Penn Engineering Magazine: Spring 2009

harvesting nanowires

U N I V E R S I T Y O F P E N N S Y L V A N I A

CONTENT

PENN ENGINEERING NEWSSPRING 2009

THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIASCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE

123 TOWNE BUILDING220 SOUTH 33RD STREETPHILADELPHIA, PA 19104-6391

EMAIL [email protected] 215-898-6564FAX 215-573-2131

www.seas.upenn.edu

EDUARDO D. GLANDTDean

GEORGE W. HAIN IIIExecutive DirectorDevelopment and Alumni Relations

JOAN S. GOCKEDirector, Special Projects and Communications, Editor

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSAmy BiemillerAmy CalhounJessica Stein DiamondPatricia HutchingsOlivia LoskoskiCatherine Von Elm

DESIGNKelsh Wilson Design

PHOTOGRAPHYKelsh Wilson DesignJonathan Fiene

From the Dean 1

From Problem Sets to Problem Solving 2

The Interesting Life of Osama Ahmed 6

Ritesh Agarwal: Accelerating 8Advances in Electronic Memory

Erasing Boundaries: Two New Penn 12Centers Integrate Science and Engineering

Penn Engineering by the Numbers 15

David Magerman: Going to 16Wall Street as an Engineer

Enlightened Engineering 18

Peter K. Davies: Materials Science 21and Engineering

Making History Through Innovation 22

School News 24

Pop Quiz with Lamont Abrams 28

Penn Engineering

FROM THE DEAN

Engineering is as old as mankind. The first apewho fashioned the first tool, or fueled the firstfire, became a human being and by the same actbecame an engineer. This evolutionary milestonewas captured very well at the beginning ofStanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey.An ape throws his staff into the air and through asudden jump in time the staff becomes a space-ship. I hope you remember that compelling image.By definition, engineering is a hands-on profession. We arebuilders, creators, inventors. We epitomize Benjamin Franklin’spragmatic vision for education: to provide students with the skills necessary to address the issues of the day, in the service of “Mankind, one’s Country, Friends and Family.” Our School’sheritage honors that spirit.

When the Towne Building was built in 1906, classrooms werekept at a minimum. The building was a bold experiment in engineering education: you were supposed to learn by doing. Atits center, below the sky lit roofs of the interior light wells, wereshops where students could use the great machines. There weredrafting rooms, a foundry, laboratories and two “museums.” Itwas in the Towne labs, under Professor Edgar Marburg, thatresearch was undertaken that set standards for modern use ofsteel and reinforced concrete for construction and led to the creation of the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM),which was housed in the Towne School.

Things have evolved strongly in the long century that has elapsedsince then. Major changes took place in the 1960s, whichadvanced a post-Sputnik emphasis on applied mathematics and“engineering science.” Our profession took an interesting path,one that has placed theory and practice on parallel rather thanintersecting courses. All engineering schools strive to find thatproper but difficult balance. Students are expected to experiencethe satisfaction of mastering deep-rooted fundamentals and thejoy of accomplishment from creating and building things.Traditional engineering programs pay homage to this aspect ofthe curriculum in a final year “capstone” project, considered to bethe highest achievement in the curriculum.

It would be a mistake, however, to wait until the senior year.Penn Engineering embraces that balance from the very first day

through a hands-on, practice-integrated curriculum. As soon asstudents arrive on campus as freshmen, they begin learning howto apply quantitative theories learned in math, physics and chemistry to real-world engineering problems. Mark Yim, theGabel Family Term Junior Professor and MEAM UndergraduateCurriculum Chair, notes that traditional lecture and recitationclasses can no longer be considered the standard. “The curricu-lum has to be fun, it has to be relevant, and it has to engage thestudents.” And our students love this approach. They realize thatthey have the theoretical knowledge and the ability to makethings. In fact, the messiness of real-world data is enough to getstudents to dig a little deeper!

In this issue, you will read about our remarkable MechanicalEngineering faculty who are reshaping the curriculum. MarkYim, Jonathan Fiene, Katherine Kuchenbecker and others combine theoretical and practical experiences that expand thecreative roles of engineers and encourage independent and teamproblem solvers. Educating Engineers, a new study funded by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching,echoes the enlightened direction of Penn Engineering’s practiceintegrated curriculum, noting “... the technical knowledge thatenables engineering problem solving is forever expanding, and...tomorrow’s creative solutions will come from engineers who revel in deep complexities.”

This emphasis on design has added much to the vibrancy of ourSchool. It is impossible to miss it as you walk the hallways, as ourundergraduates pour out of laboratories to test the most amazingcontraptions in the hallways. Yes, the messiness of the data isoften paralleled by the messiness of the whole project, but thestudents’ passion is contagious and puts a smile on our faces.The spirit of our classes is a very precious thing; we have it andwe cherish it.

Beyond the Textbook

PENN ENGINEERING ■ 1

Eduardo D. Glandt / Dean

The addition of interactive, design-centered assignments is creating educational experiences that are preparing Penn’smechanical engineers for the problems they will solve in industry and research.

For generations, freshmen in mechanical engineering programsacross the country have confronted the challenge of wadingthrough a curriculum front-loaded with math, physics, and chemistry, slowly working their way toward the reward of actuallyapplying what they’re learning to the design and building of solutions to real-world engineering problems. Mark Yim, GabelFamily Term Junior Professor, and MEAM UndergraduateCurriculum Chair, describes this previous, passive model of learning in which students were presented with information andgiven equations to reach a single right answer, devoid of any context beyond the classroom. “Students don’t necessarily workthat way anymore. They want to see sooner how the theoriesthey’re learning apply to the real world.” So MEAM facultybegan implementing a practice integrated curriculum, designed to engage freshmen through seniors in applying theories whichmight otherwise be left on the pages of a textbook.

In a standard curriculum, it doesn’t get more basic than 101. ButMEAM 101, Introduction to Mechanical Design, breaks thatmold by taking students through the entire mechanical designprocess from need-finding and brainstorming, to mock-up prototyping, 3-D computer-aided design (CAD) simulations,final prototyping, iteration and analysis. “It’s one of my favoriteclasses to teach, because it’s so creative and hands-on,” says lecturer Jonathan Fiene, who, as Director of Laboratory Programs,oversees the lion’s share of lab courses. Working in teams,students dissect “vintage” devices, such as 35-mm cameras andfloppy-disk drives, use industry-standard software to create 3-DCAD models of each part, and then reassemble the (hopefullystill functional) devices. “A lot of the students get so into the proj-ect that they end up learning more about the software, the tools,and the design process than we could possibly teach them in asingle semester,” says Fiene, highlighting a key goal of the curricu-

lum revisions: students are learning how to learn on their own,and seeking the tools they will need to independently solve theproblems they approach.

Fiene also teaches Fundamentals of Mechanical Prototyping(MEAM 150), a regularly oversubscribed course with a long waiting list, due in large part to a resurgence in the developmentof manufacturing and prototyping skills. Working from mechani-cal drawings, students design, model, machine and assemble theparts of a working Stirling engine. “You’re applying everythingyou’ve learned to make a physical engineering product, ratherthan just turning in a problem set,” says senior Chris Xydis of thefinal project, which students proudly display in their dorm roomsas evidence of their design and prototyping prowess. “It’s a reallyexciting course,” says senior Amal Rahuman, highlighting theimportance of prototyping skills. “As a Penn engineer, if you cango to a company and say, ‘I have the theoretical knowledge, but Ialso know how to make things…’ that’s what they’re looking for.So it’s really sculpting the curriculum in the right way.”

MEAM faculty are integrating real-world experiences such asteamwork and constrained design into their assignmentsthroughout the curriculum. From day one, KatherineKuchenbecker, Skirkanich Assistant Professor of Innovation inMechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, introduces the freshmen in her lab to each other, and to hands-on designchallenges. Kuchenbecker developed the labs for her newIntroduction to Mechanics class (MEAM 147) in collaborationwith MEAM Department Chair and Richard H. & S. L. GabelProfessor of Mechanical Engineering, John Bassani, who is covering the lectures. This pairing provides an engineering-focused alternative to the standard freshman-level physics requirement. After a quick ice-breaker, Kuchenbecker gets herstudents “thinking about how the constraints of the physicalworld affect things we design and build,” by giving each team of two or three students a copy of the Daily Pennsylvanian andchallenging them to build the tallest structure that will support a tennis ball. “Teamwork is really important in the practice

From Problem Sets to Problem Solving

The Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics(MEAM) has witnessed a transformation over the past four-and-a-halfyears. Faculty have been revising the undergraduate curriculum in orderto incorporate more hands-on, real world lab work into a programalready strong in theoretical knowledge.

BY CATHERINE VON ELM

SPRING 2009 ■ 2


“A lot of the students get so into the project that they end up learningmore about the software, the tools, and the design process than we couldpossibly teach them in a single semester,” says Fiene, highlighting a keygoal of the curriculum revisions: students are learning how to learn ontheir own, and seeking the tools they will need to independently solvethe problems they approach.

