are staying in this country in greater numbers than before. | summary of findings | full report |

January 15, 1999
NSF has released two concise online "Issue Briefs" concerning postdocs. | Has the Use of Postdocs Changed? | What Follows the Postdoctorate Experience: Employment Patterns |

January 15, 1999
NSF has released a new Issue Brief on primary forms of financial support for science and engineering students.

February

February 2, 1999
Congratulations to Associate Professor K.J. Ray Liu (ECE/ISR) and 1996 ISR Ph.D. graduate Ut-Va Koc, who now hold U.S. Patent Number 5,790,686 for their invention, DCT-Based Motion Estimation.

February 3, 1999
Check out ISR's 1998 highlights online.

February 4, 1999
This web site features online access to ISR publications, including our Technical Reports, our Systems Signals newsletter and our annual report. Many are available both online and ready to download in Postscript or PDF formats.

February 8, 1999
With the addition of a site in the Philippines, FSQP optimization software—developed by an ISR/Electrical Engineering research group headed by Professor André Tits (ECE/ISR)—is now being used in 57 countries around the world. Story

February 12, 1999
Professor Guangming Zhang (ME/ISR) has written a book, Quality Management in Systems, just published by The Commercial Press, Bejing.

February 15, 1999
ISR and the University of Maryland hosted the second Process Specification Language Roundtable for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Jan. 13-14. Story

February 17, 1999
The ISR-affiliated Space Systems Lab has an excellent web page covering the space shuttle flight of M.S. candidate Brian Roberts' thesis research project, a three-dimensional roller mechanism sprag wrench. The wrench was aboard STS-95 with John Glenn and the other Discovery astronauts in October 1998. SSL's sprag wrench page

February 17, 1999
Professor Stuart S. Antman (Math) is a co-recipient (with John Ball of the University of Oxford, U.K.) of the 1999 SIAM Theodore von Karman Prize. SIAM awards the prize for a notable application of mathematics to mechanics or to the engineering sciences. Professor Antman received the award for his deep work on the modeling and analysis of strings, rods, plates and shells including bifurcation theory and qualitative properties of solutions. He is affiliated with the Center for Dynamics and Control of Smart Structures. He will receive the prize and deliver a plenary lecture at SIAM's annual meeting in May.

February 23, 1999
The ISR-affiliated Human Computer Interaction Lab was featured on the Maryland Public Television program, Maryland State of Mind on January 28 and February 4. The segment "Softer Software" highlighted HCIL Professor Allison Druin's work with children. The Baltimore Sun also covered work Druin and Ben Bederson did with children in a Dec. 21, 1998 article.

March

March 8, 1999
Professor John Baras (ECE/ISR) appeared on the February 10 Channel 7 (WJLA) five o'clock news, explaining wireless communication innovations. At left, reporter John Harter interviews Dr. Baras for the segment.

March 12, 1999
The National Science Foundation has notified Assistant Professor Don DeVoe (ME/ISR) that he has won a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for research in Mechanically Robust Micromechanisms.

March 12, 1999
ISR-affiliated Assistant Professor Linda C. Schmidt (ME) received a FY98 CAREER Award for her work in Generative Designer Assistance Tools. Schmidt was one of 338 science and engineering faculty so honored across the country for FY98. CAREER awards support exceptionally promising college and university junior faculty who are committed to the integration of research and education.

March 12, 1999
Professor Lung-Wen Tsai(ME/ISR) is the author of a new book, Robot Analysis: The Mechanics of Serial and Parallel Manipulators. The book was published February 19 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Information

March 12, 1999
Professor Ben Shneiderman (CS/ISR), head of the ISR-affiliated Human Computer Interaction Lab, is featured in the March 1999 issue of Scientific American magazine. "Humans Unite!" article

March 19, 1999
Ms. Ying He, a third-year Electrical Engineering Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland, is the first awardee of the new ISR/General Electric Fellowship, offered under ISR's new industrial fellowship program. The fellowship is supported by a $35,000-per-year donation that may be renewed annually for up to three years. Story

March 19, 1999
On March 4, National Science Foundation Director Rita Colwell testified on the need for research integration before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on VA/HUD and Independent Agencies. Read her testimony

NSF also has a new report available online, Retention of the Best Science and Engineering Graduates.

