Message from the Dean - College of Engineering - University of ...

State-of-the-Art Advanced Printed ElectronicsResearch Center to be Established at UTEPTexas Emerging Technology Fund, Lockheed Martin and UT System combine for$9 million in support of SPEC Center’s Advanced Fabrication TechnologiesImagine buying wafer-thin, high-definition television sets bythe roll and applying them to the walls at home. Or imaginebeing able to replace your lost cell phone within minutes byhitting the “print” buttonon a computer.It may sound likescience fiction, but it’snot. This is the future ofelectronics manufacturing,and the technologiesbehind it are being developedat The Universityof Texas at El Paso.Gov. Rick Perry recentlyapproved a $3 millionstate investment throughthe Texas EmergingTechnology Fund to helpcreate the new Structuraland Printed EmergingTechnologies Center inUTEP’s College of Engineering.Industry partner LockheedMartin Aeronauticswill contribute $3 milliontoward five-year operatingcosts of the newcenter, and The Universityof Texas System hasUndergraduate student Arturo Adame inthe Keck Center.pledged $3 million inconstruction and equipmentfunds—for a totalof $9 million—to launchthe state-of-the-art advanced printed electronics researchfacility.The SPEC Center, as it willbe called, will take advantageof and build upon the existingworld-class rapid-prototypingor additive manufacturingequipment and researchavailable now in the college’sW.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation.Additive manufacturing andother technologies are alreadybeing used at the KeckCenter to build a variety of3-D devices. The new SPECCenter will combine thesemanufacturing technologieswith printed electronics technologiesto build entirely newfunctional products. The areahousing the Keck Center, now occupying 6,100 square feeton the first floor of the College of Engineering, will double insize to accommodate the SPEC Center’s new laboratories andequipment. The computer-drivensystems willallow the fabrication ofcomplex three-dimensionalmechanical andelectronic devices, andeven medical productsformed of living tissue.The SPEC Center willinitially focus on printedelectronics, but will havethe capability to producedevices of nearly alltypes, sizes and materials,limited only by a researcher’simagination.“UTEP, with our longand proud engineeringlegacy, is now readyto become the region’snexus for the next generationof manufacturingtechnologies,” said UniversityPresident DianaNatalicio. “The creationof the new SPEC Centerwill generate outstandingresearch opportunitiesfor our faculty andstudents, leading tocommercializable discoveriesand creation of high-paying, high-skilled jobs for thePaso del Norte region.”The SPEC Center will be directed by Kenneth H. Church,a well-known expert in the printed electronics field whoholds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Oklahoma StateUniversity. Church, who joined UTEP in January, has extensiveexperience in technology commercialization and is thefounder of advanced-technology companies Sciperio Inc. andnScrypt Inc. Church is an inventor or co-inventor of a numberof patented or patent-pending technologies, and his researchinterests include lasers, optics, tissue-engineered materials,antenna designs and other novel electronic devices.The SPEC Center will be co-directed by Professor of MechanicalEngineering Ryan Wicker, Ph.D., the current directorof the Keck Center.“I am looking forward to working with Dr. Church to expandwhat we do into the new and exciting areas of printed electronics,”Wicker said. “We are uniquely positioned to make asignificant difference in this new frontier.”Electrical Engineering graduate students (left to right) Richard Olivas and Danny Muse performresearch in the W.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation.ENGINEERING.UTEP.EDU 3

Outreach Program Offers ResearchExperience to High School StudentsTop: Parkland High School students (left to right) Abraham Rivera, Lilian Martinez,and Danielle Hansen participate in UTEP’s Nexus program. Bottom: 2010-2011Nexus InternsVolume 2, No.1 • FALL 2008CS Summer Program Trains Studentsfor Research CareersStudents from across thenation participated in theUTEP Summer ResearchExperience for Undergraduates(REU) Program inApplied Intelligent Systems.The 10-week summerprogram, which was sponsoredby a grant from theNational Science Foundation,provided trainingfor students interestedin research careers. Theprogram was directed byDr. Olac Fuentes, associateprofessor of computer science,and included weeklyseminars and myriad opportunitiesfor hands-onresearch experience.