SPRING 2009 ■ 4

Using a lathe to make an aluminum heat sink (MEAM 150—Fundamentals of MechanicalPrototyping)

Custom-built two-player crane game (MEAM 101—Introduction to Mechanical Design)

PUMA robotic arm before dissection(MEAM 101—Introduction toMechanical Design)

Hockey-playing robot machined fromsteel and aluminum (MEAM 410/510—Design of Mechatronic Systems)

Hand-built circuitry for hockey-playing robot (MEAM 410/510—Design of Mechatronic Systems)

Canon AE-1 SLR camera underbodyduring dissection (MEAM 101—Introduction to Mechanical Design)

Angle grinding of wheel hub bolts(Formula SAE student project team)

Stirling engine details (MEAM 150—Fundamentals of MechanicalPrototyping)

Soldering custom circuits (MEAM 410/510—Design ofMechatronic Systems)

STUDENT PROJECTS


integrated curriculum,” says Kuchenbecker. “We’re movingaway from a paradigm where it’s just an individual student, apiece of paper, and a book, trying to figure out how to solve a certain theoretical problem.”

In lecturer Bruce Kothmann’s class, Introduction to Flight(MEAM 245), students use a mock budget to purchaseresources and bid on eBay for preferred time slots for theirexperiment, which is to float a 40 gram video camera four stories up in the Quain Courtyard to capture an image of aphoto Kothmann has posted in a window. In addition toaccounting for force, balance and drag on their balloons,students have to resolve the real-world issues of collaboratingwith colleagues, showing up on time, and coming in underbudget. “Having design constraints actually makes you solvethe problem more intelligently,” says Jonathan Bohren, whoseteam managed budgets for motors, solenoids, and other mate-rials while building their entry in a robot hockey tournamentfor Fiene’s senior-level Mechatronics class. “It really forces youto innovate, [because] when you have less, you need to use itbetter,” Bohren says, indicating his readiness to do engineeringin the very real world of limited resources.

Curriculum revisions are also encouraging students to flextheir creative muscle in their work. They are creating multi-media presentations to demonstrate their awareness of the laws of physics in a photo gallery outside Kuchenbecker’s lab;their understanding of weight displacement theories usingbalsa wood gliders; their aesthetic appreciation of how stressconcentrations move through plastic shapes they’ve designedand cut; and their ingenuity in innovating solutions to life’snagging problems, such as lost TV remotes, vending machinemishaps, and limited battery life. Fiene has created a MEAMwiki http://alliance.seas.upenn.edu/~medesign/wiki/ not only as a repository for the technical knowledge the students aredeveloping, but also as a showcase for the media-rich projectsthat students are turning in.

But just because students are having fun and getting theirhands dirty in the labs doesn’t mean they’re losing a solid theoretical grounding. “We haven’t sacrificed the theory,”says Fiene. “We’ve supplemented it. It does tend to make our

students very busy.” With enrollment at an all-time high,MEAM students are eager for the challenge of integrating theory and practice. Sophomore Geoff Johnson came acrossOhm’s Law in high school physics, but until Fiene assignedthe task of designing and building a video game in the sophomore lab, it was just another theory in a textbook. Usinga potentiometer to vary the resistance in an emitter circuit,thereby changing the current in a receiver circuit he wasbuilding for the game’s controller, Johnson could see Ohm’sLaw in action. “A lot of the time, it’s hard to root the theory insolid reality,” says Johnson. “But all the [MEAM] teachershave done a great job allowing us to explore… [theories] inphysical ways to help create a base that you can then work off of as you get through the curriculum.”

Indeed, the same principles apply as the theory gets morecomplicated. “If you haven’t given a context to the problem,”says Kothmann, “I don’t think the students get the sense thatit’s real. It seems like just math on the page, and it’s very hardto look at the answer and know if it makes any sense.”Kothmann helps his students make sense of some particularlydifficult Navier-Stokes equations by bringing in real-worlddata from his work at Boeing’s Rotocraft Division, and his frequent review of published studies. These data help students contextualize the results of their calculations, allowingthem to scrutinize complex aerodynamic phenomena such as turbulence and wind gusts.

From the application of a simple equation such as Ohm’s Lawto contextualized calculations of some gnarly Navier-Stokesequations, Penn’s mechanical engineers are getting the mostfrom a curriculum that integrates theory and practice.Sophomore Antonio Macasieb attests to the efficacy of therevisions. “It sticks in your head, I can tell you that,” he says.“You go to some classes and just take notes, and once thesemester’s over, it sticks in your notebook, but it doesn’t stickin your head. But the things I learn in lab… I could not forget.” By teaching students how to define, design, and buildsolutions to real-world problems, MEAM faculty are givingPenn engineers the opportunity to go beyond problem sets intheir textbooks to real-world problem solving.

“Having design constraints actually makes you solve the problem more intelligently,” says Jonathan Bohren, whose team managed budgets formotors, solenoids, and other materials while building their entry in a robothockey tournament for Fiene’s senior-level Mechatronics class.“It reallyforces you to innovate, [because] when you have less, you need to use itbetter,” Bohren says, indicating his readiness to do engineering in the veryreal world of limited resources.

SPRING 2009 ■ 6

Early for an appointment to meet and interview Penn Engineering senior Osama Ahmed, I grabbed a table at the Green Line Café in West Philly and challengedmyself to recognize him without benefit of a photo. I had learned a few scattered factsabout him, but what might a break-dancing, undergraduate bioengineering researcherwith a love for the novels of Garcia Marquez and Tolstoy look like, exactly? Whateverhis appearance, one thing was for sure: a diversely talented, energetic young man with a nimble intellect would be walking through the door.

Osama The Interesting Life of

Entering the café, he was warmly greeted (“Sama!!”) by aneighborhood friend. Their brief exchange prefigured whatwould soon become apparent about Sama and the trajectory ofhis life and times at Penn: his loyalty to the West Philadelphiacommunity that is his family’s home; his strong and abidingfriendships; and his profound respect for the mentors who havehelped him shape his academic career.

Sama was a member of the 264th graduating class ofPhiladelphia’s Central High, a magnet school with an out-standing reputation and one of the oldest high schools in the country. Smiling broadly when asked about early academicinfluences, he right away fired off the name of his freshmanscience teacher at Central, Mr. Erlick. No doubt spottingSama’s vibrant curiosity and aptitude for the sciences,Dennis Erlick recommended him for a summer researchapprenticeship at the Monell Chemical Senses Center at 35th and Market.

It was a perceptive call; Sama has been at Monell ever since.Mentored there by sensory scientist Paul Breslin (“the mostinfluential person in my life,” Sama says), he has been involvedpart-time in various studies on the genetic basis of taste andnutrition in humans and Drosophila melanogaster, “the elegant fruit fly.”

As time to look at colleges drew near, Sama’s applicationprocess was driven by “personal and social” criteria. “I’m froman immigrant family and didn’t want to break it up,” heexplained. Along with his parents, two brothers (one at Drexel),a sister, and a strong network of friends, he would stay inPhilly. Penn, of course, was an obvious choice and, onceaccepted, he enrolled at the School of Engineering and AppliedScience as a bioengineering major in the fall of 2005.

Always at the ready for new adventures, Sama was just settlingin at SEAS when he began preparing for a trip to South Chinawith the Penn Engineering Global Biomedical Service (GBS)in the summer of 2006. (See Penn Engineering News, Fall2006.) Bioengineering professor Dan Bogen, who led thegroup, was immediately impressed with Sama’s “genuine inter-est and enjoyment in getting to know people who are differentfrom himself ” and his willingness to meet all aspects of theexperience “head on.” As the group’s only freshman, he had towork a little harder and smarter. Alongside more experiencedstudents from Penn and Hong Kong Polytechnic University,they designed and crafted prosthetic limbs for six Chineseamputees. For Sama, the memory of the trip is indelible; hesays hardly a day goes by that he doesn’t think of his time inHong Kong and Guangzhou.

It was in Computational Neuroscience that Sama’s longtimefascination with the “magic of the brain” crystallized.Combining training in neural computation with experimentalneuroscience, it was Sama’s all-time favorite class. He cites theresearch, counsel, and career paths of Monell researcher AlanGelperin and Penn Bioengineering Professors Brian Litt andthe late Leif Finkel as highly inspiring. A Ph.D. program is most definitely in Sama’s future, as is presiding over his own lab “sooner rather than later.” He envisions directing investigations of the brain, combining behavioral, genetic, andcomputational work—“really bouncing off of my experiencesat Penn and Monell.”

Keeping the beat all the while behind Sama’s intellectual driveand academic focus is his break-dancing club, with whom hepractices up to four times a week. Freaks of the Beat, asdescribed on YouTube, is “UPenn’s only b-boying and


funkstyles crew.” In fact, Sama wonders if he could have absorbedthe pressures exerted by his demanding course load without hisgroup—music and dancing are central to his life. “I dance all thetime!” he effuses.