March 31, 1999
Naoko Sumino, an ISR student who worked for David L. Akin, director of the ISR-affiliated Space Systems Lab, has been picked as one of three Japanese astronauts for the International Space Station. Story

March 31, 1999
The final report from CSHCN's October 29, 1999 peer review reveals excellent ratings in all areas. Story

March 31, 1999
Research on dynamic simulation by ISR Director (MNE/ISR) and Professor Ben Shneiderman (CS/ISR) at the ISR-related Center for Engineered Learning Systems (CELS) has been highlighted by SEMI's Channel Magazine. SEMI is an international trade association serving the semiconductor and flat panel display industries. SEMI's online Story

March 31, 1999
Associate Professor James Hendler (CS/UMIACS/ISR) is featured in the science journal Nature's web site this week. Hendler talks about the progress being made in developing intelligent software agents that would greatly improve web browsing. As a result of the Story, Hendler has been interviewed by German Public Radio, the London Express, the London Mirror, The Christian Science Monitor, and an Indian paper. He was also featured on the National Public Radio show Sounds like Science on March 14.

April

April 8, 1999
Junior Gemstone students working on the Genetic Testing team presented the progress of their research at the university's 25th anniversary celebration of the President's Commission on Women's Issues, March 29th. Gemstone is a campus-wide undergraduate interdisciplinary honors program administered by ISR.

April 8, 1999
Kyriakos Manousakis, a student at the Maryland Hybrid Networks Center (HyNet--formerly CSHCN), has received an Award of Excellence in Telecommunications from Ericcson.

April 12, 1999
Associate Professor Mark Austin (CEE/ISR) and ISR Faculty Research Assistant David Chancogne book, Introduction to Engineering Programming: in C, MATLAB, and JAVA, is entering its second printing, and is the #3-selling MATLAB book in the country. The book has been on the market since December and is published by John Wiley and Sons. Information

April 26, 1999
Former ISR student Rakesh Nagi ('91 Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering), now with SUNY Buffalo, has been named a 1999 Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Dr. Nagi was a student of George Harhalakis while at ISR.

April 26, 1999
ISR-affiliated Assistant Professor David B. Stewart (ECE) has won an NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award for his work in automated analysis, debugging, and fine-tuning of timing properties in embedded real-time systems. Story at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Dept.'s web site

May

May 3, 1999
Professor Anthony Ephremides (ECE/ISR) has been appointed chair of a panel for foreign technology assessment of wireless communications sponsored by NSF, NIST, DARPA and DoD. Story

May 4, 1999
The first group of Gemstone students received Honors Citations April 7. Story

May 4, 1999
Rob Pinataro (left) and Tina Nguyen of GE Information Services talk with Associate Professor Mark Austin (CEE/ISR) about GE's Six Sigma quality improvement program. GE explained its program at a special career event on campus April 8. GE is sponsoring a new fellowship with ISR.

May 11, 1999
Radha Poovendran, a Ph.D. student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, has received the LUCITE Rising Star Award from the National Security Agency for his accomplishments and breakthrough work in the area of multicast security--non-cryptographic techniques. LUCITE is the acronym for Local University Contract for IT Exchange. Poovendran is affiliated with the Maryland Hybrid Networks Center (formerly the Center for Satellite and Hybrid Communication Networks). His advisor is Professor John Baras (ECE/ISR).

May 12, 1999
Naomi Leonard, a 1994 ISR-affiliated Electrical Engineering Ph.D., has just been promoted to associate professor with tenure at Princeton University. While at Maryland, Leonard was advised by Professor P.S. Krishnaprasad (ECE/ISR). Story at Princeton's web site

May 12, 1999
Congratulations to Associate Professor James Hendler (CS/UMIACS/ISR), who has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence.

May 17, 1999
ISR's annual awards ceremony, held May 11, honored four persons: Professor Steve Marcus (ECE/ISR), outstanding faculty; Haitao Zheng, outstanding graduate student; Matthew Impett, oustanding undergraduate student; and Rebecca Copeland, outstanding staff member.

June

June 3, 1999
Professor and Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Nariman Farvardin (ECE/ISR) and Mr. Eiji Atsumi of Japan's Mitsubishi Electric have won one of three 1999 University of Maryland Invention of the Year awards from the university's Office of Technology Commercialization. Their invention is a method for compressing digital images that allows a viewer to quickly and clearly see one or more regions of interest in a picture without having to wait for the full image to be transmitted through the Internet from a remote storage site. Read about the award at OTL's site or our original online Story about the collaboration. 

