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Transcript of Harvard SEAS, Newsletter, Spring 2005
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8/14/2019 Harvard SEAS, Newsletter, Spring 2005
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V o l u m e I V I s s u e 1 S p r i n g 2 0 0 5
Inside Education
Some of the greatest engineering suc-cesses are those that go unnoticed. Wesit in comfort as a plane lands without ahitch during high winds. As we type aletter, our computer traps a virus behindthe scenes. It is an age of the invisibleengineer, not only because of advancesin small-scale science, but because theingenuity of engineering and appliedsciences often lies hidden behind a
seamless interface. This leads me to aska tough question: How do we inspirethose who will never be professionalengineers or applied scientists to betterunderstand and appreciate technologywhen they seldom need to go beyondthe interface or open the hood?
As I mentioned in my last message, aftera period of great renewal the Divisionhas indeed emerged and is poised to goon to even greater heights. Our plans,from our size to our structure to theenvironment, all stem from one over-
arching goal: giving students the bestpossible education. With that in mind,we hope to accomplish two criticaltasks in the years ahead:
exposing all undergraduates to key
areas of science and technology,
especially the relationship between
science, technology, and society
using innovative ways to teach stu-
dents, especially experiential learning
through hands-on experiments.
This is ambitious, but purposely so. Ourcurriculum needs to evolve as fields in-
creasingly come together and science andtechnology infuse every aspect of dailylife, from politics to the environment.
Exposure
Engineering and applied sciences (E&AS)often get grouped, and lost, under thebroader term science. Like medicineand law, our practice is distinct and mustbe treated as such. Our community is inan ideal position to emphasize three ofE&ASs most defining characteristics:
Appliedbasic. The push-pull relation-ship between basic and applied researchis our golden rule. Strength in founda-tional disciplines, from applied physicsto computer science, provides a basis foradvancing the boundaries of knowledge.At the same time, students should under-stand how to use resulting technologiesto promote the social good.
Integrative. E&AS is inherently inter-disciplinary and integrative. Not onlydoes E&AS expose students to multiplefields, but it also inspires them to col-laborate and learn togetherskills thatare essential in everyday life and work.
Linking. Given its roots in mathematicsand science, E&AS has an exceptionalway of linking with the professionalschools. Tools developed in engineeringare used to drive discovery in areas suchas biology and medicine. Advances playa critical role in informing policies andpractices in business. With a parallel em-phasis on systems-level thinking, E&ASalso provides students with approachesuseful for tackling any problem.
Experience
The Harvard experienceimmersionin a multifaceted intellectual setting ispart of what makes learning engineeringand applied sciences at DEAS singular.We have increasingly become a key partof that experience through promotingexperiential learning. While incorpo-rating the use of everyday technologyprovides a start, a better investment isletting students get inside the latest
gadget: for example, going below thewires and teasing apart the fundamental
discoveries in physics, microelectron-ics, and materials that led to the 10,000songs in their pockets. The counterpartto this learning by disintegration islearning by integration. Throughhands-on design and an introduction tobasic function and form, we teach stu-dents how to synthesize: moving froman idea (such as modeling a circuit) toan application (actually building one).In addition, we are also
introducing new core courses such asBits and Energy, Environment, and
Industrial Development, and in thenear future, developing a tentativelytitled Tech A&B sequencean over-view that will provide perspectives onscience and technology
expanding our high-school education-al programs, like GK-12, to provide apath that may lead students directlyto our door and help inspire interest inengineering
offering more ways for students todiscover who we are and what we do
by supporting clubs and societies,creating a new social center/caf inMaxwell Dworkin, and increasing ourpresence on campus through concen-tration fairs, research demonstrations,and general lectures.
Opening up the black box to discoverthe how and the why leads to a greaterunderstanding of our world and ofourselves, which in turn informs manyof our decisions and gives us greatercontrol. The power and rewards of suchdiscovery should not be limited to the
few, but need to be made accessible toall students. The next generation ofpolitical, business, academic, and tech-nical leaders who will help run coun-tries and companies will take what theyhave learned with them. They will sharethat knowledge with everyone theywork withand that, ultimately, willmake engineering and applied sciences,and the Division, shine.J
De
ansMessage
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The following article is intended to provide
a broad snapshot of diversity at DEAS
and to highlight past trends. The data reflect
the latest and most complete diversity-related
information that was readily available at the
time of publication.
Charts 1 4 provide a look at the Divisions
entire student body by ethnicity, residency
status, concentration, and gender. Charts 57
provide a snapshot of national undergraduate
and graduate enrollment in engineering only,
and are provided for reference (not direct com-
parison). See the sidebar on page 3 to learn
more about enrollment in computer science.
Complete national data is available on the web-
sites listed in the Resources section on page 4.
A look at the nation
Sources: CST, data derived from Engineering Workforce Commission, Engineering and Technology Enrollments; Women in EngineeringPrograms and Advocates Network, www.wepan.org
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Challenges for undergrad computer science
A commonly held perception is that a more diverse fac-
ulty will lead to a more diverse student body. DEAS has
had some recent successes, particularly in the area of
computer science. In 2003 two new female faculty mem-
bers were hired. Women now represent 18 percent of
the total DEAS CS faculty, more than double the national
average of 8.6 percent. Despite this success, there has
been a decline in the overall number of undergraduate
computer science concentrators (especially female), in
the nation as well as at Harvard (see Chart 8 below).
The biggest challenge we face in computer science is
simply low numbers, says Associate Dean for Computer
Science and Engineering Margo I. Seltzer. We have to
break that cycle if we want to make any progress.
Breaking the cycle, however, is as much of a qualitative
as it is a quantitative issue. I think anyone, male or
female, feels better if they see other people who are like
them, says Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Mema Roussopoulos. It is especially hard for a female
student if her classmates say, Hey, you are the only
woman in this class!
Barbara J. Grosz, Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences
and Dean of Science at the Radcliffe Institute, suggests
that part of the solution may involve changing percep-
tions. Making the teamwork orientation of CS courses
and projects more visible and talking about the oppor-
tunities for students to do research with faculty will help
increase not only the number of women but also the
overall number of concentrators, she says.
While the challenges ahead are difficult, Seltzer, a Divi-
sion alum, wants to focus on the positive. A key first step
is finding out why potential computer science concentra-
tors end up dropping out or, more important, why some
students never consider concentrating or taking classes
in the first place. Once students are in the Division,
they seem to really like it, she says.
Social and intellectual collaborationSuccess at the Division has been defined by students and
faculty members willingness to draw on knowledge and ex-
pertise in diverse fields. DEAS is in an ideal position to extend
the concept of renaissance engineering to support a range
of teaching, learning, and mentorship methodologies. While
this issue has garnered increasing attention in recent months,
it is not a new concern; it has challenged the field for decades.Creating and maintaining a welcoming environment for all
faculty and students is an essential part of a longer-term mis-
sion to grow and expand efforts in engineering and the applied
sciences throughout Harvard.
Looking back
DEAS trends. DEAS, like Harvard itself, has an exceptionally
diverse undergraduate student body. While trends among spe-
cific ethnic groups have been mixed, during 19992003almost
40 percent of our students were either minorities or foreign
nationals. The total percentage of undergraduate female con-
centrators increased from 22 to almost 26 percent over the
same period. In terms of specific concentrations, engineeringsciences has grown the most overall during the past five years
(from 74 to 85 students); of particular note, the number of
women in this concentration has nearly tripled, growing from
10 to 29 students. The number of concentrators in computer
science, in keeping with national trends, has declined sharply
(from 187 in 1999 to 116 in 2003), especially among women
(from 31 to 16 over the same period).
While the total number of graduate students at the Division
increased nearly 40 percent (193 to 268) from 2000 to 2004, the
percentage of women at the graduate level has declined, from
28 to 23 percent. It is important to note that the greatest drop
in the number of female students occurred in a single year(20002001) and is related to a national trend of fewer individ-
uals pursuing computer science degrees. Following that drop,
the percentage of women in our graduate student population
has consistently remained around 2223 percent from 2001
to 2004. In the same period, DEAS has enrolled an increasing
number of foreign nationals, and despite a light drop in 2004
due to the Patriot Act and other post-9/11 initiatives, they now
make up over 40 percent of the graduate population. While the
percentage of minorities has remained under 20 percent, the
Admissions Office has been active in trying to attract a more
ethnically diverse application pool through targeted outreach.
