Instructors

Curt Schurgers

Curt Schurgers received his Ph.D. from UCLA in integrated circuits and systems, and his MS in EE from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (KUL). Before coming to UCSD in 2002, he was a lecturer at UCLA in VLSI System Design and a postdoctural associate at MIT. He also held research assistantships at UCLA Networked & Embedded Systems Lab and the Interuniversity Microelectronics Center (IMEC) in Belgium. From 2004 until 2010, he was an Assistant Professor at the ECE Department at UCSD, leading the Wireless Information Systems Lab. Since December 2010, he has been appointed as a Project Development Engineer at Calit2, leading a large NSF program on underwater networked systems.

Raymond de Callafon

Raymond de Callafon teaches classes in the area of Dynamic Systems and Control. His expertise is used in this cluster to help students derive mathematical models to describe the swinging of the pendulum clock and the dynamics (kinematics) of the balls flowing through the kinetic sculpture. He will also try to convince the students that one can change the dynamic behavior of the sculpture by applying principles of control using the COSMOS micro controller box.

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Robert S. Pomeroy

Robert S. Pomeroy: B.A. Chemistry, UC San Diego, M.S. Analytical Chemistry, Cal Poly Pomona, Ph.D. Analytical Chemistry, U of Arizona. Dr. Pomeroy's research interests involve the application of analytical chemistry to samples relating to environmental, forensic and materials science applications. Another area of activity involves the production of renewable biofuels. Advisor to the student organization Biofuels Action and Awareness Network, BAAN; Member of the San Diego Center for Algal Biotechnology, SD CAB; Member of the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment, CAICE

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Jeanette Mcconnell

Jeanette works in the area of science education and outreach, with the goal of making scientific research concepts accessible and enjoyable for a range of audiences. Jeanette received a B.S in Chemistry & Biochemistry from San Diego State University (2011) and a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the University of New South Wales (2016) in Sydney, Australia. After earning a Ph.D. Jeanette shifted gears and worked as a science presenter, teaching K-12 students about everything from physics to biology in hands-on and interactive shows and workshops. Currently, as the Director of Education, Outreach & Diversity for the NSF Center for Aerosol Impacts on Chemistry of the Environment (CAICE), Jeanette works with scientists to share the CAICE's research with the wider community. 

Yael "Lelli" Van Den Einde

Yael "Lelli" Van Den Einde received her B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1994 and both her M.S. and Ph.D. in Structural Engineering from the University of California, San Diego in 1997 and 2001 respectively. She has held appointments at San Diego State University and UCSD, and her research interests include earthquake engineering data and metadata development and management, performance-based earthquake engineering, and large-scale experimentation in earthquake engineering with primary focus on reinforced concrete, FRP composite, and hybrid bridges.

Charles Tu

Charles Tu is a Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) at the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering. He joined the UCSD faculty in 1988, and served as associate dean of the Jacobs School from 2004-2013, after serving from 1999 to 2003 as chair of the ECE department. Tu's research interests include novel III-V compound semiconductor heterostructures and nanostructures for electronic, optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices. He was a distinguished member of AT&T Bell Laboratories technical staff from 1980 to 1988. He earned his Ph.D. in Engineering and Applied Science from Yale University in 1978 and his B.Sc. (Hon.) in Physics from McGill University in 1971. He has authored or co-authored more than 390 refereed technical journal papers. Tu is a Fellow of the IEEE, the American Physical Society, and the AVS Science and Technology Society. He was Engineering Educator of the Year in San Diego County in 2006, the recipient of Taiwan's Pan Wen-Yuan Foundation Outstanding Research Award in 2009, and the recipient of the North American MBE Innovator Award in 2011. Dr. Tu is also the director of the UCSD COSMOS program.

Saharnaz Baghdadchi

Baghdadchi’s research focus is on encoding light fields with phase and polarization modulations for tissue imaging and optical manipulation of nanoparticles. She is interested in scholarly teaching and uses active learning techniques to help students achieve an expert-like level of thinking. She guides students in bridging the gap between facts and usable knowledge to solve complex engineering problems.

As part of her educational research in engineering, in the Summer of 2016 she designed and implemented a Teaching-as-Research project to study the effect of guided pre-reading and post-lecture assignments along with peer instruction on students’ learning of core signal processing concepts. According to the results of her research, the active learning techniques she implemented in her course helped her students do substantially better than their peers attending the standard lecture based classes for the same course. She designs discovery-based labs for ECE undergraduate courses to stimulate students’ conceptual understanding of the material. She will also be involved in developing hands-on educational programs to enhance the learning and teaching of science and engineering by K-12 students and teachers.