“The most valuable thingwas actually implementing some of these algorithms,” saidPeter Kelley, a computer science student from SUNY-Geneseo.“I definitely learned a lot.”According to Diego Aguirre, a computer science studentfrom UTEP, the program was “extraordinarily useful.”“We learned the dynamics of research. I now understandhow things work. I think that was the most important thingI learned in this program” Aguirre said. “I hope UTEP keepsdoing these kinds of programs because they are very helpful.”Students at Parkland High School are gaining engineeringexperience through Nexus, the high school internship programin UTEP’s College of Engineering.Nexus is a shadowing program coordinated with local areahigh schools to have their students participate in an internshipin a UTEP engineering research laboratory or with local professionals.Since 2007, the program has allowed more than55 high school students to interact with faculty and engineeringstudents. Participants also are immersed in leadershiptraining. Participating schools include Socorro High School,Bel Air High School, Harmony Public Schools, and ParklandHigh Schools.This month, students from Parkland High School are interningat a local engineering firm, CEA Group, which is ownedby UTEP civil engineering alumns Ruben Chavez and UlisesEstrada.According to Gabby Gándara, director of ACES in UTEP’s Collegeof Engineering, the Nexus program is a great opportunityto introduce high school students to engineering fields.“These internships provide students with an experiencethat can’t be found in the classroom,” he said. “We see thisinternship training and the projects students worked on tohave a huge impact on how they perceive themselves goingto college and starting a career.”Participants in the UTEP Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU)Program presented their project results on Aug. 6. Top Left: Diego Aguirre presentshis project, titled “Tracking Multiple Near-identical Objects.” Shown directly aboveis Peter Kelley, CS student from the State University of New York at Geneseo,presenting his project titled “RNA Secondary Structure Prediction using HeuristicBacktracking Search.”4COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Students, Alumni Celebrate TCM ‘10UTEP Engineering students and alumni celebrated TCM on March 12, 2010. The celebration honoring Saint Patrick, the patronsaint of engineering, is the oldest tradition in the College and University. Every year engineers pay homage to St. Pat duringthis celebration to remember the roots of the University...mining and engineering. This celebration gets students involvedwith various on-campus and community services activities. Engineering alumni and students are invited to join in the 2011TCM celebration, which will be held on Friday, March 11.Engineering Student Named Top 10 SeniorSylviaNatividad,a recentmetallurgicalandmaterialsengineeringgraduate,wasnamed oneof UTEP’s Top Ten Seniors,an honor given annually toUTEP’s best and brighteststudents by the UTEP AlumniAssociation.The first female in herfamily to receive a collegedegree, Sylvia earned manyscholarships and activelyparticipated in many campusorganizations and activitiesas an undergraduate student.She was named an AlbertS. Holbert Endowed Scholarand has received engineeringawards from the AmericanSociety of Civil Engineering,the Texas Society forProfessional Engineers andthe National Action Councilfor Minorities in Engineering.Her campus activities includeserving as a board member ofWomen in Science and Engineering(WISE), treasurer ofthe UTEP Rotary, fundraisingco-chair for the Materials AdvantageSociety and presidentof the Alpha Sigma Mumaterials engineering honorsociety. In the community,she has organized holidayevents for La Posada, a domesticviolence shelter; wasa science fair judge at CooleyElementary School; and wasa fundraiser for the HumaneSociety of El Paso.Sylvia graduated from UTEPwith a bachelor’s degree inmetallurgical and materialsengineering in May. Sheplans to work as a graduateresearch assistant at TheUniversity of Arizona for thesummer and then will returnto UTEP as a master’s studentin metallurgical and materialsengineering.“My fondest memory ofUTEP is my older brother’sgraduation day,” Sylvia said.“I was so proud to see mybrother, the first person in ourfamily to graduate from college,receive his Bachelor ofScience degree in computerscience. This event inspiredme to excel in my own careerat this great University, whichprovides everyone an equalopportunity to succeed.”ENGINEERING.UTEP.EDU 5