The club has been around since 2001, but when Sama came onto the scene, it had few members and “was practically in shambles.” Now “hugely successful,” the group has given over 60performances throughout the last four years: in- and out-of-statecompetitions, charities, guest performances, coffeehouses, andstreet gigs. Sama teaches both the dance and the history, and the majority of new members are products of his style andencouragement.

For Sama, friendship is the realm in which work meets play. Histhree Senior Design lab partners are also his best friends, two ofwhom are “dedicated Freaks.” Their synergy was apparently notlost on Bioengineering Associate Professor Beth Winkelstein, theiradviser, who actually approached them about a group project.Working in pairs, the four friends are conducting a study onspinal pain. Sama seems pleased with their progress, propelled by

what he describes as Dr. Winkelstein’s “tough love” brand ofadvising. He is looking forward to the Senior Design

Competition, the capstone event of the senior year. Now a seasoned performer, Sama is confident in the group’s

presentation skills.

Before our good-byes, Sama quickly touches on thefilms of Kurosawa, Russian literature, ’60s soulmusic, and his high hopes that Penn’s diverse cultures will one day become more integrative. Ashe heads up the street to a home-cooked meal, Ifinish my cup of tea and gather my impressionsof our meeting. Dan Bogen’s fond assessmentcomes readily to mind: “I’m quite sure Osamahas a very interesting life ahead of him.”

Ahmed BY PATRICIA HUTCHINGS

Keeping the beat all the while behind Sama’s intellectual drive and academic focus is

his break-dancing club, with whom he practices up to four times a week. Freaks of

the Beat, as described on YouTube, is “UPenn’s only b-boying and funkstyles crew.”

SPRING 2009 ■ 8

he race to create next-generation computer memory devices thatare off-the-charts smaller, faster and more stable than currentmemory technologies has entered promising new territory thanksto recent innovations in Ritesh Agarwal’s lab.

Agarwal, Assistant Professor in Materials Science andEngineering, has pioneered a technique for fabricating self-assembled nanowires. His breakthrough was published inOctober 2007 in Nature Nanotechnology and was noted by MIT Technology Review as one of the top five biggest advances in nanoscience in 2007.

The Agarwal lab’s innovative technique allows for the self-assembly of nanowires with phase-change memory that’s 1,000times faster than conventional flash memory (typically used indigital cameras, memory cards and personal data assistants) and10 times more energy-efficient than thin-film phase-changememory devices. Devices crafted from these nanowires will offerthe advantage of terabit-level memory density in a non-volatileformat, meaning that information is retained even when power is removed.

Prior to Agarwal’s nanoscale discovery, the 100 nanometer barrierto miniaturization had stymied the computer industry.Nanowires created by the Agarwal lab are 20 nanometers indiameter (one thousand times thinner than a human hair) and10 micrometers long. By comparison, the lithographic processused to fabricate phase-change memory storage on thin siliconhasn’t worked reliably for structures thinner than 100 nanome-ters, says Agarwal. “You couldn’t make them at that small sizewithout damaging them.”

According to Simone Raoux, Ph.D., a research staff member at the IBM Almaden Research Center, “Dr. Agarwal’s mostimportant research contribution has been to show us that phase-change technology can be developed down to the 20nanometer size of the element and that it will work. This is very promising for the development of phase-change memory,an emerging technology that could potentially change the memory technology landscape and market. This research isextremely relevant because it tells us how small we can builddevices in the future.”

Phase-change memory is of keen interest to the computer industry because it can offer an alternative to the standard binaryworld in which data is stored as 0s and 1s. For example, by

TRI

TESH

AG

ARW

AL

AC

CEL

ERAT

ING

AD

VAN

CES

IN

ELE

CTR

ON

IC M

EMO

RY

BY

JE

SS

ICA

ST

EIN

DIA

MO

ND


SPRING 2009 ■ 10

adding more layers of different phase-change materials, phase-change memory can then become non-binary, capable of storingand processing logarithmically more information. Individualatoms in phase-change memory materials switch reversibly froman amorphous state with high resistance to an orderly crystallinestructure with low resistance.

An added benefit of Agarwal’s self-assembly fabrication technique for nanowire-based memory is that it’s significantlycheaper, easier and faster than conventional lithography. Amanufacturing plant built to fabricate memory storage materialssmaller than 100 nanometers using the lithographic processwould cost billions of dollars. By comparison, says Agarwal, “Wecan make structures, take measurements and study devices in asingle day using a $15,000 piece of equipment. It’s very easy tofollow our recipe for the self-assembly of nanowires. That’s whywe have been able to make so much progress in such a shorttime. We’re not limited by lithography.”

According to Raoux, “The way he’s making his devices is relatively easy compared to a full-blown lithographic applicationprocess which can take many months—while his process cantake hours. Plus, his structures are very pure and well-controlledwhich is important because crystal structure and compositioninfluences the properties of a material.”

In her work at IBM, Raoux is exploring multiple methodologiesfor creating nanoscale phase-change materials (other researchgroups use chemical vapor and atomic vapor deposition techniques). Raoux has planned research collaborations withAgarwal’s group to explore potential applications for hisnanowire fabrication techniques.

Agarwal’s nanowire fabrication technique involves heating powdered germanium, antimony and tellurium in a furnacethrough which argon gas flows from temperatures of 650˚Celsius upstream to 400˚ C downstream where the mixture

vaporizes and cools onto gold nanoparticles that act as catalyststhat seed wires comprised of the three elements.

The dual allegiance of Penn Engineering faculty to scientific dis-covery and undergraduate education proved useful to Agarwal ashe refined his nanowire fabrication techniques further. Buildingupon the Nature Nanotechnology publication, the Agarwal group’ssubsequent goal was to engineer a nanowire with a core-shellstructure, like a coaxial cable. The extra layer of the shell aroundthe core would add logarithmically more data storage.

Creating that coaxial cable nanowire was critical to proving the usefulness of the nanowire breakthrough because it wouldfurther demonstrate that complex core-shell nanoscale phase-change memory could be reliably fabricated by self-assembly.

Enter the intrepid undergraduate, Andrew Jennings. After sittingin on the very first lecture of the first class (Introduction toFunctional Nanoscale Materials) that Agarwal taught (and continues to teach) at Penn, Jennings asked Agarwal if he couldwork in his lab.

“Sure,” Agarwal told the student that day in February of 2006,“just show up.” Jennings, a sophomore at the time, did morethan show up. He set up complex instrumentation in Agarwal’sthen new lab, and then accepted a research assignment to engineer a nanowire with a core-shell structure. Unbeknownst to Jennings, Agarwal’s two graduate students and post doc hadpreviously put this technologically-challenging project on theback burner because it seemed like such a long shot.

Jennings recalls a moment when this quest to create a core-shellnanostructure stalled out. “This work was really difficult andtime-consuming. After we tried four times to do this, theresearch team wondered ‘should we keep trying?’ I remember

“UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

IS JUST AS VALUABLE FOR

FACULTY AS IT IS FOR

STUDENTS,” SAYS AGARWAL.

“I GIVE THE MOST IMPOSSIBLE

PROBLEMS TO UNDERGRAD-

UATES BECAUSE THEY’RE AT

THE STAGE WHERE THEY

DON’T KNOW IF THE ODDS

ARE LONG FOR SOMETHING

TO WORK.”

THE AGARWAL LAB’S INNOVATIVE

TECHNIQUE ALLOWS FOR THE

SELF-ASSEMBLY OF NANOWIRES

WITH PHASE-CHANGE MEMORY

THAT’S 1,000 TIMES FASTER THAN

CONVENTIONAL FLASH MEMORY

(TYPICALLY USED IN DIGITAL

CAMERAS, MEMORY CARDS AND

PERSONAL DATA ASSISTANTS)

AND 10 TIMES MORE ENERGY-

EFFICIENT THAN THIN-FILM PHASE

CHANGE MEMORY DEVICES.


thinking there are plenty of other things to try to make thiswork. It was complicated. There were definitely a lot of hourswith the furnace.”

Eventually, after working for a year with support from a graduatestudent and a post doc in Agarwal’s lab, Jennings prevailed.“Undergraduate research is just as valuable for faculty as it is forstudents,” says Agarwal. “I give the most impossible problems toundergraduates because they’re at the stage where they don’tknow if the odds are long for something to work.”

That breakthrough technique (adding a shell structure comprisedof germanium telluride around a nanowire comprised of a germanium-antimony-tellurium alloy) and the resulting non-binary memory storage capability was published in the June 2008 edition of Nano Letters, a publication of the AmericanChemical Society.

For Jennings, this research experience was a springboard to his professional future. Back when he first volunteered to work in theAgarwal lab, Jennings actually was ambivalent about studyingengineering; so he decided to work in a lab at Penn to learn moreabout the field. “My grades shot up after I worked in the lab,” herecalls. “Then, as I became more interested in my research, I recognized how relevant my courses were.”

