Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
ing of how it is shaping and is shaped learn how to Google. That’s why the ef- to transform developing countries, like
by the world. The National Academy fects of engineering are as important as my birthplace of India, into lands of
of Engineering’s assessment, The En- the practice of engineering. That’s why technology developers. Most fortunate,
gineer of 2020, asks questions that all studying engineering in this era must I have been part of a great community
our programs need not only be about cre- and of an entire university where engi-
to address: “Do our
engineers understand
Our students need to both ating engineers but
studying the two-way
neering and the applied sciences have
been renewed and have emerged.
enough culturally, for
example, to respond
master the language of relationship between
technology and so-
These days, in my red folder I see more
headlines that pair Harvard with tech-
to the needs of the engineering and technology ciety—essential for nology and innovation: “Transplanted
multiple niches in a developing global Cells Regenerate Muscles”; “Undergrads
global market? Can and gain an understanding citizens and leaders. Develop System to Fight TB”; “Harvard
we continue to ex-
pect everyone else to of how it is shaping and is As an applied sci-
entist, head of a re-
Launches Wireless Classroom”; “New
Light on Modern Optics (Harvard’s Roy
speak English? What
will be our special shaped by the world. search lab, and a man
of two countries, I
Glauber Wins the Nobel Prize).”
10
likely way to reach a goal is
-9
to be aiming not at that goal
I n Ray Bradbury’s short
story, The Toynbee Convec-
tor, an engineer who claims
itself but at some more
ambitious goal beyond it.”
to have built a time machine
returns from his trip to the —Arnold Toynbee
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 meters, the size of a nanoparticle
In the decades following, the
traveler’s snapshot of the
future—a clean and healthy
environment, technologi-
I f you want to experience an MP3 player
that actually lives up to the name nano, you
better trim your fingernails. A human nail is
Joint DEAS and Physics appointee Vinothan
Manoharan, Assistant Professor of Physics
and Chemical Engineering, also explores the
cal marvels, and a peaceful
and prosperous society—be- about 10 million nanometers thick. Despite shapes of things to come. Manoharan co-
comes a reality. the liberty taken by Apple’s marketing depart- authored a groundbreaking paper in Science
ment, science and engineering at the smallest about predicting how groups of colloids, tiny
In typical Bradbury fashion, scales will likely mean sweet music for basic suspended particles floating like Ping-Pong
the objects in the mirror end
research and consumer products. balls in glue, might arrange themselves.
up being much closer than
they first appear. Having Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering The researchers discovered that when squeezed
grown up hearing the tale of Ken Crozier recently set up a new lab dedicated by a liquid droplet, the microspheres form an
the time traveler from their to nanophotonics, or optics on the nanometer unusual sequence of structures. Despite some
parents, members of the scale. His particular interests involve develop- of the shapes looking decidedly unfamiliar,
future generation expect to ing greatly improved imaging techniques for they all follow the same mathematical rule:
live long enough to greet the scientists and building new devices based on Particles favor groupings that minimize the
inventor upon his arrival. photonic crystals, materials used to control distribution of particle distances from the
On the appointed day and and manipulate the spread of light. center of mass of a given cluster. More amaz-
time, the machine and its On an everyday level, movie fans already reap ing, Manoharan did not set out to make such
occupant fail to shimmer the benefits of such research in the form of a fundamental discovery; the original research
into view. Instead of bend- flat-panel and plasma displays. Continued involved trying to refine the manufacture of
ing the laws of physics, the advances will likely lead to new fabrication photonic crystals.
engineer bent the truth. methods, such as electron-beam lithography Even the smallest predictions in this smallest
With inspiration rather than and plasma etching, critical for next-genera- of fields will likely continue to surprise us.
real evidence, he succeeded tion optical circuits and electronics.
in encouraging the citizens
to dream big, and in doing
so, they banded together to
build a brighter future.
When we imagine the fu-
ture, by definition we think
travel. Advances in basic and of dollars. Engineering and So, strap yourself in for
in terms of time, fast-for-
applied research will depend biology will begin to un- a tour of some of the fu-
warding through the years,
on events happening at the tangle networks on a human ture dimensions of science
decades, or even centuries.
nanoscale and machines scale (the neurons inside and engineering developing
But to get a sense of what’s
built at the microscale. your head) and make con- at DEAS right now—no
to come in engineering and
Financial scales will rise and nections on a global scale time machine (or tall tale)
applied sciences at Harvard,
fall based on billions of bits (new cures and drugs). required. J
the trick is to see time as just
intersecting with billions
one dimension in which to
DEAS – Spring 2006 I
1 10
Crosscurrents
Weight, Dollars,
in grams, of a proposed that intellectual property leakage
autonomous micro air glider costs U.S. companies
,000
Professor of Electrical Engineer- roadside bandits have aban-
ing plans to continue and expand doned their six-shooters and
research on micro air vehicles horses in favor of laptops and
(MAVs) begun at the University broadband access.
of California, Berkeley. The loss of sensitive corporate
,000
His goal is to produce au- data has become an increas-
tonomous (no pilot) low-cost ingly important issue for comp-
fliers that can cover a wide area anies. In fact, Pricewaterhouse-
using gliding or active flight. Coopers estimates that intel-
,000
Using insect-inspired optical- lectual property leakage costs
flow motion detection, large U.S. companies more than $50
numbers of fliers could rapidly billion per year. Luckily, there’s a
fan out to scout an area. Rather new sheriff in town: Mike Smith,
than looking for a piece of fruit Gordon McKay Professor of
to perch on, the machines could use sensors to check for potential Computer Science and Associate
forest fires or incorporate on-board audio or visual detection systems Dean for Computer Science and
to enhance search-and-rescue missions in hard-to-reach or danger- Engineering. Liquid Machines,
ous places. a data and enterprise rights management security firm Smith
Wood also plans to focus on ways to enable the small planes to hover, co-founded, aims to protect the travelers of the digital frontier.
taking lessons from the way insects and birds flap and rotate their Thwarting today’s and tomorrow’s sophisticated cyber thieves means
wings. Ultimately, to get his planes ready for takeoff will require more implementing smarter processes, not just investing in stronger locks
than a sheet of sturdy paper, fancy folding, and a steady throwing and additional bodyguards. Smith and his posse of digital law enforcers
hand. Wood anticipates using novel prototyping methods and laser- offer systems that track and control a firm’s documents and emails
micromachined composite materials to craft stiff and lightweight wherever the data ends up going, allowing employees to share informa-
links, articulated joints, and rigid exoskeletons and airframes for his tion easily and securely, within any operating or software environment.
future fleet. Ultimately, the Harvard Micro Air Vehicle group could Corralling sensitive data ultimately helps “insulate companies from the
allow history to repeat itself, but the Kitty Hawk for the tiny fliers enormous costs, damage, and penalties of data leakage and noncom-
might end up being no bigger than his desk. pliance,” Smith says. Such protection in the wildest parts of the digital
domain has become one of the only secure ways to do business.
50 5
that make up the motor system
Timely Advice
For 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
DEAS – Spring 2006 I
Faculty News
New Arrivals
The Division is pleased to welcome three new faculty members this
spring.
Debra T. Auguste
Assistant 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 Ramanathan
Assistant 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. Wood
Assistant 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
Collaborations
A Passage to India: Harvard and DEAS collaborate with India
DEAS – Spring 2006 I
Faculty News
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!”
Puny paddlers … The February 18, 2006, co-organizer Woodward Yang. Together
Science News mentioned Howard Stone’s with Innovo Inc., the consulting firm
microfluidics work as part of a cover that helped work out the organization
article on small-scale swimming, stating, and agenda of the workshop, Yang and
Nota bene
“In science fiction flicks and futurists’ Christensen hope to have a final road
predictions, medical microrobots patrol map for the industry ‘very soon,’ Yang
within the human body. In reality, designs said.” Yang also spoke about the topic at
—such as this pocket-size model of a the Consumer Electronics Show held in
two-hinge microswimmer—must over- January 2006.
come tough challenges. Marking progress
Inspired engineering ... Artist Jonathon
in this effort, scientists recently built the
Nix created the “Mahadevan Series”, a
first swimming micromachine.”
group of paintings inspired by Professor
A welcome disruption … The EE Times L. Mahadevan’s elegant research on
reported on the Semiconductor Industry the science of everyday life. The works
Roadmap for Creating Profitable Growth are on display at the BAAK Gallery, 35
meeting held on February 6, 2006, Brattle Street (Cambridge, MA) through
at DEAS. “Semiconductor companies’ March 21. J
quest to establish a business model for Little swimmers, as explored by
sustainable profitability is taking place Howard Stone’s research group, are
Xiaofeng Li, Donhee Ham, and David Ricketts and their soliton oscillator. on a battlefield … The preliminary road still making waves in microfluidics
map distributed at the workshop … research.
Seeing solitons … “Individual packets of term, students will be able to download [has] among its main points … that the
light energy, known as optical solitons, podcasts of lectures from the course. pursuit of Moore’s Law occupies an ever-
have long been the darlings of communi- The general public will get to listen in shrinking segment of industry activity.
cations engineers. Finally, their electrical (for free) at a later date. According to It also predicts that the most successful
siblings are getting a look in—and could the Times, “Podcast proponents say the companies will be those that concentrate
become the new favourites,” wrote technology helps the flow of information. on performance-defining nonstandard
Thomas H. Lee, a professor at Stanford Harry Lewis, professor of computer integration, and that market expansion
University. Donhee Ham’s group’s dem- science at Harvard University, is teach- in near-commodity products might force
onstration of a robust, self-sustained ing the school’s first podcast class this a migration to simple design tools, letting
electrical soliton oscillator so intrigued semester … ‘My hope is that if I can reach less skilled designers create application-
Lee, a leader in integrated circuit design, a few people inside the college or out who specific ICs that enable market growth.
that he discussed the finding in the March learn something because we are distribut- ‘These preliminary, suggested scenarios
2, 2006, edition of Nature Magazine’s ing information this way instead of the old are talking points so far,’ said workshop
News and Views section. “The short- way, that’s a good thing,’ he says.”
duration, periodic soliton train produced
by the oscillator could be widely deployed Matt Welsh and Todd Zickler are
in good company—both won NSF
in communication and instrumentation
CAREER awards.
technologies,” the article states. Ham
reports that David Ricketts and Xiaofeng Awards
Li deserve the lion’s share of the credit, Sensible healthcare and better vision … Assistant Professor of Computer Science Matt
saying he only posed the problem but Welsh has won an NSF CAREER Award for his work on wireless medical sensors. Welsh’s
they actually went on to solve it. As a side group is exploring applications of wireless sensor network technology to a range of
note, Lee served as Ham’s thesis advisor. medical applications, including pre-hospital and in-hospital emergency care, disaster
A bit more press ... The Financial Times response, and stroke patient rehabilitation. Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering
featured a piece highlighting Professor Todd Zickler also won a CAREER Award for his work related to building systems that can
Harry Lewis’s course, Bits. Starting this visually understand and interact with their environment. J
DEAS – Spring 2006 I
In Medias Res
W hile the Crimson has contributed its fair share of breaking news in light of re-
cent 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
“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
The CUE guide gets a slimmer look once online. zone” in an attempt to pop the large bal-
loons attached to the smaller buggies.
It’s complicated.
CUE Innovation
Dubbed “the brains of the team” by a
Michael W. Reckhow ’06 has created a that makes missing the bus a thing of
Stanford co-star, Martinez says he used
Web site listing all the classes offered the past. Finding continued inspiration
his solid background in mathematical
this semester, then ranking them with- from his days in CS50 (the most com-
physics to help a team more versed in
in departments and overall from easiest mon entry into the CS concentration),
mechanical engineering. “It was my
to hardest and best to worst, using the Malan piggybacked on earlier work to
chance to really use the tools I had
information supplied by the current create Shuttleboybot, a smart script
gathered in the classroom for the real
Committee on Undergraduate Educa- that allows students to instantly view
world,” he says.
tion (CUE) Guide. Over 2,600 unique the Harvard shuttle bus schedules via
users had visited people.fas.harvard. instant messaging. At Harvard, Martinez wears many hats:
edu/~mreckhow within the first few a Quincy House residential tutor, a
Shuttleboybot’s profile reads, “Think of
days of its release, according to the site’s mathematics instructor at the extension
me as a buddy who allows you to check
creator. school, a DJ at local clubs, and a student
quickly the schedules of Harvard Univer-
pursuing his own research.
Reckhow, who has also built Web sites sity’s shuttles. Anytime you want to chat,
just say ‘hi.’ I’ll ask you where you’d like Adapted from a January 22, 2006, article in The
for the student-run companies Let’s Go
Crimson. Related media stories appeared in The
Publications and Redline Textbooks, to catch a shuttle and where you’d like to Boston Globe. The show featuring Martinez will
said that the inspiration for his new deshuttle. I’ll then tell you the next few air sometime this summer. Stay tuned for details. J
course site struck as he noticed how shuttles for that route!”
time-consuming it was to flip through Since its creation late last week, Shuttle-
the CUE Guide and manually compare boybot has been hailed 300 times. The
Graduate student Robbie Martinez “keeps it real”
both inside and outside of class
class ratings this past exam period. “I ShuttleTime Web site has received
realized there was a need to have some- 11,000 hits over the course of the year.
thing to aggregate all this information,” Although it might seem a roundabout
he said. “I’m interested to see how fac- way of getting around, during Boston’s
ulty will react to getting recognition cold winters saving a few seconds trans-
that their course is the sort of ‘best’ in lates to warm relief.
the department or being the teacher of
Adapted from a December 16, 2005, article in
the lowest-rated course.” The Crimson.
Adapted from a February 1, 2006, article in
The Crimson.
Jungle king
Catching the shuttle Roberto E. Martinez, a 26-year-old Ph.D.
candidate in applied physics, refuses to
David Malan ’99, current CS grad stu- conform to the “nerdy scientist” stereo-
dent and the prime mover behind the type, which is why the young Harvard
first podcast of a Harvard course, is also physicist jumped at the chance to be
the man (or the boy) behind software
DEAS – Spring 2006 I 11
Student News
Awards
Undergraduates Elaine Angelino ‘06 to research. Foti, a 2006 candidate for a new fast-lock frequency synthesizer ners were Andrew Howard (advisors Paul
(Applied Math), Shaun Fitzgibbons the A.B. degree in Engineering Sciences architecture. Horowitz and Gu-Yeon Wei) for innovative
‘06 (Physics & Math), Alex Glasser ‘06 (honors biomedical track), is originally Three DEAS graduate students were se- ASIC design for digitizing massive data
(Physics & Math) won the 2006 Consor- from New Windsor, New York. lected in February as the first group of flows in real time; Dionisis Stefanatos
tium for Mathematics and Its Applica- Congrats to David Ricketts and Kyoungho Eliahu I. Jury Travel and Research Award (advisor Navin Khaneja) for groundbreak-
tions (COMAP) Mathematical Modeling Woo in Donhee Ham’s group for winning winners. The award, made possible by ing work on optimal quantum control; and
Competition. the 2006 ADI Outstanding Student De- the generosity of Eliahu I. Jury, SM ’49, Patrick Mitrin (advisors Vahid Tarokh and
Harvard College senior Daniel Foti has signer Awards from Analog Devices. Rick- supports the travel and research of out- Alex Kavcic) for outstanding work in the
been awarded the 2005 Colonel and etts was honored for his development of standing graduate students, primarily in areas of magnetic recording, communica-
Mrs. S. S. Dennis III Scholarship in rec- the first electrical soliton oscillator, and the field of electrical engineering or its tions, and information theory. J
ognition of his hard work and dedication Woo was recognized for his design of successor technologies. The award win-
DEAS – Spring 2006 I 13
In Profile
Changing States
Marie Dahleh, Assistant Dean for Academic Programs, adapts to the academic weather
Assistant Dean of Academic Programs Marie Dahleh (right) and Associate Dean of Academic Programs Howard Stone (left) face future challenges together.
DEAS – Spring 2006 I 15
Intersections
U ndaunted by the first real snow- lectures in London.” In addition to the key to a revolution that is at least
storm of the season, more than some hands-on exposure to science, one as important as relativity or quantum
300 geniuses-in-the-making trudged of the goals of the talk, she said, was physics. One century later, Brownian
through the muck in mid-December to to emphasize how Einstein’s advances motion continues to be of immeasur-
see “It’s Elementary, My Dear Einstein: went well beyond his famed theory of able importance in modern science,
A Celebration of the 100th Anniversary relativity. For instance, his quantitative from physics through biology to the
of Einstein’s Miraculous Year.” modeling of Brownian motion, a theory latest wonders of nanotechnology.” In
describing how minute particles im- short, there’s even more to Einstein’s
The family-friendly talk—organized genus than most people realize.
by Kathryn Hollar, Director of Educa- mersed in a fluid move about randomly,
tional Programs, and presented by Vicky allowed scientists to prove the physical The talk was so popular, an encore
Joseph Professor of Engineering and reality of molecules and atoms. performance was held in April. J
Applied Mathematics Howard Stone, The audience at the Harvard Science Center discovered that there is more to the world’s great physicist than
postdoctoral student Dan Blair, and the familiar e=mc2.
lecturer Daniel Rosenberg ’84—paid
homage to the world’s most famed 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,” explained Hollar, “is
modeled on a famous set of talks first
given to children a century ago as part
of the Royal Institution Christmas
Events
Visit www.deas.harvard.edu/newsandevents for the latest details, dates, and times. Bioengineering,
Here are some highlights from the past months.
materials science,
reaction-diffusion equations describing and nanosystems
The soul of the machine
cellular processes, to project an image On May 5, 2005, with the help of two of
In April, Harvard artist-in-residence
that evolves in response to movements Harvard’s NSF-funded research centers,
Brian Knep visited DEAS to give a talk
of people in the projection field. An- the Materials Science and Engineering
entitled Deep Wounds. Knep’s creations
other recent work consists of dynamic Center (MRSEC) and the Nanoscale Sci-
span the realms of visual imagination,
panels with drifting shapes that shift ence and Engineering Center (NSEC),
technology, and science. He says of his
their movements in reaction to the DEAS hosted a workshop dedicated to
art, “I’ve been trying to find what I think
viewer’s gaze. Knep’s comfort in differ- promoting collaborations with mem-
of as the ‘soul’ in technology by creating
ent media also extends to subject mat- bers of government and industry. Key
works that, though obviously manmade,
ter; he welcomes input from scientists topics included the creation and use
show the complexity, in behavior and
and engineers. In fact, DEAS’s Radhika of novel biomaterials; organ repair
aesthetics, of natural objects. Works that
Nagpal joined Knep and others as part with engineered tissues; novel drug
interact with people and encourage in-
of an earlier lecture on the relationship delivery technologies; and anotechnol-
teraction among people, even strangers.”
among biology, engineering, and art, ogy/bionanotechnology. For more, see
One recent computer-generated work held at the Medical School. www.deas.harvard.edu/partnerships. J
uses an algorithm, based on chemical
Semiconductor meeting The new industry partnerships website went live
this past spring.
Art from Brian Knep is meant to be stared at—and
stepped upon. In 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 page x) covered
the event.
DEAS – Spring 2006 I 17
Alumni Notes
Challenge renewed
I nspired in part by the success of
DEAS’s own $45 million Challenge
Fund (completed in 2005), Harvard
Challenge Fund to fully endow a named
professorship. Individuals interested
in establishing a faculty development
D. ’76 and Anne T. Young; and an anony-
mous donor.
University has announced the estab- fund with a gift of $1.5 million will re- “The University makes no investment
lishment of a $50 million Professorship ceive a match of $500,000. more important than building and sup-
Challenge Fund. The group of generous porting an outstanding faculty,” said
donors who created the fund hopes The Professorship Challenge Fund has President Lawrence H. Summers. “We
to encourage gifts from alumni and been created through the leadership of are grateful to these donors for estab-
friends to endow named professorships Charles J. Egan Jr. ’54 and Mary Bower- lishing the challenge, which is critical
across the University and provide other sox Egan R’55 and the Stanley H. Dur- to realizing Harvard’s mission.” J
critically needed faculty support. wood Foundation; Alphonse Fletcher
Jr. ’87; J. Christopher Flowers ’79 and
Donors making gifts of $3 million will Mary H. White; James F. ’68, M.B.A. ’70
be matched with $1 million from the and Anne Fitzpatrick Rothenberg; Brian
From lasers to laser pointers, alumni gifts play a critical role in supporting Harvard’s outstanding faculty.
DEAS – Spring 2006 I 19
Connections