Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Undergraduate enrollment in the department continues to be large. Enrollment in computer-science subjects continues to rise. Undergraduates perceive exciting career opportunities in the various fields represented by the department.

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAM

After serving the Department for 20 years as Undergraduate Officer, Prof. Gould is relinquishing his position.

Enrollment of undergraduates averaged 1,000 in 93-94 with about 45 percent in the Electrical Engineering Program, 45 percent in the Computer Science Program, and 10 percent in the new Electrical Engineering and Compurter Science Program. From the Class of 1997, 309 students were enrolled in Course VI, about the same as the preceding year. About 300 students from the Class of 1997 have so far selected Course VI. For that class, the ratio of 6-1 (Electrical Engineering), 6-2 (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science), and 6-3 (Computer Science) students is 1:1:1.

The new Master of Engineering (M.Eng.) program entered its second year with 154 students. We expect to have around 200 students in the graduate phase of the program next year, the third year of the program.

The following prizes and awards were won by our students:

The Earnest A. Guillemin Thesis Competition for outstanding performance on a Master of Engineering thesis in electrical engineering were awarded to Christoforos N. Hadjicostis of Somerville, MA, Satyen N. Shah of Brookline, MA, and Jonathan M. Walton of Scottsdale, AZ.

The David Adler Memorial Thesis Prize for outstanding performance on an Undergraduate Thesis in Electrical Engineering was presented to Jeffey S. Kim of Cambridge, MA.

The Charles and Jennifer Johnson Thesis Prize for outstanding performance on Master of Engineering thesis in computer science was awarded to Massimiliano A. Poletto of Cambridge MA.

The William A. Martin Memorial Thesis Prize for outstanding performance on a Master of Engineering thesis in computer science was awarded to Matthew W. Eldridge of Cambridge, MA.

The George C. Newton Prize for the best undergraduate laboratory project was awarded to William B. Baker of Boston, MA, Adam R. Holt of Somerville, MA, and John L. Wallberg of Cambridge, MA.

Robert M. Fano UROP Awards was given to Pablo L. Narvaez Guarnieri of Cambridge, MA.

Nylander Award (Advanced Undergraduate Project) were given to Jocelyn T. Nee of Ridgecrest, CA , and Howard W. Pan of Cambridge, MA.

BNR Project Prizes were awarded to Trey E. Ideker of Cambridge, MA, Jeffrey J. Foley of Cambridge, MA, Joel L. Dawson of Cambridge, MA, Jean-Emile Elien, of Cambridge, MA, and Scott D. MacGregor of Cambridge, MA.

David A. Chanen Writing Award was given to Alexandra Ellwood of Berkeley, CA.

Morris Joseph Levin Awards for Best Master Work Oral Theses Presentations were awarded to Kevin A. Lew of Cambridge, MA, Rohit Sakhuja of Cambridge, MA, Brian M. Scassellati of Cambridge, MA, Susan E. Voss of Somerville, MA, Kavita B. Bala of Cambridge, MA, John P. Mellor of Cambridge, MA, Akbar A. Moolji of Cambridge, MA, Aaron M. Schultz of Cambridge, MA, and Benjamin Van Roy of Cambridge, MA.

GRADUATE PROGRAM

In September, 1994 there were 800 graduate students enrolled in the department. About 20 percent of the total were foreign nationals. The department supported 398 Research Assistants and 100 Teaching Assistants. In addition, there were 137 fellowships including 53 National Science Foundation Fellows, 5 Hertz Fellows and 10 Office of Naval Research Fellows. The remaining students had industrial or foreign support or were using their own funds.

During 1994, the department awarded 204 Master of Science degrees, 12 Electrical Engineer degrees and 66 Doctoral degrees.

The department received 1783 applications for the 1994-95 year, a slight decrease from 1993. The applications continue to be generally excellent and 2434 were admitted for 1994 (February, June and September), of whom 146 registered in September.

A number of awards were made to graduate students for excellence in teaching. John Ofori-Tenkorang of Somerville, MA, received the Carlton E. Tucker Award and Babak Ayazifar of Cambridge, MA, received the Harold L. Hazen Award. The Frederick C. Hennie III Awards for excellence in teaching were presented to Yonald Chery of Dorchester, MA and Kent H. Lundberg of Weston, MA. John Ofori-Tenkorang and David R. Shoemaker were promoted to Instructor-G in recognition of their demonstrated teaching abilities and services to the department.

VI-A INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

In its 78th year, the department's VI-A Internship Program continued its popularity and excellent performance. This year 150 students applied during the annual orientation and selection process and 84 of the applicants were selected as members of the incoming VI-A class. These figures reflect an increase from 1994 in which we had 147 applications and 77 students joined the VI-A program. Although several students have withdrawn from the VI-A program since the implementation of the M.Eng. program, there are enough qualified applicants to deter this trend. Every effort is being made to ensure that the companies offer challenging assignments at their facilities so that the VI-A students will be able to gain the industrial experience that is such an important factor in the cooperative program concept.

