Engineering Progress Fall 2020

Food Sustainability in the College of Engineering

Engineering Progress is published twice a year by the College of Engineering at UC Davis.

Jennifer Sinclair Curtis Dean, College of Engineering

Alyssa Panitch Executive Associate Dean, Academic Personnel and Planning

Jessie Catacutan Executive Assistant Dean, Administration and Finance

Ralph Aldredge Associate Dean, Undergraduate Studies

Aditi Risbud Bartl Executive Director, Communications and Strategic Priorities

Roland Faller Associate Dean, Facilities and Capital Planning

Ricardo Castro Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies

Leigh Ann Hartman Assistant Dean, Development and External Relations

Cindy Rubio González Faculty Assistant to the Dean for Diversity and Inclusion

DEPARTMENT CHAIRS

Bryan Jenkins

and Agricultural Engineering

George Biomedical Engineering

Kuhl

Engineering

Cappa

and Environmental Engineering

Farrens

Science

and Computer Engineering

Science and

and

PROGRESS

Message from the Dean

This fall marks my last quarter as dean of the College of Engineering. After being invited by Chancellor May to be reappointed for a second five-year term, I will be stepping down at the end of December to begin a sabbatical in January and then return to teaching and research in the Department of Chemical Engineering.

A national search for a new dean will commence this fall under the leadership of Provost Mary Croughan, who will also consult with members of the college and campus community to identify interim leadership effective January 1, 2021.

The college has seen tremendous growth in the number of students and faculty in the past five years, coupled with research achievements that have increased our visibility. Our college currently serves 4,647 undergraduate students and 1,195 graduate students (723 Ph.D. and 472 M.S.) under the guidance of 225 faculty members across eight disciplines.

With our ongoing commitment to mentoring women in engineering—30.1 percent of our undergraduates identify as women—we strive to create an environment that is welcoming and supportive, coupled with an unwavering dedication to student success and diversity that sets us apart from other, large public institutions of higher education.

Our Leadership in Engineering Advancement, Diversity and Retention (LEADR) Student Support Program recruits, retains and graduate a diverse population of students from the college by focusing on first-year students and historically underrepresented groups, who make up 22.8 percent of our undergraduate population.

On the research front, I am optimistic that our efforts to bring a sustainable, healthier and more resilient world within reach are coming to fruition. From energy, climate and transportation to biomedicine, agriculture technology and space exploration, I am pleased to report that our faculty have generated $107M in research awards this year, an all-time high for the college.

This issue of Engineering Progress is about all the great work our faculty are doing to address current challenges of our time. We expect more great achievements through this academic year and hope you will continue to engage with us by mentoring students in our Mentor Collective program and following the progress of our Engineering Student Design Center expansion.

It’s been a genuine pleasure working with and hearing from so many of you in the last five years. I am fully confident that our college and university will continue to achieve even greater heights of excellence in the years ahead.

Go Ags!

Jennifer Sinclair Curtis Dean, UC Davis College of Engineering

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

Alumni Involvement Opportunities

Alumni can get involved with the College of Engineering virtually through the online opportunities listed below. To learn more or sign up to participate, visit engineering.ucdavis.edu/alumni-network

Distinguished Lecture “Safe Machine Learning”

Shafi Goldwasser

Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, UC Berkeley November 9, 2020 | 11:00am

Join the College of Engineering as we virtually host Dr. Shafi Goldwasser. She will discuss how cryptography and computational learning have shared a curious history: a scientific success for one has often provided an example of an impossible task for the other.

Engineering On Tap featuring COVID-19 Research

November 18, 2020 | 7:00pm - 8:00pm

Our popular series is now online! Grab a cold drink and join us for an evening of networking and learning. A panel of UC Davis faculty members will share how their research projects are advancing efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

ENG 3 Intro to Engineering Design Fall Showcase

December 17, 2020 | 9:00am - 9:00pm

Serve as an evaluator and provide valuable feedback to our student teams as they apply their engineering design, technology and communication skills to address “problems looking for a solution” at the Family Caregiving Institute at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing.

Engineering On Tap featuring Dr. Ricardo Castro

January 21, 2021 | 7:00pm - 8:00pm

Materials science and engineering professor and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Dr. Ricardo Castro will explain the science behind superheroes at our winter 2020 installment of Engineering On Tap.

UC Davis Researchers Address...

By Rachel Steere

IN RESPONSE TO THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC , teams of UC Davis engineers are using their expertise to address challenges related to COVID-19 with the goal of helping people become safer, healthier and better-tested.

PREVENTING THE SPREAD OF CORONAVIRUS THROUGH SPEECH

Normal speech by individuals who are asymptomatic but infected with coronavirus may produce enough aerosolized particles to transmit the infection, according to chemical engineering Professor William Ristenpart and graduate student Sima Asadi. The duo published a paper showing the louder one speaks, the more particles are emitted and that some individuals are “superemitters” who give off up to ten times as many particles as others. Ristenpart and Asadi also recently set up experiments to measure the flow of particles from volunteers wearing different types of masks while they performed “expiratory activities” including breathing, talking, coughing and moving their jaw as if chewing gum. The results confirmed that masks and face coverings are effective in reducing the spread of airborne particles.

USING BREATH TO PREDICT COVID-19 CASES

Mechanical and aerospace engineering Professor Cristina Davis and her team are using portable devices that capture people’s breath to look for chemical and biological markers,

known as biomarkers, to identify and predict the severity of COVID-19 infections. Davis’ lab produces portable chemical sensing devices that record chemicals from the air or a person’s breath using mass spectroscopy. As part of an ongoing project with Nick Kenyon and Michael Schivo at the UC Davis Medical Center, the team has been conducting a clinical study with these devices to try to find early, asymptomatic biomarkers for the flu. When the pandemic began, they shifted their focus to COVID-19.

MAKING PROTEINS FOR SEROLOGICAL TESTS

Chemical engineering Assistant Professor Priya Shah and Professors Karen McDonald and Roland Faller are working to find new ways to produce COVID-19 spike proteins for serological tests for antibodies. Spike proteins are the little spikes that surround a coronavirus and make it look like a sun. These proteins are the virus’ tool for binding with cells. During an infection, antibodies go after these proteins to stop them from binding to cells. If a sample has these antibodies, they will identify and bind to the protein and the serological test will come back positive.

REUSABLE ANTIVIRAL FACE MASKS

Biological and agricultural engineering Professor Gang Sun and his team are testing new antiviral chemicals for reusable face masks to protect hospital workers, first responders and

essential employees on the front lines of the pandemic. Sun is a renowned researcher in textiles and fibers and has a legacy of innovation in personal protective equipment. His lab developed an antiviral fabric to combat the original SARS outbreak in 2002 that could be reused by recharging the chemicals with chlorine bleach between uses.

PRIVACY-PRESERVING ANALYSIS OF COVID-19 PATIENT DATA

Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and UC Davis Vice-Chancellor for Research Prasant Mohapatra’s project aims to develop techniques for scientific data analysis in COVID-19 health and medicine contexts where, due to data sensitivity issues, limits need to be placed on underlying raw data used by analysts. Addressing this issue is now critical to facilitate COVID-19 data collection and use by researchers responding to the global pandemic. This project aims to evaluate, adapt and integrate “differential privacy” techniques with data-driven scientific workflows in health informatics, in conjunction and cooperation with the UC Davis Health System and other entities collecting COVID-19 data.

Chemical engineering graduate students and faculty are helping address COVID-19 challenges through their research expertise in aerosols, serological tests and more. (Reeta Asmai/UC Davis)

COVID-19 Pandemic

Covid-19

The “AmbuBox” device is based on the ambu-bag, a handheld ventilation device. (Andy Fell/UC Davis)

LOW-COST, PORTABLE VENTILATORS

Biomedical engineering Professor Tingrui Pan and Assistant Professor of Surgery Andrew Li are working with clinicians to create a simple, inexpensive ventilator. The prototype device consists of components already in hospitals including the ambu-bag, some 3-D printed components and a circuit board to control the pneumatic system. The device, named “AmbuBox,” is based on the ambu-bag, a handheld ventilation device. Squeezing the bag by hand pushes air into a patient’s lungs and provides the vital functions of a ventilator while being completely portable. The expensive ventilator systems that hospital use offer many more functions for specific high-needs patients, but by using a simplified device like the AmbuBox ventilator, doctors can provide basic functions for most patients while reserving more sophisticated equipment for patients who really need it.

