MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR
began my term as department chair about three
months ago. The department is experimenting with a new administrative
structure. We have a co-chair, Professor Amy
Wendt, who will share administrative responsibilities with me. Together,
Professor Wendt and I are looking forward to leading the department
for the next three to four years.
Professor Christopher
DeMarco’s term as chair from 2002 to 2005 was an exciting
period for the department. Ten new faculty members were hired and our
faculty strength rose from 37 to 43. These new colleagues have “hit
the ground running,” already making significant scholarly achievements,
attracting extramural research support, and contributing greatly to
our educational goals. For instance, Assistant Professor Annette
Muetze received the National Science Foundation’s CAREER award
in 2005 for her research in power electronics and electrical machines.
Many other faculty and students also received prestigious awards during
Professor DeMarco’s term. He is now looking forward to spending
more time on his research and teaching. We wish him well in this transition.
The department’s efforts to recruit new faculty
stalled a bit in 2004-2005, and we are facing stiff challenges in this
area from various directions. The department made offers to three outstanding
candidates during the past year. Unfortunately, all three chose not
to accept them. Due to budget pressures at the state level, campus resources
available for startup packages are trending downward. As a result, we
must increasingly rely on private gifts through the UW Foundation in
order to offer attractive startup packages. Recently, we used generous
support from Dr. Peter R. Schneider and the Grainger Foundation, as
well as a gift from Chancellor John
Wiley based on his patent royalties, to put together competitive
startup packages. In the coming years, our ability to provide competitive
startup packages will be one of the biggest challenges in recruiting
new faculty to the department.
On the positive side, the department welcomes Assistant
Faculty Associate James
Barner (see the
profile on him here). Prior to joining us, Jim spent over 10 years
in the telecommunications industry. From day one, he began interacting
with undergraduate and graduate students. Within ten days of arriving,
he started supervising an undergraduate lab in optoelectronics. In his
role as teaching assistant coordinator, he will help select teaching
assistants and act as their mentor throughout the semester. He will
also coordinate the department’s efforts in the College of Engineering’s
New Educator’s Orientation (NEO) and Teaching Improvement Program
(TIP).
Jim is taking over some of these roles from ECE Program
Specialist Donna Lewis. Donna retired at the end of July after more
than 30 years of service at UW-Madison, 15 of which were in ECE. During
her tenure here, Donna oversaw more than 700 teaching assistants and
was one of the architects of the NEO and TIP programs. In addition,
she performed a host of duties including serving as executive assistant
to the chair, managing budgets and gifts, and supervising staff. Her
service to teaching assistants will continue through her gift to the
TA Training and Development Fund (more
details available here). Upon request from the department, Chancellor
Wiley extended emeritus status to Donna. We wish Donna and her husband
John all the best in the future.
On a sad note, Wayne C. Cole
passed away in July 2005 following an accident. He worked in the department
for nearly 40 years as an electronics technician, retiring in 1991.
Faculty, staff, and students remember him for his consistent “can
do’’ attitude. Professor Leon
Shohet recently shared the following about Wayne: “I first
met him when I arrived in Madison in 1966. My lab was located next door
to his office and I always got a lot of advice from him about how to
do things. He was, by far, the best person to repair any Tektronix oscilloscope,
especially the tube-type. His gentle manner helped him build relationships
with sales engineers. These relationships greatly helped the department;
sales engineers were always able to find scarce but much-needed parts
for repairing laboratory equipment.”
Research productivity continues to be exceptionally
high. In 2004-2005, faculty, staff researchers, and students co-authored
over 145 journal and 225 conference publications. In keeping with recent
tradition, the details of these achievements are available online in
our annual report at www.engr.wisc.edu/ece.
I strongly encourage you to visit the website and see the accomplishments.
Faculty and staff scientists also achieved much success in the highly
competitive arena of federally supported research. The total research
expenditures, including federal, industrial, and gifts, exceeded $15.9
million in 2004-2005.
Our faculty members also continue to win prestigious
national and international awards. Associate Professor Susan
Hagness received the 2005 Issac Koga Gold Medal. This international
award is given once every three years to a scientist age 35 or younger
who has made an outstanding contribution to any of the branches of science
covered by the Commissions of the International Union of Radio Science.
The award recognizes Susan’s contributions in the area of computational
electromagnetics and ultra-wideband microwave imaging for early breast
cancer detection.
Professor Thomas
(Tom) Jahns was honored with the 2005 IEEE Nikola Tesla Award for
his pioneering contributions to the design and applications of AC permanent
magnet machines. It is one of IEEE’s most prestigious technical
awards for contributions to the generation and utilization of electric
power.
At the campus level, Professor Amy Wendt was selected
as a 2005 Vilas Associate. This award recognizes the achievements of
mid-career faculty members, up to 20 years from the date of earning
their PhDs. The award includes support for pursuit of new directions
in research and teaching efforts, and thus serves as a vehicle for both
recognition and new achievement.
A couple of years ago the department experienced dramatic
growth in our graduate student population. Although our research programs
are growing, the large number of graduate students stretched our resources.
The department undertook an effort to manage graduate student enrollment.
This, coupled with the upward swing in high-tech employment, resulted
in our reaching a comfortable level of 368 graduate students in Fall
2005. This positions us well to provide the highest quality education
and research opportunities to our graduate student body. We also saw
enrollment in our undergraduate program decrease. However, the reduction
in total enrollment can be attributed to the decreasing number of incoming
students in the recent past. The trend now seems to be reversing and
undergraduate enrollment in our sophomore-level ECE courses has started
to increase.
As we enter the 2005-2006 academic year, we see signs
of improvement in many technological sectors of the economy, expanding
opportunities for our graduates. A record number of companies came to
the College of Engineering’s Career Fair in September 2005. We
see rapidly growing interest in and need for ECE’s research and
educational expertise, opening many exciting new avenues for scholarship
and service. My colleagues and I share great enthusiasm for the future
and are looking forward to making even more contributions to our state,
our nation and the world.
Parameswaran
Ramanathan , Chair
2416 Engineering Hall
1415 Engineering Dr.
Madison, WI 53706
Tel: 608/263-0557
Fax: 608/262-1267
E-mail:
ecechair@engr.wisc.edu
