January 7, 2019

Dear members of the Hajim School Community,

Happy New Year! I am excited about what 2019 holds in store. With the recent appointment of Sarah Mangelsdorf, we will welcome a new University President. Sarah already has a strong track record as an administrative leader who listens, collaborates, and can make tough decisions when she needs to. As provost at the University of Wisconsin, she has overseen a campus with a major medical center, which will serve her well here. Sarah is very excited to be coming here, thinks highly of our University and community, and sees lots of potential to move forward in multiple directions.

Congratulations to:

Xi-Cheng Zhang, the M. Parker Givens Professor of Optics, and PhD student Qi Jin and postdoctoral associate Yiwen E in his lab, for advancing their groundbreaking work in generating terahertz waves from thin water films with laser excitation. In a new study, chosen as a featured article in Applied Physics Letters, they use a two-color approach with an 800 nm laser and its second harmonic at 400 nm to generate an order of magnitude increase in the power of the generated THz radiation. This will help pave the way to use the terahertz portion of the electromagnetic spectrum for a variety of applications, including material characterization, medical imaging, security, industrial inspection, chemical and biological spectroscopy, high-speed communication, and others.
Senior scientist Wolfgang Theobald, a member of the Omega Experiments Group, and Mingsheng Wei, manager of the National Laser Users Facility, both at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. They have been elected Fellows of the American Physical Society (APS). No more than one half of one percent of the APS membership is elected annually for this honor. Wolfgang is recognized for “pioneering experiments and seminal contributions in suprathermal electron generation and transport in laser-driven inertial confinement fusion plasmas including fast-ignition and shock-ignition implosions.” Mingsheng is recognized for “contributions to the field of experimental high intensity laser plasma interactions and in particular for improved understanding of hot-electron transport with regard to applications such as fast-ignition fusion and ion acceleration.”
Two Institute of Optics alumnae — Susan Houde-Walter ’83 (MS), ’87 (PhD) and Alexis Vogt ’00, ’08 (PhD) — who recently received “Keepers of the Flame” awards from the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Susan, a former Institute faculty member and OSA president, is CEO, chairman of the board, and co-founder of LaserMax Inc. Alexis is the endowed chair and associate professor of optics at Monroe Community College. Both have maintained close ties with The Institute.
Ehsan Hoque, assistant professor of computer science, Asaro Biggar Family Fellow in Data Science, and interim director of the Goergen Institute for Data Science, whose work with the Rochester Human-Computer Interaction group was highlighted by the Computing Community Consortium of the Computing Research Association (CRA). The consortium’s “Great Innovative Ideas” series installment for December 2018 features the work Ehsan and the group have done in applying machine learning techniques to analyze and model the complex nuances and interplay of verbal language, facial expressions, gestures, and intonation in human communication. This work has led to the development of several artificial intelligence (AI) systems to help diverse populations of people improve their communication skills through interaction with online tools, for example, ROC Speak, LISSA, and CoCo.

The work done by students last semester in ME 204 — Mechanical Design — is a great example of how we educate our students to be engineers. Required of all mechanical engineering seniors, ME 204 prepares students each fall for the work they will do the following spring in ME 205, when they complete their culminating senior design projects, often for companies and other outside clients. In ME 204, however, students complete four projects, some individually, some in teams. These projects help the students learn:

to use machine shop lathes and other tools.
to not only design a component on their computers, but then fabricate it with tight enough tolerances to fit into an integrated, workable device.
to work as part of a team.
to define a problem, then build a device to address that problem.

The class, led by Chris Muir, an associate professor with extensive prior background as a Kodak principal engineer, culminates in an exciting efficient structure competition that has become a MechE tradition. Please read and share this story, illustrated with compelling photos by Adam Fenster.

Thanks to all who helped University Advancement and the Gwen M. Greene Center for Career Education and Connections reach their $5,000 goal in a recent crowdfunding campaign. The funding will help students pay for airfare and lodging so they can participate in the center’s annual road trip to Silicon Valley this week. The students will visit not only industry giants like Google and LinkedIn, but smaller companies, many launched by Hajim alumni. This gives students a feel for what it is like to work in the tech industry. They also participate in valuable networking sessions. Of the 25 students participating this year, 22 are enrolled in the Hajim School, including 11 computer science majors, 7 electrical and computer engineering majors, a CS/ECE double major, a data science major, a mechanical engineering major, and a biomedical engineering major.

Five years ago, the University’s technology transfer offices in AS&E and SMD were reorganized as one office called UR Ventures. The University would like to hear from faculty members about their experiences interacting with UR Ventures and whether they have ideas about what changes, if any, might be needed to improve the office’s performance. Faculty are urged to fill out a brief survey, developed in collaboration with the Research Policy Committee of the Faculty Senate, by January 19. Even if you have not had any interaction with UR ventures, your input is important.

Here are a couple of reminders:

Hajim students interested in qualifying as Grand Challenges Scholars can attend a regional meeting that will bring together students participating in the program from our University, RIT, and SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, January 26, in the Barbara J. Burger iZone at Rush Rhees Library. Participation in this event will fulfill the Entrepreneurship competency of the Grand Challenges Scholars Program. The agenda will include a Design Thinking workshop, Project Management 101 workshop, a hands on project with a community partner, and brainstorming and collaborating with other students about projects. Students who participate also will get a certificate in Design Thinking. Students not yet enrolled in the Grand Challenges Scholar Program, but interested in doing so, are welcome to participate if space allows. All majors welcome. Interested? RSVP to emma.derisi@rochester.edu.

Please start thinking now about entries for our annual Art of Science Competition, which is open to all University students, faculty, and staff. New for this competition is an online submission form. There also will be a $100 People’s Choice award, in addition to judge’s prizes of $500, $300, and $100 for photographs, illustrations, visualizations, renderings, and posters that best illustrate themes of science, engineering, technology, math, and sustainability. Click here to see winning entries from last year. High resolution jpeg entries (300 dpi, at least 3,000 pixels wide) can be submitted anytime between now and March 18, 2019. Please direct questions to artofsciencecontest@gmail.com.

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman