The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department welcomes and wishes to introduce five new faculty members.

Constantine Katsinis, Ph.D. (University of Rhode Island) joins us from the University of Alabama-Huntsville as an Associate Professor. His interests are in computer architecture modeling and applications, parallel processing, fault tolerant systems, operating systems, and image processing and pattern recognition. He has developed and taught courses and in computer engineering, and has advised numerous graduate and undergraduate students in related topics.

Karen Miu, Ph.D. (Cornell University) recently received her Ph.D. and joins us as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Miu specializes in electric power systems: electric power distribution automation for improved power reliability and quality; service restoration for unbalanced distribution systems; VAR/Voltage control; and network reconfiguration.

Stewart Personick, Ph.D. (MIT) is the first E. Warren Colehower Chair Professor and Director of the new Center for Telecommunications and Information Networking. He was VP for Information Networking at Bellcore. He has over 30 years experience as a pioneering researcher in optical fiber technology and applications, and as a manager of research and development activities. He is a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA), and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Harish Sethu, Ph.D. (Lehigh University) joins us as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Sethu has over six years of industrial experience at IBM in research and development of high-level specifications for the next generation ATM switching networks. His expertise is in computer architecture, switching networks and topologies, parallel and distributed computing, CAD algorithms for VLSI design, and logic design and computer arithmetic.

Dong Wei, Ph.D. (University of Texas-Austin) recently received his Ph.D. and joins us as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Wei’s interests are in communications: image, video and multimedia; wireless communications; and signal processing. His work deals with optimal information extraction in the presence of uncertainty, particularly through efficient representation of signals using wavelets, filterbanks, and time-frequency/time-scale representations.

Riszard Lec, Ph.D. has joined the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems as a new professor. He received his Ph.D. in Microelectronics and will assist in program development in the areas of biosensor research, instruction, and research laboratories. His interests include microsensors, electromagnetics, solid state devices, microacoustics, acousto-optics, and ultrasonic spectroscopy. He is a member of IEEE, ASEE, and SPIE.

Dr. Peter Herczfeld co-chaired with Dr. Chi Lee from the University of Maryland for the 1998 International Topical Meeting on Microwave Photonics, held October 12-14, 1998 at the Sarnoff Corporation.

Dr. Afshin Daryoush was elected Fellow of IEEE effective January 1, 1999.

Dr. Peter Herczfeld received the MTT Distinguished Educator Award for "outstanding achievements as an educator, mentor, and role model of microwave engineers and engineering students."

Drexel’s 1998 Annual Service Awards were presented to twelve ECE faculty:

• Dr. Hun Sun, 45 years
• Dr. Ed Gerber, 40 years
• Dr. Peter Herczfeld, 30 years
• Dr. Oleh Tretiak, 25 years
• Drs. Stan Kesler, Peter Lewin, Kambiz Pourrezaei, Kevin Scoles, Mohana Shankar, and Lazar Trachtenberg, 15 years
• Dr. Itzhak Barkana, 10 years
• Dr. Athina Petropulu, 5 years

At the 1998 ECE Awards and Recognition, several ECE faculty and students received awards.

• Dr. Kevin Scoles received the Martin Kaplan Distinguished Faculty Award.
• Dr. Kambiz Pourrezaei received the Thomas Moore Award for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching.
• Mel Baiada (BSEE ’82 and MSEE ’85), President and CEO of Bluestone Software, Inc., received the Outstanding Alumni Award.
• Georgia Georgiou, Walid Ibrahim and Maria Gabrani received the Outstanding Graduate Student Award.
• Drs. Mohana Shankar and Moshe Kam were recognized with a special tribute during the ceremonies for their exemplary service to the ECE Department as Assistant Department Heads.

NSF has accepted a proposal for a wireless communications laboratory by Drs. Athina Petropulu and Maja Bystrom, with Moenes Amin as Co-PI from Villanova.

Dr. Ed Gerber accepted the position of Assistant Department Head for the Evening Program. Our evening program will move gradually to the new curriculum, ECE-21.

Dr. Bruce Eisenstein was elected as President-elect of IEEE.

Dr. Dov Jaron, Calhoun Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Medicine has been elected as a permanent member of the World Academy of Biomedical Technologies.

The 1998-99 Honors Day Award Recipients include:

• Patrick Kelsey, Lester Kraus Award
• Adam Tong, Blasi Family Award
• Richard Delp, Robert Fischl Award
• Joseph Sorial, Thomas Moore Award
• Paul Daniel, Harry Grannis, and David Tack, Garroway Vanaman Scholarship
• David Tack, Vollmar Scholarship

Dr. Bruce Eisenstein was the keynote speaker at the annual Eta Kappa Nu banquet held on April 19, 1999 in Princeton, NJ.

Richard Delp, William Kenworthy, and Brian Reardon received the Career Management Center’s Annual Co-op Award.

The Electrical and Computer Engineering Department received the Departmental Teaching Achievement Award for 1999 in recognition of its curricular restructuring efforts and "outstanding achievement in teaching and learning through the collective efforts of its faculty."

Dr. Ed Gerber received the Senior Faculty Award for 1999 in recognition of his sustained contributions to undergraduate teaching and learning.

Georgia Georgiou received the George Hill, Jr. Endowed Fellowship.

Portia Morse received first place at the 1999 IEEE Philadelphia Section Student Writing Contest for her paper, "Who Wrote this Note?" Portia also received the 2nd Place Award for the same paper in the IEEE Region 2 Student Paper Contest. Advisor: Dr. Moshe Kam.

Michael Balog received an Honorable Mention at the 1999 IEEE Philadelphia Section Student Writing Contest for his paper, "Self-Contained Computer-Controlled Helicopter." Advisor: Dr. Prawat Nagvajara.

Adam McInvale received first prize at the Sarnoff Symposium Student Paper/Poster Session Contest for the paper "Dense WDM for CATV Applications." Advisor: Dr. Afshin Daryoush.

Lingchuan Chen and Joong Hee Lee received third prize at the Sarnoff Symposium Student Paper/Poster Session Contest for the paper "An 8 GB/s Optical Link for High Performance Data Networks." Advisors: Drs. Afshin Daryoush and Warren Rosen.

Dr. Peter Lewin was nominated as a Chief Judge (Special Awards) of the International Science and Engineering Fair held in Philadelphia the week of May 5, 1999, on behalf of the Acoustical Society of America.

Drexel faculty members, Drs. Sami Ofeish (History and Politics) and Sandra Stewart (Media Arts), received the newly inaugurated Allen Rothwarf Teaching Award for 1999.

Drs. Moshe Kam and Mohana Shankar received the College of Engineering Faculty Achievement Awards.

The 1999 ECE Senior Design Competition are as follows:

• 1st Place went to ECE-26 "Self-Contained Computer Controlled Helicopter" by Jonathan Adams (ECE), Michael Balog (ECE), Ryan Buchert (ECE) and Robert Leach (MEM), Advisor: Dr. Prawat Nagvajara.
• 2nd Place went to ECE-10 "Bird Sound Recognition Algorithm" by Steven Ferrante (ECE) and Michael Starsinic (ECE), Advisor: Dr. Athina Petropulu.
• 3rd Place was tied:
  • ECE-8 "Automated Restoration Model for Electrical Distribution" by David Bradley (ECE), Richard Delp (ECE), Christopher Kwoka (ECE), Jon Sauer (ECE) and S. Jay Waller (ECE), Advisor: Dr. Karen Miu.
  • ECE-9 "The Modulation Station" by Raymond Huber (ECE), John Iovacchino (ECE) and John J. McGuckin (ECE), Advisor: Dr. Maja Bystrom.

President Papadakis approved the promotion of Dr. Kambiz Pourrezaei to Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

The IEEE Board of Directors, at its meeting on 15 November 1998, elected Dr. Afshin Daryoush as Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, effective 1 January 1999, "for contributions to the field of nonlinear microwave photonics with applications to high-speed fiberoptic links."

Several ECE and Biomedical students received awards at the Sigma Xi Research Day.

• Top Scholarship Awards ($1000 each) went to D. El-Sherif (with R. Shimp and M.A. Wheatley), "Ultrasound Triggered Drug Delivery with Contrast Imaging: Effect of Microencapsulation Method."
• For Winning Posters-College of Engineering, the Graduate prize ($500) went to S. P. Carullo, with C. O. Nwankpa, "Instrumentation of Drexel University's Interconnected Power Systems Laboratory."
• The School of Biomedical Engineering and Science Graduate Honorable Mention went to S. J. Kwon, with R. M. Lec, P. A. Lewin, and E. Radulescu, "A Novel Acoustic Emission Medical Sensor."
• The Biomedical Undergraduate prize ($500) went to H. Alparslan, R. M. Lec, P. A. Lewin, S. J. Kwon, and E. Radulescu, "Acoustic Wave Homogeneous Immunosensor."

Two faculty received major University awards at this year’s Faculty Recognition Awards Ceremonies: Dr. Robert Quinn, 1999 Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching; and Dr. Kambiz Pourrezaei, 1999 Harold Myers Award for Outstanding Service to the University.

Three teams from the ECE Senior Design Competition represented the department in the COE Senior Design Competition and won the following awards:

• 2nd Place ($1,000) went to ECE-26 "Self-Contained Computer Controlled Helicopter." Students: Jonathan Adams (ECE), Michael Balog (ECE), Ryan Buchert (ECE) and Robert Leach (MEM). Faculty Advisor: Dr. Prawat Nagvajara
• The other two teams received Runner-up awards ($300):
  • ECE-10 "Bird Sound Recognition Algorithm." Students: Steven Ferrante (ECE) and Michael Starsinic (ECE). Advisor: Dr. Athina Petropulu
  • ECE-8 "Automated Restoration Model for Electrical Distribution Systems." Students: David Bradley (ECE), Richard Delp (ECE), Christopher Kwoka (ECE), Jon Sauer (ECE) and S. Jay Waller (ECE). Advisor: Dr. Karen Miu

Adam McInvale and Salil Kanhere were two of the recipients of the 1998-99 Drexel University TA Excellence awards. This award is presented annually to the top teaching assistants ad Drexel who are nominated by students and faculty in recognition of their excellence. Other ECE students were also nominated: Ivan Andjelkovic, Larry Dinozo, Eray Kulcu and Ed Zielenski.

At the COE Faculty Meeting held June 2, the MS Computer Engineering degree proposal was unanimously approved by the College faculty. The proposal will now be forwarded to the Senate Committee on Academic Affairs (SCAA) for their review. The department extends its thanks to the Ad Hoc Committee, members of the ECE and COE Graduate Committees, and the entire ECE faculty for their efforts.