Within specific degree areas, the trends are mixed; most notable
are the drop from 28 percent to 16 percent in the number of fe-male computer science graduate students (which contributed
to the overall drop in the number of female students), and the
increase in the number of women in applied physics, which
more than tripled.
National trends.The Women in Engineering Programs and Ad-
vocates Network (WEPAN) reports that the ethnic and gender
profiles of both the undergraduate and graduate student popu-
lations in engineering sciences have remained mixed over the
past several years (based on data covering 1999 to 2003); whats
most notable is that there have been relatively few gains or
major declines for any given population during this period
The Computing Research Association (CRA) and National
Science Foundation (NSF) reported that total undergraduate
enrollments in computer science have dropped more than
25 percent since 2001. Data on ethnicity remains mixed, with
no noticeable trends. A similar decline is apparent among the
number of individuals receiving Ph.D.s in computer science,
and the ethnic makeup has remained relatively constant over
the same period.
avavavavavavavavavavavavavav
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FURTHER READING
Selected articles related to women in
science and engineering at Harvard:
Summers: Women in Science
Harvard Crimson, April 18, 2005
www.thecrimson.com/
article.aspx?ref=506949
Sciences Struggle to Draw WomenHarvard Crimson, December 17, 2004
www.thecrimson.com/
article.aspx?ref=505150
Feature from Harvard Magazine
www.harvardmagazine.com/features/
february15.html
For a broader view of undergraduate
life and education, including diversity
on campus, mentoring, and teaching
science and engineering at Harvard,
see:
Making the Most of College: Students
Speak Their Minds, by Richard Light(Harvard University Press, 2001)
RESOURCES
The following resources offer compre-
hensive national data and statistics
on enrollment and graduation trends
among undergraduates and graduates
in engineering and computer science,
as well as information about current
and past faculty makeup and hiring/
promotion trends in these areas. Most
of the information is freely available.
National Science Foundation
www.nsf.gov/statistics/
Computing Research Association
www.cra.org
The American Society for
Engineering Education
www.asee.org
Ongoing and recent efforts at the DivisionAs part of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, students have an opportunity to join dozens
of organizations that support a wide range of interests, from the Harvard-Radcliffe Chi-
nese Students Association to the Harvard Society of Black Scientists and Engineers.
1 Advising, mentoring, and educational programs
With the 2004 addition of Assistant Dean for Academic Programs Dr. Marie
Dahleh, DEAS is in a better position to offer increased levels of support to all
students. Dr. Dahleh is devising a comprehensive plan to assess all aspects of the
Divisions undergraduate programs, recruitment efforts, and quality of learning. In
addition to a lead role for DEAS in representing engineering and applied sciences
in the Colleges curriculum review, tentative plans include offering new types
of courses designed to be of interest to a wider population of Harvard students.
Already, through Dahlehs guidance, the University has become a member of
MentorNet, an online program that provides guidance for women in the sciences.
Alums are encouraged to join; contact [email protected].
Dr. Kathryn Hollar is the Director of Educational Programs, overseeing an effort
that extends beyond DEAS and provides outreach to the Cambridge-area K12
student populations. Programs such as GK12 and Project TEACH expose DEAS
graduate students to diverse student populations, provide a resource for localteachers who want to teach engineering and applied sciences, and allow junior-
high and high-school students to link up with potential role models. Those two
programs, along with the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program,
designed to offer research experience to undergraduates from across the country,
bring a diverse group of students to DEAS each year. One sign of success: Several
REU students have been accepted to Ph.D. programs at the Division this year.
2 Support and social groups
Women in Science at Harvard-Radcliffe (WISHR) and the related Women in
Computer Science (WICS) are devoted to fostering a sense of community among
women engaged in science and computer science at Harvard College. In addition,
the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Racial Relations sponsors events for
the entire Harvard community, and the W.E.B. du Bois Graduate Society caters to
supporting ethnic groups among the graduate student population.
3 Scholarships
The Deans Office announced the first annual Innovation Fellowship this past
spring. Fellowships of$15,000 will be given each year to help attract and retain
the best and the brightest applicants.
4 Task forces
The Presidents Office recently created two related task forces: the University
Task Force on Women in Science and Engineering, chaired by DEASs own Barbara
J. Grosz, and the University Task Force on Women Faculty, chaired by Evelynn
M. Hammonds, Professor of the History of Science and of African and AfricanAmerican Studies.
Looking forward
DEAS is evolving to meet the challenges facing the University and society. Sustaining
diversity is part of that evolution; it must be carefully integrated into all aspects of
the current planning process. The greatest challenges are treating the issue thought-
fully and sensitively, and realizing that a robust solution will not be centered on one
institution or in one area of education. We will continue to keep you informed on
issues of diversity through our newsletter, Web site, and other materials. Your feed-
back and input ([email protected]) are welcome and encouraged. JMarie Dahleh serves as the AssistantDean for Academic Programs at DEAS.
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Mixing metaphors
Everyones familiar with this common pattern of pixels:the computer desktop wastebasket. You might believethat dragging a file into the virtual trash bin makes it vanish,
but since the trashed data is not immediately deleted, a more
accurate metaphor would involve going into a library, taking a
books card out of the card catalog and throwing it away, then
pretending that the book had disappeared from the shelf.
The metaphorical world of information devices has proven so
successful that people are freed from having to understand the
technology in order to make the devices work, says HarvardCollege Professor and Gordon McKay Professor of Computer
Science Harry Lewis. The problem is when people begin to
believe the metaphors. In some sense, [the metaphors] have
been too successful. We have, in modern parlance, entered
the Matrix.
Harvard cybercitizens have two ways of learning the truth, and
Lewis serves as the Universitys version of Morpheus (pill-free,
of course). Students can delve into his new core course, QR 48:
Bits, or they can find out the truth the hard way, as starlet Paris
Hilton did when a hacker put the contents of her e-address
book on public display.
The course tackles recent and often up-to-the-minute issues,from privacy and security to cryptography and terrorism,
but Lewis created QR 48 as a response to his own awareness
of how technology had transformed during his eight years
(19952003) as Dean of the College. When I went into Uni-
versity Hall, computing was the important thing, and when I
came out, information was, he says.
Courtesy of Moores Law and the cabling of the world with
fiber-optic lines, every nanosecond billions of bits are now
seamlessly moved, stored, and accessed on the cheap. Never
one to miss a good metaphor, Lewis suggests thinking of
information as food. We
consume it all the time; there
are different varieties, ways
of preparing it and serving it
that may come as a complete
surprise, he explains. In
other words, its a 24-hour
buffet for anyone with a
port, and the sneeze guard is
looking a bit murky.Divided neatly into four segments (information as stuff,
privacy, communication, and intellectual property), QR 48
equips those who will determine policies, whether as legisla-
tors, corporate leaders, or ordinary citizens, with a founda-
tional knowledge of the social and technological choices that
lie ahead. Even without a heavy math focus, the course hits
students with the healthy dose of hard science they are likely
to need, including the fundamentals of cryptography, a review
of Shannons information theory, and a lesson on the electro-
magnetic spectrum and how it is used.
To cover such a wide range of material, Lewis calls on a col-
league at MIT, Professor of Computer Science and EngineeringHal Abelson, to co-teach the course. He also leans on some
amazing guest lecturers, such as William Crowell, security
expert and former deputy director of the National Security
Agency; and John Perry Barlow, former lyricist of the Grateful
Dead and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation,
one of the most influential advocacy groups in cyberspace.
Even as the instructors balance so many concepts (in addition
to teaching and research, Lewis himself is writing two books,
one about his deanship and the other based on the course),
students are not left without guidance.
Lewis, who, in tweed jacket and pink pinstripes with crimson
tie, looks like the classic avatar of a Harvard College profes-
sor, keeps the undergraduates focused using a series of what
he calls bit koans. The one that starts the course also serves
as a fitting conclusion: Data and information are different.
Neither is the same as truth. The man famous for his essay
telling incoming students how to get more out of Harvard by
doing less cannot stop the dizzying pace of information flow,
but he is well positioned to provide the tools to keep future
graduates a few steps, or bits, ahead. J
To learn more and to watch video lectures, visit
www.eecs.harvard.edu/qr48
Professor Harry Lewis asksstudents to enter the Matrixin his new course, QR 48: Bits.(Lewis was brave enough toadmit that he has yet to seethe Matrixtrilogy. A boxed setof the movies, a black leathercoat, and a pair of mirrorshades are on order.)