Jennings, now in his first year at Cal Tech’s Materials Science doctoral program, says “The influence of working in Agarwal’s labhas been huge. Had I not joined that lab I would not be at CalTech right now. It was a great opportunity; I marvel at how luckyit feels in retrospect.”

Currently, Agarwal’s research group is comprised of three graduatestudents and two post docs. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry fromthe University of California, Berkeley, and moved from India tothe U.S. in 1996 for a master’s program in chemistry at TheUniversity of Chicago.

Agarwal received an NSF CAREER Award in 2007, a prestigiousaward for junior faculty, and is currently engaged in teaching andresearch plus the classic grant-writing bootstrap experience of

young faculty. “We’re not limited by ideas, materials or tech-niques. Our only limitation is the current funding environmentfor science,” he says.

Agarwal has additionally pioneered easily replicable techniquesfor controlling nanowire composition, shape, size and alignmentby tweaking the temperature, composition and amount of vaporin the furnaces in which the materials self-assemble. These tech-niques are so easy, in fact, that a Philadelphia high school student,Amy Lam, has spent the past year in his lab fabricating well-characterized nanowires.

“What is emerging is that we can convert cadmium sulfidenanowires into other highly complex nanostructures such as well-defined zinc cadmium sulfide alloys, striped patterns of zincand cadmium sulfide, and even hollow nano structures that arealmost impossible to make by other means,” says Agarwal. Stripesof alternating materials are especially useful because they arepotential connecting points between nanoscale semiconductorcomponents and metal connections for electrically addressing thedevices at the nanoscale.

Ultimately, Agarwal’s goal is to develop techniques for harvestinghis nanowires and packing them in perfect alignment on a piece of silicon to build a memory device that would achieve the ‘holygrail’ of the memory industry—fast, non-volatile and dense memory storage. “If this works, we would have in principal anideal memory device,” he says. “Commercially that market is in the tens of billions of dollars. This form of memory would solvevirtually all of the problems associated with flash memory,magnetic memory and hard disks. The incompatibility of mem-ory devices would not exist.”

Agarwal expects it will take at least a decade for scientists toreach this goal. However, he won’t bet on the odds of his researchgroup achieving this feat. “You cannot predict breakthroughs,”says Agarwal. “You just have to do what you think is excitingwork. Whoever solves that problem will solve so many otherproblems. How to assemble nanostructures to make real-worlddevices is a question that’s at the core of all nanoscale research.”

In the meantime, Agarwal eagerly looks forward to the plannedKrishna P. Singh Nanotechnology Center at Penn, which willoffer Penn scientists access to shared nano-scale instrumentationand clean rooms. This 80,000 square foot nanotechnology facility, planned for the 3200 block of Walnut, will be adjacent to Agarwal’s current laboratory space at the Laboratory forResearch on the Structure of Matter. Groundbreaking is expectedto begin in 2010. The building will be designed by the architec-tural firm Weiss/Manfredi along with M+W Zander, an engineering and construction firm that specializes in projectswith a scientific focus.

ULTIMATELY, AGARWAL’S GOAL

IS TO DEVELOP TECHNIQUES FOR

HARVESTING HIS NANOWIRES

AND PACKING THEM IN PERFECT

ALIGNMENT ON A PIECE OF

SILICON TO BUILD A MEMORY

DEVICE THAT WOULD ACHIEVE

THE ‘HOLY GRAIL’ OF THE MEMORY

INDUSTRY—FAST, NON-VOLATILE

AND DENSE MEMORY STORAGE.

berasing

TWO NEW PENN CENTERS INTEGRATE

SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

SPRING 2009 ■ 12

“The emphasis on centers promotes a stronger

culture of collaboration among students and

faculty,” says George J. Pappas, the Joseph

Moore Professor of Electrical and Systems

Engineering and Deputy Dean for the School

of Engineering and Applied Science. As Deputy

Dean, it is Pappas’s top priority to launch

centers like CECR and PRECISE.

boundariesScience is a discovery-driven culture. Engineering is an innovation-driven culture. To beable to tackle the challenging issues of our times, it is imperative that different knowledgeand expertise cultures integrate across academic disciplines. At Penn Engineering, twonew centers are promoting this integration of cultures with enhanced partnership gearedto define new educational offerings, advance science and engineering, and transfer innovation to industry.


The Center for Engineering Cells and Regeneration (CECR) andthe Penn Research in Embedded Computing and IntegratedSystems Engineering (PRECISE) Center are both pursuing broadintellectual and research agendas, at a level they expect willachieve international impact and visibility.

Both centers are founded on the premise that collaborationbetween scientific disciplines nets common goals. “The emphasison centers promotes a stronger culture of collaboration amongstudents and faculty,” says George J. Pappas, the Joseph MooreProfessor of Electrical and Systems Engineering and DeputyDean for the School of Engineering and Applied Science. AsDeputy Dean, it is Pappas’s top priority to launch centers likeCECR and PRECISE.

But how is a center first conceived? Does the collaborative ideainspire, or does particular synergy between faculty act as the catalyst for defining the center? “I begin to identify areas ofopportunity for research centers by looking for educators whodemonstrate teamwork and value partnership,” says Pappas.“I try to identify areas of interdisciplinary excellence within allengineering departments, looking for teams of outstanding faculty and students.”

Pappas commends both Christopher Chen, the SkirkanichProfessor of Innovation of the Department of Bioengineering,director of CECR; and Insup Lee, the Cecilia Fitler MooreProfessor of the Department of Computer and InformationScience, director of PRECISE, for their intellectual breadth andability to combine research agendas of different faculty across different departments or schools for common goals. “Their leadership is key to getting both these centers off the ground,”says Pappas.

At the CECR, collaborative focus is on engineering cells and tissues. Research projects delve into how cells, tissues and organsundergo adaptive or maladaptive responses to aging, stress orinjury; and how selecting, modifying and reprogramming cellscan help heal wounds, restore tissues or be applied to conditionslike diabetes, heart failure and paralysis.

This is a new science that challenges current understanding about how cells work. That challenge needs to be answered viathe combination and cooperation of intellect. “This science is not a single discipline, but requires the multidisciplinary integration of engineering, biology, chemistry, physics and medicine,” says Chen.

This team effort is breaking ground in the interface between bioengineering technologies like biomaterials, cell engineeringand quantitative cell biology, and is positioning Penn as a nationalleader in the field. “No existing center or institute nationallyappears to have captured this space quite the way that Penn has,”says Chen.

Key to the impetus of the center is the renowned faculty mem-bership, with wide-reaching experience in polymeric biomaterials,molecular engineering, molecular imaging, orthopaedic biome-chanics and cell biology and physiology. “Penn boasts arguablythe most decorated and noted collection of researchers in theworld in mechanobiology, which encompasses the study of cellmechanics, tissue mechanics, cell adhesion to materials, and howmechanics impacts biological processes,” says Chen. “We are alsohighly visible in our work on stem cell engineering. Thesestrengths will be capitalized upon by the CECR.”

Chen, who is also a faculty member of the Cell Biology andPhysiology Program, Cell Growth and Cancer Program, and

BY AMY BIEMILLER

SPRING 2009 ■ 14

director of the Tissue Microfabrication Laboratory, sees his directorresponsibilities for CECR as part of his overall dedication to goalachievement: identifying the underlying mechanisms by which cellsinteract with materials and coordinate with each other to build tissues,and to apply this knowledge to engineer cells to heal tissues.

At the PRECISE center, research and advances in cyber-physical systems (CPS) are allowing teams to coordinate computing and communications to interact with the physical world. This is a disci-pline that requires reintegration of the physical and information sciences to produce technology on which people can bet their lives.Advances could transform the world with systems that respond predictably faster (collision avoidance systems in automobiles), aremore precise (robotic surgery) and work in dangerous environments(autonomous search and rescue).

Members of the center sport an impressive list of credentials in computing and communications, including real-time computing,formal methods, hybrid systems, software architectures and sensor networks. “Our mission is to be a world-class center of excellence.We will leverage our members’ expertise to establish the missing theoretical and engineering foundations for cyber-physical systems,”says Lee.

A faculty member of the Department of Electrical and SystemsEngineering, Lee is also an Institute of Electrical and ElectronicEngineers (IEEE) Fellow and a member of the Technical AdvisoryGroup of President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology,Networking and Information Technology. In the process of developingthe plan for PRECISE, his concern was for the future educationalprospects of a science that is just developing. “The center will allow usto develop forward-looking educational programs to train a futureworkforce that will require interdisciplinary education,” says Lee.

The idea of the center came about naturally, Lee explains. “PRECISEmembers have a long track record of working together on many

research projects over many years. We have come to see ourselves as agroup in which each member is considered a ‘leading expert’ in hisarea of specialty. With cohesiveness provided by the center, the centerbecomes much more than just the sum of its individual members,”says Lee.

“This center is unique in that it is a joint program of computer science and electrical engineering,” says Lee. “The core courses teach students fundamentals in embedded systems design and implementation from two disciplines.”