MEETING COMMUNITY NEEDS FOR COVID-19 TESTING

After graduation, biomedical engineering alumni Kyle Jacobs ’19 and Julia Loegering ’19 were looking for new ways to apply their engineering education as researchers in the lab of Nam Tran, associate clinical professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UC Davis. Shortly after the start of the pandemic, Tran became the lab director charged with overseeing all COVID-19 diagnostics at UC Davis Health. His lab was tasked with fulling supporting UC Davis Health in meeting community needs for COVID-19 testing. Jacobs and Loegering functioned as support for drug studies on COVID-19 patients by collecting samples for clinical teams validating antigen and antibody COVID-19 tests and conducting studies that developed new diagnostic COVID-19 assays to address shortages and provide further testing resources to the Sacramento community.

Covid-19

A New Era in Engineering Design

By Aditi Risbud Bartl

On Friday, October 9, 2020, the College of Engineering kicked off the Engineering Student Design Center (ESDC) expansion with a groundbreaking ceremony and virtual celebration.

The ESDC expansion will more than double the current space in Bainer Hall to 23,000 square feet and allow students across all disciplines to discover the power of design through rapid prototyping, 3-D printing and an incredible range of physical and digital technologies. In particular, this expansion will provide students hands-on learning experiences and design-centric approaches to learning that are invaluable for their future careers.

“More than ever, we’re driven to provide a world-class learning environment, support innovation and entrepreneurship and set our students up for great success and leadership in their careers,” said Chancellor Gary S. May. “With this project, the future of engineering design education at UC Davis couldn’t be brighter: the expanded ESDC will truly be a game changer.”

Led by Diede Construction, Inc., the ESDC expansion will embrace forward-thinking styles of teaching and learning, with a strong emphasis on collaboration and teamwork. Through the Student Startup Center, which will be co-located in the ESDC, the college will grow and strengthen its culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. In addition, the Student Startup Center will provide resources, training and support for budding entrepreneurs—not only for engineering students, but for undergraduates across campus—and access to ESDC equipment.

“The ESDC expansion serves as the hub for our overall Engineering Design Ecosystem, which transforms how students learn design and provides a space for students to turn problems into creative solutions, learn to use cuttingedge equipment and design, build and prototype more effectively than they ever have before,” said Jennifer Sinclair Curtis, dean of the College of Engineering. “At the new ESDC, students will integrate the knowledge of engineering principles they receive in the classroom with hands-on experience. What’s more, when they graduate, they will impress employers and hit the ground running in their careers.”

Since 2015, the ESDC expansion project has been the college’s number one priority for undergraduate education and updating the college’s infrastructure. This effort is part of the university’s $2 billion “Expect Greater” fundraising campaign, which launched October 9, 2020 and is the largest philanthropic endeavor in the university’s history. The “Expect Greater” campaign will propel the university’s work to prepare future leaders, sustain healthier communities and bring innovative solutions to today’s most urgent challenges.

Learn more and follow the progress of the ESDC expansion starting January 2021 through the grand opening in fall 2022: https://design.engineering.ucdavis.edu/

Inside the “New Normal”

of remote instruction

By Noah Pflueger-Peters

SINCE YOLO COUNTY ISSUED A SHELTER-IN-PLACE ORDER on March 18 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, life has changed dramatically for the College of Engineering’s students, graduate student teaching assistants (TAs) and faculty members. In keeping with Aggie spirit and pride, our community demonstrated tremendous flexibility and resilience in transitioning spring quarter classes online and have immersed themselves in the virtual environment to create a robust remote learning experience this fall.

As campus has started implementing procedures such as symptom surveys and contact tracing for positive COVID-19 tests for the indefinite future, the college has adjusted to this new normal of education at a distance. Though 2020 will be remembered as anything but a normal year, college faculty, staff and students are finding new ways to learn, teach and stay connected in this new environment.

“I tell students, ‘when you become an engineer, you become a problem solver,’” said Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) professor Klaus van Benthem. “As challenging as this is, I think the students will come out of this as better problem solvers and with experience dealing with an unforeseen situation.”

ASSISTING WITH TEACHING

Lab courses are challenging to teach online, but instructors and TAs have worked hard to keep the classes interactive and the students engaged.

Remote instruction has been perhaps the most challenging for Introduction to Engineering Design (ENG 3), which teaches hands-on design, teamwork and presentation skills—three things that are hard to do online. To coordinate, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering (BAE) Assistant Professor of Teaching Jennifer Mullin and her team of 11 TAs meets weekly via Zoom to plan lessons, give feedback on what is and isn’t working and share resources to support one another.