UTEP, AT&T Partnership Leads toResearch OpportunitiesOn April 6 corporate executives from AT&T traveled to UTEP to celebrate the opening of the new AT&T Network Operations Development Center in Downtown El Paso.The inaugural class of UTEP student associates was also introduced. AT&T interns (shown above with AT&T executives and UTEP President Dr. Diana Natalicio) includeJaime Parra, CS; Richard Arriaga, EE; Brenda Medina, mathematics graduate student; Cyrus Brooks, CS; Cesar Monsivais, EE; Ashwin Ganesh, CS graduate student; KateLopez, math and physics; Jessica Reyes, graduate student in engineering; Mario Diaz, EE; Ruben Hernandez, EE; and Tiffany Rossy, EE.AT&T recently announced new initiatives that will facilitateresearch and professional work experience opportunities forUTEP students and faculty.In April, AT&T announced the opening of the AT&T NetworkOperations Development Center in Downtown El Paso. Theinaugural class of UTEP student associates was introduced ata breakfast on April 6.The inaugural class includes 11 science and engineeringstudents selected for a semester-long paid internship withAT&T. These freshman, sophomores, and juniors will work aspart-time employees in the new Downtown location. They willutilize technical skills they learn in the classroom by workingin a professional environment and networking with other AT&Temployees around the country.The students will gain experience with projects such as datamining and coding, integration systems and other projectsthat will allow them to solve programming issues that willarise on a daily basis.AT&T’s new long-term “integrated strategic relationship”with UTEP is the first of its kind for the multibillion-dollarcommunications giant. AT&T will work with the Universityand its students to cultivate a talent pool to replenish AT&T’sworkforce while also improving its demographic profile. UTEPwill become a prototype for what AT&T hopes to initiate atother universities around the country.AT&T’s long-term plan includes working with faculty, undergraduateand graduate students and its regional and corporateoffices. UTEP and AT&T will collaborate to identify researchprojects that will benefit both entities and use studenthires.“The affiliation and strong relationship with a world-recognizedleader will lead to great research opportunities for UTEP,its faculty and students,” said Ricardo Pineda, Ph.D., directorfor UTEP’s Research Institute for Manufacturing and EngineeringSystems (RIMES) and chair of UTEP’s industrial, manufacturingand systems engineering department. “These are thekind of relationships that will take UTEP to the next level andmove us toward Tier One.”According to Pineda, RIMES is currently negotiating withAT&T to expand internship programs to include master’s anddoctoral students. RIMES is also coordinating the addition ofPh.D. and M.S. students in electrical and computer engineering,computer science, and industrial, manufacturing, andsystems engineering in assignments at AT&T labs and researchfacilities in Texas, New Jersey, and California.6COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Faculty Feature:Eric MacDonaldAbove: Eric MacDonald holds UTEP’s first million transistor chip.Bottom Right: MacDonald’s research involves three-dimensional electronics withcomputer chips embedded in them.Eric MacDonald spent 12 years in industry before joiningUTEP’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. Lastyear he received tenure and a promotion to associate professor.A computer chip designer, MacDonald previously workedfor IBM, Motorola, and even started his own company beforebecoming a professor at UTEP. His startup was eventuallyacquired by a Silicon Valley firm – Magma Design Automation,Inc.Much of MacDonald’s current research is performed withRyan Wicker, Ph.D. in the W. M. Keck Center for 3D Innovationat UTEP. His work involves three-dimensional structural electronicswith computer chips embedded in them. Accordingto MacDonald, his work has potential military and biomedicalapplications.MacDonald is also known for creating UTEP’s first milliontransistorchip. In addition, he recently designed a chip fora Navy flux gate magnetometer – one of the most sensitivemagnetometers on Earth at room temperature. He has alsosecured a $200,000 project with the Army’s High PerformanceComputing (HPC) facilities to design computer chips usingHigh Performance Computers with thousands of processors,instead of just one.His work was recognized recently when he was awarded aprestigious DARPA award, together with Ameet