Lee anticipates the PRECISE center will deliver multiple benefits toPenn, including research and development activities with industry sectors, a new master’s program in embedded systems, and potentialties to Asian industries and universities where the embedded systemsindustry is strong.

Innovations in both centers are expected to impact curricula and disseminate into industry, says Pappas. “Development of programs likethe MSE degree in Embedded Systems is a very powerful way that the research mission of the centers can be translated into innovativedepartmental education, and transferred via our excellent students to industry,” he says.

The centers will not only expand the reach of science and engineering,notes Pappas, but are initiatives that deliver on the Penn Compact topropel the University from excellence to eminence. “Cutting-edgeengineering happens at scientific interfaces and therefore helps tomaintain Penn Engineering as a leading research institution, and elevates it still further in distinction.”

At the CECR, collaborative focus is on

engineering cells and tissues. Research

projects delve into how cells, tissues and

organs undergo adaptive or maladaptive

responses to aging, stress or injury; and

how selecting, modifying and reprogramming

cells can help heal wounds, restore tissues

or be applied to conditions like diabetes,

heart failure and paralysis.


Penn Engineering

PLEASE LET US KNOW WHERE YOU ARE, WHAT

YOU ARE DOING, AND WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO

SEE IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF PENN ENGINEERING.

CONTACT US AT [email protected]

DEMOGRAPHIC DATA FOR CLASS OF 2012

Number of Applicants 3618

Number Offered Admission 854

Yield 413

Average SAT Math (matriculated) 760

Percent of Women 37%

Under-represented Minorities 10%

Countries Represented 29

States Represented 39

Declared Majors Upon Entry to Penn Engineering:

MAJOR MEN WOMEN TOTAL

BE 60 62 122

CBE 34 18 52

CIS 25 18 43

ESE 13 7 20

MEAM 27 10 37

MSE 5 2 7

UNDECLARED 98 34 132

Grand Total 262 151 413

GENERAL INFORMATION

Founded as the School of Mines, Arts 1852and Manufactures

Number of Faculty 108

Number of National Academy 7of Engineering Members

Number of Chaired Professors 25

Number of Current CAREER Awards 11

Academic Departments 6

Research Institutes and Centers 10

Total Number of Undergraduates 1534

Student/Faculty Ratio 14:1

Undergraduate Majors Bachelor of Science in Engineering 9 Bachelor of Applied Science 5

Student Clubs & Organizations 31

B Y T H E N U M B E R S

WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

SPRING 2009 ■ 16

A gift from my employees, this globe rotates by creating a stable magnetic field.

The economy is in shambles. What can PennEngineering do to help? David Magerman, Eng’90, C’90,offers an unusual and useful perspective. His career path includesa Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford, work as a researchscientist for IBM in computational linguistics, and 13 years athedge fund management company Renaissance TechnologiesCorporation where he was head of production for all trading.

According to Magerman, “Many of the problems in the worldtoday could be solved by engineers if only they would stay in engineering. It is unfortunate that many forsake careers in engi-neering for the allure of jobs in the financial industry.”

Magerman appears to be criticizing his own career choice, but hemakes a critical distinction: he worked as a practicing engineer in

the financial industry. “All of the skills I learned in my courseworkat Penn Engineering came into play in my job at Renaissance. Iwas one of the few people there who had the ability to address all aspects of the problems we faced—to do the theoretical work,applied work, hardware, software and all aspects of the designprocess,” he says. “I contributed to the statistical modeling algorithms and the betting algorithms, built the trading andaccounting software, and even debugged the C++ compiler thathad been preventing us from trading.”

Penn Engineering’s hands-on approach to engineering educationwas key. He recalls, for example, “a computer hardware class whereI built and programmed a piano controlled by a microchip. I hadto wire the entire system from scratch, including running the wiresfrom the power source to the different chips on the board. I occasionally made mistakes in my wiring and burned my hands

Going to Wall Street as an Engineer

David MagermanBY JESSICA STEIN DIAMOND


A replica of a menorah by 18thcentury artist Joahnn AdamBoller. Jewish observance is animportant part of my life.

Penn founder BenjaminFranklin—Personifying innovation and commitment to the public good.

A working calculator, one of theearly pieces in the collection ofAaron Adding Machines byartist Andy Aaron.

5th place prize from “Math4America”a charity poker event. Each chipsports the name and face of afamous mathematician.

a few times. The lessons I learned in that class stuck with me for a long time.”

Magerman, who has served on Penn Engineering’s Board ofOverseers since 2003, says, “Engineering has traditionally beenabout solving problems in the tangible world, such as renewableenergy, global warming, famine and health care. In today’s information economy, we need to train leaders who can createinfrastructure that strengthens rather than undermines the financial world—for the bits and bytes in the financial markets are where assets really are these days.”

Magerman attributes some of the problems in the economy todayto engineering problems in the financial markets themselves.“Many problems in financial markets today come from people taking advantage of inefficiencies in the structure of markets,”says Magerman. “They profit from them in what has now become

a gamblers’ arena. The structure of the market allows that; but this takes away from the intended goals of financial markets tocapitalize companies, to identify the value of those companies andto help companies hedge their exposure to future needs.”

Dialogue about scholarships among members of the Board ofOverseers is especially compelling for Magerman, who receivedscholarship support as an undergraduate at Penn. “The Board ofOverseers values the school’s economic diversity and is dedicatedto helping qualified students who need financial support,” he says.

Given the current economic climate, Penn Engineering’s role as aleader in research and education is even more compelling, saysMagerman. “The great thing about an institution like Penn is thatit can really be a shining light in this time—keeping educationalopportunities for America’s future leaders intact.”

Engineeri

SPRING 2009 ■ 18

As an undergraduate Hanssen majored in fine arts and began topursue a dual degree with Digital Media Design, but found thejoint natural science requirements a bit daunting. Hanssen flour-ished as a painter and was admitted to an MFA program, butfound that it didn’t suit his interests. “I guess the engineer in mewanted the process and product to be more robust and practical,”he says. “I also wanted to feel more of a connection with mypeers.” So Hanssen left art school and began exploring otheroptions. He took a job in construction management, which satis-fied his practical nature, but not the creative and compassionateaspects of his personality. One day a friend from Penn called and

asked if he would come to Songea, Tanzania, for two weeks toprovide construction advice on a project run by Miracle Cornersof the World (MCW), an international non-profit devoted toyouth education and global community development.

“The trip offered everything I was looking for,” he says. “It was anamazing cause coupled with construction and project manage-ment work, and I could work with an incredibly diverse team ofpeople while immersing myself in a new language and culture.”When he returned to Philadelphia, Hanssen realized his desk jobcould never provide such opportunities, so he quit and moved toSongea to lead the project.

Like many engineers, Alfie Hanssen was born with a fascination about the way things work.As a child he played with Legos and built model planes, and by high school he was absorbedin painting and architecture. Painting brought him to Penn, but it was a spontaneous trip toTanzania that would define his ultimate career path as an engineer determined to save theworld. “Those two weeks changed my life!” Hanssen says.

Enlight

BY AMY CALHOUN

ng


Southern Tanzania is beautiful but challenging: many villages are so remote that basic health and educational needs cannot be met.Identifying the most immediate problems and focusing on specificand participatory solutions requires a critical eye and the abilitywork with a wide variety of people.

Hanssen began working locally to help community stakeholdersenvision solutions that were viable and economically sustainable. Heled laborers and volunteers through the project’s construction. “Infour months, we built a multi-functional community center, a state-of-the-art dental clinic, and staff housing. The community centerhouses a library, English language classes, information technologyclasses, a pre-school program, and a youth group. The programs areentirely youth led and 100% of the construction materials and laborcame from Songea, providing a huge boost to the local economy,”he says.

In August 2005, with the project finished, Hanssen returned to theU.S. and enrolled in the Penn’s master’s program in Computer

Graphics and Game Technology (CGGT). The goal of the program is to teach students state-of-the-art graphics and animationtechnologies, as well as interactive media design principles, productdevelopment methodologies and engineering entrepreneurship.CGGT might seem an odd choice for a grassroots communityorganizer, but as Hanssen explains, “Graphics and programming are tools that can be applied to many things, not just the movies. Ididn’t know where CGGT would lead me, but I wanted a graduateschool experience that combined lab, team and field work, and Iwanted to understand social simulation research. CGGT allowedme to incorporate courses in city planning and business and tospend time in Brazil working on a game project.” So while peers inhis game design course built projects aimed toward catching the eyeof industry recruiters, Hanssen worked on a social simulation gamewhose goal was to replace the glut of violence-ridden video gameswith one based upon relationships and the allocation of communityresources in Rio’s “informal” neighborhoods or favelas.

ened

Hanssen began working locally

to help community stakeholders

envision solutions that were

viable and economically

sustainable. He led laborers

and volunteers through the

project’s construction.

