Three Corner Satellite Successfully Attached to DemoSat

• The Three Corner Satellite developed jointly by NMSU, Arizona State and the University of Colorado has now been successfully attached to DemoSat scheduled to be launched this coming fall (see picture). The satellite was developed with funding from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). The priniciple investigator at NMSU is Dr. Stephen Horan.

Air Force Office of Scientific Research Awards Contract to NMSU

• The Air Force Office of Scientific Research is awarding a contract to NMSU to fund the proposal entitled "Free-Space Laser Communications: Propagation and Beam Formation Investigations". The award is for $200,000 per year for up to five years. The principal investigators for the project are Profs. Mike Giles and David Voelz.

IFT Awards Grant of $30,000 for Capstone Development

• The International Foundation for Telemetering has given a grant of $30,000.00 to New Mexico State University to support capstone laboratory development for students in the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. This support is the third year of this grant which now totals $90,000.00 to NMSU. The funding supports acquisition of electronic and mechanical parts, computer support, and software support for student design projects. Additionally, the funding provides for a graduate teaching assistant for the design class. The primary project supported by this funding is for the students to design and operate robots that play one-on-one soccer. The grant was obtained by Dr. Stephen Horan who is the instructor for the robot soccer design class.

Paul W. Klipsch Inducted into Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame

• The late Paul W. Klipsch, a New Mexico State University alumnus, was inducted into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame during the 2004 International Consumer Electronics Convention in Las Vegas, Nev., Jan. 8.
  Klipsch was selected for membership by a panel of 17 media and industry professionals who judged hundreds of nominations that were submitted by manufacturers, retailers and industry journalists.
  He joins 76 existing members of the hall of fame, which recognizes the accomplishments of the consumer electronics industry that provides the products and services that inform, educate, entertain and keep consumers connected.
  A special dinner in October will honor the 2004 hall of fame inductees during the Consumer Electronics Association Industry Forum in San Francisco.
  Klipsch committed his life to his love of audio and music. His heritage line of speakers including the Klipschorn, LaScala, Belle, Cornwall and Heresy are known worldwide for their quality and accuracy and have continued to set the standard in the industry for more than 50 years.
  He received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from New Mexico State.
  In 1983, Klipsch was inducted into the Audio Hall of Fame and in 1997 he was inducted in the Engineering and Science Hall of Fame for acoustic, ballistic and geophysical contributions. He joined the ranks of other notable members such as Thomas Edison, Jonas Salk and the Wright Brothers.
  The NMSU Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering was dedicated in 1995 and the NMSU Klipsch Museum was dedicated in 1997.
  Klipsch passed away in May 2002, however, his wife Valerie Klipsch remains a friend and benefactor of the College of Engineering at NMSU. She established four distinguished professorships in 2002 and three endowed scholarships in 2003. Valerie was also inducted into the Academy of the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2003.

Four NMSU Klipsch School Students Selected To Receive NSF "Bridge to the Doctorate" Fellowships

• Four New Mexico State University Klipsch School students have been selected to receive National Science Foundation "Bridge to the Doctorate" Fellowships. The fellowships were awarded to the four students by the NSF-funded New Mexico Alliance for Minority Participation. The Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowships are designed to encourage highly qualified minority graduate students to enter graduate school with the ultimate goal of pursuing and obtaining a PhD degree. The four students are Aaron De Los Santos, Sergio Pizzaro, Ruben Ortega, and Rajesh Nayar. De Los Santos, Pizarro and Ortega are scheduled to graduate with their BSEE degrees in May of 2003, but have already been admitted into the Klipsch School graduate program as senior petitioners. Mr. Nayar is already working towards his MSEE degree. Each of the students will receive a $27,000/year stipend for up to two years to support them as they work towards their MSEE degrees.

Brian Thompson Graduates With Highest Honors at Fall 2003 Commencement

• ECE graduate Brian Thompson graduated with highest honors at the fall, 2003 commencement. Mr. Thompson graduated with a 4.0/4.0 GPA in electrical engineering with minors in mathematics and computer science. Mr. Thompson has worked at IBM as a coop (2000, 2002), as a research assistant at the NMSU Jornada Experimental Range (1999), and was a Computer Laboratory Assistant at NMSU (1999). Mr. Thompson is from Farmington, NM and graduated from Farmington HS. Mr. Thompson has accepted a position with Boeing Corp. in Long Beach, CA and will begin his new duties in January of 2004.

Dr. Gladys Omayra Ducoudray Named NMSU Outstanding PhD Graduate Student for Fall 2003

• ECE graduate Dr. Gladys Omayra Ducoudray was named the NMSU Outstanding PhD graduate student for the fall 2003 commencement. She had previously received her BS in Physics from the University of Puerto Rico and her MSEE degree from NMSU. She received a NASA MURC scholarship award in 1993, a Klipsch graduate fellowship in 1999, an NSF AGEP Fellowship in 2001 and an NMSU NASA Spacegrant fellowship in 2003. She has been a teaching and research assistant and a faculty instructor at the university. She has also worked at Agilent Technologies as an R&D Analog Designer. Dr. Ducoudray's dissertation is entitled "Innovative Built-In Self-Test Schemes for On Chip Diagnosis of Analog and Mixed Signal Devices". Her PhD advisor was Dr. Jaime Ramirez. She has published 20 conference and journal articles in the field of analog VLSI systems. Dr. Ducoudray has accepted a position as an assistant professor in Electrical Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayguez and will begin her new duties in January of 2004.

Dr. William Dearholt Named NMSU Outstanding PhD Graduate Student for Spring 2003

• ECE graduate Dr. William Dearholt was named the NMSU Outstanding PhD graduate student for the spring 2003 commencement. Dearholt, an electrical and computer engineering doctorate student with a 3.92 GPA, is a Las Cruces native having graduated from Las Cruces High School. He had previously received his BSEE and MSEE degrees from NMSU He received a NASA Graduate Fellowship Award in 1997 and has been a teaching and research assistant and a faculty instructor at the university. He also has worked as a research assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Dr. Dearholt's dissertation is entitled "Electromagnetic Scattering Problems Utilizing a Direct, Parallel Solver". His PhD advisor was Dr. Steven Castillo. Dr. Dearholt is now employed at Los Alamos National Laboratories.

Ramkumar Srinivasan Selected For Best Graduate Student Paper for 9th Annual Modeling and Simulation Workshop

• Klipsch School, MSEE student, Ramkumar Srinivasan was selected for the Best Graduate Student Paper for the upcoming 9th Annual Modeling and Simulation workshop conducted by the International Test and Evaluation Association White Sands Chapter. The paper entitled "Fast, Accurate Micro-Architecture Simulation" was coauthored with Mr. Srinivasan's advisor, Dr. Jeanine Cook. The research work is related to efficient modeling of complex microprocesor architectures.
  
  Simulation based micro-architecture research is inhibited by the slow speed of the simulators used. Performance of a newly proposed design is often known only after weeks of simulation. The paper describes an innovative method to speed-up micro-architecture simulations. We propose to speed-up the simulator by parallelizing its execution. Tests showed that our method results in a significant simulation speed-up with very little loss in simulation accuracy.
  
  The paper will be presented at the workshop to be held at the Las Cruces Hilton from Dec 8 to Dec 11, 2003. Mr. Srinivasan will be presented with the award and a scholarship valued at $1500 at the workshop luncheon on Dec. 9th at the Las Cruces Hilton.

Students to Benefit from Scholarships Endowed by $400,000 Gift from Mrs. Paul Klipsch and Family

• Between 10 and 20 incoming freshman engineering students will benefit from three newly endowed scholarships, said Steve Castillo, department head of the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at New Mexico State University.
  "The scholarships will allow us to offer more opportunities for academically talented students to pursue a degree in engineering at New Mexico State University," Castillo said. "The end result will be an increase in the number of graduating engineers to support the growing high-technology sector of New Mexico."
  The scholarships are the Paul W. and Valerie Klipsch Freshman Scholarship in Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Paul W. and Valerie Klipsch Scholarship in Honor of Jay and Lya Jordan for Freshmen in Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Paul W. and Valerie Klipsch Scholarship in Honor of Joe and Priscilla Creed for Freshmen in Chemical Engineering.
  Valerie Klipsch, wife of the late Paul W. Klipsch, gave a $400,000 gift in October to endow all three scholarships.
  Paul W. Klipsch received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from NMSU in 1926 and his master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1934.
  Paul W. Klipsch, world renowned inventor, engineer and scientist, revolutionized the world of audio with his inventions in loud speaker design.
  Among his many honors and awards, Paul W. Klipsch received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from NMSU in 1981; induction into the Engineering and Science Hall of Fame for his work in acoustics, ballistics and geophysics in 1997; induction into the Audio Hall of Fame in 1983 and received the Audio Engineering Society Silver Medal in 1978.
  He died on May 5, 2002, in Hope, Ark., at the age of 98.

Marzyeh Ghassemi Selected as Phi Kappa Phi Outstanding Junior

• Marzyeh Ghassemi was selected by the Dean of Engineering as the Phi Kappa Phi Outstanding Junior. Ms. Ghassemi is currently majoring in electrical engineering, computer science, and mathematics and carries a 4.0 GPA. She has worked for Computing and Technology in data management, for the Biological Pest Control Project, and is currently working as a research assistant in electromagnetics/antenna design. Ms. Ghassemi is a Professor Brown Scholar in the Klipsch School. She was selected for the Agilent Mentoring scholarship in 2003 and has also received the Klipsch/HKN Scholarship. She is a member of HKN, IEEE, Phi Eta Sigma, and Golden Key.

Kendall Mauldin Receives Award for Best Undergraduate Paper at 2003 International Telemetering Conference

• Kendall Mauldin (BSEE, 2003) received the award for the best undergraduate paper at the 2003 International Telemetering Conference. Kendall's paper was titled "Satellite Ground Station Security Using SSH Tunneling" which was based on work he performed as a research assistant in the Telemetry Center of the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. This project was aimed at developing techniques to securely send data between the ground stations participating in the 3 Corner Satellite project. The award for the best paper includes an expense-paid trip to the conference and a cash award of $1000. The 2003 International Telemetering Conference was held in Las Vegas, NV from October 20 through the 23. The conference had an attendance of over 2500 from industry, government facilities, and academia. Kendall's paper was one of over 100 technical papers presented at the conference.

Dr. Jeanine Cook Awarded $40,000 Research Grant from Sandia

• Jeanine Cook was awarded a $40,000 research grant from Sandia, entitled "Quantifying the Performance Impact of Microarchitecture Structure and Technology Scaling on Sandia Scientific Applications". This grant will fund research into quantifying the performance impact of various conventional microarchitecture features on the execution of these applications. Current and projected future architectures will be studied, leading to the proposal of an application-specific microarchitecture.

Dr(s). Chanover and Voelz Awarded NSF/AFOSR Grant

• Dr. Nancy Chanover (Astronomy) and Dr. David Voelz (Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering) have been awarded a grant entitled "Spectral and Polarimetric Imaging of Solar System Bodies." The awarding agency is the National Science Foundation in association with the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (NSF/AFOSR). The proposed work is to develop understanding of the haze and aerosol properties in the lower atmosphere of solar system bodies such as Titan (Saturn moon). The work involves the completion of an Acousto-Optical Tunable Filter (AOTF) camera and deployment of the camera in January, 2004 to the Air Force AEOS telescope in Maui, HI. The camera will be used in observations of Titan and other objects, and will be aided by the adaptive optics system on the AEOS telescope. The resulting spectral imagery will be examined and compared with atmospheric models. The grant duration is 2 years and the funding amount is $180K.

Dr. Stephen Horan Receives El Paso Corporate Foundation Faculty Achievement Award

• Stephen Horan of New Mexico State University is the recipient of this year's $3,000 El Paso Corporate Foundation Faculty Achievement Award.
  
  

  

  
  Horan, a professor in the university's Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was presented the honor April 10 during a special ceremony.
  
  "I'm honored and humbled," said Horan, who also holds the Frank Carden Endowed Chair in Telemetering and Telecommunications. "This is the type of award that validates your career. It shows that you are having a positive impact and that your efforts have been noticed by people other than your family members or just the students in your classes."
  
  A Pennsylvania native, Horan has lived in Las Cruces since 1976 when he began his graduate studies in astronomy. He graduated from NMSU in 1984 with a Ph.D. in engineering and became a faculty member in 1986.
  
  The El Paso Corporate Foundation, formerly the El Paso Energy Foundation, established the awards program in 1993 to recognize outstanding college and university teaching.
  
  Recipients of the award must demonstrate exceptional effort devoted to the quality of a student's classroom learning experience, possess high quality standards for both the rigor and currency of course content and for the level of student performance, and have available measures of the direct impact upon and involvement with students.

Klipsch School Receives Equipment Grant from Agilent Technologies

• The Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at New Mexico State University was recently awarded an $80,000 equipment grant from Agilent Technologies.
  
  "The grant will help support the school's microwave and wireless engineering program, and offer students the opportunity to work with material and equipment they have not seen before," said Russell Jedlicka, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.
  
  With the new funding, the Applied Electromagnetics course will include a lab that all electrical engineering students will use during their studies.
  
  "Agilent really wanted to have their equipment impact hands-on activities," Jedlicka said. "This lab will expose our students to state-of-the-art equipment and give them a better understanding of wireless technology."
  
  Among its giving interests, Agilent Technologies, headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., offers grants to teaching labs that exhibit a leading edge in their approach to teaching students in the laboratory. The award was part of Agilent's University Philanthropic Equipment Grant program.

Three NMSU Students and a Recent Graduate Receive GEM Fellowships

• Three New Mexico State University students and a recent graduate received fellowships from the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science (GEM) Inc.
  
  GEM fellows are Jedediah J. Alderete, a senior mechanical engineering major; Carlos Nieva, a graduate electrical engineering major; Rafael Antonio Padilla, a 2002 NMSU graduate who received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering; and Victor Rubio, a graduate electrical engineering major.
  
  The GEM Fellowship programs are designed to offer opportunities for under represented minority students to obtain master's degrees in engineering and Ph.D. degrees in engineering and the natural and physical sciences through paid summer internships and graduate financial assistance.
  
  "Receiving the GEM Fellowship to aid in the pursuit of a master's degree is an amazing opportunity for me," Alderete said. "Not only does this fellowship pay for my school, but it also allows me to work at a world-class research facility such as Los Alamos National Labs."
  
  NMSU has participated in GEM for at least 25 years. Many students who have been sponsored by GEM are climbing the corporate ladder with companies such as General Motors, IBM, Intel and Sandia Labs.
  
  "Having several of our students selected for GEM Fellowships is a real tribute to the quality of our students and programs in the College of Engineering," said Steven Castillo, professor and department head of the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NMSU. "The support from GEM will allow these students to focus on their graduate studies without the worry of the financial burden of paying for school."

Professors De Leon, Horan, Borah, and Lyman Awarded 3-Year, $650,000 Grant From NASA Glenn Research Center

• Profs. Phillip De Leon, Steve Horan, Deva Borah, and Ray Lyman of the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering have been awarded a three-year, $650,000 grant from the NASA Glenn Research Center under the Space Communication Program. This grant will fund research into modeling, simulation, and analysis of data communications networks for autonomous, planetary rovers. The research makes use of recent topographic data from the Mars Global Surveyor program in characterizing the radio frequency environment and also examines various approaches to utilizing standard wireless networking hardware in this environment.

Research Proposal Awarded Funding By NASA

• The proposal "Research Supporting Satellite Communications Technology" was recently approved for funding by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center. The goal of the project is to work on two technologies to assist NASA in its efforts to improve communications techniques for future missions. The proposed research projects build upon the previous research experience that NASA has supported within the Center for Space Telemetering and Telecommunications at NMSU. The proposed research areas to be conducted under this proposal are:
  a) The design and evaluation of techniques to provide the capabilities for an autoconfigurable receiver.
  b) The design and evaluation of techniques to provide for the autonomous establishment of links for clusters of satellites.
  These research programs are expected to assist satellite developers of future systems to make communications more reliable for individual satellites and for clusters of satellites.
  The research proposal is written for one year with projected options if NASA were to desire to continue the efforts. The research support will provide for three faculty and three graduate students in this project. The one-year grant request is for $200,000.00

Dr. Ulisse Bravar Accepts Post Doc Position at Oxford

• Ulisse Bravar (PhD-Physics, MSEE from NMSU) just accepted a Post Doc position at Oxford. Dr. Bravar works in the Particle Astrophysics Laboratory under the direction of Prof. Steve Stochaj. Congratulations to Dr. Bravar!

Dr. Deva Borah Receives $25,000 Grant From NASA

• The grant amount is $25,000 with a total expected award of $50,000 for the year 2003. This work will study the performance of CCSDS (Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems) recommended modulation schemes and will investigate new efficient modulation techniques. More information to follow at a later date

Two Klipsch School Fall 2002 Graduates Selected for Top Honors

• Two Klipsch School fall 2002 graduates were selected for the two most prestigious awards for College of Engineering graduates. Eric Fernandez graduated with highest honors in the College of Engineering. Eric graduated from Carlsbad High School and has taken a position with Hewlett Packard in Greeley, Colorado. Eric plans to begin his graduate studies in electrical engineering at Colorado State University in the fall of 2003. The Highest Honors designation is based on a combination of grade point average and student credit hours completed. Jon Jacobson was selected as the Outstanding Graduating Senior in the College of Engineering. Jon graduated from Farmington High School and has taken a position with Raytheon in Los Angeles, California. The Outstanding Graduating Senior recipient selection is based on academic performance and university and community service.

Dr. Jeanine Cook Awarded NSF-ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Grant

• The NSF-ADVANVCE program at New Mexico State University has awarded Dr. Jeanine Cook a $15,000 grant to support equipment infrastructure in the Advanced Computer Architecture Performance and Simulation Lab. The grant will be used to purchase a new 16-node Beowulf cluster to be used for research on the parallelization of computer architecture models and simulations.

NMSU Selected to Participate in University Nanosat 3 Program

• New Mexico State University has been selected to participate in the University Nanosat 3 program administered by the Air Force Office of Sponsored Research. NMSU is one of 12 institutions participating in this two-year program which is expected to begin on 1 April 2003. The goal of the University Nanosat 3 program is to have students at each university produce a complete, working satellite that will be evaluated for the awarding of an actual flight opportunity. The university teams have two years to design, test, and validate their working prototypes.
  
  The NMSU project is called NMSUSat and it builds upon the heritage of the current Nanosat 2 project 3 Corners Satellite. NMSUSat is being designed to support science and engineering experiments. The science experiment is to measure ultraviolet radiation from the earth's upper atmosphere. The engineering experiments are to test energy storage technology and wireless networking in space. The NMSUSat team will be composed of students, faculty, and staff in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Physics. Mentoring assistance will come from General Dynamics in Las Cruces and Phoenix, and the Physical Science Laboratory. Sensor development assistance will come from Los Alamos National Laboratory. Funding from AFOSR for the project will total $100,000 over the two years of the project. Dr. Stephen Horan is the PI for the project.