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CollaborationsTraversing physics and applied sciencesJoining Cruft Laboratory to Pierce Hall is an aerial structure
known unofficially as the Van Vleck Bridge. Traversing it, we are
reminded that it was Van himself who served in the crucial years
as the bridge between physics and applied sciences at Harvard.In that figurative sense, Van Vleck bridges stand out as landmarks
in 20th-century Harvard and 20th-century physics.
Edward M. Purcell, remarks at a memorial for JohnHasbrouck Van Vleck, Harvard Dean of Engineeringand Applied Physics, 195157
Nature magazine (433:179) ran an editorial proclaiming:Einstein is dead. Until its next revolution, much of theglory of physics will be in engineering. It is a shame that the
physicists who do so much of it keep so quiet about it.
John Huth, Chairman of the Physics Department, begs to differ,
as would anyone who took a stroll over the bridge that linksPierce and Cruft halls. The dimly lit chute, flanked with offices
on either side, is far from quiet in either direction and provides
the best (and never silent) view of the construction of the
Laboratory for Integrated Sciences Engineering (LISE) building.
The assumption of the writer is that there is a dividing line
between engineering and physics, says Huth, with several
counterexamples at the ready. We can take the example of
superconductivity or MRI [fostered in part at Harvard by
Nobel Prize winner Edward Purcell] or SQUID [superconduct-
ing quantum interference device]. These all originated as some
basic physics but metamorphosed into engineering.
Historically and increasingly today, the Physics Departmentshares a particularly close intellectual relationship with
the Division, where crosscutting research in computational
physics, electrical engineering, and nanotechnology is on-
goingfrom Eric Mazurs work on nanowires to Federico
Capassos work on the Quantum Cascade and Raman lasers
and Jene Golovchenkos investigations of nanopores, useful
for detecting single molecules.
Come fall 2005, the Division will boast 15 joint faculty ap-
pointments (14 senior and 1 junior) with Physics. In addition,
researchers have long shared facilities, such as the Harvard Cen-
ter for Nanoscale Systems (CNS), and equally taken advantage
of the two NSF-funded research centers, NSEC and MRSEC. The
me casa es su casa attitude will extend to new physics faculty
member Jenny Hoffman, whose work focuses on how electrons
behave in novel materials. Her future lab will reside comfort-
ably on the other side, in the basement of Pierce Hall.
One of our groups initial projects will be the construction of
a low-temperature, highmagnetic field, scanning tunneling
microscope, to investigate the field-dependent properties ofvortices in high-temperature superconductors, she says. Hoff-
man plans to use her imaging technology to investigate how
various types of crystal defects may pin the vortices in place in
yttrium barium copper oxidecoated conductors (critical for
developing small, lightweight power systems).
Despite the emphasis on technology, Huth is a great fan of
pure physics and admires Einstein, even if he did get some
things wrong, such as disputing the nature of measurement
in quantum mechanics or, for a long time, refusing to acknowl-
edge the existence of the strong interaction as a fundamental
force. The famed theorist certainly deserves his place and his
100 candles, but the future also looks bright.In non-engineering physics, we have the success of a unified
model of the weak and electromagnetic interactions. Moreover,
where the origins of mass and symmetry are breakingsome-
thing we dont understandis about to be probed by the Large
Hadron Collider. The discovery of dark energy has presented
us with a huge mystery that points to a new kind of physics
that was totally unexpected, Huth explains. In short, the
physics revolution, especially with the glorious potential of
using a physics-based approach to tackle biological questions,
is far from over.
Van Vleck, who won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1977 for pio-
neering the application of quantum mechanics to the study ofmagnetism, would no doubt be pleased. His own work led to
many engineering advances in radioastronomy, microwave
spectroscopy, and magnetic resonance. The conversations
between the two areas are likely to remain loud and clear for
years to come at Harvard. Of course, it doesnt hurt that the
current Dean of the Division and of Physical Sciences has a
B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D., all in experimental physics. J
For more, see
www.physics.harvard.edu
www.hno.harvard.edu/guide/faculty/fac6.html
John H. Van Vleck (left), Harvard Dean of Engineering and Applied Physics from 19511957 and new arrival Jenny Hoffman (right), AssistantProfessor of Physics. The formula for yttrium barium copper oxide is in the background.
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Its rare for any book to get fan mail. Its almost unthink-able when the tome in question weighs in at 1,000-pluspages, unabashedly offers equations and circuit diagrams, and
definitely comes with homework. But mention the title, The
Art of Electronics, to any physicist or engineer and they will
likely proclaim, Well, thats not surprising at all! The classic
silver and black doorstop and favorite line-item entry of its
publishers CFO will likely grace shelves for decades to come.
Nothing captures the devotion many feel toward the book bet-ter than a readers comment: Your book is a crown jewel in the
branch of electronics literature. It is my recreation, reading it
in free evenings. The books authors, Paul Horowitz, Professor
of Physics and of Electrical Engineering, and Winfield Hill,
Director of Electronics Engineering at the Rowland Institute
at Harvard, never anticipated that such success (and a large fan
base) would come from a pile of photocopied pen-and-ink lec-
ture notes bound together with an overstretched rubber band.
The Art of Electronicscame to life as part of Physics 123, a 1974
Harvard course started by Horowitz. With the aid of Hill, the
course was transformed in a text that captured their intuitive
back-of-the-envelope approach to electronic design. This
newly created text proved popular with students, even in its
unwieldy draft form. After the requisite rejection by several
book editors (who are no doubt wondering how they missed
a hit), Cambridge University Press eventually converted the
pack of papers into a smoothly bound, shiny hardback.The secret to the books success might be the homespun style
that provides the patient reader with some unexpected humor.
Heres a typical passage: This example illustrates a frequent
designers quandary, namely a choice between a complicated
circuit that meets the strict worst-case design criterion, and is
therefore guaranteedto work, and a simple circuit that doesnt
meet worst-case specifications, but is overwhelmingly likely
to function without problems. There are times when you will
find yourself choosing the latter, ignoring the little voice
whispering into your ear.
It was good foresight for the authors, and for all their future
readers and fans, that they did listen to their own little voiceswhen it came to creating the book. The text has gone on to
another edition, enjoyed record sales of a million copies world-
wide, and been translated into eight languages. Perhaps more
impressive, The Art of Electronics has changed how students
learn about electronics and how faculty teach the course. The
next time someone says they are going to curl up with a good
book, dont be surprised if it comes with equations. J
For more information on the book, the authors, and
some outlandish uses for the volume, check out
www.artofelectronics.com/
Links and nodesThe art (and electronics) of publishing
We combined a working engineers pragmatic
approach to design with a teachers approach to
conveying that kind of know-how. Electronic
design is best seen as an enabling part of scientific
research, says Winfield Hill. In other words,
continues Paul Horowitz, this was not a book
written by two professors retelling what they
learned from their professors.
Winfield Hill (left) and Paul Horowitz (right), among internationalversions of their book, look forward to completing their third edition.
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AwardsFoundational research
Navin Khaneja has been
granted a Friedrich Wilhelm
Bessel Research Award,
which recognizes young,
top-flight scientists and
scholars from abroad who
are already recognized as
outstanding researchers in
their fields Open bound-
aries Division collabora-
tor George Whitesides has
been named a member of
the National Academy of
Engineering and, with MITs
Robert Langer and C.N.R.
Rao of the Nehru Center
for Fundamental Research
in Bangalore, India, has
won the Dan David Prize
for Future Dimensions
in Materials Science
Quantum creativity
Federico Capasso has
been co-awarded one
of the 2005 King Faisal
International Prizes (KFIP)
for Science (Physics). He
shares the prize with Frank
Wilczek (MIT) and Anton
Zeilinger (University ofVienna). The King Faisal
Foundation called Capasso
one of the most creative
and influential physicists in
the world, having achieved
international recognition
through his design and
demonstration of the
Quantum Cascade laser
Career move Mema
Roussopoulos and David
Brooks have both been
awarded NSF CAREER
grants for their research.
In her paper, Reliable
Peer-to-Peer Data Pres-
ervation, Roussopoulos
outlined a peer-to-peer
digital preservation system
called LOCKSS (Lots of
Copies Keep Stuff Safe), a
tool librarians can use to
preserve long-term access
to content published on
the Web. The system is
currently being deployed at
about 100 libraries around
the world. Brooks was cited
for work on embedded
computing and power
issues. The NSF CAREERprogram recognizes and
supports the early career
development activities of
those teacher-scholars who
are most likely to become
the academic leaders of the
21st century Peer review
The Divisions Michael
J. Aziz, has been awarded
the distinction of American
Association for the
Advancement of Science
(AAAS) Fellow. J
of crucial importance for
the development of future
international environmental
agreements Why?
