[CCoE Notice] Dean's Memo October 2012

Wed Oct 17 15:44:39 CDT 2012

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[cid:image003.jpg at 01CDAC7E.519812F0]Dear Cullen College Faculty, Staff and Members of our Leadership Board,
A busy fall semester is well underway, and I'd like to thank you for all your hard work and dedication to realizing Cullen College goals for success.
Earlier this month, we honored fourteen members of the National Academy of Engineering, who are distinguished representatives of the Cullen College family. The Wall of Fame in Engineering Building 1 is dedicated to our NAE members for their significant impact on engineering research, education and the profession.
The honorees are Neal R. Amundson, Ph.D. (posthumous); Benton Baugh, Ph.D.; Charles Cutler, Ph.D.; Abraham Dukler, Ph.D. (posthumous); Bonnie Dunbar, Ph.D.; Fazle Hussain, Ph.D.; John Lee, Ph.D.; John Lienhard, Ph.D.; Dan Luss, Ph.D.; Michael Pao, Ph.D.; Allen Rhodes, Ph.D. (posthumous); James Symons, Ph.D.; Anestis S. Veletsos, Ph.D.; and Kaspar Willam, Ph.D.
I'd like to recognize Navin Varadarajan, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, who has recently been awarded a R01 grant by the NIH worth approximately $2.1 million to study the engineering of human immune cells to fight against cancer. Varadarajan's collaborators on this project include Laurence Cooper, a physician and researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Badrinath Roysam, electrical and computer engineering department chair at the Cullen College, and Peng Qiu, an assistant professor of bioinformatics and computational biology at MD Anderson.
Additional recent grants have been awarded to Stanko Brankovic, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, who received an $80,000 grant from the Semiconductor Research Corp. to develop a new way of connecting transistors in integrated circuits; and to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, which won a grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN) program, to provide up to 12 one-year scholarships for students pursuing a Ph.D.
Faculty Advisory Committee: As previously announced in July, a new faculty advisory committee has been established to provide input and guidance to our college on critical issues related to academic programs, research initiatives and budget, and to assist in the development of our next strategic plan. The committee held its initial meeting in September and will now assist in laying the groundwork for the our next strategic plan. Feedback to the members is welcomed and appreciated:

 *   Ravi Birla, Elebeoba May (BME)
 *   Dan Luss, John Lee, Vemuri Balakotaiah (ChBE)
 *   Kaspar Willam, Hanadi Rifai (CEE)
 *   Jose Contreras-Vidal, Ji Chen (ECE)
 *   May Feng, Ali Kamrani (IE)
 *   Venkat Selvamanickam, Gangbing Song (ME)
Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Approves Two Master of Science Programs: The College has been notified that the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has approved our requests for two new Master of Science programs: Subsea Engineering with an implementation date of October 1, 2012 and Geosensing Systems Engineering and Sciences with an implementation date of January 1, 2013. Congratulations to these new programs.
Cullen College Web Site: Within the next few months, the Office of Engineering Communications will release a redesigned Cullen College web site. The new look and usability of the site will strengthen the UH and Cullen College brand, and provide an accessible and robust online experience for the Cullen College community and external audiences.
Megatrend Future Day Nov. 9: Please join us for the November 9 UH Megatrend Future Day<http://www.egr.uh.edu/research/megatrend_future/>. This event is the largest to be held in North America, and includes a morning panel discussion on energy and natural resources with experts from academia, government, industry, and global consulting. Following a lunch with UH keynote speaker Dr. Joseph Pratt, expert in the history of the petroleum industry, the UH Policy Debate Team will debate the role of federal and state government in bridging the gap between the growing demand for energy and energy production. I would like to have good representation from Engineering as we will definitely be looking to our audience for input to the discussion.
ELB: The Engineering Leadership Board will convene on Friday, October 26 to review the college's strategic initiatives and provide suggestions on how we can achieve our objectives and goals.
EAA Tailgate: As you all know, this is the last season for Cougar football at Robertson Stadium before construction begins on a new stadium. On behalf of the Engineering Alumni Association, I'd like to invite all of you to join us at the EAA tailgate pavilion in celebration of the final season of UH football in Conference USA! On Saturday, Oct. 27, the tailgate starts at 1:30 p.m., game time is at 3:30 p.m.

Warm regards,
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Joe Tedesco

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