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Dr. Bruce Eisenstein honored with 2012 IEEE Richard M. Emberson Award
Drexel’s Dr. Bruce Eisenstein, Arthur J. Rowland professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and interim dean of the College of Engineering, was named the 2012 recipient of the Richard M. Emberson Award. The award is one of the highest recognitions presented by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the largest technical/professional society in the world with nearly 400,000 members.
Eisenstein will be presented with the award, which includes a bronze medal, an illuminated certificate and an honorarium, at the 2012 IEEE Honors Ceremony in Boston, Mass. with more than 600 people expected to attend. It is given out for distinguished service to the development, viability, advancement and pursuit of the technical objectives of the IEEE.
Eisenstein received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from MIT, a master’s in electrical engineering from Drexel and a doctoral degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He was a NASA/ASEE fellow at Stanford University and the NASA Ames Research Center and a visiting research fellow in electrical engineering at Princeton University under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation. At Drexel, he has served as the head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and associate dean of Engineering. He currently serves as interim dean of the College of Engineering.
He has published more than 50 papers in the areas of digital signal processing, pattern recognition, deconvolution, and biomedical engineering. Eisenstein was the recipient of the C. Holmes MacDonald Award of Eta Kappa Nu given to the “Outstanding Young Electrical Engineering Educator.” He is a member of Eta Kappa Nu, and served on the National Board of Directors and as president. He is also a member of Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi, ASEE and is a registered professional engineer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Eisenstein was elected Delaware Valley Engineer of the Year for 2000. He served as president of the IEEE in 2000 and has held several other IEEE positions, including chairman of the Philadelphia section, treasurer, vice president for technical activities, member of the Board of Directors, and president of the Education Society.
In 1986 the Board of Directors established the IEEE Richard M. Emberson Award. The Award is named in honor of Dr. Richard M. Emberson, whose 23-year association with the Institute at both the staff and volunteer levels, including Director of Technical Services, Executive Director and General Manager, and Member of the Board of Directors, exemplified loyal and dedicated service to the Institute, especially its Technical Activities. Past recipients of this award include Bruno Weinschel and Robert Lucky. Additional information about the award can be foun on the IEEE website.
Posted December 12, 2011.
Five ECE students win 2011 IEEE PES Scholarships
ECE is pleased to announce that five of our electrical engineering undergraduate students have been selected to receive scholarships as part of the inaugural IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) Scholarship Plus Initiative. PES Scholarship recipients were selected from 51 U.S. universities for the 2011-2012 academic year. These undergraduate students were selected by industry and academic representatives based primarily upon: academic preparation; extra-curricular activities and leadership; interest in engineering in general, and power and energy engineering in particular; and overall assessment of the student's potential for a successful power and energy engineering career.
2011 PES Scholarship recipients from the ECE department include:
- Calvin Au - Electrical Engineering Senior
- Nicholas Coleman - BS/MS Electrical Engineering Junior
- Joshua Edelman - Electrical Engineering Senior
- Khaula Rashid - Electrical Engineering Sophomore
- Vincent Zaccone - Electrical Engineering Senior
For more information about this program, please visit the PES Scholarship Plus Initiative homepage.
Posted December 2, 2011.
Department Head presents IEEE/Royal Society of Edinburgh Award
Dr. Moshe Kam, ECE Department Head, met with HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, on Friday, August 15th for the purpose of presenting the IEEE/Royal Society of Edinburgh Wolfson James Clerk Maxwell Award to Dr. Marcian E. Hoff. The Maxwell award recognizes ground breaking contributions by those who follow in Maxwell’s footsteps. The award this year was presented by Dr. Kam to Dr. Hoff for developments in programmable integrated circuitry for a wide range of applications.
Dr. Hoff’s determination that there ‘must be a better way’ to use integrated circuits for computing led him to design the world’s first microprocessor – the Intel 4004 – in 1968, paving the way for a large number of applications, including the personal computer and embedded systems.
Additional information about this event is available from the Royal Society of Edinburgh website.
More information about the award can be found on the IEEE website.
Photographs reproduced by permission of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; photographs by Gary Doak.
Posted August 24, 2011.
Department Head comments on the future of robotics
On June 24, President Obama announced a $70 million National Robotics Initiative. The stated goal of this new initiative is "to accelerate the development and use of robots in the United States that work beside, or cooperatively with, people." Dr. Moshe Kam, ECE Department Head, was asked by the Philadelphia Inquirer to comment on the impact of this initiative on research and economics as well as the place of robots in human life.
When asked about the practical implications of the president's recently announced initiatives, Dr. Kam stated that it "represents a step up in the way we work with robots." He feels that the initiative makes explicit a commitment to an objective that has been motivating research for years, namely "to have robots that are out in the human environment, cooperative with humans, becoming partners of humans in their activities, trying to understand their intentions." Dr. Kam continues the interview by enumerating a vision of the future in which robots assist in tasks ranging from food production to search and rescue to communications. To read the entire interview, please visit the Philadelphia Inquirer story.
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