A VI-A Fellowship Program has been initiated by Prof. Markus Zahn and new companies joining the VI-A Program must participate. This program is a way of helping to finance the graduate term away when MIT tuition is due, with only a minimum of additional expense to the companies over the past system of paying salaries. The fellowship pays one term MIT tuition, a monthly stipend that at a minimum matches that of a research assistantship, and pays one term medical insurance. Two other VI-A companies have also indicated that they will participate and many others are recommending joining to higher management. In addition, five of the VI-A companies have their own programs to help finance VI-A graduate students. The Director believes the momentum is building so that most, if not all, VI-A companies will have to offer some graduate support in order to remain competitive.

SatCon Technology Corp. in Cambridge, MA, and Silicon Graphics in Mountain View, CA, have been added to our list of participating companies. Both of these companies selected their first group of students who began their work assignments this summer. GM/Delco, Schlumberger, and Raytheon Co. did not participate in the annual orientation and selection process this year. It appears that GM/Delco and Raytheon will drop out of the VI-A program and we expect that Schlumberger will continue to participate next year. In addition, a number of new companies have indicated that they want to join VI-A, so we feel that we will be able to replace companies that drop out, keeping the program size approximately constant.

At the annual Department Awards Reception held at the Museum of Science in Boston, the following VI-A students were honored. Trey E. Ideker and Joel L. Dawson received the Northern Telecom/BNR Project Award; Adam R. Holt and John L. Wallberg received the George C. Newton Undergraduate Laboratory Prize; Matthew W. Eldridge received the William A. Martin Memorial Prize and Jonathan M. Walton was one of the recipients of an Ernst A. Guillemin Thesis Award.

In May at the 1995 Awards Convocation, Agnieszka Reiss was one of the winners of the Malcolm G. Kispert Award which is presented annually to the male and female senior scholar-athelete of the year.

The EECS Master Works Oral Presentations continue to be an excellent showcase for students to present the results of their theses. During the November 1994 presentations, one of the five winners was Benjamin Van Roy.

Excellence in scholarship continues amonst the students in the program. Of the 109 students from the School of Engineering elected to Tau Beta Pi, the National Engineering Honorary, 22 were VI-As and Eta Kappa Nu, the Course VI Honorary, elected 70 members of whom 27 were VI-As. From 45 seniors elected to MIT's XI Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, seven were VI-A students: Sumit Basu, Yassir K. Elley, Joshua D.S. Koppelman, Surajit Sarkar, Emilija M. Simic, and Noah D. Zamdmer. Sumit Basu, Yassir K. Elley, and Dawn L. Farber were among the 75 seniors elected to associate membership in Sigma Xi.

Nineteen MIT students were recognized for their writing accomplishments. Boris Pevzner, one of our VI-A students, was awarded first place in the S. Klein Prize for Scientific and Technical Writing for his paper entitled, "From Astrophysics to Nanotechnology: C60, the Cosmic Soot."

Arts and athletics play important roles in a student's academic life and VI-A students continue to excel in their respective interests. Joel L. Dawson was one of the recipients of the Ragner and Margaret Naess Awards in recognition of his high level of private music performance study. At the ninth annual Celebration of Athletic Excellence, a Straight T Award was presented to N. Katherine Merrilees and John L. Wallberg.

MICROSYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY LABORATORIES

The Microsystems Technology Laboratories (MTL) carry out research in the fabrication and study of small monolithic structures and their use for the implementation of interesting integrated systems from X-ray lenses to VLSI circuits. The expanding and dynamic research program covers solid state devices, integrated circuits and systems, materials for electronic applications, novel process technologies, sensors and actuators, and computer-aided fabrication. The MTL houses three clean room facilities (the Integrated Circuits Laboratory - ICL, the Technology Research Laboratory - TRL , and the NanoStructures Laboratory - NSL ), and associated non-clean laboratory space (the Research Group Laboratories - RGL), and the Computational and Communication Network facility. The centerpiece facility of the MTL is the Integrated Circuits Laboratory, a state-of-the-art class-10 clean lab with full capabilities for modern IC fabrication. The lab is operated by a full time technical staff and graduate students.

During the past two years MTL and the Microfabrication Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley have been working closely to implement mechanisms to formally link their facilities to provide joint processing capabilities and to allow the seamless transfer of wafers, processes, and design rules as well as research personnel with the goal of expanding the research capabilities of both institutions. Significant advances have been realized in linking the two facilities, and plans are currently being developed to include additional university microfabrication facilities to the "National Network of Microsystems Laboratories." Successful linking of a broad spectrum of university microfabrication facilities will ensure access to facility specific technologies and processes and provide processing redundancy to assist in the rapid turnaround of experiments. Linking will allow all users greater access to state-of-the-art technologies, provide exposure to varied academic cultures, and generally to enrich the overall academic experience in a highly cost effective manner.

The MTL has developed a World Wide Web server (http://www-mtl.mit.edu/home.html) which provides a number of information resources, including descriptions and information about activities, facilities, laboratories, students, staff, and faculty, and the research programs at the MTL. Information that is beyond the boundaries of MIT, and that are provided through the MTL WWW server include the Semiconductor Subway, that provides a link to all manner of semiconductor- and micro-systems related information sources and the FAB Database, which has been drawn from a survey of University facilities that was coordinated by the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC), and provides a database of facilities which includes data on specific capabilities (equipment sets, standard processes, etc.). Access to the Semiconductor Subway and FAB Database are important steps in developing a National Network of Microsystems Laboratories as described in the preceding paragraph.

Personnel involved in ongoing research activities at MTL include over 30 faculty, 10 senior research staff, 207 graduate students, 13 post-doctoral fellows, 23 visiting scientists, 30 research affiliates, 28 technical support staff, and 18 administrative and support staff. These faculty, staff and students represent affiliations including the Departments of Chemistry, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Materials Science and Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Civil Engineering, and Physics; the Center for Materials Science and Engineering, the Research Laboratory of Electronics, the Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems, the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, the Laboratory for Computer Science, the Center for Space Research, and the Turbulence Research Laboratory. During the 1994-1995 academic year, 40 Ph.D., 38 S.M. and 10 M.Eng. degrees were awarded in conjunction with ongoing research activities at MTL.

Research in the MTL may be grouped into three major interdisciplinary, interactive research themes: Microsystems, Nanoscale Technology/Devices, and Manufacturing, and further divided into the following eleven categories:

(1) Integrated Circuits include analog and digital integrated circuit (IC) design as well as advanced process development for "mixed analog/digital signal" IC applications.

(2) Microelectromechanical Devices include technologies for micromachining, design of microsensors and microactuators, and the application of these devices to physical and chemical measurements.

(3) Packaging includes advanced chip assembly and study of passivating properties of different materials in thin film form; and Power Devices and Circuits include research in very high frequency power converters, power device performance, and novel fabrication procedures for energy storage devices.

(4) Electronic Devices include research on novel devices operating in the semi-classical regime.

(5) Quantum-Effect Devices include novel device structures designed specifically to study and explore quantum mechanical effects arising from carrier interactions with features of sub-100 nm dimensions.

(6) Submicron and Nanometer Structures include some "nanofabrication" projects that are not directly related to electronic devices. The NanoStructures Laboratory develops techniques for the fabrication of surface structures with feature sizes in the range of nanometers to micrometers, and uses these structures in a variety of research projects.

(7) Modeling and Simulation covers the use of numerical techniques that solve complex problems of carrier transport and device operations as well as physical problems that arise during materials and device processing.

(8) Fabrication Technology covers a broad area of processing and device fabrication with two main themes: novel processes for integrated circuit and device fabrication in silicon and compound semiconductors, and fundamentals underlying materials processing effects.

(9) Manufacturing includes computer-based modeling and simulation of fabrication processes and execution in a realistic fabrication environment; work flow scheduling; process equipment modeling and process control; and microstructure/mechanical property simulation.

(10) Materials, with the common theme of growth and characterization of thin films for electronic applications, include research of novel silicon and silicon-germanium epitaxy, the formation of heterostructures in compound semiconductors, polyimides in microelectronics, and the study and control of the crystalline structure of very thin films.

(11) Optoelectronics covers a variety of novel structures such as laser diodes, quantum well structures, and distributed-feedback lasers, both in Si and in compound semiconductors.

The MTL facilities are supported in part by members of the MIT Microsystems Industrial Group, whose current members include: Analog Devices, Inc.; AT&T; Digital ESemiconductor; Ford Microelectronics, Inc.; General Motors Corporation/Delco Electronics; Hewlett-Packard Company; IBM; Intel Corporation; Motorola, Inc.; Polaroid Corporation; and Texas Instruments, and members of the Microsystems Affiliates Program whose members are Airco Electronic Gases and Sony Corporation.

Outreach activities carried out by the MTL include a weekly VLSI Seminar Series, MTL Memo Series, and the MTL Quarterly Bulletin. The MTL also publishes a comprehensive annual report.

FACULTY

Four new members of the faculty joined the department this year:

Akintunde I. Akinwande, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, was formerly at Honeywell, Inc.

Anantha P. Chandrakasan received his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, and was named Analog Devices Career Development Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering.

David R. Karger, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, received his Ph.D. at Stanford University.

Seth Teller, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, received his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, and came to the department after a postdoctoral position at Princeton University.