SPRING 2009 ■ 20

Hanssen also taught a series of courses focused on communityoutreach. “Design and Construction for CommunityDevelopment” was a course inspired by his own experience inTanzania. Students were tasked with envisioning projects thatwould benefit their communities, and then, using computergraphics software, create 3-D models of their proposed ideas.“Students had to understand the needs of their projects’ benefici-aries and how they could be met, and then use this informationto design their projects’ physical structures and spaces,” saysHanssen. The course encapsulated the blend of art, technology,visualization and applied problem solving that Hanssen was seek-ing, and led him to teach subsequent courses with communityservice components.

CGGT gave Hanssen the opportunity to hone his analytical andprogramming skills while enhancing his teaching experience. “Iwas looking for opportunities that would allow me to explore asmany of my interests as possible,” he says. “I knew engineeringand CGGT would be the best environment in which to do this,and it was. The process that CGGT students go through to createa product involves artistic sensitivity and engineering acuity.CGGT was the perfect fit for me.”

Hanssen is now the associate executive director of MiracleCorners of the World, where he has directed leadership and entrepreneurship education projects in Rwanda, Tanzania, SierraLeone, and Ethiopia. His unique background offered MCWsomething rare: a leader with technical, teaching, applied andsocial skills.

Hanssen represents a new breed of enlightened engineers, andthere are many to follow in his footsteps. According to Penn Dean of Admissions Eric Furda, “Our engineering applicantsdemonstrate an impressive commitment to community service,and frequently cite Penn Engineering’s outreach programs in their essays.” As these students immerse themselves in courses that teach tangible and transformative skills, they too will envi-sion a world that has never existed and bring it to reality.

For information about Miracle Corners of the World and its ties to Philadelphia and Penn, please visit their website at:http://www.miraclecorners.org. To find out more about the CGGT program, visit the website at:http://www.cis.upenn.edu/grad/cggt/cggt-overview.shtml.

Miracle Corners of the World Rwanda Community

Planning Committee

Clockwise from left: Henriette Mukanyonga,

Janvier Mujaribu, Ferdinand Muriyesu Ishimwe,

Alfie Hanssen, Solange Uwimbabazi and

Didier Sagashya

Hanssen represents a new breed of enlightened engineers, and there are many to follow in his footsteps.According to Penn Dean of Admissions Eric Furda, “Our engineering applicants demonstrate an impres-sive commitment to community service, and frequently cite Penn Engineering’s outreach programs intheir essays.” As these students immerse themselves in courses that teach tangible and transformativeskills, they too will envision a world that has never existed and bring it to reality.


Peter K. Davies loves a challenge. An expert insolid state chemistry and properties of electronic ceramics, Daviescame to Penn in 1983 by way of Oxford and Arizona State to teachthermodynamics, a class which, he says with a smile, “nominally,nobody’s going to want to take.” Hinting at the dedication and creativity that have helped him win numerous teaching awards,Davies adds, “That’s perfect for me. I love teaching. And if itweren’t a challenge, I don’t think I’d enjoy it as much.”

Davies took on leadership of the Materials Science andEngineering department in 2002, toward the beginning of thenanoscale revolution. Working in an inherently interdisciplinaryfield that integrates knowledge from physics, chemistry, math,biology, and all aspects of engineering, materials science engineershave long examined the properties of atomic scale structures inorder to engineer materials that are part of our everyday lives, frombridges and bicycles to computer chips and medical implants. Butnanoscale research is enabling the assembly of new structures ofatoms, with properties as yet uninvestigated. While larger than theatomic structures with which materials science engineers tradition-ally work, nanoscale materials present a greater challenge because,as Davies puts it, “Trying to tell thousands of atoms to do onething is harder than dealing with a single atom.” Using whatDavies calls “some very clever chemistry and instrumentation,”such as electron and scanning probe microscopes, “we can nowstart to organize materials in ways that were unheard of 10 years ago. We’re at the beginning of engineering a whole new set of materials.”

While yet to catch up to the pace of retirements in the department, Davies’ recent faculty hires represent expertise in theconstruction of nanowires with unique, semi-conducting and optical properties; responsive polymer-based nanostructured

materials; multiscale materials modeling and computation;mechanical properties at the nanoscale; molecular electronics; and the fabrication of artificial atoms, or quantum dots.

Davies has also set his sights on the courses offered in the department. “I wanted to translate all of these really excitingchanges in research and potential applications into education,” hesays, “and to provide a cutting-edge academic program.” The resultis the first undergraduate program in the country to focus on thefundamentals of nanoscale research. In the four years since the new curriculum was implemented, Davies has seen a significantincrease in the size of the graduating class, and has watched overallundergraduate enrollment grow from 25 to 120 students. This is inaddition to the department’s 80 graduate students, 15 post-doctoralfellows, and 11 faculty members.

Complementing and facilitating the work of Penn’s materials science engineers will be the Krishna P. Singh NanotechnologyCenter, which, as Davies says, “will provide us with an outstandinginfrastructure for the techniques we use to look at nanoscale phenomena.” The Singh Nanotechnology Center will feature avibration and magnetic field isolated environment, where micro-scopes can perform perfectly, and a nanofabrication facility, wherestudents and faculty will have all the tools necessary to translateadvances in nanoscale research into revolutionary new materials, particularly for energy applications, computing and communications devices, and biomedical materials.

PETER K. DAVIESMaterials Science and Engineering

BY CATHERINE VON ELM

MMAAKKIINNGG HHIISSTTOORRYYTHROUGH INNOVATION


Astonishing achievement is nothing new to the Schoolof Engineering and Applied Science. But considering thetroubled economy, managing to be ahead of the projected goal toreach $150 million in capital campaign commitments by 2012 isespecially rewarding. Designated as Making History ThroughInnovation, Penn Engineering’s capital campaign has drawn positivesupport from donors world-wide.

“We’ve raised $93.5 million to date, with a significant contributionfrom Kris and Martha Singh of $20 million,” says George Hain,Executive Director of Engineering Development. The Singh’s naming gift will underwrite construction of the Krishna P. SinghCenter for Nanotechnology. Their gift, part of the $50 millioncampaign goal for facilities, will also help renovate spaces through-out the Towne Building, The Moore School and Hayden Hall.

Along with facilities, the campaign targets giving goals to benefitstudents and faculty: $40 million is the goal for student support,which includes program enhancements and fellowship aid in order to attract gifted students from all walks of life. To continue to attract and retain world-class faculty, $50 million is the goal to endow professorships and underwrite faculty research. An additional $10 million is the goal for unrestricted funds to sustainthe quality of the school’s programs.

“We are doing particularly well with facilities and unrestricteddonations,” says Hain.

Campaigns are only as effective as their leadership, and the school’scampaign is expertly led by J. Peter Skirkanich (W’65) and AndrewS. Rachleff (W’80). Both are University Trustees, as well asOverseers for Penn Engineering. “Both Andy and Peter have beengenerous with their time, leadership and donations,” says Hain.“The Rachleff donation of $3 million will endow an undergraduatescholar’s initiative (Rachleff Scholars Program) and the $2.26 million Skirkanich donation will endow faculty support in bioengineering.”

Both Skirkanich’s and Rachleff ’s vision for achievement is crucial to the success of the campaign, says Eduardo Glandt, Dean of theSchool of Engineering and Applied Science. “They are leading ashared enterprise. By setting the tone of this campaign, they areinspiring others’ actions.”

The Making History Through Innovation campaign is running intandem with the University’s Making History: The Campaign ForPenn, a campaign for strategic investment across the Universitydesigned to fuel ideas, empower people, and inspire pursuits thatwill change the way we think about higher education. Like theSchool of Engineering and Applied Science’s campaign, theUniversity campaign is also on track to meet its goal—$3.5 billionby 2012.

But will current economic pressures negatively hamper achievingcampaign goals for the University or the School of Engineering andApplied Science? Echoing University President Amy Gutmann’ssentiments, Glandt is equally optimistic. “To be sure, the currentstate of the economy does cause us some concern, and we shouldexpect that our current pace toward goal achievement in raisingfunds may slow. But most certainly it will not stop,” he says. “Ouralumni are very much emotionally invested in the success of theSchool and I have every reason to believe we will achieve our goalof $150 million.”

To gain the greatest visibility with the widest audience, alumnievents are hosted around the world to help interested donors betterunderstand the significant impact their donations have on PennEngineering and the world. “Since July 1, 2008, we’ve hosted eventsin Los Angeles, Mumbai and London, and are looking forward toevents this spring in San Francisco, Seoul, Beijing, Hong Kong andSingapore,” says Hain.

Typically, an international event starts with contacting alumni andasking them to host the event. This is not for the faint of heart:events can attract upwards of 70 attendees, and often are hosted intheir homes.

“Our January event in Mumbai was quite a success,” says Glandt.“The event, graciously hosted by Penn Engineering Overseer HitalMeswami, offered a small-village feeling to the big city, andattracted Penn alumni who were looking for a sense of communityand a personal update on what has been happening at the School.”

