This is the latest electronic update of news in the department. If you have specific news or announcements that you would like to have included in an issue of this newsletter, please send them to Howard (chair@ee.washington.edu) or Ann (annf@ee.washington.edu).

Congratulations/Announcements
New Faculty Member Coming
Faculty Search Update
Departmental Awards
Construction Update
Computing
Departmental Information
Faculty/Staff Retreat

Congratulations/Announcements

Dear Faculty, Staff, students and friends,

Congratulations to all on the completion of another academic year - and special congratulations to all of our new BS, MS and PhD graduates.

It has been a challenging year - from the events of Sept 11, the economic downturn and the state budget situation. But for EE it has also been a successful year.

• We had an excellent accreditation visit for our undergraduate program from ABET last fall. Thanks once again to all who worked on this.
• The 10 year review of the department is complete. At https://www.ee.washington.edu/departmental_review/ you can find our self-study document, the report of the review committee, our departmental reply and the recommendations of the council/memo to the Provost ( https://www.ee.washington.edu/departmental_review/reviewUWcommittee.pdf). Congratulations to all of you for your accomplishments - and thanks to all who helped in the review process.

New Faculty member joins UW EE in Fall 2002

I'm pleased to announce that Dr. Tara Javidi will be joining the faculty next fall as an Assistant Professor. Tara is a recent PhD graduate from the University of Michigan. Her research area is in wireless communications and networks.

Faculty Search Update

We are currently negotiating with another individual in the area of photonics. We will not fill the third open faculty position this year, but anticipate a new search next fall for two or more faculty (including one in photonics).

Departmental Awards

My sincere congratulations to all of the department award winners. Photos from our awards event and a listing of winners can be seen at http://www.ee.washington.edu/events/2002/awards_day.html

Construction Update

There will be lots of construction in our building, and in the adjacent Paul G. Allen Center. Before next fall we anticipate the following:

• Windows will be added on the eastern wall of the building, on the second and third floor (like the ones on the fourth floor)
• The eastern entrance to the building will turn into a window, and the hallway/entrance area will be added to an existing lab
• new rooms on the eastern end on UB, 1, 2, 3 and expansion of rooms on LB and 4.

There are many other changes - a PDF spreadsheet listing of interface area construction dates, etc. is posted at https://www.ee.washington.edu/intranet/new_building_icp.pdf. If you have specific questions please contact Teri Reed.

Computing

Our computing staff has accomplished an extraordinary amount this year. Check out https://www.ee.washington.edu/computing/improvements.html for 2001 and 2002 for details.

Department Information

The departmental fact page http://www.ee.washington.edu/welcome/facts.html has been recently updated.

The Seattle information page on our website https://www.ee.washington.edu/seattle.html has been pruned of stale links, and updated a bit. I would definitely like suggestions of other links that might be useful - especially for newly arriving students and faculty.

Faculty/Staff Retreat

Our annual Faculty/staff retreat is currently (tentatively) scheduled for September 23. Three major topics of discussion will be a review of our Strategic plan, curriculum revision, and issues related to expansion of our research activities and the use of newly-available space.

I hope that you all have an enjoyable summer, at work and at play. And my best wishes to all of our graduates--as you continue your careers.

Howard Chizeck