A Boston Globe editorial
writer, so intrigued by L.
Mahadevans approach to
research, was inspired to
write a lead op-ed piece
about how scientific
curiosity can be its own
reward. On February2,2005, the editorialist wrote,
[Mahadevans] philosophy
should be inspiration to
educators seeking to
ignite young minds, and to
anyone who wants to keep
his or her own gray matter
nourished. Seeking an
understanding of every-
thingfrom a strange plant
in a pot to the outermost
dust in the cosmosis
the zest of science, and
the best way to meet
Nota beneEarth man Scot Martin,
who is using the tools of
chemistry to shed light
on how natural processes
interact with human activi-
ties to affect the environ-
ment, was profiled in the
March 17, 2005, Harvard
Gazette Memorial Minute
A Memorial Minute onthe passing of Harold A.
Thomas Jr., former Gordon
McKay Professor of Civil
and Sanitary Engineering,
was published in the March
3, 2005 Harvard Gazette
Iron chef David A. Weitz
was quoted in a February
25, 2005 Washington
Times article about edible
nanotechnology. The
challenge for edible nano-
technology developersin
terms of the substances
finding widespread com-
mercial use in foodlies
in building capsules
robust enough to stand
whatever processing they
go through, and will yet
release the active agents
whenever you eat them,
said materials scientist
David Weitz of Harvard Uni-
versity, states the article.
Weitz is part of the Kraft
Foods NanoteK Consortium,
a group of researchers
dedicated to exploring
food technology Fast
break Essential Science
Indicators has an interviewwith Daniel J. Jacob. His
fast-breaking (i.e., highly
cited) paper in the field
of geosciences provides
an overview of the use of
aircraft measurements to
verify emission inventories
of environmentally impor-
tant species from a large
continental source region.
Jacob says, Such verifica-
tion of emissions, leading
to better understanding
of emission processes, is
A nano change The Center for Imaging and Mesoscale Structures
(CIMS) has officially changed its name to the Center for Nanoscale
Systems (CNS) as of April 4, 2005. The missions and goals of the
Center have not changed. The new name is more descriptive and
puts an emphasis on the concept of the fabrication and construc-
tion of nanoscale systems. For more, see
http://cns.fas.harvard.edu
Assistant Professor ofComputer ScienceMema Roussopoulos
Professor of Applied PhysicsDavid A. Weitz
Scot Martins research hasglobal reach.
8 I DEAS Spring 2005
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the challenge of living
Better shoes Mahadevan
was also appointed the
Schlumberger Visiting
Professor of Mathematics
at Oxford University, thefirst holder of such a post
in mathematics there. He
says, On my first visit
this summer we worked
on designing a better
shoe, a physical model for
gene therapy that involves
designing viruses that can
beat the immune system,
and the mathematics of
drapes, textiles, and ropes
The apprentice The
February 2005 issue ofSci-
entific American highlights
the path from concept to
company at Harvard. It all
started when Charles M.
Lieber, a major figure in
nanotechnology, asked one
of his graduate students,
Thomas Rueckes, in 1998
to undertake the design
of a radically new type of
computer memory and
eventually led to the inven-
tion of the NRAM (made
from nanotubes) and a new
company, Nantero, Inc.
Two top picks Technology
Research Newslist of top
advances for 2004 included
advances in biotechnology
and computer security
developed at Harvard: a
nanowire-based biochip
developed by Harvard
University researchers that
detects single viruses, andthe implementation of a
six-node quantum cryptog-
raphy network designed
to operate continuously to
provide a way to exchange
secure keys among BBN
Technologies, Harvard, and
Boston University The
nanosphere and beyond
The January/February
2005 issue ofHarvard
Magazine explores the
nanoscientists weird
world, featuring profiles of
Federico Capasso, Robert
Westervelt, Charles Marcus,
Charles Lieber, and George
Whitesides. The same issue
also notes the work of
biomedical engineer David
Edwards, in an article on
the new Harvard Initiative
for Global Health Potent
quote Dean Venky was
quoted in the February 16,
2005, issue of the Boston
Globe in a piece about the
new Biological Engineering
course at MIT, saying, Thisis a time of integration
Quotas in context The
Divisions Fred Abernathy
and the Kennedy Schools
David Weil spoke at the
National Press Club on
December 16, 2004,
about the outlook for U.S.
manufacturers, in light
of the end of quotas on
apparel and textile exports
from most of the rest of
the world at the start of
2005. Abernathy and Weil,
both PIs at the Harvard
Center for Textile and
Apparel Research, also
wrote an editorial, Apparel
Apocalypse? that appeared
in the Washington Post
Sixth sense CNET
reported that a group of
Boston-area academics,including members of the
Division, is stepping up
efforts to commercialize an
experimental technology
aimed at giving computer
networks powerful new
surveillance capabilities
Measure by measure
Robert Westervelt is
quoted in the November
19, 2004, issue ofScience,
in an article about how re-
searchers are exploiting the
oddities of the nanoworld
to make new measuring
devices 40-40 vision
For IEEE Spectrums 40th
anniversary issue, Harvard
researchers Federico
Capasso and George White-
sides, along with 38 other
leading thinkers from the
science and engineering
world, were asked to gaze
out over the technology
landscape and describe
what they see Exemplary
engineering John W.
Hutchinson will receive an
honorary degree of doctor
of engineering from the
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. His
scholarly work in threedifferent branches of the
mechanics of solids has
contributed to shaping
this field of research for a
generation, wrote nomina-
tor L. Ben Freund of Brown
University. His profes-
sional leadership has been
exemplary. His abilities as
an educator/mentor are
most in evidence through
his former graduate
students, who are forging
distinguished careers for
themselves at Illinois,
Brown, Harvard, and many
other universities, com-
panies, and laboratories
in the U.S. and abroad.
Hutchinson is a member
of the National Academy
of Sciences, the National
Academy of Engineering,
and the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences.J
DEAS Spring 2005 I 9
Professor of AppliedMathematics andMechanics L. Mahadevan
Professor of EngineeringJohn Hutchinson
Former graduate studentThomas Rueckes helped foundNantero, Inc. a company usingcarbon nanotubes to developnext-generation semiconductordevices like new types of RAM.
With the end of quotas,low-cost apparel has begunto flood the market.
In IEEE Spectrums 40thanniversary issue, leadingthinkers from the scienceand engineering world gazeout over the technologylandscape and offerinsights about the future.
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Plug and play laserpacks a punch
Federico Capasso, Robert L. WallaceProfessor of Applied Physics and Vinton
Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electri-
cal Engineering, and his colleagues have
demonstrated the feasibility of a new
type of plug-in laser that could lay the
groundwork for wide-ranging security
applications. As reported in the February
24, 2005 issue ofNature, their invention
of the Raman injection laser combines
the advantages of nonlinear optical de-
vices and semiconductor injection lasers
with a compact plug and play design.
While our paper merely demonstratesproof of concept, one day it may lead
to the sort of security experts dream of
having: a portable device that you could
use to detect things like weapons or
explosives, simply by shining an invis-
ible light to see what someone might be
hiding, says Capasso. The work also
represents an important advance in
quantum design, since we are now able
to engineer, from the bottom up, a new
Raman material and laser and tailor its
property for a given application.Conventional Raman lasers depend on
a fundamental phenomenon in physics
called the Raman effect. When light
from an intense laser beam, known as
the pump, deflects off the molecules of
certain materials, some of the incident
photons lose part of their energy. As a
result, a secondary laser beam, with a
frequency shifted from that of the first,
emerges from the material. By combin-
ing the power source
and the Raman material,
literally creating a laser
within a laser, the team
has created the first current-driven
Raman laser. Because the pump laser is
now self-generated, the device is highly
efficient, reducing the standard decline
that happens when an external power
source is used.
Capassos co-authors included the
Divisions Mariano Troccoli and Er-
tugrul Cubukcu, Alexey Belyanin of
Texas A&M University, and Deborah
L. Sivco and Alfred Y. Cho, both of Bell
Laboratories, Lucent Technologies. The
work was partially supported by the
Texas A&M Telecommunications and
Informatics Task Force Initiative.
Adapted from a February 25, 2005, press release
prepared by the DEAS and Faculty of Arts andSciences Offices of Communications.
