UCSD Expression Detection Technology in May/June 2009 issue of Technology Review

The history of CERT, the expression detection software that is behind a long list of fascinating research projects at UC San Diego's Machine Perception Laboratory, is outlined in an interesting Technology Review article by Mark Williams. The inventor of the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) that is behind CERT is involved in a TV show called "Lie to Me"...and that is probably part of what led to this story... (You have to register for free to read the article online at Technology Review.)

Computer science PhD student Jacob Whitehill used CERT in his 2008 proof of concept research that "turns your face into a remote control."

I am working on a press release for another computer science PhD who uses CERT in his work. I hope to have that posted later this week. Any reporters out there want the scoop early? send me an email.

Jacobs undergrads inspire local 8th graders

Undergraduates from the Jacobs School of Engineering have just finished classes for the 2008-2009 school year, but their legacy continues. One of the many ways in which the undergraduate of the Jacobs School have touched the lives of future generations is through ENSPIRE—an annual student-run event in which hundreds of 8th graders come to campus for the day to taste life as an engineering undergrad.

ENSPIRE is part of Engineer’s Week and is organized by the undergraduates who run TESC (Triton Engineering Student Council).

I'm still vetting the video below...see anything that needs to be changed? Let me know.

UCSD has an iPhone app

This is from the San Diego Union Tribune:

UCSD crafts iPhone 'app' for campus information

LA JOLLA: UC San Diego is jumping on the iPhone bandwagon.

The La Jolla campus has created a software application for the touch-screen device that gives students and others direct access to course schedules, campus maps and other university information.

The free application joins the tens of thousands of other applications that have been created for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch over the past year.

Stanford University and other academic institutions have also created applications for the handheld gadgets, but UCSD says it's the first public university to offer such a comprehensive “app” linked to the latest campus information.

For more information about the application and download instructions, go to iphone.ucsd.edu.

Does anyone know about any cool apps made by UC San Diego students? The Web site says that the app serves up video.

Cheaper Circuits for Weapon Detection in EETimes

EETimes journalist R. Colin Johnson covered the Toward Cheaper Imaging Systems for Identifying Concealed Weapons on the Human Body research presented this week at RFIC2009.


"Terahertz SiGe imager sees through clothes"

Chip in low-cost silicon germanium process enables 'X-ray vision' using harmless millimeter waves

PORTLAND, Ore. — Silicon-germanium (SiGe) RF chips now in lab prototype form could one day be used in millimeter-wavelength W-band imaging devices sensitive enough to "see" through clothing to reveal concealed weapons.

EEs from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) presented their design at the IEEE RFIC Symposium in Boston on June 9. The chip operates in the terahertz range (1 THz = 1,000 GHz) to provide X-ray-like vision, but using safe, naturally occurring millimeter wavelengths. The designers said the chip could be produced using inexpensive silicon processing techniques. Read the full story here.

Honorary Ph.D. for the 'Da Vinci Detective'

On Monday, June 8, our own Maurizio Seracini, director of Calit2's Center of Interdisciplinary Science for Art, Architecture and Archaeology (CISA3), was in Canada to be honored at commencement ceremonies of McMaster University.

(Thanks to Calit2 Life for the content of this post).

They gave him an honorary Doctor of Letters degree, to add to his previous degrees in bioengineering (from UC San Diego, Class of '73) and electrical engineering (University of Padua). According to the Hamilton Spectator newspaper reporter covering the Calit2 scientist's address to the McMaster Convocation, Seracini "is a modern-day Renaissance man approaching problems in the same way Leonardo did five centuries ago."

Reporter Mark McNeil added that Seracini "urged an interdisciplinary approach to university education. He encouraged students studying sciences to also explore the arts to become more rounded." The newspaper also picked up on Seracini's call in his speech for great works of art to be treated like patients. "You need to define when, how and if to restore it," the adjunct professor in UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering structural engineering department is quoted as saying. "Just like you would do in the medical field. You would not accept the idea of surgery without going through a full range of diagnostics." Officials from McMaster also indicated that they hope to bring Seracini back to the campus on the western end of Lake Ontario to give guest lectures.