While Glandt often reaches out to do one-on-one alumni visits, hefinds that people are very receptive to a group get-together. “Pennalumni enjoy being with each other. When I speak to a group, that’sthe overwhelming sense I experience: it’s a big family.” While thepurpose of this year’s events is to share the vision of the capitalcampaign, Glandt also realizes that school alumni are interested in news about what has been happening on campus. “It’s a verypowerful thing to have someone from Philadelphia visit theirhometown and tell then what is happening back on campus. I feel this a very special privilege, and when I speak, it’s not me,but Penn speaking.”

Penn Engineering Capital

Campaign Keeps Pace

BY AMY BIEMILLER

Along with facilities, the campaign targets giving

goals to benefit students and faculty: $40 million is

the goal for student support, which includes program

enhancements and fellowship aid in order to attract

gifted students from all walks of life.

SPRING 2009 ■ 24

NEWSSchool

Pieces of Penn History Return from SpaceDr. Garrett E. Reisman, NASA Astronaut and Penn alumnus, returned

to Penn Engineering in February as the distinguished speaker for the

Business, Technology and Government Lecture Series. Reisman’s

inspirational lecture, “Living Aboard the Space Station—One Quaker’s

Journey,” detailed his three-month mission on the International Space

Station. Reisman is a graduate of the Penn Management and Technology

Program and holds a B.S. in both Mechanical Engineering and Applied

Mechanics from Penn Engineering and in Economics from the Wharton

School of Business. After graduating from Penn, Reisman went on to

earn his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the California Institute

of Technology.

Reisman served with both the Expedition-16 and the Expedition-17

crews as a flight engineer aboard the International Space Station. He

launched with the STS-123 crew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour

on March 11, 2008, and returned to Earth with the crew of STS-124

aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery on June 14, 2008. During his three

month tour of duty aboard the Space Station, Reisman performed one

spacewalk totaling more than seven hours of extra-vehicular activity and

executed numerous tasks with the Space Station robotic arm and the

new robotic manipulator, Dextre.

Reisman told a packed auditorium of Penn Engineering students, faculty

and staff that he is “standing on many people’s shoulders” and that his

success is the result of professors and mentors who inspired him to

become an engineer. While at Penn, Reisman explored many possible

career paths, but a class with the late Dr. Ira Cohen, Professor of

Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, caused him to become

“hooked on fluid mechanics.”

Earlier in the day on the first floor of The Moore School where ENIAC

was built and now displayed in part, Reisman re-attached a control knob

from the world’s first large scale, general-purpose, electronic digital

computer. Reisman had taken the knob into space as a tribute to Penn

Engineering’s contribution to computing and technological innovation,

without which space flight would not have been possible.

At the end of his talk, Reisman presented Dean Eduardo Glandt with

a Penn pennant, which he had proudly displayed on the wall of the

Space Station during his three months in orbit.

Dr. Reisman’s full lecture is available for viewing at

http://www.seas.upenn.edu/whatsnew/2009/reisman_dl.html.

Honors and AwardsRobert Ghrist, the Andrea Mitchell University

Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering

and of Mathematics, has been awarded the

S. Reid Warren, Jr. Award. The award is pre-

sented annually by the undergraduate student

body and the Engineering Alumni Society in

recognition of outstanding service in stimulating

and guiding the intellectual and professional

development of undergraduate students in

SEAS. Dr. Ghrist, one of the world’s leading

mathematicians, is the seventh “Penn Integrates

Knowledge” (PIK) Professor.

Susan Margulies, Professor of Bioengineering,

has been awarded the Ford Motor Company

Award for Faculty Advising. This award recog-

nizes dedication to helping students realize

their educational, career and personal goals.

Robert Carpick, Associate Professor of

Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics

and Penn Director of the Nanotechnology

Institute, has been named a Penn Fellow by the

Office of the Provost. Appointment to Penn

Fellow allows for opportunities in leadership

development and is provided to select Penn

faculty members in mid-career. Fellowship

includes opportunities to build networks across

the university, meet with distinguished academ-

ic leaders, think strategically about university

governance, and participate in monthly dinners

with prominent speakers from within Penn and

beyond.

Nader Engheta, the H. Nedwill Ramsey

Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering,

has been elected a Fellow of the American

Physical Society “for development of concepts

of metamaterial-inspired optical lumped

nanocircuits, and for ground breaking

contributions to the fields of metamaterials,

plasmonic nano-optics, biologically-inspired

imaging, and electrodynamics.” This distinct

honor signifies recognition by professional

peers and is limited to one half of one percent

of the APS membership.

Stephan Zdancewic, Associate Professor of

Computer and Information Science, has been

awarded a prestigious Sloan Research

Fellowship. Sloan Research Fellowships seek to

stimulate fundamental research by early-career

scientists and scholars of outstanding promise.

These two-year fellowships are awarded yearly

to 118 researchers in recognition of distin-

guished performance and a unique potential to

make substantial contributions to their field.

Daniel Koditschek, the Alfred Fitler Moore

Professor and Chair of Electrical and Systems

Engineering, has been named a Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of

Science (AAAS) for his work in the fields of

information, computing and communication.

Election as a Fellow of AAAS is an honor

bestowed upon members by their peers, and

Fellows are recognized for meritorious efforts

to advance science or its applications.

SPRING 2009 ■ 26

NEWSSchool

Honors and Awards (continued)

George J. Pappas, Deputy Dean and the

Joseph Moore Professor of Electrical and

Systems Engineering, has been selected as an

IEEE Fellow for his contributions to design

and analysis of hybrid control systems. This is

the highest grade of membership in the IEEE.

Jason A. Burdick, the Wilf Family Term Assistant

Professor of Bioengineering, has received a

National Science Foundation CAREER Award for

his work on “Spatially Controlled Cellular

Behavior in 3-D Hydrogels: An Integrated

Research, Teaching, and Outreach Approach.”

Boon Thau Loo, Assistant Professor in

Computer and Information Science, has

received a National Science Foundation

CAREER award on “Towards a Unified

Declarative Platform for Composable

Verifiable Networks.”

The CAREER award is the NSF’s most presti-

gious award in support of junior faculty who

exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through

outstanding research, excellent education and

the integration of education and research

within the context of the mission of their

organizations.

Insup Lee, the Cecilia Fitler Moore Professor

of Computer and Information Science, has

received the Technical Achievement Award from

the IEEE Technical Committee on Real-Time

Systems for his outstanding technical achieve-

ment and leadership.

George Heilmeier, Penn Engineering Alumnus

and Overseer, has been inducted Into the

National Inventors Hall of Fame. Dr. Heilmeier

pioneered the first liquid crystal displays

eventually used in computer screens and

televisions. He is among 15 new members

of the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

“CKBot,” a creation of C.J. Taylor, Associate

Professor of Computer and Information Science,

Mark Yim, Associate Professor of Mechanical

Engineering and Applied Mechanics and their

students, was named as #81 of Discover

Magazine’s Top 100 Science Stories of 2008.

Lecture NotesThe George H. Heilmeier Faculty Award for

Excellence in Research was named in honor of

alumnus and Overseer George H. Heilmeier,

and recognizes his extraordinary research

career, his leadership in technical innovation

and public service. Professor Scott Diamond,

the Arthur E. Humphrey Professor of Chemical

and Biomolecular Engineering, was selected as

the 2009 recipient of the award. The distinction

associated with the Heilmeier name has set very

high standards for this award, and Dr.

Diamond’s discoveries and innovations in

high throughput screening and micro-array

technology were noted by the Awards

Committee to have “revolutionized the field”

and met the high standards of creativity and

impact associated with George Heilmeier’s

name. Dr. Diamond’s seminar, “High

Throughput Biotechnology” was presented

on March 4, 2009.

The Saul Gorn Lecture Series was established

in honor of the late Professor Saul Gorn who

played a key role in the establishment of the

Department of Computer and Information

Science. The 2009 distinguished speaker was

Professor Peter Lee, Head of the Computer

Science Department at Carnegie Mellon

University, who presented a lecture on April 16,

2009, entitled “Programming a Million Robots.”

The 2009 John A. Quinn Lecture in Chemical

Engineering honors the pioneering contribu-

tions that Professor John Quinn has made in

bringing chemical engineering science to

problems in human health, pharmaceutical

production and nanotechnology. On March 25,

2009, this year’s distinguished Quinn lecturer,

Robert A. Brown, President, Boston University,

spoke on the topic, “A 21st Century View of

Chemical Engineering.”

In Memoriam

Edward K. Morlok, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Electrical and SystemsEngineering, died on April 18, 2009, at the age of 68, following a long battle with cancer. At the time of his death, Professor Morlok wasPenn’s UPS Foundation Professor ofTransportation Emeritus.

Professor Morlok was born in Philadelphia andgraduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1962 and a doctorate fromNorthwestern in 1967, both in civil engineering.He began his career that year as an AssistantProfessor at Northwestern University and waspromoted to Associate Professor in 1969. Dr.Morlok came to Penn in 1973 as AssociateProfessor of Civil and Urban Engineering,appointed to the UPS Chair and promoted to full professor in 1976.