Related articles appeared inScience, theHarvard
Gazette, Texas A&M News Office releases, Photon-
ics.com, and Optics.org.
How the Venus flytrapsnaps up its preyL. Mahadevan, Gordon McKay Professor
of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics
at the Division and affiliate in the De-
partment of Organismic and Evolution-
ary Biology, with former students and
postdocs Yoel Forterre (Universit de
Provence), Jan M. Skotheim (Cambridge
University and Harvard), and Jacques
Dumais (Harvard), reported in the Janu-
ary 27, 2005, issue ofNaturehow the Ve-
nus flytrap snaps up its prey in a mere
tenth of a second by actively shifting the
curved shape of its mouth like leaves.
To trap its prey, the carnivorous plant
relies on both an active biochemical
and a passive elastic process. When an
insect brushes up against a hair trigger,
the plant responds by moving water
to actively change the curvature of its
leaves. In essence, a leaf stretches until
reaching a point of instability, where it
can no longer maintain the strain, Ma-
hadevan says. Like releasing a reversed
plastic lid or part of a cut tennis ball,
each leaf folds back in on itself, and inthe process of returning to its original
shape, ensnares the victim in the
middle. The hydrated nature of the leaf
quickly dampens the vibrations caused
by the movement, so the unlucky bug
doesnt spill out. It then takes the plant
up to eight hours to ready its leaves for
the next unsuspecting bug.
One day, engineers might be able to
emulate the plants ingenious alterna-
tive to muscle-powered movements in
tiny artificial devices, such as those that
control the flow of minute amountsof liquids or gases. Common applica-
tions that already use related technol-
ogy include valves and switches in
microfluidic devices, hydraulic sensors
and actuators, and timed-release drug-
delivery mechanisms.
Related media stories appeared in theBoston
Globe, New Scientist, Scientific American, the
Los Angeles Times, Popular Mechanics, and theNew York Times. NPR produced a radio story on
the research. Future stories are slated to appear in
Boys Life and on the Discovery Channel. Videos
Selected articles aboutthe Division
Federico Capasso (left) ,and Mariano Troccoli (right)hope their work on theRaman injection laser willlead to a new generation
of tuneable compact lasersthat can operate at almostany wavelength of theinvisible light spectrum,including the Terahertzrange.
To reveal howthe Venus flytrapsnaps, L. Mahade-van and colleaguespainted ultravioletfluorescent dots onthe external faceof the leaves andfilmed them underultraviolet lightusing high-speedvideo.
10 I DEAS Spring 2005
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and additional images of the plant in action are
available online at www.deas.harvard.edu/re-
search/Venusflytrap.html.
Adapted from a January 26, 2005, press release
prepared by the DEAS and Faculty of Arts and
Sciences Offices of Communications.
Seeing the real world
By mining direct recordings of neuronalactivity in live animals as they viewed
natural scenes, Garrett B. Stanley, Associ-
ate Professor of Biomedical Engineering,
and graduate student Nicholas A. Lesica
have developed a more realistic model
of how the brain encodes real-world vi-
sual information. The work, published
as a cover story in the November 24,
2004, issue ofThe Journal of Neuroscience,
could help move scientists beyond
artificial visual stimuli typically used
in experimentssuch as spots, bars, or
sine wavesto a better understandingof how the brain processes dynamic
objects such as trees swaying, cars
speeding by, or joggers stretching.
The scientists used snippets from
movies of common scenes to pinpoint
the pattern and sequence of neuronal
firings in the lateral geniculate nucleus
(LGN), a layered structure in the brains
thalamus with cells that respond to form
and motion. In the future, with a better
understanding of how the brain encodes
everyday scenes, engineers might be able
to artificially trigger a visual response or
experience by sending such data from a
computer through a device that directly
interfaces with the brain.
Adapted from a December 13, 2004, press release
prepared by the DEAS Office of Communications.
Pollution gets awarm receptionA warming globe could stifle summers
cleansing winds across the northeastern
and midwestern United States over thenext 50 years, significantly worsening
air pollution in these regions, says Lo-
retta J. Mickley, a research associate at
the Division. Her findings, reported in
February at the annual meeting of the
AAAS in Washington, D.C., are based
on modeling the impact of increasing
greenhouse gas concentrations on pol-
lution events across the United States
through 2050.
Using this model, Mickley and col-
leagues found that the frequency of
cold fronts bringing cool, clear air out
of Canada during the summer months
declined about 20 percent. These cold
fronts, Mickley said, are responsible for
breaking up hot, stagnant air that builds
up regularly in the summer, generatingincreased levels of ground-level ozone
pollution. Mickleys collaborators in-
cluded Daniel J. Jacob and B. D. Field at
Harvard, and D. Rind of the Goddard In-
stitute for Space Studies. Their work was
funded by a Science To Achieve Results
(STAR) research grant from the Environ-
mental Protection Agency (EPA).
Related media stories appeared in theBoston
Globe and on CNN. Mickley was also interviewed
by CBS Radio.
Adapted from a February 19, 2005, press release
prepared by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Office
of Communications.
Waiting to exhaleSome individuals exhale many more
pathogen-laden droplets than others
in the course of ordinary breathing,
scientists have found, but oral admin-
istration of a safe saline spray every six
hours might slash exhalation of germs
in this group by an average of 72 per-
cent. The researchers, including David
A. Edwards, Gordon McKay Professor ofthe Practice of Biomedical Engineering,
and biotechnology firms Pulmatrix and
Inamed, reported results from their
clinical study in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences. Their work
may help decrease the spread of bacte-
ria and viruses responsible for airborne
infectious diseases such as influenza,
tuberculosis, and severe acute respira-
tory syndrome, or SARS.
Loretta Mickley andcolleagues foundthat a warming globecould stifle summerscleansing winds acrossthe Northeast andMidwest over the next50 years, significantly
worsening air pollutionin these regions.
(Courtesy of staffphotograher KrisSnibbe, HarvardNews Office)
David Edwards and his co-authorsfindings could dampen the contagiousnessof individuals most likely to spreadairborne germs when sick, and alloweveryone to breathe a bit easier.
Edwards and his co-authors concluded
that roughly half the population
6 of11 individuals in their studymay
produce more than 98 percent of all
potentially pathogenic bioaerosols. The
researchers found that a six-minute
inhalation of aerosolized saltwater
solution, often used in the treatmentof asthma, can markedly reduce the
number of bioaerosol particles exhaled
by these high producers for up to six
hours. Using a cough machine designed
to simulate normal human breathing,
they linked the reduction in droplet ex-
halation after saline administration to
increased surface tension among fluids
lining human airways, producing larger
droplets that are less likely to remain
airborne and exit through the mouth.
Related stories appeared on the Reuters, AP,and Bloomberg wire services as well as the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and CNN.
A Webcast video story appeared on ScienCentral,
and WHDH-TV (Channel 7, Boston) created a
feature story.
Adapted from a Faculty of Arts and Sciences
press release and a Harvard Gazette story,
November 29, 2004.J
DEAS Spring 2005 I 11
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The racing circuitElaine Ou, a G2 Computer Science Ph.D. student, designs
high-speed circuits for use in fault-tolerant memory as part
of the Harvard VLSI Group, led by Professor of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science Woody Yang. Shes also
dedicated to exploring a different type of circuit, where
speed is calculated in miles per hour (often up to 180), not in
megahertz, and when a burning smell is a sign of success,not system failure. Here Elaine writes about the thrill of
building cool stuff, the stress-reducing benefits of motorcycle
racing, and how her other hobby keeps her well grounded.
When it comes right down to it, all I really want to do isbuild cool stuff. My medium of choice just happens tobe digital circuitry. I recently helped design an error-correct-
ing code thats suitable for different types of semiconductor
memory, like those used in USB Flash drives.
Right now, there isnt any form of error correction, so after
manufacturing, 3050 percent of the development cost goes
into testing the memory to make sure all of it works. As an
alternative, I am proposing a high-speed circuit (patent
pending) that can perform error correction on demand with
minimal latency.
Some of the things I do when Im neglecting my schoolwork
are ride my motorcycles (I am racing this season!) and fly
airplanes (I am hoping to obtain my IFR [instrument flight
rules] and commercial ratings, and have future plans to build
my own plane).
Whats racing a bike like? Traveling at nearly 200 mph, it is
hard to think about anything else, so I find it a great way to
release stress. The feeling is really hard to describe; its purely
interactive and definitely gives you an adrenaline rush.
My other hobby, flying, offers a completely different, and much
more technical, experience. Its closer to doing engineering: If
anything is a little bit off, the entire system can fail. In short,
you dont want to get an adrenaline rush when youre in the air,
since that probably means you are going to have a problem!
Of course, my parents disapprove of both my hobbiesand
after cracking three motorcycle helmets (and theres only one
surefire way to do that!) in less than a year, I understand their
concern. But over time Ill get better at performing my own
form of error correction. At the very least, Im now highly mo-
tivated to save money on gearI have that plane to buy. J
CS graduate student Elaine Ou hits the roadways (above)and the airways (below).
12 I DEAS Spring 2005
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AwardsHarvard College senior Yi
Liu 05 has been awarded
the 2004 Colonel and Mrs.
S. S. Dennis III Scholar-
ship in recognition of her
hard work and dedication
to research. Ms. Liu, a
2005 candidate for the S.B.
degree in Engineering Sci-
ences (honors biomedical
track), was born in Wuxi,
China. She came to the
United States when she
was six years old, attended
St. Andrews School in
Delaware, and now resides
in Arlington, Texas. Ms.
Lius academic interests are
wide ranging, including bio-
mechanics, oceanographic
engineering, and mechani-
cal design. Currently, she
is conducting research
with Robert Howe, Gordon
McKay Professor of Engi-
neering and Director of the
Harvard Biorobotics Lab, on
the material properties of
breast tissue using finite-
element modeling. Aftergraduation, she will work
as a structural dynam-
ics engineer for Northrop
Grumman, an aerospace
technology firm in Redondo
Beach, CA. The company
has awarded her a graduate
fellowship that she plans to
use to pursue a masters
degree in engineering.
...........Xiaofeng Li, Ph.D. student
in Donhee Hams group,
has won the 2005 Ana-log Devices Outstanding
Student Designer Award in
recognition of his outstand-
ing Ph.D. work, currently
focused on ultrafast quan-
tum circuits using carbon
nanotubes. Mr. Li, who
graduated from Caltech
in 2004, is also the Gold
Medal winner of the 29th
International Physics Olym-
piad and ranked first in the
Building networksHeres a quick look at recent two student-oriented visits at
DEAS given by industry professionals.
Cisco Systems, Inc.
St. Patricks Day at the Division featured green motherboards
of a sort. Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President
of Cisco Systems Charlie Giancarlo, who received his M.B.A. atHarvard Business School, visited that day to meet with faculty
and to talk with and recruit Harvard students.
Samsung Electronics Company, Ltd.
In conjunction with the Business School, the Division wel-
comed Dr. Chang-Gyu Hwang, President and CEO of Samsung.
To help participants remember to attend, the company offered
free 256 MB USB Flash memory sticks. The promo worked a
little too well, given the 800 students who packed the Burden
Auditorium. In addition to meeting with Division and HBS
faculty, Dr. Hwang, an IEEE Fellow, discussed DigitAll, the
companys new strategy that uses advances in semiconductor
technology to create a mobile society. J
Boston Area Undergradu-
ate Physics Competition in
2001.
...........
Yaakov Kobi Gal (above
left), who works with
Professor Avi Pfeffer, and
Geoffrey Werner-Allen
(below right), research
assistant to Professor Matt
Welsh, were given teaching
fellow awards.
...........Two teamsHarvard .*
(comprising Tiankai Liu
08, Anatoly Preygel 07,
and Qicheng Ma 06) and
Harvard 124 (comprising
Timofei Gerasimov 06, Yan
Zhang 07, and Alexan-
der Sasha Rush 07),
both part of the Harvard
Computing Contest Club
(HC3)competed in the
Association for Comput-
ing Machinerys annual
International Collegiate
Programming Contest.
In the Western New Eng-land College contest, 124
and .* placed third and
fourth, respectively, snugly
behind MIT in a field of
18 teams. Harvard 124
advanced to the regional
competition on November
13, 2004, in Rochester,
New York. After a grueling
11 hours and 27 minutes,
the team solved three
problems out of five and
placed third overalla
great performance, but not
good enough for the World
Finals, where last year
a Harvard team came in
ninth. If anything, [Har-
vard 124 members] have
garnered excellent experi-
ence for use in later con-
tests, and team chemistry
was, as usual, well coordi-
nated throughout the whole
contest, said the team
reporter, Yan Zhang. J
Strong frictionFuture bodybuilders may one day lift and curl more safelythanks to a device (below) with as much brains as brawn. Forhis Senior Design Project, Jonas Corl 05 designed a prototypefor a strength-training machine that dissipates stored energy(created when a user lifts a weight) into friction. In standarddevices, if a user suffers an injury during a repetition, the
stored energy has nowhere to go except back into the body, po-tentially increasing the damage. J
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C ambridge, England. Half-past mid-night. A cold rain flicks at the clubswindow, distorting the smoky mirage ofa small crowd of jazz listeners settling
into their pints. Tall, lanky, fair-haired,
he readies himself. The crowd does an
initial double-take at his trombone, but
the brass horn, with its extended slide,
gives off a quiet elegance in the dim
light. Gray figures with drums, bass, and
keys fill out the stage. Cue the sounds of
Casa del Funk.
These days, Patrick Wolfe, who has dual
bachelors degrees in electrical engineer-
ing and music from the University of Illi-nois and a Ph.D. in engineering from the
University of Cambridge, has a perma-
nent gig as Assistant Professor of Electri-
cal Engineering at Harvard. On the first
floor of the Divisions Pierce Hall, a differ-
ent type of stagehis new audio labis
taking shape. Rather than making noise,
Wolfe investigates ways to reduce it and
explores techniques related to recover-
ing lost audio and signal data. His work
is likely to result in applications rangingfrom basic scientific research tools to
improved hearing aids and advances in
speech-recognition software.
What I really do is signal processing,
says Wolfe. Although his focus is pri-
marily on audio signals, the broader field
covers a range of electrical phenomena
such as radio, biomedical, video, image,
and sonar data. A natural collaborator
who uses his expertise in mathematics
and statistics to inform his research,
he also draws on psychoacoustics, therelationship between physical stimulus
and perceptual sensation, to develop
statistical models of how we hear.
In particular, hes looking for better ways
to preserve signal quality, since reducing
static inevitably occurs at the expense
of signal resolution (i.e., quality). Noise
reduction, in an engineering sense, boils
Slide rulerdown to the problem of how to best esti-
mate an underlying signal from a noisy
observation. Given a sequence of data
say, an old recording of Duke Ellington
that has been damaged [corrupted by
noise, in signal processing terms]how
can we recreate the closest version of the
original sequence so that a listener can-
not tell the difference? Wolfe asks.
To avoid throwing the signal out with
the static, Wolfes trick is to take ad-
vantage of what our ears and brains
already do so well: receive and filter in-
formation. The recovered signal needs
to be only as perfect (or imperfect) as
the human auditory system. The key to
achieving clarity involves borrowing
a statistical technique first developed
in the 18th century. Classic Bayesian
methodologya ratio for using what
we already know in order to predictwhat will come, named after the Rever-
end Thomas Bayesprovides a math-
ematical boost to help restore a signal.
An audio engineer like Wolfe can, in a
principled way, incorporate perceptual
information a priori into a statistical
model when restoring a damaged piece
of music, for example.
Patrick Wolfe, solo artist and collaborative engineer,
makes (and reduces) some noise
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By incorporating our knowledge of
human hearing into the noise reduc-
tion process, we gain a more robust
framework, explains Wolfe. The noise
removal algorithms [intelligent pieces
of software that know what to save and
what to throw out] concentrate on re-
moving the most perceptually salient
noisein other words, what we would
most notice.
Imagine listening to a damaged CD
that skips every few seconds, but apart
from the skip, plays normally. Compare
that experience to listening to a poorly
recorded analog cassette tape that has a
constant hiss in the background. From
a purely mathematical perspective, the
amount of noise, or error, would be
much greater in the tape than in the
CD, which jumps only occasionally. Yet
Wolfe argues that despite the greater
overall error, You would likely prefer
listening to the less distracting under-
lying white noise of the tape than the
jarring, if less frequent, CD skip. Thus,he takes human preferencesor whats
called a perceptual cost functioninto
consideration when trying to obtain the
most listenable restored signal.
Anyone with an MP3 player has already
benefited from a similar approach. To
create a compressed yet high-quality
audio file, sound engineers reduce the
number of bits needed to represent the
signal. The error caused by whats miss-
ing is made inaudible by the remaining
signal. In return, music listeners can fit
more songs on a players internal hard
drive. Wolfe hopes to refine the use of
a similar distilling process to optimally
remove the most perceptually salient
noise when restoring audio data. In this
reverse procedure, the important bits
are effectively added back in (or re-
stored) while the din is de-emphasized.
Given his success in mixing disciplines,
Wolfe strongly advocates pursuing re-
search at the border between applied
mathematics and the engineering sci-
ences, combining a strong theoretical
foundation with practical experience.
While he could have gone either way,
engineering or statistics, he felt that
engineering, perhaps because of his
own musical inclinationsthe desire
to build and playwas a better fit.
Wolfe jokes that the chance to join
Harvard is like what they say about the
Mafia: Its an offer you cant refuse. In
his case, the combination of the Divi-
sion and Harvard left him with little
reason to go anywhere else. Even before
he arrived in the summer of2004, Wolfe
had made strong links with members
of the Statistics Department. Hes now
looking forward to working with theStatistics faculty to design and teach
a new course in signal processing and
statistics next yeara sign, he says, of
the great way the Division reaches out
across campus.
Links down the hall are also emerging.
When applied mathematician L. Ma-
hadevan realized that Wolfe plays the
trombone, he immediately offered to
film him in action with the same high-
speed camera he used to capture the
motion of the Venus flytrap. The basiclongstanding models for how the vocal
tract works are only a small part of the
picture, says Wolfe. The eventual goal
is to analyze the entire vocal production
mechanism; once you have a parametric
description for this (how the air columns
vibrate in trombones and how the vocal
cords vibrate in humans), you can invert
it and synthesize speech sounds. Using
clear plastic mouthpieces on wind in-
struments, and looking inside the vocal
tract, researchers can get a glimpse of
whats happening on the inside. While
we can model and accurately replicate
simple vowel sounds with existing tech-
niques, things like shh, fff, kkk, and all the
other sounds we make are a bit harder.
Mahadevan, however, might have to
wait for a solo performance, even for
the good of research. I am ashamed to
say that Ive been so busy getting things
up and running, I have not unpacked
my horn since Ive arrived, says Wolfe.
Its like any other physical activity. You
have to get into the regimen of playing
thirty to forty-five minutes a day. As for
the eternal question, Why the trom-
bone? he admits that he cannot think
of any professional trombonist who
chose the instrument on purpose. In
his case, his school marching band had
to fill a slot (in the front row, naturally).
The trombone, however, is a mainstay
in classical orchestras and is frequently
employed in jazz and pop.While at Cambridge, where Wolfe held
a fellowship and college lectureship
jointly in engineering and computer
science at New Hall and eventually
served as dean, he frequently had music
gigs, played in the orchestra, led a big
band, and even directed the musical
scholarship program. Once he settles
into the Division, he will benefit from
the close proximity of the Harvard Mu-
sic Department, a few steps away from
Maxwell Dworkin.
In the meantime, his work and collabo-
rations in electrical engineering, statis-
tics, and related fields are likely to keep
him busy, as is the attitude of his fellow
faculty. Everyone at DEAS thinks like a
scientistengineers included. I think
that really sets us apart. People here
start at a different point, blending basic
science and technology to create some-
thing new. J
In his case, the high-
school marching band
had to fill a slot.
Wolfe employs a filtering algorithm to reduce noisy signals in audio data such as a damaged Duke Ellington recording.(From left to right) A representation of the original, damaged recording; the same recording with 40 percent of the signal data dropped;the final, restored (less noisy) recording.
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I knew immediately it was some-thing I would like to do; prettymuch since I graduated from Rindge, I
have been doing tutoring, says Rebecca
Nesson A.B. 98, referring to her alma
mater, Cambridge Rindge and Latin High
School. The something she mentions
is the National Science Foundations
GK-12 program that puts Harvard
graduate students like Nesson to work
in the Cambridge Public School System.
When Nesson talks, its clear that she
has the air of a teacher and the patience-tempered passion necessary to compete
for the dwindling teenage attention
span. She always knew that teaching
was in her future, but her academic path
was not as clear. Nesson studied folklore
and mythology as an undergraduate at
Harvard, received a J.D. at Harvard Law
School in 2001, and then, finding inspi-
ration in that schools Berkman Center
for Internet and Society, took classes
in computer science part-time at DEAS
before deciding to pursue a Ph.D. in the
field in fall 2003.
Rindge, she says, is a tough school
system because students come in with
low skill levels when they start in ninth
grade, and teachers are not necessarily
in a position, with classes as large as
they are, to catch everyone up.
That hard reality, which she learned
firsthand, is what inspires Nesson to
get students excited about something
potentially even more daunting: math,science, and engineering. She appeals to
what students know and lovetechnol-
ogy, whether in the form of their MP3
players, cell phones, Xboxes, or PS2s.
To make physics more appealing and
accessible, Nesson created a module on
sound, centered on recording technol-
ogyfrom how to build a speaker or mi-
crophone to what happens in a modern
music studio. I was doing some of the
songs that they liked and tried to relate
[the songs] specifically to the stuff they
were learning about, such as amplitude,
frequency, and filters.
Her own field of computer science was
a tougher sell because, Nesson says
frankly, the stuff is hard and it really
requires students to push through logi-
cal thinking, and they are going to make
mistakes. If we are working on sorting
an array of numbers, we will take num-
bers on a piece of paper and stand at the
front of the class and run the sortingalgorithm ourselves, she says. The
students then can get a sense that [the
information] is already there in their
heads, making it easier to put it into the
codein this case, Java.
Amazingly, Nesson doesnt see herself as
a role model. For her, participating in the
GK-12 program is a privilege, a rare op-
portunity to pursue teaching and bring
the latest research off the bench (or the
monitor) and into a classroomone
she herself sat in not that long ago.She says she simply wants to provide
support, encourage teamwork, and
help students realize that in science
and engineering, failure is likelybut
thats not a bad thing, since failure often
inspires creative solutions. J
To learn more, visit
www.eecs.harvard.edu/~nesson/
Home schooling
GK-12 takes teamwork
Students and teachers get a lot out ofthe program, says Kathryn Hollar (left),
Director of Educational Programs at
DEAS. But we tend to forget that the
graduate students also benefit, both
by explaining the research theyre doing
to students who dont yet have an
extensive science background and by
fielding some of the unexpected
yet fundamental questions that these
students have. For more, see
http://gk12.harvard.edu/
(Right) Rebecca Nesson is one of 10 DEASgraduate students who worked at localCambridge Rindge and Latin High Schoolduring the past year to help teachersdevelop and implement educational activi-ties that excite students about scienceand engineering.
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Early admits
Every year a group of Cambridge
seventh graders has an opportunityto get into Harvard earlyabout five
years early. Thanks to Project TEACH
(The Educational Activities of Cam-
bridge-Harvard), a partnership with the
citys public schools created more than
15 years ago by Harvards Office of Com-
munity Affairs, middle-school students
have a chance to spend a day immersed
in the college experience. The projects
goal is to inspire the students to dream
big, encouraged by meeting Harvard
students, eating lunch in a dining hall,
and touring the campus.
As part of the endeavor, the Divisions
Director of Educational Programs,
Dr. Kathryn Hollar, asks NSEC- and
MRSEC-affiliated faculty to demonstrate
their engineering know-how. Last year,
students learned about the wonders of
carbon nanotubes from Joel Rosenberg
of the Boston Museum of Science (with
which NSEC has a strong relationship).
This past March, Robert M. Westervelt,
Mallinckrodt Professor of Applied Phys-
ics and of Physics and Director of NSEC,
let the students take a spin (see photos
at right) to understand the physics ofmotion (code for a short course in basic
mechanics).
By reaching out to kids well before they
begin dreaming of ivy, Project TEACH
aims to bring out the nascent scientist
or engineer in each of them. J
EventsIn addition to almost daily seminarsand colloquiafrom computer sci-ence to squishy physicsthe Division
also sponsors major workshops. Visit
www.deas.harvard.edu/newsandevents/
for the latest details, dates, and times.Graduates are welcome (and encour-
aged) to attend events. Here are some
highlights from the past several months.
High-tech society
The Center for Research on Computa-
tion and Society (CRCS) Distinguished
Lectureship series has succeeded in
providing a dynamic forum for the high
society of high tech. In March, Louise
Robert Westervelt (above) gives a waveto explain how the physics of motion mayget in the way of a good shot; and then(at right) gives two students a quick spinto demonstrate.