June 21, 1999
At left, Bill Eikenberg of Northrop Grumman talks with members of the Computer Integrated Manufacturing Lab at the 1999 Research Review Day (April 30). This open house featured the research of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies and the Department of Computer Science, as well as ISR. Photos and additional info

July

July 2, 1999
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Chair Nariman Farvardin (ECE/ISR) was featured in a May 17 Washington Post article on engineering B.S. holders who choose lucrative jobs over grad school, and how universities are adjusting to the phenomenon. July 2, 1999
The third class of Gemstone undergraduate honors students has chosen its long-term projects. You can view the progress of many of the projects from the class of 2000, 2001 and 2002 online. Information

July 12, 1999
Assistant Professor Greg Walsh (ME/ISR) robot birds were featured on the Maryland Public Television program, Maryland State of Mind, in May. Read our original Story on the birds here.

July 12, 1999
Congratulations to ISR associate faculty member Ben Kedem (Math), who has been elected a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.

July 20, 1999
ISR welcomes Mr. Yuichi Kato (second from left), a motorcycle engineer; and Mr. Naritomo Higuchi (third from left), an automotive engineer; of Honda R&D Japan. The two are participants in Honda's Visiting Scientist Program. They will spend a year working with ISR faculty on research projects of mutual interest. Also in College Park were Honda R&D Americas, Inc.'s Mr. Masayuki Kato (far right) and Ms. Noriko Mills (far left).

July 27, 1999
Four fellowships have been awarded to current and incoming ISR students: Sean Gahagan and Sumeet Keswani, the new ISR/Northrop Grumman Fellowships; Vineet Birmani, the new Hughes Network Systems Fellowship; and Zhi (Amy) Yuan, the ISR Fellowship.

August

August 17, 1999
The 1999 Young Scholars have arrived at ISR! Twenty-five students who will be high school seniors in the fall are spending the next six weeks at the University of Maryland taking the freshman engineering design course. This year's students come from Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts.

August 20, 1999
Y.C. "Buno" Pati, president and CEO of Numerical Technologies, Inc., visited ISR July 19 to talk about his company, which supplies solutions for subwavelength integrated circuit design and manufacturing. Pati is a former student of P.S. Krishnaprasad. He earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1992.

September

Sept. 16, 1999
Lockheed Martin's Dr. William Ballhaus, Jr., has joined the ISR Strategic Advisory Committee. Bill is Lockheed Martin's corporate vice president, engineering and science, working out of its Bethesda, Md., office.

Sept. 16, 1999
Professor Steven I. Marcus (ECE/ISR) has been selected as the new editor in chief of the SIAM Journal on Control and Optimization, effective January 1, 2000. Congratulations!

September 21, 1999
Twenty-five Young Scholars ended their time at ISR by highlighting their research work in an Aug. 20 session. The upcoming high school seniors took the University of Maryland freshman engineering design course during their six-week summer experience. At right, George Reynolds, Northrop Grumman's Director of University-Industry Programs, speaks about the challenges of systems engineering in a special session. The Young Scholars program incorporates many such opportunities for students to learn from industry leaders.

Sept. 22, 1999
Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector has extended its membership as a Sustaining Partner in the ISR Industrial Affiliates Program through Nov. 30, 2001. Northrop Grumman (formerly Westinghouse) has been an ISR Sustaining Partner since December 1987.

Sept. 22, 1999
Fifteen junior-year Gemstone students on the Nuclear Waste Disposal research team presented their findings on "Public Policy in Nuclear Waste Disposal" at the 218th meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans, Aug. 22-27. The presentation focused on the controversy involving public perception of the proposed Nuclear Waste Repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. Story

September 28, 1999
Congratulations to Assistant Professor S.K. Gupta (ME/ISR), along with graduate student R.K. Arni, for winning the best paper award in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers' (ASME) Design for Manufacturing Conference, held in Las Vegas, Sept. 12-16. Their winning paper is titled "Manufacturability Analysis for Solid Freeform Fabrication."

October

October 4, 1999
The ISR-affiliated Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory is one of the sponsors of The Internet and Its Impacts on Society, the University of Maryland's Fall 1999 Lecture Series.

October 4, 1999
Former ISR research associate Robert Hoffman is now a senior analyst for the Aviation Division of Metron Scientific Consulting, Inc., in Reston, Va. At ISR, Hoffman has been involved in NEXTOR (the National Center of Excellence in Aviation Operations Research), working with Professor Michael Ball (BGMT/ISR). Metron is a NEXTOR industry partner. To aid in technology transfer, Hoffman will spend one day per week at ISR, continuing NEXTOR research and coordinating student work.

