Summer 1999 Newsletter

Techno-Diversity Across the Spectrum
Nano-Technology to Biology

Robert Dutton

Stanford's academic year ended on a very upbeat note at the Electrical Engineering Department's commencement outside the newly completed EE flagship, soon to be dedicated as the David Packard Electrical Engineering Department building. We are delighted to be the first building named in honor of both a Stanford and Silicon Valley hero of legendary proportions. Several previous issues of the CIS Newsletter have reflected on the pioneering roles played by David Packard (Spring/Summer '96, Summer '92 ) in the community and strategically at Stanford, especially within the School of Engineering. The Packard building also features a modest "exhibit hall" in the foyer that will showcase priceless artifacts linked to Stanford and "The Valley."

There are two key changes on campus and a third still to come in terms of university leadership. In April, it was announced that Professor John L. Hennessy will become Provost (April 14th, Stanford Report). And in June, it was announced that Professor James D. Plummer will now replace John as Dean of the School of Engineering (July 15th, Stanford Weekly). Finding Jim's replacement as Chairman of Electrical Engineering is still a work in progress, as Jim leaves a very big set of shoes to fill. We are delighted to have such excellent individuals, with exceptional vision, take on these key leadership roles at Stanford. Needless to say, both Jim and John have been strategic contributors to CIS since its inception and we look forward to their new initiatives at both the university and school level.

This issue of the CIS Newsletter features a "big picture" view of nanoscale engineering, a topic much broader and longer range than simply "device scaling." CIS is proud to provide the SNF leverage in its mission as part of the NNUN in several ways. Nearly a decade ago, CIS provided strategic funding of the fabrication facility that was able to reinvent itself with this multi-user, "many sandboxes" view of nano-technology. Recent CIS contributions include both the Seed Funding of new research projects that use the facility, and support of the Research Education for Undergraduates (REU) program. Both these SNF activities add "bio-diversity" to the population of researchers and their research activities. In support of increasing numbers of students in EE generally, and nano-fabrication specifically, the REU program is of exceptional value to the industry and we again thank our CIS partners for sharing (and supporting) that vision.

Continuing the discussion on the theme of diversity, there are exciting updates on three fronts:

1) Wireless and networking research (as in channel diversity)

2) Emerging nano-technologies (as in techno-diversity)

3) The bold new effort to create a Bio-X program (and/or department) at Stanford, including a new experimental facility, that will crosscut (as in the "X") virtually all of the School of Engineering and even more broadly.

"CIS is proud to provide the SNF leverage in its mission as part of the NNUN"

-Robert Dutton
CIS Director of Research

Jim Plummer has put Bio-X high on his list of objectives for targeted development during his tenure as Dean. Says Plummer, "For a long time, engineers worked most closely with chemists and physicists because that was the nature of the field. But now, biology is becoming increasingly important." This new Stanford initiative will increase the amount of collaboration between researchers in medicine, biological sciences, physical sciences and engineering.

A new Networking & Wireless (N&W) Research Center has been established at Stanford to study and develop the next generation of Internet technologies and services supported by wireless mobile user access. Its research scope expands that of the Center for Telecommunications at Stanford, which is now being merged into this new research center and major thrust area. The N&W Center is headed by Professor Nick Bambos, whose particular research interests are in network architecture, performance analysis and evaluation, and resource allocation in distributed/networked systems. He has pioneered research in these directions in his Networking Research Laboratory (NetLab), focusing on user-centric, high-performance design of communication networks. We look forward to hearing more from Professor Bambos about plans and progress in the N&W Center activities, which we expect to become an important "driver application" for CIS collaborations.

Professor David Bloom has returned to Stanford, after having taken an extended leave from the University (circa 1994) to concentrate on the founding and development of Silicon Light Machines, a Silicon Valley-based start-up specializing in high-resolution displays for electronic cinema. During his absence he also founded LightConnect, a company developing fiber optic components and subsystems based on silicon micromachining. Both companies license Stanford technology invented by David and his graduate students prior to his leave. David's return to Stanford signals a major shift of his research interests into the field of biotechnology, where he will be focusing on the harnessing of membrane proteins to silicon technology. This work will emphasize the development of new interfaces between electronic systems and biological systems at the molecular level.

See also:

• Websites of Interest - additional links to related sites