Richardson, Radcliffe Institute Execu-
tive Dean, discussed the myth of cyber-
terrorism, contending that the Internet
has become a safe haven for terroristgroups, and that in attacking it, they
would likely undermine themselves
and their own activities. The fear is that
terrorists will bring down the Internet.
Yet Al-Qaida could not function without
the Internet, she says. Id be far more
concerned about cyberplanning than
cyberterrorism. Butler Lampson, Distin-
guished Engineer at Microsoft, followed
up with some timely advice on why
robust computer security is so tough to
implement. Real-world security is about
value, locks, and especially punishmentfor misdeeds. When it works, you get
good enough locks (not too many break-
ins), good enough police (so break-ins
arent a paying business), and minimum
interference with daily life.
Check the Web site (www.crcs.deas.har-
vard.edu) to watch past lectures by oth-
er speakers, including Barbara Simons
of IBM, and to see a related talk by Andy
Neff, Science Officer at VoteHere.
Going with the flow
The Industrial Outreach Program (IOP)
delved into the wet world with its
spring workshop, Bioengineering and
Medicine: A Confluence of Innovation.The event attracted some of the best
and brightest in the field, including ris-
ing bioengineering star Kristi Anseth
(U. Colorado); Robert Langer (MIT),
one of the fathers of the field; Dean of
Engineering Matt Tirrell (UCSB); and
Harvards George Whitesides with the
Divisions David Edwards. J
For more details, check out
www.deas.harvard.edu/industry
Sit...
and spin...
and miss.
Radcliffes Louise Richardson was oneof five speakers who took part in CRCSslectureship series for 20042005. The interface beween biology and engineer-
ing is an increasingly critical area for DEASand Harvard.
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Boulder, Colorado, native Danielle
Feinberg A.B. 96 (Computer Sci-ence) has taken a plunge into a vast
animated ocean. As lead lighting artist
at Pixar Animation Studios, she led the
team that rendered the aquatic universe
in Finding Nemo, from the surge and
swell of plant life to the bounce and pop
of billions of bubbles.
Feinberg, whose exposure to computer
graphics began at age eight with design-
ing spirographs in LOGO, already has
a list of future classics to her credit, in-
cluding A Bugs Life; Toy Story2;Monsters,
Inc.;and most recently, The Incredibles.
With a touch of physics and a lot of
finesse, she has gone a long way forward
(thats FD in LOGO) and will no doubt
repeat (RT) her success and light the way
for others, both real and imaginary.
So, you make artificial light
for a living?
We create a three-dimensional world in
the computer where I move little icons
of lights and have 30 or 40 controls over
each light. Our world in the computermimics real life, so if I dont put in lights,
the final image that ends up on film
would be black.
When did you say, Hey, I want
to work in computer animation!?
It was fall of 1994 in my junior year; I
was sitting in Professor Joe Markss
computer graphics class. He showed a
couple of the Pixar short films one day,
and I absolutely fell in love with com-
Q&A with Danielle FeinbergBreathing life into light at Pixar
puter animation. It was like everything
I had ever tried to do, taken 10 million
levels up.
Are things easier today or more
difficult because we can (and want to)
do so much more with technology?
I dont think technology necessarily
makes life easier, but it definitely broad-
ens our horizons. At Pixar, it seems like
every time we get faster computers or
some new algorithm that allows us bigefficiency gains, we start trying to put
in something that was previously on the
computationally expensive forbidden
listway more detail, fur, hair, cloth,
etc. Technology can inspire creativity,
just as creativity can inspire technology.
Is an animators goal to achieve a
perfect simulation of real life?
Pixar always strives for believabil-
ity instead of realism. When you make
humans a little more stylized, like we
tried for in The Incredibles, the audiencecan accept them as human beingtype
creatures, stop comparing them to the
real thing, and instead just enjoy the
story. However, there are definitely
some things where we strive for more
realism, like smoke, fire, explosions,
and waterfalls. All of these things tend
to look very fake if they dont have some
of the proper physics behind them. If
one thing goes out of whack, the whole
thing can look phony and pull the audi-
ence out of the story.
Any thoughts about being a female
computer science student and now
a professional in the field?
Being a woman concentrating in com-
puter science was hard. There were, on
average, about 10 percent women in my
classes, sometimes less. In my first lead
position at Pixar, I was 23 years old and
in charge of a team of nine men, eight ofwhom were older than me. I think some
of the things I learned about being in
the minority in my computer classes at
Harvard helped me navigate my way.
One thing I really missed when growing
up with computers was having any role
models or mentors that were women.
Now I spend time at several different
science camps for girls, talking about
computer animation and what I do.
How did Harvard prepare you for
what you are doing now?The most valuable thing I learned at
Harvard was how to find information on
my own, because it was rarely handed
to you. I also found that being around so
many intelligent and motivated people
inspired me to think very big about
what I wanted to do in my own life. And
finally, I learned the rules of hockey.
Surely that will help me for the rest of
my life! J
Alum Danielle Feinberg 96 (inset) is responsible for the incredible lighting effects in the filmThe Incredibles. (Image Disney Enterprises, Inc./Pixar Animation Studios. All rights reserved.)
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The inverse viewGraphics and animation are not
simply for the movies. Vision and
graphics are inverse problems,
says Assistant Professor of Electri-
cal Engineering Todd Zickler, who
studies computer vision.
In graphics, you are given adescription of the geometry, the
illumination, and the surface
material. Then, by placing a vir-
tual camera in this scene, you can
compute the corresponding image.
In vision, we address the inverse
problem. We are given the image
and [we must] figure out whats
going on in the world. Theres a lot
of manual fine-tuning that makes
things look good in the movies.
The knobs they are turning most
often do not correspond to any
physically meaningful parameters
but are heuristics that people have
developed over time.
In academics, we can learn from
industry by looking at what knobs
have developed over time, because
those are the things that matter
perceptually, comments Zickler.
And he believes we have some
incredible things to look forward
to on the small screen. The dis-
tinction between real and virtualwill sort of fade away, and we will
get away from two-dimensional
displays and work in a three-
dimensional environmentor an
augmented reality. J
Ingenious gifts
Giving backHarvard graduate Fred Weber 85, Cor-
porate Vice President and Chief Technol-
ogy Officer of Advanced Micro Devices,
Inc. (AMD), was
named an Innova-
tor of the Year by
EDNas part of their
annual Innovation
Awards. The award
cited Webers role
in leading the
AMD design team
responsible for de-
veloping a next-generation 64-bit proces-
sor. Weber studied physics and systems
engineering at Harvard and received a
bachelors degree in physics. He desig-
nated Harvards Division of Engineering
and Applied Sciences as the recipient of
the $10,000award scholarship that EDN
provides as part of the honor.
Collaborative science in actionAlbert J. Weatherhead III 50 and Celia
Weatherhead have given $30 million
to create the Weatherhead Endowment
for Collaborative Science and Technol-
ogy at Harvard. The endowment will
function like a venture capital fund,
enabling the University to seed promis-
ing interdisciplinary science and tech-
nology projects as they emerge. Among
the innovative areas that may be sup-
ported is nanoscience, a field in which
researchers can now use powerful tools
to examine, manipulate, and fabricate
materials at a microscopic scale; design
molecules and drugs with specific func-
tionality; and simulate the behavior of
complex materials. Harvards Center
for Nanoscale Systems (CNS) serves as
the home for much of the Universitys
advanced work in nanotechnology.
In a similar way, in the early 1900sGordon McKay, U.S. inventor, engineer,
and entrepreneur best known for the
development of machinery that revolu-
tionized the manufacture of footwear,
gave a then-unprecedented sum of
money to support applied science at the
Lawrence Scientific Schoolwhat we
now call DEAS. Today, McKays legacy
has grown to support 42 professorships
and even inspired a novel, McKays Bees,
by the late Thomas McMahon.J
Find out moreFor more information about the
Challenge Fund or other gift
opportunities, see
www.deas.harvard.edu/alumni/
or contact:
Alexis Bloomfield,
Assistant Director of Development
(617) 495-4044
Progress and promise
The Challenge Fund, created by an anonymous donor to establish 10 newprofessorships and 10 innovation funds, will ultimately generate a total of $45million in new support for the Division. All 10 Innovation Funds for Engineering
and Applied Sciences have now been filled. We are also pleased to announce four
newly endowed Professorships in Engineering and Applied Sciences:
Amy Smith Berylson A.B. 75, M.B.A. 79 has endowed a Professorship i