Nariman Farvardin, Professor and Chair

Welcome to the fall 1997 issue of EE Connections, highlighting the collective accomplishments of our faculty, staff and students over the past six months.

Under the leadership of Professor Steven Marcus, chair of the faculty search committee, the department experienced its most successful faculty hiring season in many years. We hired four outstanding assistant professors (see details on page 6). These additions will materially enhance our expertise in the critical areas of computer architectures, embedded systems and wireless communications. We plan to continue to recruit new faculty at the same rate in the next three years. Also, to improve the quality of support services, the department added three staff members: Ms. Elisabeth El'Khodary as Academic Coordinator for Graduate Matters; Dr. Lisa Kiely as Academic Coordinator for Undergraduate Matters; and Ms. Heidi Herne as the Director of Computing Facilities. The first two additions boost our academic programs, providing additional personalized attention to our students and enhancing our student recruitment efforts, while the last ensures that our computing infrastructure maintains its presence as an advanced, reliable system.

The Computer Engineering B.S. degree program was successfully launched this past September. There are currently about 50 freshmen (twice the planned size) enrolled in the program, and we are working with the university upper administration to secure the needed resources to further expand this extremely popular program.

The total number of electrical engineering and computer engineering freshmen in fall '97 is about 60% higher than the number of electrical engineering freshmen in fall '96. Likewise, at the graduate level, the number of first-year graduate students in 1997 represents a 57% increase compared to the same figure in 1996. What is remarkable is that this increase has happened despite our increased selectivity in admitting students. Finally, the total research expenditures of our faculty exceeded $27M-a growth of about 19% in one year, 35% in two years, and 83% in three years. These are all signs of a vibrant, active, and rapidly growing educational and research program.

Our efforts aimed at establishing stronger ties with industry continue to bear fruit. Two more companies, Northrop Grumman Corporation and Bay Networks, Inc., recently joined the department's Industrial Affiliates Program (IAP), bringing its total members to ten. To facilitate student recruitment, the department began a "direct student recruitment" activity as a special service to its IAP members.

Our faculty continue to pioneer technology. Prof. Kawthar Zaki won the university Office of Technology Liaison's "Outstanding Invention of 1996" award, while seven other faculty members were involved with inventions considered for the award.

I hope you will enjoy reading this issue of the newsletter. Please feel free to contact me at farvar@eng.umd.edu.