The Inhumans, mentored by Dr. Scott Starks, take the NASA Design Challenge  (4/11/08)
A group of ECE students (team name of The Inhumans) are participating in the NASA Design Challenge under the auspices of the Texas Space Grant Consortium. The group visited the JSC facility at the El Paso airport a couple of weeks ago. While there, they toured the facility and got an up close look at the Shuttle simulator vehicle. They were thrilled to meet a couple of astronauts. The group will travel to Houston to make a presentation of their work on April 14. 

Dr. Ben Flores, ECE professor, receives $1.96M grant for STEM Education (9/7/07)
WASHINGTON (9/6/07)– Texas’ senior Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) today announced that the University of Texas at El Paso was awarded $ 2,113,992 in two research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to encourage students to pursue science careers.
            “The jobs of tomorrow will require a strong background in science and math, and these grants will help today’s students get those jobs by encouraging them to pursue scientific careers,” Sen. Hutchison said. “UTEP is taking the lead in encouraging students to get into the science, math and engineering fields.”
A $1,964,912 grant, under the direction of Benjamin Flores, was awarded to implement several initiatives to improve the success of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students at UTEP. The grant will support peer and team-led learning to help give students a deeper understanding of introductory math and physics concepts. Training in professional skills, such as communication and teamwork will also be offered. Students will also be encouraged to seek careers in science education through an alternative teaching certification program.
UTEP was also awarded a $149,080 grant, under the direction of Laura Serpa, to re-establish a program to recruit minority students to the geosciences. A similar program existed at the University of New Orleans for 35 years, but was disrupted by Hurricane Katrina. This new effort will be based at UTEP and aimed at minority students displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina who now live in Texas. 
In October 2006, Senator Hutchison visited UTEP’s College of Engineering and toured its research facilities with Mark Yudof, Chancellor of the University of Texas System, James Huffines, Chairman of the Board of Regents for the University of Texas System and Dr. Diana Natalicio, President of UTEP.
UTEP, a Hispanic Serving Institution, was named the top engineering school for Hispanics in the United States by Hispanic Business Magazine in their September 2007 issue, and in both September 2005 and September 2006. According to the Engineering Workforce Commission, UTEP’s College of Engineering consistently ranks as one of the top five schools in the continental United States awarding bachelor of science degrees to Hispanics.
Sen. Hutchison is a senior member of the Commerce Science, and Transportation Committee, which authorizes the NSF, and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, which funds the NSF budget.

UTEP to host 24th Southern Biomedical Engineering Annual Conference (8/15/07)
Dr.s Homer Nazeran (ECE), Michael Goldman (adjunct Faculty of HealthSciences) and Richard Schophorester (Dean of Engineering) won the bid to host the 24th Southern Biomedical Engineering Annual Conference at UTEP in 2008.

Three EE students named Xerox Foundation’s 2007 Hispanic College Liaison Program (HCLP) Scholarship Awardees (8/8/2007)
Brandon Aguirre, Vianney Alonso, and Karla C. Enriquez have been selected by the Xerox Foundation to receive the 2007 Hispanic College Liaison Program Scholarship.

Dr. Scott Starks, ECE professor, elected to Board of Directors of the Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC)
Dr. Scott Starks, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was elected to the Board of Directors of the Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC).  TSGC membership includes 34 organizations (academic, industrial and non-profits -- the largest among the 52 consortia nationally. For the purpose of stimulating interest in the national space program throughout Texas, TSGC has developed a very balanced program in the mix of higher education, research infrastructure and public service projects that are undertaken by the member organizations.

We are pleased Dr. Starks has been named to this board.  Scott has a long and distinguished record of space-related research and especially of being an advocate for students.  I am sure he will serve the board with honor and distinction and will represent the UTEP community well.

ECE Students present at the 2007 Border Security Conference(8/15/07)
The Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) group presented a poster and a technology demo at the 2007 Border Security Conference held at UTEP. The poster described the current effort to train students in the design and development of WSNs as well as undergraduates involvement in research.  Undergraduate students Francisco Jayme and Rodrigo Nuche, Master students Jesus Flores Guerra and Jesus Hermosillo, and Ph.D. students Gabriel Bravo and Juan Cota hosted the exhibit and introduced visitors to this promising and exciting new field. The technology demo, developed by students in the group, consisted of a WSN surveillance system for remote areas. This high-impact demonstration received enthusiastic comments from visitors. The WSN group is part of the ECE department and is lead by Profs. Rosiles, Gonzalez and Cabrera.

Dr. Eric MacDonald, ECE professor, receives a Faculty Fellowship from the Office of Naval Research (8/1/07)
Dr. Eric MacDonald, ECE professor, received a Faculty Fellowship from the Office of Naval Research. He spent the summer working with the ONR lab, in addition to receiving a stipend. He has also been awarded $30,000 from ONR to develop a magnetometer.

ECE grad student wins National Award for Excellence in Policy Analysis and Research (DATE: 6/8/07)
Mario Caire, ECE graduate student mentored by Dr. David Williams, developed the user interface and cluster database, while the two researchers did the economic analysis for an industry cluster project for the UTEP Institute for Policy and Economic Development. This group received the National Award for Excellence in Policy Analysis Research. The award was presented in Denver at the C2ER National conference on Friday June 8th. C2ER is the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness, an independent 501c(3) non-profit affiliated with George Mason University, http://www.gmu.edu, supports the development of innovative approaches to creating jobs in the knowledge economy with better information and strategies.

ECE grad student wins Engineering Division Award (DATE: 8/1/07)
Ernesto Ceron, ECE graduate student mentored by Dr. Joseph Pierluissi, won the Engineering Division Award at Research EXPO 2007, sponsored by Paso del Norte SACNAS. Ceron won the award based on his exceptional performance in this event, as well as the outstanding research he and Dr. Pierluissi are doing. The award has monetary value, and guaranteed participation in the National SACNAS conference held in October, at Kansas City, Missouri. 

ECE faculty featured on PBS program (Date: 8/1/07)
Dr. Zubia and his students were interviewed in an episode of State of Tomorrow series which was aired on PBS. The NanoMIL and EDL labs were featured, and Dr. Zubia and his students were interviewed while they worked in the cleanroom. Dr. Zubia discussed the impact that the NanoMIL lab could have on advancing a high tech economy in the region. View the episode at http://www.stateoftomorrow.com/episodes/episode08.htm  

ECE faculty presents at 2006 Annual Texas Engineering & Technology Consortium (DATE: 3/21/07)
Dr. Benjamin C. Flores recently presented a paper at the 2006 Annual Texas Engineering and Technology Consortium (TETC) Conference held in Austin, Texas.Dr. Flores discussed the impact of offering Saturday workshops in support of sophomore Electrical Engineering laboratory courses.  Funding for this project was provided by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the US Department of Education.

UTEP's first million-transistor chip (DATE: 1/29/07)
Researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso in collaboration with a local engineering company (XL-Synergy, LLC) have created a one million transistor chip the size of a pencil eraser. The chip mathematically detects problems in the power of household appliances in order to improve safety and prevent fault-induced fires.   
    
XL-Synergy provided the computationally-intensive algorithm and the team at UTEP - which included a professor and 6 graduate students - designed and implemented the chip to perform the algorithm in real time.
    
The chip provided a platform for the team at UTEP to investigate new design techniques to improve the energy efficiency of  computer chips. Furthermore, the project allowed the graduate students to get a taste of real industrial-strength chip design - similar to what they will experience at companies like Intel or IBM.
"The design of this chip demonstrates the high caliber of our engineering program and what UTEP is capable of ", said Ernie Martinez, a graduate student whose role was implementing the chip.
The chip was fabricated in Taiwan using 0.25 micron CMOS technology and contained over a million transistors - each of which is 200 times thinner than a human hair. Although the chip was fabricated in Taiwan, UTEP is currently planning a clean room facility on campus that will be capable of similar fabrication.

XL Synergy Team                             UTEP Team               
       David Nemir                                     Eric MacDonald - Professor  
       Jan Beck                                          Ernie Martinez - grad student
                                                                 Jaime Gutierrez - grad student 
                                                                   Sergio Velazquez - grad student 
                                                                      Fernando Martinez - grad student 
                                                             Raghu Papily - grad student 
                                                                 Ryan Price - undergrad student

New grant for work on Wireless Sensors (DATE: 1/29/07)
Drs. Gerardo Rosiles, Sergio Cabrera, and Virgilio Gonzalez have been awarded a 4-Year $852,823 grant to do research and student development in sensor networks. The project, titled “Launching a Sensor Networks Research and Student Development Program,” will investigate signal representation and reconstruction problems encountered in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) systems used to locate and describe targets within the boundary of a network.

ECE students win "Best Poster Award" (DATE: 1/29/07)
ECE students L.J. Rascon, L.D. Romo, and S. Rogers have won the 2006 Student Poster Award at the International Symposium of the AVS. The students were mentored by ECE faculty members Dr. Stella Quinones and Dr. David Zubia, and Metalurgy professor Dr. John McClure. The work is entitled “New Sublimation Reactor for Epitaxial Growth of II-IV Filmes,” and won the award in the area of “Student Built Vacuum Systems.”

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Last Rev. 5/27/08