October 6, 1999
Congratulations to Team Honda, which took first, second and third place at the World Grand Prix motocross final round in Maryland, September 12. In addition, Frederic Bolley, a French rider for European Honda, won the world championship title. ISR Visiting Scientist Mr. Yuichi Kato, a Honda R&D Japan motorcycle engineer, attended the event. Mr. Kato and Mr. Naritomo Higuchi, an automotive engineer, are spending a year working with ISR faculty on research projects of mutual interest. More photos

October 18, 1999
Congratulations to ISR-affiliated Assistant Professor S. Raghavan (BGMT), who was awarded US Patent # 5,940,373 on August 17, 1999 for a Frame Relay Network Planning Tool.

October 18, 1999
Associate Professor K.J. Ray Liu (ECE/ISR) and his students, Ying-Chang Liang and F.P.S. Chin have received the Best Paper Award for "Downlink Beamforming for DS-CDMA Mobile Radio with Multimedia Services" from the IEEE 50th Vehicular Technology Conference, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Sept. 1999. Their work was selected from among 700 papers in the conference proceedings.

October 22, 1999
ISR Ph.D. Naomi Leonard, now a tenured professor in Princeton University's Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, has received one of three "Automatica prize paper awards" for 1999. Leonard was a student of Professor P.S. Krishnaprasad (ECE/ISR).

October 22, 1999
Make an online visit to the University of Maryland's Center for Automotive Research in Hybrid Electric Drive Trains and Control Strategies (UMCAR). ISR joint and affiliated faculty participating in this effort include Professor William Levine (ECE), Professor Lung-Wen Tsai (ME/ISR), and Assistant Professor Greg Walsh (ME/ISR).

November

November 5, 1999
Congratulations to David Walnut, Professor Carlos Berenstein (Math/ISR), Associate Professor K.J. Ray Liu (ECE/ISR), and ISR Ph.D. Farrokh Rashid-Farrokhi for their invention, Method and Apparatus for Processing Data from a Tomographic Imaging System, which was awarded US Patent # 5,953,388 on Sept. 14, 1999. ISR patent list

November 10, 1999
ISR welcomed two distinguished guests from GE Corporate Research and Development Oct. 21 and 22. Dr. James Loman, Manager, Electronic Reliability and Quality, presented a seminar on how GE's "Six Sigma" quality control program is increasing the competitiveness of the company. Dr. Paul Houpt, Manager, Control Systems Programs, spoke to ISR students about resumes and interviewing. Houpt and Loman interviewed 19 ISR students while on campus, continuing a fruitful practice with ISR that began four years ago. Students can investigate GE career opportunities online. GE Corporate Research and Development is represented on ISR's Strategic Advisory Council.

November 16, 1999
ISR Strategic Advisory Council member Dr. Pravin Varaiya spoke on campus on Friday, Nov. 12 as part of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering's Distinguished Lecturer Series. Varaiya will speak on "Demand and Provisioning of Quality-Differentiated Internet Access."

November 30, 1999
Professor Lung-Wen Tsai's (ME/ISR) book, Robot Analysis: The Mechanics of Serial and Parallel Manipulators, has sold out of its first printing and is about to enter its second. The book was first published in February 1999. Story

November 30, 1999
We'd like to keep in touch with our University of Maryland alumni. Check out our new alumni area.

November 30, 1999
Professor Michael Fu (BMGT/ISR) received the 1999 Institute for Industrial Engineers Operations Research Division Award at IIE's annual meeting.

December

December 12, 1999
General Electric's "Six Sigma" quality program received major coverage in The Washington Post on November 26. GE's Dr. James Loman explained the program to ISR students and faculty on October 21. GE Corporate Research and Development is represented on ISR's Strategic Advisory Council. Story in the Post

December 12, 1999
New on the ISR web site: a listing of some of the major research awards recently granted to ISR faculty. New web page

December 12, 1999
The first issue of ISR's ENews has just been published. ENews is a short, occasional digest of important ISR news, delivered to subscribers via e-mail. Subscribing is free. | Subscribe | View the contents of the first issue |

December 21, 1999
The steering committee of the National Center of Excellence for Aviation Operations Research (NEXTOR) held its strategic planning meeting at ISR on December 1. NEXTOR is a joint university, industry and Federal Aviation Administration research organization. Its four participating universities are the University of Maryland, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California at Berkeley, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute. At the University of Maryland, Professor Michael Ball (Robert H. Smith School of Business/ISR) heads the NEXTOR effort.