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San Diego, CA, April 22, 2005  -- Undergraduate students from Electrical and Computer Engineering at UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering took time out this week to deliver short presentations on 15 research projects as part of the 6th annual showcase known as EUREKA 2005. The acronym stands for ECE's Undergraduate REsearch Konference & Assembly.

  The showcase was co-sponsored by the ECE department, the Jacobs School's Corporate Affiliates Program (CAP), and Lockheed Martin Corporation. The keynote was delivered by Michael LaRouche, Senior Executive for Navy C4ISR solutions and San Diego operations of Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors.

(l-r) Prof. Pankaj Das, Lockheed Martin's Michael               LaRouche and Jacobs School associate dean                 Charles Tu after EUREKA 2005 conference

He said companies like his are increasingly interested in the quality of engineering training and demanding team experiences to offset the expected decline in quantity of graduates. “When I listened to the descriptions of all the undergraduate projects that the Jacobs School is pursuing, the TIES [Teams in Engineering Service] program made me think of the Peace Corps, but instead of sending our bright young minds outside of our country, we’re sending them out to help public service organizations and small community organizations that need technological assistance but can’t afford it. By helping these organizations, these undergraduates are helping all of society.”

There were 16 research posters on display, and 15 of the teams were represented in short presentations by team members. To watch streaming video clips of their talks, click on the photo or the video link below the speaker's name [ required]:

Jacobs School Dean Frieder Seible and ECE Chair Paul Yu welcomed the students, and professors Charles Tu and Pankaj Das moderated the session. Tu and Das organized the event with CAP director Anne O'Donnell and senior Yan Zheng. "This was our

Lockheed Martin's Michael LaRouche             counsels senior Jeff Pon during the                 EUREKA 2005 poster session

After lunch, ECE presented its Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards to Alberto Blanc (Spring 2004), Mustafa Arisoylu (Fall 2004), and Ryan Braidwood (Winter 2005). Blanc and Arisoylu in turn joined professors Rene Cruz and George Papen to judge the undergraduate projects. The award for best individual effort went to Jenny Hu. The best end-to-end engineering project award went to the School of Medicine-sponsored Automated RAS Activation Measurement team of David Lieberman, Lok Ki Fu, Cho Lit Chan and Wenjun Xu (pictured above). Finally, the award for the most creative team went to Mark Noah and Robert Romabiles for their development of a cellular-based GPS shuttle tracker, sponsored by Calit2.

EUREKA participants also heard a pitch for student participation in the TIES program from project director Silvia Mah. She explained how the program works and described the projects now underway with two community partners, St. Paul's Senior Homes and Lakeside's River

Record attendance at 2005 ECE undergraduate                 research conference and assembly

Lockheed Martin's LaRouche said the TIES program provides students with the kind of leadership experience that industrial companies value highly. “The TIES program is a wonderful opportunity to start training our future leaders to be leaders,” LaRouche said. He said experiences that come out of involvement in the TIES program will make those students’ resumes stand out: “We need engineers coming out of school who know how to lead and who could orchestrate development teams that might be geographically dispersed across the United States or even distributed across the world.”