January 6, 2020

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Let’s start the New Year by celebrating these achievements:

Stephen Wu, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER award for his exciting research on applying strain to 2D materials to induce phase changes in transistor-scale device platforms. This has the potential to transform electronics, optics, computing, and a host of other technologies. Read more here.

Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD), our Institute of Optics alumna who shared the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics, has been appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada for her contributions to optical physics and for her innovative developments in ultra-fast optical science. Donna is an outstanding researcher, role model for women in science, and ambassador for her beloved Canada, so this award is especially exciting for her. Read more here.

Zhengyuan Yang, a fourth-year PhD student advised by Jiebo Luo, professor of computer science, has won the 2020 Twitch Research Fellowship to support his research on video and language. Twitch has been the No. 1 live streaming video service for video games in the US. Zhengyuan’s research, which includes vision+language (e.g. visual grounding, tracking by language) and human-centered image and video understanding (e.g. human action recognition, human part parsing), could enable new functions in Twitch, such as language-based video search, chat room content understanding, and human-centered video editing.

Here’s an example of how our successful audio and music engineering curriculum allows students to tackle “real-world” projects, then get feedback from faculty who have professional experience or from visiting professionals. Last semester, students in Daniel Phinney’s AME 295 audio electronics portfolio class designed and created their own custom electric guitar pedals that musicians use to coax different sounds, textures and special effects from their instruments. Bryan Price, a Rochester professional guitarist who plays with the Zac Brown Tribute Band, volunteered his time to try out the pedals and offer his feedback in the new Gavett Hall recording studio. Adam Meltzer ’20 says he appreciated Price’s comments. “He has a different perspective from me,” says Meltzer, who played tuba for 12 different ensembles while in high school. “I’m not a professional musician, and I don’t play guitar, so it was nice to get an idea of what a guitar player is looking for.” Thanks Bryan, for volunteering each year to give AME students feedback on their projects. Read more here.

Back in October I mentioned that a new cluster was being proposed: Ethics of Technology (H1PHL006).  It has now been approved. And when you read the description you will understand why I strongly recommend the cluster to all of our engineering and computer science undergrads. It “addresses ethical concerns associated with technological innovation and its social and environmental impact. It introduces students to methods of ethical analysis, ethical frameworks, and their significance for professional decision-making. The more advanced courses provide foundational understanding and in-depth analysis of social and ethical aspects of artificial intelligence, bias in algorithmic decision-making, social media algorithms, autonomous vehicles, neuro-enhancement, biotechnologies, geoengineering, energy technologies, complex systems, and sustainability.”

As I mentioned in October, given the increasing complexity of the challenges that engineers and computer and data scientists face — and the high stakes involved — it is more important than ever for our students to have a solid grounding in ethics.

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman