Vo l u m e V • I s s u e 1 • S p r i n g 2 0 0 6

The Bigger PicTure

Each week, I gather up intriguing newspaper, magazine, and Web

clippings, along with a few technical papers, and stuff them into a well-worn red folder marked “readings.”

Here’s a quick sampling of some of my favorite headlines of the past few years:

“The Tinkerer as an Engineer”; “How Blackberry Conquered the World”; “Googlemania”; “All Science Is Com-puter Science”; “Nanotechnology Takes Aim at Cancer”; “Why Math Will Rock Your World.”

Whether the articles come from Nature or Science, The New York Times or Wired, BusinessWeek or The Economist—or from the countless online sources—they all tell the same story:

Engineering and applied sciences are everywhere and underlie everything, from commerce to quantum physics, and connect every place, from Boston to Bangladesh.

Thomas L. Friedman summed up the consequences in his fascinating book, The World Is Flat: “I’m not saying that every politician needs to be an engineer, but it would be helpful if they had a ba-sic understanding of the forces that are flattening the world.”

Not surprisingly, the Council on Com-petitiveness stated in 2005 that “[tech-nological] innovation will be the single most important factor in determining America’s success through the 21st century.” Likewise, I believe a large part of Harvard’s future success depends on fostering a culture of innovation.

To remain a leading and societally rel-evant university in a globalized world, we must do two things:

• Continue to enhance our efforts in science and engineering.

• Create a global campus and train global citizens.

The changing universiTyDuring this time of institutional transi-tion, Harvard’s commitment to expand-ing its pedagogical and research efforts in science, engineering, and technol-ogy remains firm. Such emphasis is also supported in a report by the National Academy of Engineering, Engineering Research and America’s Future: Meeting the Challenges of a Global Economy, which suggests investment in three key areas:

• Engineering research, to bridge scientific discovery and practical applications.

• Engineering education, to give engineers and technologists the skills to create and exploit knowledge.

• Engineering profession and practice, to translate knowledge into innovative, competitive products and services.

We need only look at our past for a reminder of the intellectual and social return on investment such a strategy could bring. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), the scientific foundation for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), was pioneered by Nicolaas Bloembergen, Edward M. Purcell, and Robert V. Pound at Harvard. Purcell won the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery. As the ultimate capstone, the 2003 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Paul C. Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield for work leading to the development of MRI.

That’s the power and the promise that engineering and applied sciences hold. That’s why we must make them a natu-ral part of everything we do at Harvard.

The global universiTyWhat we do outside the lab and off Harvard’s campus matters as well. Already, we host researchers from all over the globe and attract an interna-tional student body. Harvard is also going global with efforts such as the U.S.-Indo Alliance (see p. 7), the hosting of alumni events in Mexico and India, and in-country academic partnerships, such as those sponsored by the Medical and Business schools.

As engineering has become as much about bridging information as building bridges, the talent pool for creative and innovative individuals has widened and will continue to do so. Put simply, great ideas can come from anywhere; we must be open to hearing them and create more opportunities to harness such knowledge and ability.

Likewise, our students need to not only master the language of engineering and

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technology but also to gain an under-standing of how it is shaping and being shaped by the world. The National Acad-emy of Engineering’s assessment, The Engineer of 2020, asks questions that all our programs need to address: “Do our engineers understand enough cultur-ally, for example, to respond to the needs of the multiple nich-es in a global market? Can we continue to expect everyone else to speak English? What will be our spe-cial value added?”

Being bilingual in today’s world may mean knowing a for-eign language and a computer language. Appreciating culture may mean study-ing abroad in another country and un-

Students need to not only master the language of engineering and technology but also to gain an understanding of how it is shaping and being shaped by the world.

“The Tinkerer as an Engineer”“How Blackberry Conquered the World”

“Googlemania”“All Science Is Computer Science”

“Nanotechnology Takes Aim at Cancer”“Why Math Will Rock Your World”

Whether the articles come from Nature or Science, The New York Times or Wired, BusinessWeek or The Economist—or from the countless online sources—they all tell the same story: Engineering and applied sciences are everywhere and underlie everything, from commerce to quantum physics, and connect every place, from Boston to Bangladesh.

derstanding how that culture is evolv-ing as its citizens learn how to Google. That’s why in this era the study of engi-neering must not only be about creating engineers but also about the two-way relationship between technology and society—essential for developing global

citizens and leaders.

As an applied scien-tist, head of a research lab, and man of two countries, I have ex-perienced the flatten-ing of the world first-hand. I have watched nanoscience go from an intriguing idea to an entire field that’s changed the way we think about mat-ter—and launched an

emerging industry. I have seen how the IT revolution has begun to transform de-

veloping countries, like my birthplace of India, into lands of technology devel-opers. Most fortunate, I have been part of a great community and of an entire university where engineering and the applied sciences have been renewed and have emerged.

These days, in my red folder I see more headlines that pair Harvard with tech-nology and innovation: “Transplanted Cells Regenerate Muscles”; “Undergrads Develop System to Fight TB”; “Harvard Launches Wireless Classroom”; “New Light on Modern Optics (Harvard’s Roy Glauber Wins the Nobel Prize).”

They are my weekly reminder of what DEAS and Harvard have always been about. It is also why I’m so excited about where all of us can go. J

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10-9“It is a paradoxical but

profoundly true and important

principle of life that the most

likely way to reach a goal is

to be aiming not at that goal

itself but at some more

ambitious goal beyond it.”

—Arnold Toynbee

If you want to experience an MP3 player that actually lives up to the name nano-, you

better trim your fingernails. A human nail is about 10 million nanometers long. Despite the liberty taken by Apple’s marketing depart-ment, science and engineering at the smallest scales will likely mean sweet music for basic research and consumer products.

Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Ken Crozier recently set up a new lab dedicated to nanophotonics, or optics on the nanometer scale. His particular interests focus on devel-oping greatly improved imaging techniques for scientists and building new devices based on photonic crystals, materials used to control and manipulate the spread of light.

On an everyday level, movie fans already reap the benefits of such research in the form of flat-panel and plasma displays. Continued advances will likely lead to new fabrication methods, such as electron-beam lithography and plasma etching, critical for next-genera-tion optical circuits and electronics.

In Ray Bradbury’s short story, The Toynbee Convec-

tor, an engineer who claims to have built a time machine returns from his trip to the future with astounding news. Despite the current dismal state of the earth and of society, he assures his fellow citizens that 100 years hence, human beings will live in a near-utopia. In the decades following, the traveler’s snapshot of the future—a clean and healthy environment, technologi-cal marvels, and a peaceful and prosperous society—be-comes a reality.

In typical Bradbury fashion, the objects in the mirror end up being much closer than they first appear. Having grown up hearing the tale of the time traveler from their parents, members of the future generation expect to live long enough to greet the inventor upon his arrival.

On the appointed day and time, the machine and its occupant fail to shimmer into view. Instead of bend-ing the laws of physics, the engineer bent the truth. With inspiration rather than real evidence, he succeeded in encouraging the citizens to dream big, and in doing so, they banded together to build a brighter future.

When we imagine the fut-ure, by definition, we think in terms of time, fast-for-warding through the years, decades, or even centuries. But to get a sense of what’s to come in engineering and applied sciences at Harvard, the trick is to see time as just one dimension in which to

In meters, the definition of “nano”

travel. Advances in basic and applied research will de-pend on events happening at the nanoscale and machines built at the microscale. Financial tides will rise and fall based on billions of bits intersecting with billions of dollars. Engineering and

biology will begin to un-tangle networks on a human scale (the neurons inside your head) and make con-nections on a global scale (new cures and drugs).

So, strap yourself in for a tour of some of the fu-ture dimensions of science

and engineering now under development at DEAS—no time machine (or tall tale) required. J

Joint DEAS and Physics appointee Vinothan Manoharan, Assistant Professor of Physics and Chemical Engineering, also explores the shapes of things to come. Manoharan co-authored a groundbreaking paper in Science about predicting how groups of colloids, tiny suspended particles floating like Ping-Pong balls in glue, might arrange themselves.

The researchers discovered that when squeezed by a liquid droplet, the microspheres form an unusual sequence of structures. Despite some of the shapes looking decidedly unfamiliar, they all follow the same mathematical rule: Particles favor groupings that minimize the distribution of particle distances from the center of mass of a given cluster. More amaz-ing, Manoharan did not set out to make such a fundamental discovery; the original research involved trying to refine the manufacture of photonic crystals.

Even the smallest predictions in this smallest of fields will likely continue to surprise us.

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Future dimensionsEngineering advances made to scale

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Timely adviceFor those still holding out hope for the possibility of time travel, we have a few real-world references. Harvard’s Derek Parfit, Professor of Philosophy, teaches a course that explores some of the metaphysical implications of time travel. The Physics of Star Trek, by Lawrence Krauss , blends pop culture with serious science. Finally, a group at MIT held the first-ever Time Traveler Convention in May 2005. The conference site reports, “Unfortunately, we had no confirmed time travelers visit us, yet many time travelers could have attended incognito to avoid endless questions about the future.” J

50Bits affect, if not determine, the bottom line. A steel

maker and a software maker might seem worlds apart, but they both travel along the same highway system to conduct business. As a result, today’s roadside bandits have aban-doned their six-shooters and horses in favor of laptops and broadband access.

The loss of sensitive corporate data has become an increas-ingly important issue for comp- anies. In fact, Pricewaterhouse-Coopers estimates that intel-lectual property leakage costs U.S. companies more than $50 billion per year. Luckily, there’s a new sheriff in town: Mike Smith, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and Associate Dean for Computer Science and Engi-neering. Liquid Machines, a data and enterprise rights management security firm Smith cofounded, aims to protect the travelers of the digital frontier.

Thwarting today’s and tomorrow’s sophisticated cyber thieves means implementing smarter processes, not just investing in stronger locks and additional bodyguards. Smith and his posse of digital law enforcers offer systems that track and control a firm’s documents and emails wherever the data ends up going, allowing employees to share informa-tion easily and securely, within any operating or software environment. Corralling sensitive data ultimately helps “insulate companies from the enormous costs, damage, and penalties of data leakage and noncom-pliance,” Smith says. Such protection in the wildest parts of the digital domain has become one of the only secure ways to do business.

In the near future, you might want to think twice before you

swat that small buzzing intruder interrupting your picnic lunch. Rob Wood is working to develop tiny flying vehicles weighing in at one gram or less. The Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineer-ing plans to continue and expand research on micro air vehicles (MAVs) begun at the University of California, Berkeley.

His goal is to produce au-tonomous (no pilot) low-cost fliers that can cover a wide area using gliding or active flight. Using insect-inspired optical-flow motion detection, large numbers of fliers could rapidly fan out to scout an area. Rather than looking for a piece of fruit to perch on, the machines could use sensors to check for potential forest fires or incorporate onboard audio or visual detection systems to enhance search-and-rescue missions in hard-to-reach or danger-ous places.

Wood also plans to focus on ways to enable the small planes to hover, taking lessons from the way insects and birds flap and rotate their wings. Ultimately, to get his planes ready for takeoff will require more than a sheet of sturdy paper, fancy folding, and a steady throwing hand. Wood anticipates using novel prototyping methods and laser-micromachined composite materials to craft stiff and lightweight links, articulated joints, and rigid exoskeletons and airframes for his future fleet. Ultimately, the Harvard Micro Air Vehicle group could allow history to repeat itself, but the Kitty Hawk for the tiny fliers might end up being no bigger than his desk.

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Weight,

in grams, of a proposed

autonomous micro air glider

Dollars,

that intellectual property leakage

costs U.S. companies

,000,000,000

,000,000

Timely adviceFor those still holding out hope for the possibility of time travel, we have a few real-world references. Harvard’s Derek Parfit, Professor of Philosophy, teaches a course that explores some of the metaphysical implications of time travel. The Physics of Star Trek, by Lawrence Krauss , blends pop culture with serious science. Finally, a group at MIT held the first-ever Time Traveler Convention in May 2005. The conference site reports, “Unfortunately, we had no confirmed time travelers visit us, yet many time travelers could have attended incognito to avoid endless questions about the future.” J

10 5While we stare in awe at the fluid grace of a gymnast

tumbling or jump out of our seats when a receiver’s nimble hands snatch an impossible pass, it’s the athlete within—the human brain—that deserves the ovation. Professional and armchair athletes alike have their gray matter to thank for orchestrating their bodies’ 600 highly interdependent muscles. But we scarcely notice the astounding role the brain plays in motor control—allowing us to do everything from walk to sing—unless something goes wrong.

Recent DEAS arrival Maurice Smith, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering and a member of the Center for Brain Science, studies the motor coordination of people with Huntington’s disease, an incurable genetic disease in which involuntary erratic movements develop in middle age. Smith relies on a robotic arm to measure (hundreds of times a second, in fractions of a millimeter) how a person with Huntington’s reacts to external forces.

The precise measurements have been better than brain imaging at predicting the progression of the disease, making the engineer-based method attractive for testing the effectiveness of new drugs. In addition, analyzing the data provides Smith with insights into the way the brain’s motor system works, which could lead to new rehabilita-tion strategies that reduce the motor disability caused by neurological disease.

Few relish getting a shot or taking medicine, but the

routine requires little effort. In the United States, even indi-viduals with severe conditions such as HIV-AIDS and tuber-culosis (TB) can readily rely on traditional antibiotic therapy to manage their condition. Much of the world’s population, however, does not enjoy the simple luxury of driving to a 24-7 pharmacy or local hospital to get a shot for everyday annoyances like the flu.

David Edwards, Professor of the Practice of Bioengineering, says doctors inevitably face major ob-stacles when seeking to admin-ister treatments and vaccines to patients in the developing world. Yet the impact of disease—AIDS and particularly TB—is especially profound there. The two diseases now account for more than 5 million deaths per year. It is also estimated that for one-third to half of AIDS deaths to date, the immediate cause of death has been TB.

An AIDS vaccine or an improved TB vaccine or TB drug therapy might help control and ultimately stop the spread of these diseases. Edwards’s team is investigating a new needle free vaccine platform for TB and other infectious diseases and a new inhaled antibiotic therapy designed specifically to treat TB. Therein also lies one of the most powerful dimensions of technology: A tiny particle developed in a lab could one day circle the globe and in the process transform the lives of countless individuals.

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Number of deaths,

from AIDS and tuberculosis

in the world per year

Number of neurons,

that make up the motor system

of the human brain

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New ArrivAlsThe Division is pleased to welcome three new faculty members this spring.