Associate Professors David K. Gifford and W. Eric L. Grimson were promoted to Professor. Assistant Professors James E. Chung and Qing Hu were promoted to Associate Professor.

We note with pride that Joel Moses, Dean of the School of Engineering and former head of our department, was named Provost by MIT President Charles M. Vest.

Our faculty received many honors and awards over the past year:

Professor Nancy A. Lynch was named Cecil H. Green Professor of Computer Science and Engineering.

Assistant Professor Mitchell D. Trott was named KDD Career Development Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering.

Professor Alvin W. Drake was named Ford Professor of Engineering.

Professor Charles G. Sodini was elected a Fellow of the IEEE.

Professor Arthur B. Baggeroer was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Professor, Emeritus William F. Schreiber was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Assistant Professor David R. Karger won the Association for Computing Machinery's doctoral dissertation award.

Institute Professor Mildred S. Dresselhaus was elected to the American Philosophical Society.

Professor Arthur C. Smith, Dean for Undergraduate Education and Student Affairs, was honored with the first Institute award bearing his name. The award was established to commemorate his record of service in the area of undergraduate student life and to encourage faculty participation in undergraduate student life. The award will be given in future years to an MIT faculty member for meaningful contributions and devotion to undergraduate student life.

Associate Professor Munther A. Dahleh received the Graduate Student Council Teaching Award.

Professor Marvin L. Minsky was awarded the Rank Prize for Opto-electronics in recognition of his pioneering work in developing the scanning confocal microscope now used by research laboratories worldwide.

Assistant Professor Seth Teller received a National Science Foundation Career Development Award.

Assistant Professor Gregory W. Wornell received a National Science Foundation Career Development Award.

Professor Harold Abelson was elected a Fellow of the IEEE.

Professor Alan V. Oppenheim received an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University.

Professor Michael Athans received the Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award from the American Automatic Control Council.

Professor Jin A. Kong was elected a Fellow of the Optical Society of America.

Professor John N. Tsitsiklis received the Bodossakis Foundation Prize in the field of systems science and information theory.

Professor Charles E. Leiserson and his teammates won second prize in the ICCA 8th Computer Chess World Championship.

Professor Henry I. Smith received the IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award for his contributions to microfabrication science and technology.

Several members of the faculty were away for all or part of the year:

Professor Abraham Bers spent the year at Livermore National Laboratory and at the Ecole Polytechnique in France, exploring new directions in plasma science and technology.

Associate Professor William J. Dally spent the spring term exploring systems-oriented and applications-driven work being done elsewhere.

Associate Professor W. Eric L. Grimson worked on medical imaging research at Brigham and Women's Hospital; he also began work on a textbook on computer and human vision.

Associate Professor Peter L. Hagelstein explored new research at laboratories in England, Germany, Moscow and at Princeton University.

Institute Professor Hermann Haus spent the year at AT&T Bell Laboratories exploring new areas of research.

Professor Richard C. Larson spent the year writing a book on case studies in applied operations research; he also worked on developing the newly emerging Transactional Data Laboratory within the new Decision Sciences Program at MIT.

Professor Hae-Seung Lee spent time teaching in Korea and also working on a textbook on analog circuits for use in 6.301 and 6.775.

Associate Professor Gregory M. Papadopoulos spent the year at Thinking Machines Corp. and at Sun Microsystems.

Associate Professor William E. Weihl spent time at Digital Equipment Corp. exploring new ways of building computer systems.

The department hosted four visiting faculty members this year:

Visting Associate Professor Stephane Mallat came from New York University to work with Professor Alan S. Willsky and to teach a special graduate seminar in the fall term.

Visiting Professor Meinhard E. Mayer, from the University of California, Irvine, taught sections of 6.001 and worked with Professor Gerald J. Sussman on new ways of developing and teaching that subject.

Visiting Associate Professor S. Hamid Nawab came from Boston University to teach 6.341 and to work with Professor Alan V. Oppenheim.

Visiting Professor Richard M. Osgood, Jr., from Columbia University, spent the year conducting research with Professor Erich P. Ippen.

We note with sadness the death on October 21, 1994 of Professor, Emeritus and President, Emeritus Jerome B. Wiesner. Professor Wiesner came to MIT in 1942 to help develop radar at the Radiation Laboratory and remained here, with brief interruptions, for the duration of his career.

Professor Wiesner served as director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics, chair of the Graduate Committee, and Acting Department Head. He took a leave of absence to work for the election of John F. Kennedy and served as science advisor to Kennedy and then to President Lyndon B. Johnson. He returned to MIT as Dean of Science, was named Provost in 1966 and in 1971 became President.

In 1980, after his service as President, he rejoined the faculty as Institute Professor and resumed his interest in the application of technology to music and other arts. He helped form the Media Lab and saw it settled in the building that bears his name.

Paul Penfield, Jr.

MIT Reports to the President 1994-95