Chavan, arecent Ph.D. graduate. As winners of the DARPA design contest,their low-voltage chip design is being fabricated in MIT’sLincoln Labs.MacDonald lived in El Paso asa child - his father was stationedat Fort Bliss through most of the1970s. He says it was the desireto learn Spanish that brought hisfamily back to El Paso. The fatherof five children, MacDonald andhis wife are expecting their sixthchild in 2011.His next step – MacDonaldhopes to secure an award throughthe Fulbright Scholarship Programto travel to Santiago, Chile tolearn Spanish and to explore additivemanufacturing of ceramicswith a Chilean collaborator at thePontífica Universidad Catolica.UTEP Announces 2010 Distinguished AlumniThe University of Texas atEl Paso and the UTEP AlumniAssociation have announcedthe winners of the 2010 DistinguishedAlumni Award.Mike Loya, a College ofEngineering graduate, is oneof three recepients that willbe recognized during HomecomingWeek (Oct. 4-9)activities, including the 2010Distinguished Alumni AwardsDinner on Friday, Oct. 8, atthe Don Haskins Center.Mike Loya heads Vitol Inc.,the muscular American armof The Vitol Group, one of theworld’s largest energy tradingcompanies. Vitol, with its billions of dollars in assets, beatsthe competition through the efficiency and diversity of productand partnerships that are hallmarks of its powerful globalpresence.Competitiveness always has been a factor in Loya’s success.His present project includes assembling a first-class electricitytrading team.Loya graduated from UTEP in 1977 with a bachelor’s degreein mechanical engineering and went on to pursue a Masterof Business Administration from Harvard Business School in1979. He is the oldest of seven high-achieving siblings in afirst-generation Mexican-American family.Loya, the 2006 Gold Nugget from the College of Engineering,is involved in programs that give more students a chanceat a good education. He serves on the board of trustees ofHouston-based YES Prep Public Schools, an innovative multicampuscharter school initiative that places 100 percent of itsgraduates—95 percent of whom are Hispanic or African-American—infour-year colleges through its rigorous curriculum.ENGINEERING.UTEP.EDU 7

Message From Alumni ChapterPresident Keith FongKeith Fong, president of the EngineeringAlumni Chapter of the UTEP Alumni Association,with his wife, Maria.The College of Engineeringis something special at UTEP.As Dean Richard Schoephoersteroften notes, most thingsat UTEP start in Engineering,including the school itself.One of the latest “firsts” wasthe formation last year of theCollege of Engineering AlumniChapter of the UTEP AlumniAssociation.Many alumni have expresseda desire to give backto UTEP and to help the currentgeneration of students.However, in the past therehas been no real infrastructure.To participate, you had to make a big commitment tofinding where and how to help.With the formation of the Engineering Alumni chapter, thatis changing. The chapter’s vision is to be the nexus of organizedalumni participation in the College of Engineering. Wemade great strides last year and the coming year will be evenbetter.Some of the successes we will build upon include a biggerHomecoming Breakfast; more engagement with students, especiallyfor TCM; expanding our presence at Pre-Commencement;and more social events to build a stronger alumninetwork.We’re going to be creating some new things, too: A mentoringprogram is just getting kicked off, awards and recognitionsto celebrate student and alumni success are gettingorganized, and an alumni speakers bureau is under development– alumni will be able to sign up to speak to studentsand organizations.The future is bright for the Engineering Alumni chapter. Ifyou’re not a member of the UTEP Alumni Association, it’s timeto join and help make the Engineering Alumni Chapter a powerfulforce for student opportunity and professional networks.Natalicio Gives Presentationto Engineering AlumniAlumni & Gold Nugget BreakfastEl Paso Natural Gas Conference CenterSaturday, October 99:00 a.m.8:00 a.m. coffeeCost: $20 per personRSVP to rsvpengineering@utep.edu or visit usonline at engineering.utep.edu/homecomingDr. Diana Natalicio met with members of the Engineering Alumni Chapteron July 9 to share her vision of becoming a national research university. Thepresentation can be viewed on the College website at engineering.utep.edu.ENGINEERING.UTEP.EDU 9