Debra T. augusTeAssistant Professor of Bioengineering

Background: S.B. (1999) in Chemical Engineering, Massa-chusetts Institute of Technology; Ph.D. (2005) in Chemical Engineering, Princeton University

Areas of focus: Biomaterials, tissue engineering, and drug delivery

http://deas.harvard.edu/ourfaculty/profile/Debra_Auguste

shriram ramanaThanAssistant Professor of Materials Science on the Gordon McKay Endowment

Background: B. Tech. (1996) in Metallurgical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India; M.S. (1997) in Materials Engineering, University of Houston; Ph.D. (2002) in Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University

Areas of focus: Electronic and magnetic systems and devices, materials science, surface and interface science

http://deas.harvard.edu/ourfaculty/profile/Shriram_Ramanathan

roberT J. WooDAssistant Professor of Electrical Engineering

Background: B.S. (1998) in Electrical Engineering, Syracuse University; M.S. (2001) and Ph.D. (2004) in Electrical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley

Areas of focus: Biomechanics, intelligent systems and computer vision, robotics

http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~rjwood J

At the end of the 2005–06 academic year Michael Tinkham, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics and Rumford Professor of Physics, will be named a Research Professor. Tinkham has been a defining figure in

superconductivity research for more than half a century. In a 2004 issue of the Journal of Superconductivity celebrating his accomplishments and his 75th birthday, Donald M. Ginsberg, one of Tinkham’s first three Ph.D. students,

PromoTioNs ANd APPoiNTmeNTs

wrote: “His unfailing good humor and constructive remarks, even when confronted with minor catastrophes in the lab, taught us how to meet the challenges of a physicist.”

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collABorATioNsA passage to India: Harvard and DEAS collaborate with India

President Lawrence Summers and Dean Venkatesh Naray-anamurti were two of more than a dozen Harvard affiliates

who participated in the Harvard Alumni Association’s Global Series event held on March 25 and 26 in New Delhi, India. The conference, opened by India’s Prime Minister, Dr. Manmo-han Singh, brought alumni together to learn about important initiatives shaping Harvard’s future in the region. Dean Venky hosted a panel discussion, “South Asia and Global Science and Technology,” featuring Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and Ashok Misra, Director of the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay.

The Hindustan Times reported, “It’s the largest meeting of Harvard alumni and faculty ever to be held in India. Over 130 delegates, including Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers are in the Capital to not just deliberate on the university’s outreach in South Asia, but also to mark the opening of the Harvard Business School’s India Research Center and the first South Asia Initiative office in Mumbai.”

In an interview prior to his talk, President Summers com-mented, “Interactions between India and Harvard will be good for both the parties. It will allow us to strengthen our ties with the 1,000–strong alumni in India who come from all walks of life … India is a growing economy in the region and improved interactions will improve ties on all levels. It will allow more Indian students to come to Harvard. The Harvard Business School research center, Asia Initiative, and the School of Public Health are already taking up partnerships with their counterparts in India.”

The event marked Dean Venky’s second trip to the country in less than a year. In December, Harvard University, through DEAS, joined the Indo-U.S. Inter-University Collaborative

Initiative in Higher Education and Research, a partnership composed of Indian education and government institutions, U.S. universities, and international corporate sponsors and intended to enhance engineering and science education throughout India via distance learning technology.

The initiative began with a memorandum of understanding signed on July 20, 2005, and was broadened with a subse-quent addendum. Taking advantage of the “tremendous synergy between the U.S. and India” and using EDUSAT, a satellite launched by the Indian Space Research Organization that can transmit educational programs to institutions across India, the program’s aim is to “uplift a vast majority of India’s educational institutions to international standards.”

“This is a terrific opportunity to share knowledge, expertise, resources, and, most important, become a more engaged, active participant in our increasingly connected and ‘flat’ world,” said Dean Venky, who attended a signing and launch ceremony held by India’s President, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, on December 7, in New Delhi. J

The harvard alumni association’s most recent global series event was held in new Dehli. Previous events have taken place in mexico city, london, and beijing.

Dean venky (seated, sixth from the left) and other participants of the indo-u.s. collaborative initiative.

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Visitors to 60 Oxford Street will likely stop and stare once a planned new mural graces the open entryway. The collage, the final design of which is still evolving (see draft above), repre-sents the work of DEAS members Robert Howe, L. Mahadevan, John Myers, Maurice Smith, Garrett Stanley, Robert Wood, Tai T. Wu, and the Physics Department’s Aravinthan Samuel. All the researchers have or will have labs at 60.

Finding a link that brings together interests as diverse as robotic surgery, quantum information transfer, neuromuscular disease, plant movements, autonomous flying microvehicles, and even how the C. elegans (a worm dearly loved by neurosci-entists for its easy-to-see neurons) navigates posed an intellec-tual and artistic challenge. Moreover, the researchers worried that a snapshot of their investigations today would look anach-ronistic a few years or—given the pace of science and engineer-ing—months hence.

Indirectly, the process of creating the mural reflects many of the challenges administrators and planners face when figur-

ing out how to insure flexible research space in an era where change happens almost daily.

“We have to be incredibly careful what sort of labs we build,” says Associate Dean for Research and Planning Fawwaz Habbal. “We do not want to get in the way of research, so the ability to rapidly change set-ups is essential as nascent fields take off.”

Viewers looking for a common narrative that links the seem-ingly disparate parts of the mural might want to consider locomotion, whether involving bits, muscles, insects, or machines. Of course, even in the case of a mural about sci-ence and technology, the final verdict lies with the viewer. Art should give one pause—even when its theme is kinetic. J

an initial version of the future mural at 60 oxford street. Jessica sciullo of the casali group, the firm which has managed projects related to 60, says, “Trying to represent science through art is a fascinating endeavor!”

liNks ANd NodesMural in motion: Plants, flying machines, and brains, oh my

Open StudiosPublic art is elsewhere at and around DEAS. Paul Horowitz, Professor of Physics and of Electrical Engineering, displays his own photographs outside his office. Professor of Chem-istry and Physics Eric Heller’s digital prints now grace the Dean’s Office (see: http://www.ericjhellergallery.com).

In addition, applied mathematics graduate student Erez Li-eberman has taken his “art” to an even larger audience. Last fall he wrote part of the text for City of Salt, a book featuring panoramic photographs of fantastical landscapes by visual artists Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick. The artists’ process combines sculptural and photographic media. They first construct detailed worlds by building three-dimensional miniatures, digitally photograph the scene, and then popu-late it with characters in an allegorical, though intriguingly puzzling, tableau. You can learn (and see) more by visiting http://kahnselesnick.free.fr/html/cityofsalt.htm

a computer rendering of the mural as it will appear at 60 oxford street.

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NoTA BeNe

Seeing solitons … “Individual packets of light energy, known as optical solitons, have long been the darlings of communi-cations engineers. Finally, their electrical siblings are getting a look in—and could become the new favorites,” wrote Thomas H. Lee, a professor at Stanford University. Donhee Ham’s group’s demonstration of a robust, self-sustained electrical soliton oscillator so intrigued Lee, a leader in in-tegrated circuit design, that he discussed the finding in the March 2, 2006, edition of Nature Magazine’s News and Views section. “The short-duration, periodic soliton train produced by the oscillator could be widely deployed in communica-tion and instrumentation technologies,” the article states. Ham reports that David Ricketts and Xiaofeng Li deserve the lion’s share of the credit, saying he only posed the problem but they actually went on to solve it. As a side note, Lee served as Ham’s thesis advisor’s advisor.

A bit more press ... The Financial Times featured a piece highlighting Professor Harry Lewis’s course, “Bits.” Starting this

term, students will be able to download podcasts of lectures from the course. The general public will get to listen in (for free) at a later date. According to the Times, “Podcast proponents say the technology helps the flow of information. Harry Lewis, Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University, is teach-ing the school’s first podcast class this semester … ‘My hope is that if I can reach a few people inside the college or out who learn something because we are distribut-ing information this way instead of the old way, that’s a good thing,’ he says.”

Puny paddlers … The February 18, 2006, Science News mentioned Howard Stone’s microfluidics work as part of a cover article on small-scale swimming, stating, “In science fiction flicks and futurists’ predictions, medical microrobots patrol within the human body. In reality, designs —such as this pocket-size model of a two-hinge microswimmer—must over-come tough challenges. Marking progress in this effort, scientists recently built the first swimming micromachine.”

A welcome disruption … The EE Times reported on the Semiconductor Industry Roadmap for Creating Profitable Growth meeting held on February 6, 2006, at DEAS. “Semiconductor companies’ quest to establish a business model for sustainable profitability is taking place on a battlefield … The preliminary road map distributed at the workshop … [has] among its main points … that the pursuit of Moore’s Law occupies an ever-shrinking segment of industry activity. It also predicts that the most successful companies will be those that concentrate on performance-defining nonstandard integration, and that market expansion in near-commodity products might force a migration to simple design tools, letting less skilled designers create ap-plication-specific ICs that enable market growth. ‘These preliminary, suggested scenarios are talking points so far,’ said

AwArdsSensible health care and better vision … Assistant Professor of Computer Science Matt Welsh has won an NSF CAREER Award for his work on wireless medical sensors. Welsh’s group is exploring applications of wireless sensor network technology to a range of medical applications, including pre-hospital and in-hospital emergency care, disaster response, and stroke patient rehabilitation. Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering Todd Zickler also won an NSF CAREER Award for his work related to building systems that can visually understand and interact with their environment. J

workshop co-organizer Woodward Yang. Together with Innovo Inc., the consulting firm that helped work out the organiza-tion and agenda of the workshop, Yang and Business School Professor Clayton Christensen hope to have a final road map for the industry ‘very soon,’ Yang said.” Yang also spoke about the topic at the Consumer Electronics Show held in January 2006.

Inspired engineering ... Artist Jonathon Nix created the “Mahadevan Series” (see illustration above) a group of paintings inspired by Professor L. Mahadevan’s elegant research on the science of everyday life. The works were on display at the BAAK Gallery, 35 Brattle Street (Cambridge, MA) during March. J

Xiaofeng li, Donhee ham, and David ricketts and their soliton oscillator.

mahadevan series # 1, 2005 (oil on canvas) by boston-based painter and sculptor Jonathon nix. images from the complete mahadevan series are available on the artist’s website: http://www.jonnix.net

little swimmers, as explored by howard stone’s research group, are making waves in microfluidics research.

matt Welsh and Todd Zickler are in good company—both won nsF career awards.

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Transplanted cells regenerate musclesA new way of transplanting cells shows promise for regenerating injured and diseased tissues and whole organs. “We transplant the cells on a scaffold that keeps them alive, then directs them to leave in a controlled manner and migrate into the surrounding tissue,” explains David Mooney, Gordon McKay Professor of Bioengineering. “This is the first time that has been done.”

The strategy successfully heals lacerated muscles in mice, and it has a wide variety of potential applications in humans, in-cluding treatment of muscular dystrophy, heart disease, and some brain disorders as well as regenerating bone.

“We don’t know yet whether the spe-cific materials and approach we used [will] work in humans,” Mooney says. “However, I think the basic concept is a very powerful one that will likely have application in humans, in some form. We demonstrated the concept with muscle, and this could be useful to treat wounds and, perhaps some day, muscular dystrophy.”

By “we,” Mooney means himself, Elliot Hill, a member of his University of Michigan team, and Tanyarut (Joy) Boontheekul, a researcher who fol-lowed Mooney to Harvard. The three published their results in the February 21, 2006, issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Adapted from an article in the March 2, 2006, Harvard Gazette.

The shapes of things Anand Bala Subramaniam ’05, Howard Stone, Manouk Abkarian, and Lakshmi-narayanan Mahadevan have demonstrat-ed that gas bubbles can exist in stable nonspherical shapes without the appli-cation of external force. The micron- to millimeter-scale peapod-, doughnut- and sausage-shaped bubbles, created by coat-ing ordinary gas bubbles with a tightly packed layer of tiny particles and then fusing them, are described this week on the Web site of the journal Nature.

Surface tension gives all bubbles and drops their perfectly spherical shape by minimizing the surface area for a given volume. Ordinarily, if two bubbles are

selecTed ArTicles ABouT The divisioN

fused, the product is a larger but still spherical bubble. But when particles are strongly anchored to the bubble surface and the bubbles are fused, a stable sausage shape is produced. Although the particles are jammed, they are not bonded to each other, Bala Subramaniam adds. It is this absence of permanent bonds that allowed the researchers to reshape and remold the initially sausage-shaped bubbles into peapod, disk, and donut shapes.

“Bubbles are engineered into many consumer products. The ability to alter the shapes of bubbles and liquid drops in products like ice cream or shaving foams or creams may provide a means to alter the consistency or texture of these products. The nonspherical bubbles could also find use as vessels for delivering drugs, vitamins, or flavors,” Bala Subramaniam explains.

Adapted from a December 15, 2006, press release prepared by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Office of Communications. Related media stories appeared in Nature, Science Daily, and The Harvard Gazette.

bioengineer David mooney makes a muscle cell come into focus. mooney is also helping to head up a new harvard initiative in biologically inspired engineering (hibie), now at an early planning stage. (Photograph by Jon chase/harvard news office.)

bubbles can be made in various shapes, including peapod, disk, and donut shapes.

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CUE InnovationMichael W. Reckhow ’06 has created a Web site listing all the classes offered this semester (see above), then ranking them within departments and overall from easiest to hardest and best to worst, using the information supplied by the current Committee on Undergradu-ate Education (CUE) Guide. Over 2,600 unique users had visited http://people. fas.harvard.edu/~mreckhow within the first few days of its release, according to the site’s creator.

Reckhow, who has also built Web sites for the student-run companies Let’s Go Publications and Redline Textbooks, said that the inspiration for his new course site struck as he noticed how time-consuming it was to flip through the CUE Guide and manually compare class ratings this past exam period. “I realized there was a need to have some-thing to aggregate all this information,” he said. “I’m interested to see how fac-ulty will react to getting recognition that their course is the sort of ‘best’ in the department or being the teacher of the lowest-rated course.”

Adapted from a February 1, 2006, article in The Crimson.

Catching the shuttleDavid Malan ’99, current CS grad stu-dent and the prime mover behind the first podcast of a Harvard course (see p.12), is also the man (or the boy)

behind software that makes missing the bus a thing of the past. Finding contin-ued inspiration from his days in CS50 (the most common entry into the CS concentration), Malan piggybacked on earlier work to create Shuttleboybot, a smart script that allows students to view the Harvard shuttle bus schedules via instant messaging.

Shuttleboybot’s profile reads, “Think of me as a buddy who allows you to check quickly the schedules of Harvard Univer-sity’s shuttles. Anytime you want to chat, just say ‘hi.’ I’ll ask you where you’d like to catch a shuttle and where you’d like to deshuttle. I’ll then tell you the next few shuttles for that route!”

Since its creation late last week, Shuttle-boybot has been hailed 300 times. The ShuttleTime Web site has received 11,000 hits over the course of the year. Although it might seem a roundabout way of getting around, during Boston’s cold winters saving a few seconds trans-lates to warm relief.

Adapted from a December 16, 2005, article in The Crimson.

Jungle kingRoberto E. Martinez II, a 26-year-old Ph.D. candidate in applied physics, re-fuses to conform to the “nerdy scientist” stereotype, which is why the young Harvard physicist jumped at the chance

to be featured on Animal Planet’s new reality TV series, Chasing Nature.

“I want to be the person that makes science cool,” says Martinez, who is working on a doctorate in engineering and applied sciences. “Like a basketball star or a rapper or something—but a string theorist.”

Martinez and his group faced a formi-dable task: recreating with manmade materials a vicious scorpion’s tail on a grander scale—and affix the giant hinged metal contraption atop a dune buggy. The result is something out of Real World/Road Rules Challenge, with the scorpion-tail dune buggy chasing around smaller dune buggies in the “kill zone” in an attempt to pop the large bal-loons attached to the smaller buggies. It’s complicated.

Dubbed “the brains of the team” by a Stanford co-star, Martinez says he used his solid background in mathematical physics to help a team more versed in mechanical engineering. “It was my chance to really use the tools I had gathered in the classroom for the real world,” he says.

At Harvard, Martinez wears many hats: Quincy House resident tutor, mathemat-ics instructor at the Extension School, a DJ at local clubs, and a student pursuing his own research.

Adapted from a January 22, 2006, article in The Crimson. Related media stories appeared in The Boston Globe. The show featuring Martinez will air sometime this summer. Stay tuned for details. J

Color me crimson

While the Crimson has contributed its share of breaking news in light of recent events at Harvard, the famed daily has also found several DEAS students

worthy of some major ink. Below are some highlights nice enough to make us blush:

The cue guide gets a slimmer look once online.

graduate student robbie martinez will appear on animal Planet’s reality show Chasing Nature.

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Overheard at the listening post

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During the fall 2005 term, podcasts of David Malan’s lectures in his popular Harvard Extension School course,

Computer Science E-1: Understanding Computers and the Internet, found their way around the world. Podcasts, an off-shoot of the Apple iPod vogue, provide an easy way for users to download and play back stored audio and video segments via the iTunes software program or through a portable device.

“As the digital equivalents of books on tape, they’re a wonder-ful way to take advantage of commute time or even jogging time,” says Malan, a graduate of Harvard College and now a Ph.D. candidate in computer science.

“We were already making the lectures from CS E-1 available in RealVideo format for the Extension School’s distance educa-tion program. iPods, though, have freed our students from the tether of their computer.” Keeping up with the latest technol-ogy trends only makes sense for CS E-1, a course whose aim, as he puts it, is “removing the fear factor from technology.” One of the first courses to be offered online through the Extension School’s distance education program, it’s now the first course to be podcast.

It turns out that incorporating the technology not only makes distance learning more handy and hip, it also enhances what

goes on in the classroom as well. What Malan dubs “computer science on TiVo” gives students greater freedom to ask ques-tions without fear of missing a key point.

Moreover, anyone who wishes to take advantage of such flex-ible learning can tune in. “[After] a Crimson article ran about the course in December, it was picked up by several online news outlets and dozens of blogs,” Malan says. After a few roving Web journalists decided they liked what they saw and reported on it, news about the course spread—rapidly going global.

Of course, only those registered and enrolled in the class receive credit or a grade, but the motivation for most tag-along pupils has nothing to do with getting an A or, for that mat-ter, with the novelty of the podcast itself. The most common e-mails (see sidebar) Malan receives are those that say, “That’s exactly the sort of course I’ve wanted to take.”

Podcasts of course lectures aren’t likely to replace the full classroom experience any time soon. Still, the enthusiastic reception given CS E-1’s podcasts suggest a bright future for learning via iPod. With due respect to futurist Marshall McLuhan, listeners have been as attracted to the engaging content and the excellence of Malan’s lectures as they have been to the medium.

Even an employee at the very company that produced the iPod agreed. After experiencing Harvard on headphones, the Apple staffer sent Malan a one-line e-mail: “This is awesome!” J

cs e-1 course cAsTs A wide NeT

Reality shows and sitcoms might rule the airwaves, but cultural cynics take heart: Avid learners from across the country and around the globe have nestled up to David Malan’s fireside technology chats as a way to make the most of their commutes—and their minds.

Thanks in large part to bloggers, the intellectually curious from the Midwest to Mexico have discovered podcasts from CS E-1, and they like what they’ve heard (or seen). If you would like to listen in yourself, visit the course Web page: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~cscie1

“i have always loved technology and have only really been able to learn on my own, and by listening to just the first one, so far, i have filled in a lot of blanks.”

—High school student in Decatur, Illinois

“Just wanted to say that i love the class. i’m a computer information systems junior at missouri state and i love re-encoding your vidcast to mpeg 2 and playing it through my Tivo while i study :)”

—Tech-savvy college student in Missouri

“many thanks … my international Baccalaureate students here at the Bolitho school … have all subscribed and considered it an essential tool …”

—IT director and instructor, Penzance, U.K.

“i thought you would be glad to know that your lectures are listened by podcasting as far as France.”

—Listener living somewhere in France

“if you ever wanted someone to walk you through basic computer science principles step-by-step, this is the podcast you have been looking for.”

—Stingy Scholar, a blog dedicated to sharing information about how to learn for free

cs graduate student David malan’s lectures make for compelling viewing.

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AwardsUndergraduates Elaine Angelino ‘06 (Applied Math), Shaun Fitzgibbons ‘06 (Physics & Math), Alex Glasser ‘06 (Physics & Math) won the 2006 Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAP) Mathematical Contest in Modeling.

Harvard College senior Daniel Foti has been awarded the 2005 Colonel and Mrs. S. S. Dennis III Scholarship in rec-ognition of his hard work and dedication

kickiNg ANd schemiNgIn a suite of newly remodeled offices in the basement of Pierce Hall, a group of undergraduates huddles near a whiteboard besmirched with diagrams. Laptops glow. Uncompleted circuit boards lay scattered across tables like abandoned blue books.

Physics concentrator Jeff Ma ’07 and Kristina Haller, a mechan-ical engineering major from MIT, monitor the situation with perfect ease and understanding. The co-founders of the Robotic Futbol Club of Cambridge (RFC), although still scrambling for every free second before, between, and after classes, remain nearly on schedule. The $30,000 grant the RFC won from the MIT-sponsored and Microsoft-funded iCampus initiative in January may also explain their cool composure. As important, the students have opted for intellectual collaboration rather than competition along their shared stretch of the Charles.

“I started the Harvard College Engineering Society last year with the help of Computer Science concentrator Jie Tang [’08],” says Ma. “We were looking for an ambitious engineering competition in which to compete, and after much searching we came across RoboCup.”

Haller, fresh from the frenzy of a Battlebots competition (a mechanized gladiatorial melee), was also looking for a new challenge. She says, “Because RoboCup is a more compre-hensive project involving more disciplines and resources, I suggested to the MIT Battlebots team that we should work with Harvard.”

RoboCup, an international robotic football (American soc-cer) competition created to “foster AI and intelligent robotics research,” offers university-based teams the chance to build groups of autonomous robots (some near human scale) and compete in head-to-head matches. The Harvard-MIT team aims to enter the F-180, or small-sized league competitions held in April and June.

As in real football, the ersatz athletes must follow the tradi-tional rules of hands-free play, but with a slight twist. Once the mechanical athletes roll onto the field, only smart design and smart programming may guide them to victory. Getting a single bot to behave, let alone getting five to pass, kick, and defend—in concert—takes a great deal of technical skill.

For advice and inspiration, students have relied on MIT’s Professor David Trumper, a renowned expert in mechatron-ics, and Associate Professor Daniela Rus, a MacArthur Genius Award winner and a leader in distributed robotics. At Harvard, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Radhika Nagpal, a rising star in biomemetic computing, and Professor Howard Stone, Associate Dean for Academic Programs at DEAS, have been active mentors to the club.

“The competition this year does not mark the end of RFC Cambridge,” says Ma. “One of our main goals is to build an organization that will outlast the current board and, one day, be able to dominate the RoboCup league.” J

to research. Foti, a 2006 candidate for the A.B. degree in Engineering Sciences (honors biomedical track), is originally from New Windsor, New York.

Congrats to David Ricketts and Kyoungho Woo in Donhee Ham’s group for winning the 2006 ADI Outstanding Student De-signer Awards from Analog Devices. Rick-etts was honored for his development of the first electrical soliton oscillator, and Woo was recognized for his design of

a new fast-lock frequency synthesizer architecture.

Three DEAS graduate students were se-lected in February as the first group of Eliahu I. Jury Travel and Research Award winners. The award, made possible by the generosity of Eliahu I. Jury, SM ’49, supports the travel and research of out-standing graduate students, primarily in the field of electrical engineering or its successor technologies. The award win-

ners were Andrew Howard (advisors Paul Horowitz and Gu-Yeon Wei) for innovative ASIC design for digitizing massive data flows in real time; Dionisis Stefanatos (advisor Navin Khaneja) for groundbreak-ing work on optimal quantum control; and Patrick Mitran (advisors Vahid Tarokh and Alex Kavcic) for outstanding work in the areas of magnetic recording, communica-tions, and information theory. J

(left) Jeff ma ’07 holds up a soccer bot; (middle) harvard and miT students find common ground; (right) soldering silicon is painstaking work.

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chANgiNg sTATesMarie Dahleh, Assistant Dean for Academic Programs, adapts to the academic weather

Moving to Lexington, Massachusetts, after 13 years of California sun-

shine and slowly realizing why the ’70s-era snow blower came standard with her new home, Marie Dahleh still decided to stay. In fact, her two kids have taken nor’easters in stride. Taher and Jumana, ages 11 and 9, effortlessly went from warm water to frozen, exchanging flip-pers for hockey skates. Only the family dog, a gargantuan clumber spaniel, gave the new climate a vote of no confidence. (He now lives on a farm.)

In her role as Assistant Dean for Aca-demic Programs at DEAS, Dahleh is confronting challenges not unlike the chilly, changeable New England winter: a continued fluctuation of the number of U.S. college students pursuing engineering and computer science, the evolving nature of tech-nology as a discipline, and the shifting global economy. Under such conditions, what is the best way to present the Divi-sion to prospective concentrators?

In response to this question, she proud-ly displays her bent, well-read copy of Is There an Engineer Inside You? and points

to a water-bottle rocket apparatus (used during a freshman orientation event), lying inert on her office floor. “I tell stu-dents to do engineering because they like it — and because it is fun,” she says. “They should worry about what they are going to do for a career when they are approaching graduation. That is the best way to do anything and is consis-tent with a liberal arts education.”

Dahleh is a product of her own advice. She studied mathematics while an un-dergraduate at Mount Holyoke, one of the famed seven sisters. At Princeton she earned a Ph.D. in applied mathemat-ics during a time when she was not only one of the few women in the classroom, but in the entire field. Add on her past research, faculty, and administrative positions at such places as UCLA and UCSB, and you realize she would be able to inspire any student to become an en-gineer or applied scientist.

The maTh FacTorYet, however convincing Dahleh may be and however much fun DEAS offers (from building robot soccer players to

playing with silly putty), even entering students with perfect math SAT scores often balk at the thought of spending four years immersed in equations, al-gorithms, and code. The math factor, says Dahleh, often scares prospective students away. “Unfortunately, there’s a perception that if you somehow did not have an opportunity to get a strong background in mathematics in high school, it is all over.”

Thus, she’s been working hard to get stu-dents beyond such a binary perspective — not by easing up on requirements, but by convincing them to stretch their minds. She advises undergraduates to treat mathematics or programming, as in the case of computer science, as they would a second language. “A lot of people will major in a language even if they have never studied it or the region at all,” she explains. Moreover, Division concentrators enjoy a level of flexibility not as common in traditional discipline-based engineering curriculums.

“One of the unique aspects of Harvard’s Engineering Sciences programs is that students may enter both the A.B. and

assistant Dean for academic Programs marie Dahleh (right) and associate Dean for academic Programs howard stone (left) face future challenges together.

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chANgiNg sTATesMarie Dahleh, Assistant Dean for Academic Programs, adapts to the academic weather

sWeeT reTurns

So much dependsupon a blue plastic bowldusted with sugar crystalsatop the black counter.

Even if you missed or blocked out the reference to William Carlos Williams’s poem about the red wheelbarrow, oft-lampooned and lamented by high school English students everywhere, you still may win a sweet prize the next time you visit DEAS. The famed blue candy bowl in question rests upon a jut of counter outside the entryway to the Academic Office.

M&M’s, SweeTARTS, Hershey’s Kisses, or the remainders of a Halloween or Valentine’s candy blow-out sale at the local CVS appear with uncanny regularity. The bottomless pit, however, is not courtesy of self-replicating nanobots. Staff Assistant Tricia Ryan, Academic Programs Coordinator Sandi Godfrey, and Graduate Program Administrator Susan Wieczorek ultimately keep the candy bowl filled. That welcoming touch mimics their attitude towards the students, faculty, and staff who treat the office almost like a second home.

Not surprisingly, students, especially those on the grueling Ph.D. track, inevitably credit the trio with helping them en route to their caps and gowns. Stone and Dahleh give the three equal praise for their deft ability to make even the most arcane academic regulations make sense.

“I tell students to do engineering because they like it—and because it is fun.”

S.B. degrees at a variety of levels and times,” says Dahleh. This more flexible approach may become increasingly important, not just for attracting more students to engineering, but to related fields like biology. While once a safe haven for those with math pho-bia, biology has become increas-ingly quantitative in the age of genomics. Dahleh cautions, however, that while the more open struc-ture has benefits, it’s incredibly challeg-ing to balance the needs and mandate the proper requirements for students with extremely diverse backgrounds. “You may have one student who plans to become a CTO, another who wants to design jet airplanes, and one more who has no idea what she wants to do, all in the same program and often the same class,” she says. In other words, what the “engineer inside” someone should know—and how he or she should be educated—is evolving.

beyonD The numbers At a conference held in March at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Dahleh was asked to speak about engineering education in the liberal arts setting. That, she says, is often shorthand for how engineering is becoming increas-ingly positioned as both a liberal arts degree and a professional one. “Engi-neering is not just the Big Dig, but im-proving the quality of life in developing nations,” Dahleh explains.

This change means that future engi-neers must understand the societal implications of technology and develop an appreciation of new cultures—and that future leaders in any field must ap-preciate how technology continues to shape the world. “Clean water and clean energy sources are huge issues for the world. People are now putting those as the big problems for the next century,” she says.

The March cover of the American Soci-ety for Engineering Education’s Prism magazine features the headline: The Incredibles: Engineers Tackle Poverty and Disease Around the World. Professional

organizations have long recognized what the National Academy of Engineer-ing (NAE) dubbed the “gathering storm” of technology wed to globalization. In 2000, the ABET accreditation standards

changed. Today, all accredited S.B. degrees must em-phasize interdis-ciplinary learn- ing, team build-ing, and courses

that cover the global and societal impacts of engineering. The NAE’s re-port, The Engineer of 2020, also suggests a similar path for creating broadly edu-cated engineers and, in particular, en-courages students to become involved in community-based projects that require engineering skills. Dahleh cites the highly touted Engineering Projects in Community Service project at Purdue University as well as the design-centric, bottom-up curriculum at Olin College, located in Needham, Massachusetts, as two ways to implement such plans.

“Harvard, in fact, has incorporated elements like interdisciplinary courses, team-focused projects, and cross-school activities (what Venky calls ‘renais-sance engineering’) for some time,” she says. The head start will prove useful as Dahleh, along with Associ-ate Dean Howard Stone, the Division’s faculty, and other administrators, assess the Division’s current undergraduate programs in light of the University-wide curricular review. With the likely addition of secondary concentrations (minors) and introduction of entirely new concentrations that blend technol-ogy with the social sciences, finding the right academic mix will be a challenge.

Dahleh, however, remains optimistic about this broader, evolving vision of an engineering and liberal arts education. She believes that students will respond favorably and want to be a part of the change. “After all, we all are engineers when solving certain problems. Who wouldn’t want to delve into puzzles for four years?” Dahleh says. “We can influ-ence students in positive ways so they think about doing things they didn’t even think were possible when they arrived here.” J

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In mid-December, undaunted by the first real snowstorm of the season,

more than 300 geniuses-in-the-mak-ing trudged through the muck to see “It’s Elementary, My Dear Einstein: A Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Einstein’s Miraculous Year.”

The family-friendly talk—organized by Kathryn Hollar, Director of Educational Programs, and presented by Howard Stone, Vicky Joseph Professor of Engi-neering and Applied Mathematics; post-doctoral student Dan Blair; and lecturer Daniel Rosenberg ’84—paid homage to the world’s most famous wild-haired physicist, Albert Einstein.

Kids, families, teachers, and the just plain curious from Boston environs and beyond did more than simply listen to explanations of how Einstein revolutionized the way we think about physics and chemistry. The audience left their seats to tackle firsthand some of the great thinker’s experiments (slightly simplified, of course).

“The format for this and other lectures we’ve done for the past few years, on topics ranging from electronic ink to microfluidics is modeled on a famous set of talks first given to children a cen-tury ago as part of the Royal Institution Christmas lectures in London,” Hollar explained. In addition to some hands-on exposure to science, one of the goals

of the talk, she said, was to emphasize how Einstein’s advances went well beyond his famed theory of relativity. For instance, his quantitative modeling of Brownian motion, a theory describ-ing how minute particles immersed in a fluid move about randomly, allowed scientists to prove the physical reality of molecules and atoms.

Physicist Mark Haw, in an article in PhysicsWeb, sums up this often-forgot-

ten contribution: “Brownian motion was one of three fundamental advances that Einstein made in 1905, the others being special relativity and the idea of light quanta. Of these three great works, Einstein’s analysis of Brownian motion remains the least well known. But this part of Einstein’s scientific legacy was the key to a revolution that is at least as important as relativity or quantum physics. One century later, Brownian motion continues to be of immeasur-able importance in modern science, from physics through biology to the latest wonders of nanotechnology.” In short, there’s even more to Einstein’s genius than most people realize.

The talk was so popular, an encore performance was held in April. J

eiNsTeiN’s secreT liFe

“The format for this and other lectures ... is modeled on a famous set of talks first given to children a century ago as part of the Royal Institution Christmas lectures in London.”

a “young einstein” learns the basics from postdoc Daniel rosenberg.

The audience at the harvard science center discovered that there is more to the world’s great physicist than the familiar e=mc2.

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The soul oF The machineIn April, Harvard artist-in-residence Brian Knep visited DEAS to give a talk about his public art installation entitled “Deep Wounds”. Knep’s creations span the realms of visual imagination, tech-nology, and science. He says of his art, “I’ve been trying to find what I think of as the ‘soul’ in technology by creating works that, though obviously manmade, show the complexity, in behavior and aesthetics, of natural objects. Works that interact with people and encourage in-teraction among people, even strangers.”

One recent computer-generated work uses an algorithm, based on chemical

reaction-diffusion equations describing cellular processes, to project an image that evolves in response to movements of people in the projection field. An-other recent work consists of dynamic panels with drifting shapes that shift their movements in reaction to the viewer’s gaze. Knep’s comfort in differ-ent media also extends to subject mat-ter; he welcomes input from scientists and engineers. In fact, DEAS’s Radhika Nagpal, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, joined Knep and others as part of an earlier lecture on the inter-rela-tionship of biology, engineering, and art, held at the Medical School.

semiconDucTor meeTingIn September 2005 and February 2006, DEAS’s industrial partnership program hosted The Roadmap for Creating Prof-itable Growth in the Semiconductor Industry. Leading firms attended an in-tensive workshop, based on the research of Clayton Christensen, Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administra-tion at the Harvard Business School, aid-ed by the technical expertise of Wood-ward Yang, Gordon McKay Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. EE Times (see p. 9) covered the event.

bioengineering, maTerials science, anD nanosysTemsOn May 5, 2005, with the help of two of Harvard’s NSF-funded research centers, the Materials Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) and the Nanoscale Sci-ence and Engineering Center (NSEC), DEAS hosted a workshop dedicated to promoting collaborations with mem-bers of government and industry. Key topics included the creation and use of novel biomaterials; organ repair with engineered tissues; novel drug deliv-ery technologies; and nanotechnol-ogy/bionanotechnology. For more, see www.deas.harvard.edu/partnerships. J

eveNTsVisit www.deas.harvard.edu/newsandevents for the latest details, dates, and times.Here are some highlights from the past months.

Launched in 2001, the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Har-

vard’s (TECH) “Mini-MBA” in entre-preneurship offers Harvard students a semester-long menu of topics, ranging from opportunity recognition to how to navigate, and sometimes circum-navigate, the land of venture capital and start-up finance.

The modular, cocurricular structure al-lows students to customize the content and pace of their learning. In keeping with the real-world emphasis of the course, stellar faculty from the Har-vard Business School as well as some of

Cambridge’s most successful practicing entrepreneurs teach the seminars.

The reviews have been glowing. Kwa Liou, a Ph.D. student in Biomedical Sciences, said the seminars provided “helpful, coherent instruction in basic finance and entrepreneurial concepts.” Nicole Mammarella, a third-year Ph.D. candidate who signed up for the semi-nars to help her weigh career options, said, “Hearing from a venture capital-ist is helpful as I consider entering a career in industry.” She also echoed a common refrain from most stu-dents: “These are concepts I probably

should have, but haven’t, encountered before.” J

oPPorTuNiTy kNocks

over 200 students signed up for Tech’s “mini-mba” program for 2005-2006.

art from brian Knep is meant to be stared at—and stepped upon.

The new industry partnerships website.

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A song from Cabaret claims “money makes the world go round,” but

Gary Schermerhorn’s success suggests putting more stock in being (and stay-ing) well-rounded. Schermerhorn A.B. ’85 (Computer Science), who serves as co-chief operating officer for the Goldman Sachs Technology Division, credits his broad education and global perspective (he and his family lived in Japan for four years) with providing the best route to get from Harvard Square to Wall Street and beyond.

Q&A wiTh gAry schermerhorNROUNDING THE SQUARE

He currently resides in New Jersey with his wife Miriam Esteve A.B. ’85 (Applied Mathematics) and their three sons.

Esteve, who also earned an M.B.A. in operations management and marketing from Columbia University, is execu-tive vice president of Operations and Technology at U.S. Trust and previously served as head of Operations and Tech-nology for the Global Wealth Manage-ment at Citigroup.

Their travels away from the Yard, how-

ever, have ultimately brought them closer to it. The couple created the Miriam Esteve and Gary Schermerhorn Undergraduate Financial Aid Fund in 2005, easing the first steps for future globe trotters, and most recently have returned to the campus to share career advice with students.

What’s your take on professional edu-cation at the undergraduate level?

While I wrestled with philosophy or abstract computing theories, I was concerned that students at other universities were receiving a more practical, technical education. But I gained a much broader perspective on technology. I am very analytical and tend to search for root causes in most problems in my private and profes-sional life. I can’t say that it’s only the Harvard approach that has made me this way, but I would be against diluting the foundational approach to technical learning to expand the practical.

But isn’t it important to know what’s inside the ‘Intel inside’?

Sure. But it’s all based on foundational computer and engineering sciences. Implementations change and breath-less advances are made, but they’re all somewhat bounded by underlying laws. It’s easier to navigate decisions if you understand these laws. And huge impacts on a place like Goldman Sachs can be made.

How have innovations in technology changed in your lifetime?

In the old days, corporate and govern-ment investments resulted in consumer technologies such as the personal com-puter and the Internet. Today, consumer technology companies like Apple and Google are driving innovations we will see in the workplace. This blurs the line between your identity as an individual consumer and as an employee in an enterprise.

gary schermerhorn ’85 may button-up for work, but he also relishes informal discussions with students.

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chAlleNge reNewed

You’ve also been open to the changes in the wider world. What was living in Japan like?

It was the greatest personal adventure in my life. It’s instructive as an American to experience an ancient culture and make comparisons to your own. For instance, it’s so pleasant that in Japan there is no tipping! We also make it a point to see more of the U.S. because international travel has made us equally appreciate the people and places close by.

With technology, doesn’t close by refer to the next county and the next coun-try?

You can find a Starbucks in Tokyo and share Flickr photos with people you’ve never met. Distances between places and people matter less. Whether tech-nology and finance help to magnify or celebrate cultural differences is frankly

up to the people who harness them and what ends they choose to put them to.

Is there any way for us to prepare for or adapt to this global landscape?

As an American, it’s important to have a sense of what America means and what contributions this country has made and can make to the world. This can be easy to forget for someone committed to “thinking global.” So adaptability is important, but knowing yourself and what you believe in may be the most key preparation.

Does knowing yourself mean making sure work does not solely define you?

I have played drums my whole life, been active in sports (admittedly more so now as a spectator), and have entertained (or humiliated) my children for years with sleight-of-hand I taught myself as a kid.

In addition to continued study in the technology and mathematics fields, I am also a director for several not-for-profit boards.

What kind of view has life outside “The Street” given you?

I am a trustee of the Population Refer-ence Bureau (PRB), the oldest popula-tion nongovernmental organization in the country. PRB professionals regularly visit the most undeveloped regions of the world, getting health, family, and environmental data to journalists, governments, academic institutions, and grassroots organizations. It’s about as far from what I do day to day as you can imagine. It is a humbling reminder that not all the world’s movers and shakers are on Wall Street. J

Inspired in part by the success of DEAS’s own $45 million Challenge

Fund (completed in 2005), Harvard University has announced the estab-lishment of a $50 million Professorship Challenge Fund. The group of generous donors who created the fund hopes to encourage gifts from alumni and friends to endow named professorships across the University and provide other critically needed faculty support.

Donors making gifts of $3 million will be matched with $1 million from the

Challenge Fund to fully endow a named professorship. Individuals interested in establishing a faculty development fund with a gift of $1.5 million will re-ceive a match of $500,000.

The Professorship Challenge Fund has been created through the leadership of Charles J. Egan Jr. ’54 and Mary Bower-sox Egan R’55 and the Stanley H. Dur-wood Foundation; Alphonse Fletcher Jr. ’87; J. Christopher Flowers ’79 and Mary H. White; James F. ’68, M.B.A. ’70 and Anne Fitzpatrick Rothenberg; Brian

D. ’76 and Anne T. Young; and an anony-mous donor.

“The University makes no investment more important than building and sup-porting an outstanding faculty,” said President Lawrence H. Summers. “We are grateful to these donors for estab-lishing the challenge, which is critical to realizing Harvard’s mission.” J

From lasers to laser pointers, alumni gifts play a critical role in supporting harvard’s outstanding faculty.

DEAS – Spring 2006 I 1�

FeeDbacK looPWe welcome and appreciate your comments, suggestions, and corrections. Please send feedback to communications@deas.harvard.edu or call us at 617-496-3815. This newsletter is published biannually bythe Division of engineering and applied sciences communications office.

Harvard universityPierce hall29 oxford streetcambridge, ma 02138

managing editor/Writer: michael Patrick rutter

Designer, Producer, Photographer: eliza grinnell

This publication, including past issues, is available on the Web at www.deas.harvard.edu

copyright © 2006 by the President and Fellows of harvard college

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BAck To The FuTure

For this edition of the newsletter we decided to take a step back, both in time and in technology. These

duotones from the Harvard University Archives may lack the high-definition, surround-sound “oomph” of today’s digital devices, but their content still conveys a rich message. Thanks to resident historians Martha Mooney and Professor Fred Abernathy for helping to identify many of the photos. We encourage alums to send us more information, insights, corrections, and any memories the images inspire. J

Image 1: All work and no play makes a dull engineer. Out-side Pierce Hall, a group of students get up close and personal for a civil engineering study of compactness and weight distribution. Photo by E. E. Petee and N. E. Olds, 1904.

Image 2: An anechoic (echoless) room, likely used in the 1940s for research related to sonar. The modern composer John Cage credits his experience sitting in such a chamber at Harvard, where he could hear noth-ing but the rhythms of his own body, as the motive for his controversial “silent” piece, 4’33”. We are not sure whether Cage sat in the particular room pictured above.

Image 3: Soldiers on the academic battlefield. The Division of Engineering and Applied Physics offered training during World War II. In 1944, the year the photo was taken, marching drills or “parading” was also a common sight on the back lawn of Pierce Hall and in front of Memorial Hall.

Image 4: A lone operator engulfed in the glow and hum of a Harvard MARK series computer. Grace Murray Hopper worked with Howard Aiken ’39 (Ph.D.) to develop the machine in the early 1940s. Considered one of the first large-scale automatic digital computers, a version of this behemoth (the full system weighed about five tons) sits in Harvard’s Science Center today.

Image 5: Radcliffe students hovering around a Teletype ma-chine (connected to a sister machine in Philadelphia) in 1966. As for the odd location, we can only guess—a top-secret laundry room where students could wash clothes and dry their hair while they worked, or a pro-totype Internet café? Fred Abernathy provided a more sober explanation: At Harvard, early “computers” were routinely placed in the basements of buildings.

Image 6: Inside an expansive, high-ceilinged room dedi-cated to gas dynamics and plasma physics, located in Harvard’s Engineering Sciences Laboratory (ESL). To achieve a completely open space, Minoru Yamasaki, the architect of the World Trade Center and of the William James tower on campus, used his signature hull-core structure method—supporting a building solely with steel and concrete outer walls. The photo was likely taken in the late 1960s. Today ESL houses faculty members in bioengineering and environmental sciences as well as the machine shop.

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