Engineers Test Composite Landing Gear

For the first time, UC San Diego engineers have performed tests on landing gear components for the aerospace industry. Led by Hyonny Kim, an associate professor in structural engineering at the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering, the researchers performed six months of rigorous Federal Aviation Administration tests on the first-ever composite landing gear braces, which will be used for the new Boeing 787 aircraft.

The purpose of the full-scale tests, performed for Messier-Dowty, the world leader in landing gear design and manufacturing , was to prove the strength and capability of these major structural components. These components, made by Messier-Dowty using advanced composite materials (carbon fibers and epoxy), were subjected to loads approaching 1 million pounds using UC San Diego’s unique Caltrans Seismic Response Modification Device (SRMD) test facility. The SRMD’s testing table is 16 feet-long by 12 feet-wide, and can move horizontally and vertically, and rotate (i.e. six degrees of freedom), and shake at velocities of up to 70 inches per second.

Read the full story here, written by Andrea Siedsma.

UC San Diego at RFIC 2009

“This year, UC San Diego has 11 (out of 140) papers at the RFIC 2009 conference, which is much more than any other university,” said Larry Larson, Professor and Chair, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering. (See below for entire list of UC San Diego papers).

“Our success at this conference is a direct result of the investment that UC San Diego has made over many decades in the field of wireless communications. The RFIC field requires an interdisciplinary team, because it requires innovation in the areas of electronic devices, integrated circuit theory, electromagnetic theory and communications systems. The broad skills of the UCSD faculty have made this extraordinary level of research innovation possible,” said Larson.

The next highest school was National Taiwan University with 6. UC Berkeley had 4 and MIT had 2.

Read the UC San Diego press release on work toward a cheaper airport imager for detecting condealed weapons here:

A SAW-Less CDMA Receiver Front-End with Single-Ended LNA and Single-Balanced Mixer with 25% Duty-Cycle LO in 65nm CMOS
H. Khatri from UC San Diego, L. Liu, T. Chang, and P. S. Gudem from Qualcomm Inc; L. E. Larson from UC San Diego.

A DC-102GHz Broadband Amplifier in 0.12 μm SiGe BiCMOS
J. Kim and J. F. Buckwalter, UC San Diego

Low-Loss 0.13μm CMOS 50 - 70GHz SPDT and SP4T Switches
Y. A. Atesal, B. Cetinoneri, G. M. Rebeiz, UC San Diego

A Two-Channel Ku-Band BiCMOS Digital Beam-Forming Receiver for Polarization-Agile Phased-Array Applications
B. Cetinoneri, Y. A. Atesal, G. M. Rebeiz, UC San Diego

A 25 dBm High-Efficiency Digitally-Modulated SOI CMOS Power Amplifier for Multi-Standard RF Polar Transmitters
S. Pornpromlikit from UC San Diego, J. Jeong from Kwangwoon Univ, C. D. Presti from UC San Diego, A. Scuder from STMicroelectronics, and P. M. Asbeck from UC San Diego.

Fully Integrated Dual-Band Power Amplifiers with On-Chip Baluns in 65nm CMOS for an 802.11n MIMO WLAN SoC
A. Afsahi from UC San Diego and Broadcom Corp, A Behzad from Broadcom Corp, V. Magoon from Broadcom Corp, L. E. Larson from UC San Diego

Background Estimation of Power Amplifier Nonlinearities for OFDM Signals
P. V. Kolinko , L. E. Larson from UC San Diego.

High-Performance W-Band SiGe RFICs for Passive Millimeter-Wave Imaging
J. W. May, G. M. Rebeiz from UC San Diego

A 4-Channel 24-27GHz CMOS Differential Phased-Array Receiver
T. Yu, G. M. Rebeiz, from UC San Diego

A Dual-Band CMOS CDMA Transmitter without SAW and Driver Amplifier
M. Farazian from UC San Diego, B. Asuri from Qualcomm Inc, Y. Zhao from Qualcomm Inc, L. E. Larson from UC San Diego

Injection Locked Oscillator Arrays for Spectrμm Analysis
T.D. Gathman, J.F. Buckwalter from UC San Diego