College Welcomes New Faculty and StaffThe College of Engineering at The University of Texas at El Paso is pleased to announce that the following new faculty andstaff members have joined the College.Christopher D. Kiekintveld, Ph.D.,has been named assistant professor inthe Department of Computer Science.Dr. Kiekintveld’s research interestsinclude artificial itelligence, multi-agentsystems, game theory, security, riskanalysis, mechanism design, electroniccommerce, markets, supply chain management,optimization, and uncertainty.He received a Ph.D. and master’s degreein computer science and engineeringfrom the University of Michigan, as well as a bachelor’sdegree in electrical engineering and computer science.Nam-Soo Kim, Ph.D., joins the Departmentof Metallurgical and MaterialsEngineering as associate professor.Dr. Kim was formerly director of theKEN Research Center at SeokyeongUniversity in Seoul, Korea, and assistantprofessor in the Department of BiochemicalEngineering.Dr. Kim received his B.S. and M.S.degrees from Korea University, Seoul andhis Ph.D. in materials science and engineeringis from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology,Rapid City, S.D. His research interests include direct writingand printing technology in nano-technology and recycling.Norman Love, Ph.D., has been namedresearch assistant professor in the Departmentof Mechanical Engineering.Dr. Love earned his B.S. and M.S.degrees in mechanical engineering fromUTEP. He received a Ph.D. in mechanicalengineering from the University ofOklahoma. His research is conducted inUTEP’s Center for Space Exploration andTechnology Research (cSETR).Michael McGarry, Ph.D., has beennamed assistant professor of electricaland computer engineering.Formerly assistant professor with theElectrical and Computer EngineeringDepartment at the University of Akronin Ohio, Dr. McGarry’s research is in thefield of computer networks. His researchinterests include the optimization ofmedium access control (MAC) protocols;bandwidth forecasting; benchmarkingfairness; and quality of service (QoS) techniques. He is a recentrecipient of the 2009 IEEE Communications Society BestTutorial Paper Award.Dr. McGarry received his B.S. in computer eengineering fromPolytechnic University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electricalengineering from Arizona State University.Alejandrina Morton joins the Collegeof Engineering as administrative assistantto the dean.Before coming to UTEP, she workedin the Office of Advancement at LorettoAcademy. A UTEP graduate, she holds abachelor’s degree in business administration.Nathaniel Robinson, P.E., has beennamed associate director of the Centerfor Space Exploration Technology andResearch (cSETR) at UTEP.Before coming to UTEP, Robinson spent2 years as a design engineer at Motorola,6 years at Department of Defense firmsas design engineer and engineering manager,and 2 years as project lead engineerfor a NASA contractor.Raymond C. Rumpf, Ph.D., hasjoined the electrical and computer engineeringdepartment as associate professor.Before joining the faculty at UTEP, Dr.Rumpf was chief technology officer andvice president for Prime Research, acompany that develops sensors, communications,and engineered materials forextreme applications.His research interests are printedelectronics and 3-D structures; metamaterials and advancedelectromagnetic structures; and sensors and microsystems.He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineeringfrom Florida Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in optics isfrom the University of Central Florida.W. Shane Walker, Ph.D., has beennamed assistant professor in the Departmentof Civil Engineering.Dr. Walker received a B.S. degree incivil engineering from Texas Tech University.He received his M.S. and Ph.D.degrees through the Environmental andWater Resources Engineering programat the University of Texas at Austin. Healso has experience with several civil andenvironmental consulting firms.Dr. Walker is joining the Center for Inland DesalinationSystems research group. His research interests include treatmentof inland desalination concentrates, as well as the developmentof improved drinking water and sanitation systemsfor impoverished and developing countries.See FACULTY AND STAFF, Page 1512COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Engineering Faculty PromotionsThe following faculty members have received tenure and/orpromotion:Kelvin Cheu, P.h.D., associate professorof civil engineering, has been awardedtenure.Director of the Border Intermodal Gateway(BIG) laboratory, Cheu’s researchinterests and expertise include trafficoperations, Intelligent TransportationSystems (ITS), public and intermodaltransportation, transportation logisticsand transportation security. He hasextensive experience in the applicationsof traffic simulation models, artificial intelligence techniques,GPS and GIS in transportation. Since joining UTEP in August2006, he has established a transportation program in theDepartment of Civil Engineering with a strong focus on bordertransportation.He has served as the principal investigator of several researchprojects funded by Federal Highway Administration(FHWA), Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), and ElPaso Metropolitan Planning Organization (El Paso MPO). Heis very active in the Transportation Research Board (TRB) ofThe National Academies, having served on three technicalcommittees. He served as a friend of two other committees.Cheu is also serving as a member of the editorial advisoryboard in two international peer-reviewed journals. Five UTEPstudents supervised by him have won the Bronze Award in theMondialogo Engineering Award contest, organized by UNESCOand Daimler in 2009. Many undergraduate and graduate studentssupervised by him have made presentations at nationaland international conferences.Ahsan Choudhuri, Ph.D., associateprofessor and chair of the DepartmentMechanical Engineering, has beenawarded tenure.Choudhuri was named chair of of themechanical engineering department inMay 2010. He also serves as director ofthe Center for Space Exploration Technologyand Research (cSETR), a NASAUniversity Research Center, which isperforming frontier research in aerospaceand energy engineering while training underrepresented minoritiesin science, technology, engineering and mathematics(STEM) fields.He was been with UTEP since 2001. His primary researchinterests are in aerospace systems and energy engineering.Choudhuri received his postgraduate degrees in 1997 and2000 from the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineeringat the University of Oklahoma and his bachelor’s inmechanical engineering at Khulna University of EngineeringTechnology in Bangladesh in 1993.14COLLEGE OF ENGINEERINGEric Freudenthal, Ph.D., has beenpromoted to associate professor of computerscience. He has also been awardedtenure.Freudenthal joined UTEP in fall 2004.His work has centered on the design anddevelopment of hardware and softwaresystems that provide high performanceover a range of operating conditions.His dissertation work evaluated andimproved the interaction of algorithmicand architectural mechanisms for coordinating large sharedmemory systems. He is currently investigating abstractionsand mechanisms useful for constructing robust, secure andself-organizing distributed systems. In addition, he is workingon various topics in engineering and computer science educationresearch.Stella Quiñones, Ph.D., has receivedtenure and a promotion to associateprofessor of electrical and computer Engineering.Quiñones has been a faculty memberat UTEP for the past 13 years. Shejoined UTEP as a lecturer in metallurgicaland materials engineering in 1997, andin 2004 she was hired as an assistantprofessor in the electrical and computerengineering department at UTEP. In2007 she was appointed the Forest O. and Henrietta LewisProfessor in Electrical Engineering and in August of this yearshe was one of nine UTEP professors to receive a UT Regents’Outstanding Teaching Award. Her current researchareas include planar and nano-scale selective CdTe depositionon CdTe(111), Si(100), Si(211) and SOI substrates using aconventional and state-of-the-art, close-spaced sublimation(CSS) technique for applications related to solar cells andinfrared detectors. Her educational activities include an NSFfunded Course Curriculum Laboratory Improvement grant todevelop an applied quantum mechanics course for electricalengineers and collaborations with Purdue University on anNSF Network for Computational Nanotechnology to developingeducational materials associated with the simulation of semiconductordevices using the NanoHUB.org website.Evgeny Shafirovich, Ph.D., hasbeen appointed to assistant professor, atenure-track position.Shafirovich joined the Department ofMechanical Engineering in 2008. Beforejoining the faculty at UTEP, he was aresearch scientist at Purdue University’sSchool of Chemical Engineering.His research interests include combustionof metals, energetic materials,chemical hydrogen storage, chemicaloxygen generators, coal combustion/gasification, and solarthermochemical cycles for splitting water and CO2. He is a coinvestigatorat UTEP’s Center for Space Exploration TechnologiesResearch, where he focuses on the in-space productionof propellants and materials.

Ricardo von Borries, Ph.D., hasreceived tenure and has been promotedto associate professor of electrical andcomputer engineering.His research interests include digitalsignal processing with emphasison wavelet transforms, timefrequencyanalysis, compressive sensing, tomographicimaging, overcomplete signalexpansions, and parameter estimation.The main application of the research istomographic imaging and source localization in medicine andradar. Other interests include digital and analog hardwarearchitecture and design to create dedicated instrumentationthat complements the infrastructure needed for his research.He has been on the faculty of the UTEP Department of Electricaland Computer Engineering since 2004.Nigel Ward. Ph.D., has been promotedto full professor of computer science.Ward’s research areas lie in the intersectionof spoken language and humancomputerinteraction. Focus areas includeimproving the usability of today’s spokendialog systems and the study of fundamentalissues in dialog modeling using avariety of methods: statistical, linguistic,systems-building, and experimental.Current topics include the subtle prosodicsignals that enable inference of a dialog partner’s needs,intentions, and feelings at the sub-second level, and the useof these for more accurate speech recognition, for swifter andsmoother turn-taking, and for more responsive, habitabledialog systems.Ward joined UTEP in 2002 and is co-director of the InteractiveSystems Group. His research has been primarily supportedby the National Science Foundation and the DefenseAdvanced Research Projects Agency. He has served on NSFpanels on language processing and on learning technologies,and as an organizer of the Special Session on the Prosodyof Turn-Taking and Dialog Acts at Interspeech 2006 and theUSC-UTEP Workshop on Predictive Models of Human CommunicationDynamics in 2010.Faculty and StaffContinued from Page 12L. Roy Xu, Ph.D., has been namedassociate professor of the Department ofMechanical Engineering.Prior to joining UTEP, Dr. Xu was assistantprofessor of civil engineering andmaterials science at Vanderbilt University.His research background is in aerospacestructures, solid mechanics, andadvanced materials.Dr. Xu received his Ph.D. in aeronauticsand materials science from the CaliforniaInstitute of Technology. His research work has led to 34 journalpapers and he received a Young Investigator Award fromthe U.S. Office of Naval Research. He currently serves as thevice chair of the Fracture and Failure Mechanics Committee ofASME.New Engineering ProgramsOffered in 2010-2011The College of Engineering opened the 2010-11 academicyear with two new programs. The Department of MechanicalEngineering has begun offering coursework for the newEnergy Science and Engineering (ENSE) doctoral trackwithin the interdisciplinary Ph.D. program in environmentalscience and engineering. The new program includes researchtopics such as fossil fuel power generation efficiencyimprovement, carbon capture and storage, high capacityrenewable power generation and aerospace propulsion.The College has also introudced a Graduate Certificate inCyber Security. The program is designed to familiarize studentswith issues in national security law, intelligence andsecurity needs, problems of security risk confronted by privateand governmental organizations, and how governmentsand other organizations communicate with each other andwork jointly on security matters. The 15-credit-hour courseworkwill emphasize inter-jurisdictional and inter-governmentalaspects of security issues concerning infrastructure,travel and transport, and immigration.Ann Gates Wins Prestigious BorgInstitute Social Impact AwardAnn Quiroz Gates, Ph.D., has beennamed the winner of the 2010 Anita BorgSocial Impact Award. The award honorsan individual or team that has causedtechnology to have a positive impacton the lives of women and society orhas caused women to have a significantimpact on the design and use of technology.Gates is the associate vice president ofresearch in the Office of Research andSponsored Projects at UTEP and a professorof computer science. She is the founder of the ComputingAlliance for Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI) at UTEP,a program that strives to increase the number of Hispanicswho pursue and complete baccalaureate and advanced degreesin computing areas, as well as create a unified voice inan effort to consolidate the strengths, resources and concernsof other participating CAHSI institutions.Gates’ leadership is making a significant social impact byincreasing the number of Latinos and Latinas graduating fromcollege and seeking graduate studies in science, technology,engineering and math (STEM) fields.“I am honored and truly humbled to have received the AnitaBorg Social Impact Award,” Gates said. “There are manypeople who deserve to be recognized alongside of me—peoplewho have shared the vision of empowering others to excel.”Gates will be honored at an awards ceremony on Sept. 30during the 10th Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing(GHC) in Atlanta, Georgia.The Anita Borg Institute provides resources and programs tohelp industry, academia and government recruit, retain anddevelop women leaders in high-tech fields, resulting in higherlevels of technological innovation. Its programs serve hightechwomen by creating a community and providing tools tohelp them develop their careers.ENGINEERING.UTEP.EDU 15