“We had to up our game as teaching assistants,” said ENG 3 TA and BAE Ph.D. student Clay Swackhamer. “We need to, in real time, figure out how to get students engaged, so we’ve had to be really flexible.”

MSE Assistant Professor of Teaching Susan Gentry uses her TAs’ experience to help “re-invent” her classes and lead alternating one-hour discussion sections each week instead of labs. These discussions cover both lab-based topics and professional skills such as data analysis and how to write a research paper.

“We’re trying to take advantage of the time to do things we might not have otherwise,” said Gentry. “It brings new opportunities for students to learn things and develop skills that they need.”

A thermal image from a MSE senior design team taken in COMSOL Multiphysics. Senior design teams are using modeling software like COMSOL to build their designs since they can’t meet in person. (Jared Putnam/UC Davis)

Rashtian tries to make his lectures engaging by using color, recording them live and maintaining face-to-face contact with students by showing his video. (Hooman Rashtian/UC Davis)

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the college have helped keep the hands-on component of laboratory instruction by buying experiment kits for every student in ECE lab courses and ENG 3, respectively, and mailing them to their homes so they can still work on the projects.

“The students are really stoked about it,” said Swackhamer. “They like that they now have something physical to put their hands on.”

VIDEOS AND SIMULATIONS

Though the college has embraced simulations and videos out of necessity, Swackhamer, ECE Assistant Professor of Teaching Hooman Rashtian and others have been pleasantly surprised at how well they’ve helped their students learn.

Rashtian incorporates online circuit simulations in his lectures, which allow him to show, on the spot, the effect of changing component values on circuit performance.

“Because students can see the simulation as they are introduced to the topic, they can develop a more intuitive understanding of the circuit,” he said.

The TAs in ENG 3 have had a similar experience with another simulator called Tinkercad. Students can use it to build virtual Arduino circuits in a collaborative workspace and refine their design before translating it to the real world. The TAs can also check in, troubleshoot and leave comments in each workspace.

“It’s basically the Google Docs of circuits,” said TA and BAE Ph.D. student Gui de Moura Araujo. “I still feel close to students because I can check in on their progress and help them in real time.”

Asynchronous videos are also becoming increasingly important. Instead of a physical end-of-quarter showcase, ENG 3 students are learning to make videos for their final presentations. In an environment where keeping students engaged is a challenge, Rashtian uses video in live lectures to stay active and interactive, switching between multiple devices to give them the most thorough experience possible.

TAs in ENG 3 and ECE make videos for their students on almost a daily basis and post them to Aggie Video. In ECE, the TAs use these videos to demonstrate the lab before the students try it, and in ENG3, TAs cover everything from wiring circuits and Arduino basics to recording Zoom meetings and adding videos to presentations. This is all part of building online toolkits for each class.

“You need to spend a lot of time to refine and improve the quality and make it something that students enjoy watching,” said Rashtian.

In addition, campus has compiled a plethora of resources for students, TAs and faculty on everything from technology like Zoom and Canvas to how to design a class for remote instruction to help them through the change.

ONLINE DESIGN

Before the shelter-in-place, seniors engineering in each department were given real-world problems to solve with a design that they build in teams and present at the annual Design Showcase. The project is a capstone of their undergraduate experience and, for many, a stepping stone to jobs.

BAE Ph.D. student Vivian Vuong, a graduate advisor to a BAE senior design team, was impressed with how much the students have remained enthusiastic. Her team has used Arduinos left over from siblings’ projects to build circuits and tested designs in their parents’ backyard to get as close to a real-world environment as they can.

“They’re very scrappy,” she said. “They were very willing and able to figure it out themselves and make the best of this not-so-great situation.”

For the MSE students, the shelter-in-place order came the same day that they presented their design concepts to their peers. With the projects already in progress, the teams had to shift from building something to creating models of the design using engineering software.

“They still need to solve the same problem, they’re just now using a different tool,” said van Benthem, who taught the department’s senior design course this spring.

Using modeling software was a challenge, however, as most students had never used it before. Despite the learning curve, van Benthem says it was a valuable learning opportunity and a good place to begin making modeling a permanent part of the undergraduate curriculum.

“It was a true challenge, but we are all running with it, I think, rather successfully,” he said.

BUILDING COMMUNITY

A silver lining of remote instruction may be that it’s building a greater sense of community across the college as students, TAs and faculty support one another.