Robert S. Pomeroy

Robert S. Pomeroy: B.A. Chemistry, UC San Diego, M.S. Analytical Chemistry, Cal Poly Pomona, Ph.D. Analytical Chemistry, U of Arizona. Dr. Pomeroy's research interests involve the application of analytical chemistry to samples relating to environmental, forensic and materials science applications. Another area of activity involves the production of renewable biofuels. Advisor to the student organization Biofuels Action and Awareness Network, BAAN; Member of the San Diego Center for Algal Biotechnology, SD CAB; Member of the Center for Aerosol Impacts on Climate and the Environment, CAICE

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Mauricio de Oliveira

Mauricio de Oliveira conducts research in the area of Optimization, Dynamic Systems and Control. His work is focused on the application of convex optimization to solve problems in systems, dynamics and control. His Ph.D. (1999), M. S. (1996) and B. S. (1995) are all in Electrical Engineering from the University of Campinas, Brazil. He is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, CA, a department he joined in 2003. Prior to that he was an Assistant Professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Campinas, SP, Brazil from 2001 to 2003. From 2005 to 2006 he was the Chief Research Engineer at Dynamic Systems Research, Inc., San Diego, CA, where he led a large team on the development of an energy harvesting station keeping sea drogue. Since 2008, he has worked as a consultant to one of the worlds' largest soverign wealth funds in the area of portfolio optimization.

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Carlos Vera

Carlos Vera received a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Instituto Tecnologico de Tijuana and an M.D. from Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, as well as a PhD in Bioengineering from UC San Diego. He is interested in the molecular basis of erythrocyte membrane skeleton biomechanics, specifically the contribution of tropomyosin and tropomodulin to junctional complexes architecture and their implication on the erythrocyte functional properties.

Robert Sah

Robert Sah has been a member of the bioengineering faculty at the UCSD Jacobs School since 1992. He earned his M.D. at Harvard Medical School in 1991 and Sc.D. from MIT in 1990. In 2006, Sah as named as a Professor by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and also awardee of the Van C. Mow Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In addition, Professor Sah has received the National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Kappa Delta Award (twice), and Arthritis Foundation Hulda Irene Duggan Investigator Award. His "Mechanical Blueprint for Cartilage" has been cited as one of the Great Advances in Scientific Discovery in Disease and Injury Treatment by The Science Coalition.

Mauricio de Oliveira

Mauricio de Oliveira conducts research in the area of Optimization, Dynamic Systems and Control. His work is focused on the application of convex optimization to solve problems in systems, dynamics and control. His Ph.D. (1999), M. S. (1996) and B. S. (1995) are all in Electrical Engineering from the University of Campinas, Brazil. He is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, CA, a department he joined in 2003. Prior to that he was an Assistant Professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Campinas, SP, Brazil from 2001 to 2003. From 2005 to 2006 he was the Chief Research Engineer at Dynamic Systems Research, Inc., San Diego, CA, where he led a large team on the development of an energy harvesting station keeping sea drogue. Since 2008, he has worked as a consultant to one of the worlds' largest soverign wealth funds in the area of portfolio optimization.

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Shlomo Dubnov

Shlomo Dubnov graduated from the Jerusalem Music Academy in composition and holds a doctorate in computer science from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. He is a graduate of the prestigious IDF Talpiot program. Prior to joining UCSD, he served as a researcher at the world-renowned Institute for Research and Coordination of Acoustics and Music (IRCAM), in Paris, and later headed the multimedia track for the Department of Communication Systems Engineering at Ben-Gurion University, in Israel. Dr. Dubnov conducted numerous research projects on advanced audio processing and retrieval, computer generated music, and other multimedia applications. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and Secretary of IEEE's Technical Committee on Computer Generated Music. Dr. Dubnov is currently Director of the Center for Research in Entertainment and Learning at UCSD's research center, CALIT2, and teaches in the Music and Interdisciplinary Computing in the Arts programs.

Curt Schurgers

Curt Schurgers received his Ph.D. from UCLA in integrated circuits andsystems, and his MS in EE from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (KUL). Before coming to UCSD in 2002, he was a lecturer at UCLA in VLSI System Design and a postdoctural associate at MIT. He also held research assistantships at UCLA Networked & Embedded Systems Lab and the Interuniversity Microelectronics Center (IMEC) in Belgium. From 2004 until 2010, he was an Assistant Professor at the ECE Department at UCSD, leading the Wireless Information Systems Lab. Since December 2010, he has been appointed as a Project Development Engineer at Calit2, leading a large NSF program on underwater networked systems.

Jack Silberman

Dr. Silberman is a lecturer at University of California San Diego Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), Electrical and Computer Engineering(ECE), a Faculty at the Contextual Robotics Institute teaching Introduction to Autonomous Vehicle, and advising students on Capstone projects for ECE and MAE. Moreover, he mentors dozens of students on robotics related projects including working as the principal investigator at the affordable smart wheelchair project. Jack Silberman has over 20 years experience in automation and robotics. He started working in robotics while pursuing his B.S. in electrical engineering in Brazil. Dr. Silberman did robotics post graduate work in England, he holds a master's degree from PUC-Rio in mechanical engineering, and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University where his research was on mobile field robotics. Jack has worked in educational robotics, NASA sponsored mobile field robotics, semiconductor automation, biotech, and medical devices. Dr. Silberman works for a global leader medical device company with responsibilities in Canada, Central and Latin America.