Professor Morlok was a researcher whose workencompassed diverse analytical approaches totransportation systems. His colleague VukanVuchic recalled that Dr. Morlok “was an expert inall aspects of transportation systems engineering:highways, railroads, airlines.” While he coveredmany aspects of transportation, from the role ofmanufacturing to applications of intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and environmentalaspects and impacts, most of Dr. Morlok’s workfocused on economics and logistics of freighttransportation.

Dr. Morlok made significant contributions to theoretical and analytical studies of freight transport and applied many of his studies tooperations of actual transportation systems. Thus, his optimization studies of intermodal transportation (truck-rail-piggybacking, container-ization and others) were modeled on and appliedto actual intermodal transportation companies.

Professor Morlok taught engineering economics,logistics and manufacturing, and supervisednumerous doctoral students. He was the authorof four books, and served as the editor ofMcGraw-Hill series on transportation.

Professor Morlok was the recipient of many pres-tigious honors, such as the Von Humboldt Award,the Transportation/Logistics Educator of the YearAward, and the Distinguished TransportationResearcher Award. He served as Chair of Penn’sfirst graduate group in Transportation and onnumerous committees at both the School andUniversity levels.

Dr. Morlok is survived by his wife, PatriciaCampbell Morlok; a daughter, Jessica Prince; a stepson, John Conboy, and stepdaughtersPatricia Kuzyk, Elizabeth Sheslow, Peggy Wagmanand Nancy Burke.

For more information on gift planning to Penn Engineering, please contact Eleanor Brown Davis at 215-898-6564 [email protected] or visit www.upenn.planyourlegacy.org

Remember PennEngineering...

“It was 1954. Could my family afford tosend me to college? Then ‘the letter’came: A full scholarship to Penn. For me,it is important to make that happen forsomeone else.”

Norm Rosenfeld, EE’58

Beneficiary designations and bequests have been fundamentalto Penn Engineering’s stability and expansion for more than 150years. Throughout times of accelerated economic growth anddespite periods of unpredictability, alumni and friends of theSchool have provided for our future in this meaningful way. Wehope you will include Penn Engineering in your estate plans andhelp to ensure our long-term strength and vitality.

Help keep us strong

with Lamont W. Abrams, Jr. As a Network Specialist for the Computing and EducationalTechnology Services (CETS) at Penn Engineering, Lamont Abrams supports the installation, maintenance and monitoring of computer hardware and software that comprise the School’scomputer network.

This sounds like an interesting position. Can you talk about yourspecific responsibilities? The IT field is constantly changing, and inthe ten years that I’ve been at Penn, my responsibilities have also shifted. I started as an IT Support Technician and my duties were simpler—I would fix computers, printers, and assist with the multi-media equipment in the auditorium. Today, my responsibilities aremore broadly-based throughout the School. I work on a portable video conferencing unit and other web conferencing technologies that allowpeople to collaborate on projects or hold meetings without leaving thecomfort of their office. I convert video files from one format to anotherfor Mac and Windows. I offer A-V tutorials and assist with multi-mediapresentations for major School events. I also attend the PennEngineering Overseers meetings to provide trouble-shooting expertisefor presentations.

It sounds like you are the wizard behind the screen, taking care ofour technological needs without us even knowing! At CETS, we tryto provide a seamless interface between the user and technology. Thatmeans we also maintain certifications, place orders, monitor invento-ries, perform routine checks—we’ll do whatever it takes. When wehave large projects, I coordinate with other departments, contractors,and various vendors. I often try to find ways to integrate new trends intechnology with equipment currently existing in our inventory.

Can you give an example of one of these new technologies? Justthis spring, I was able to setup and configure the Quicktime StreamingServer that was used during the Technology, Business and GovernmentDistinguished Lecture featuring NASA astronaut and Penn Engineeringalumnus Garrett Reisman. We provided a viewing alternative for theoverflow crowd by streaming the live video to another auditorium. Thisis one of the benefits of being on Team CETS; if you have an interestor idea that would benefit Penn Engineering, you are encouraged toexplore it!

What do you like to do outside of work? Nighttime photography issomething I really enjoy. At least once a month I find a scenic place tophotograph at night. I plan to go to White Sands, New Mexico, andphotograph the desert by moon light. I have been once before and itwas so beautiful. Now that I have the skill and equipment, I’m ready tocapture it.

quizpop

PENN ENGINEERING ■ cIII

The University of Pennsylvania values diversity and seeks talented students, faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds.

The University of Pennsylvania does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity,

religion, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, or status as a Vietnam Era Veteran or disabled veteran in the

administration of educational policies, programs or activities; admissions policies; scholarship and loan awards; athletic,

or other University administered programs or employment. Questions or complaints regarding this policy should be

directed to: Executive Director, Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Programs, Sansom Place East, 3600

Chestnut Street, Suite 228, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6106 or by phone at (215) 898-6993 (Voice) or (215) 898-7803 (TDD).

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA NONDISCRIMINATION STATEMENT

Mr. Andrew S. Rachleff, W’80[Board Chair]PartnerBenchmark CapitalMenlo Park, CA

The Honorable Harold Berger, EE’48, L’51Managing PartnerBerger and Montague, P.C.Philadelphia, PA

Mr. David J. Berkman, W’83Managing PartnerLiberty Associated Partners, L.P.Bala Cynwyd, PA

Dr. Katherine D. Crothall, EE’71PrincipalLiberty Venture Partners, Inc. Philadelphia, PA

Mr. Richard D. Forman, EE'87, W'87Managing PartnerHealth Venture GroupNew York, NY

Mr. Douglas M. Glanville, ENG’93PresidentG.K. Alliance, LLCGlen Ellyn, IL

Mr. C. Michael Gooden, GEE’78Chairman and CEOIntegrated Systems Analysts Inc.Alexandria, VA

Mr. Paul S. Greenberg, EE’83, WG’87PrincipalTrilogy Capital LLCGreenwich, CT

Mr. Alex Haidas, C’93, ENG’93, WG’98Portfolio ManagerCredaris (CPM Advisers Limited) London, UK

Dr. George H. Heilmeier, EE’58Chairman EmeritusTelcordia Technologies, Inc.Piscataway, NJ

Dr. John F. Lehman, Jr., GR’74Chairman and Founding PartnerJ. F. Lehman & CompanyNew York, NY

Dr. David M. Magerman, C’90, ENG’90President and FounderKohelet FoundationGladwyne, PA

Mr. Sean C. McDonald, ChE’82President, CEOPrecision TherapeuticsPittsburgh, PA

Mr. Hital R. Meswani, ENG’90, W’90Executive Director and Member of the BoardReliance Industries LimitedMumbai, India

Mr. Rajeev Misra, ME’85, GEN’86Children’s Investment FundLondon, UK

Mr. Ofer Nemirovsky, EE’79, W’79Managing DirectorHarbourVest Partners, LLCBoston, MA

Mr. David Pakman, ENG’91PartnerVenrockNew York, NY

Mr. Mitchell I. Quain, EE’73, parent[Board Chair Emeritus]Senior DirectorACI Capital Co., LLCNew York, NY

Mr. William H. Rackoff, C’71, MTE’71President and Chief Executive OfficerASKO Inc.Homestead, PA

Mr. Allie P. Rogers, ENG’87, W’87Co-FounderTriple Point Technology, Inc.Westport, CT

Mr. Jeffrey M. Rosenbluth, ENG’84Private InvestorSands Point, NY

Ms. Suzanne B. Rowland, ChE’83Managing DirectorEnergy & Environmental EnterprisesPhiladelphia, PA

Mr. Theodore E. Schlein, C’86PartnerKleiner Perkins Caufield & ByersMenlo Park, CA

Mr. Roger A. ShiffmanPresident and CEOZizzle, LLBannockburn, IL

Dr. Krishna P. Singh, MS’69, Ph.D.’72President and CEOHOLTEC InternationalMarlton, NJ

Dr. Rajendra Singh, parentChairman and CEOTelcom Ventures LLCAlexandria, VA

Mr. J. Peter Skirkanich, W’65, parentManaging PartnerRenard Partners South, L.C.Rumson, NJ

Mr. Robert M. Stavis, EAS’84, W’84PartnerBessemer VentureLarchmont, NY

Mr. Frederick J. Warren, ME’60, WG’61FounderSage Venture Partners, LLCWinter Park, FL

Ms. Sarah Keil Wolf, EE’86, W’86Retired Investment BankerBear Stearns and CompanyScarsdale, NY

Dr. Michael D. Zisman, GEE’73, GR’77Managing Director, OperationsInternet Capital GroupWayne, PA

PENN ENGINEERING BOARD OF OVERSEERS

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

123 TOWNE BUILDING

220 SOUTH 33RD STREET

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA 19104-6391

Non Profit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDPermit No. 2563Philadelphia, PA

Documents

Penn Engineering Magazine: Spring 2009