This is important in ENG 3, where every student is building their own design or part of a design. Combining and modifying these ideas into a single design is known as iterative engineering design—something the instructional team has made sure to emphasized.

“It’s put the students in a position where they have the opportunity to explain things to each other, even more than in the past,” said Swackhamer. “It’s really re-enforced the community aspect of engineering design.”

Rashtian has found a way to incentivize this in his classes by giving extra credit to students who finish labs early and are willing to help their peers. This not only helps reduce the workload on Rashtain and the TAs, but helps students better understand the material.

“Often times we learn better when we teach, so by teaching the material to their peers, it helps them as well,” he said.

Rashtian also tries to build community by holding daily office hours for all ECE students, who can make an appointment to talk to him about any challenges they’ve faced. A survey conducted by campus also noted the office hours were valued by students and instructors alike and it helped both feel connected to one another in an environment that can feel isolating.

“There’s a lot of community happening,” said Vuong. “The undergrads are supporting each other, the grad students are supporting the undergrads while checking in with each other, and when I meet with most faculty members, the first question they ask is, ‘how are you doing?’”

MSE Ph.D. student and TA Edward Conley leads a virtual discussion section on writing research papers in lieu of in-person labs. (Susan Gentry/UC Davis)

The Introduction to Engineering Design (ENG 3) team meets over Zoom to prepare for the final week of classes and the course’s design showcase. (Jennifer Mullin/UC Davis)

UC Davis engineers fight food insecurity through sustainable agriculture

By Noah Pflueger-Peters and Constanze Ditterich

WITH THE DAWN OF AGRICULTURE, HUMANS BECAME DEPENDENT ON FOOD PRODUCTION SYSTEMS

that exploit nature’s limited resources of land, water and air. As the world’s population is expected to reach 9–10 billion by 2050 according to the U.N., the world must double food production to meet demand while using and reusing the resources we have left in a sustainable manner.

Ruihong Zhang and Isaya Kisekka at UC Davis are rising to meet the challenge by finding new ways to sustainably produce food, while conserving resources by using microbes to produce new sources of protein and managing and irrigating crops with pinpoint precision.

“We really need to think hard about how to be climate-smart and optimize our resources,” said Kisekka.

Zhang, professor of biological and agricultural engineering, says one way to produce food more sustainably is by tapping into the huge potential of microbes like fungi and algae. Growing livestock is an expensive and time-consuming process due to the land, resources and time that are needed, leading to a huge carbon footprint. By contrast, microbes such as fungi and algae can grow in less than a week in any climate and require a small fraction of the space and resources.

“We want society to start paying more attention to microbes as alternative food sources,” she said. “There are a lot of benefits environmentally and economically, especially for populations who live in areas that have very limited land for growing crops.”

Eating fungi and algae is nothing new, as mushrooms and seaweed are staples of diets around the world. Zhang plans to innovate by harvesting these microbes using agricultural byproducts such as almond hulls and carrot and tomato pomace, the material that’s left over after pressing for juice or oil. This method improves the sustainability of the entire food production system, as what was once waste gets broken down into sugars and other nutrients that help grow the microbes, which are then processed into more food.

By studying the fungi Asperigullus awamori, an edible fungi already used by the food industry for fermentation, and the microalgae Chlorella sorokiniana, which can be grown quickly with or without sunlight, Zhang and her graduate students hope to extract the high level of nutrients in both microbes for a sustainable food source. These microbes contain anywhere between 20 and 60 percent protein and provide all essential amino acids, along with beneficial lipids, dietary fibers and vitamins that make them healthy and easily digestible.

“These microbe-based foods have their unique nutrients and nutritional value that you don’t find from meat or other protein sources—even different from some plant-based protein,” she said.

Zhang is already well known for her work using microbes to convert agricultural waste into renewable natural gas, biopolymers or chemicals. Most notably, she developed UC Davis’ Renewable Energy Anaerobic Digester (READ), which uses bacteria to turn campus’ organic waste into energy. For her and her team, using microbes to make food is simply another extension of this type of work.

Last year, a biological systems engineering senior design team Zhang mentored successfully turned raw fungal protein into crunchy snacks and algae proteins into alternative hamburgers. She also plans to continue testing the microbes in her lab to optimize growth processes and better understand their nutritional value and how they can be used as food. She and her students also recently conducted a pilot study focused on the production of microalgae from READ’s digestates.

“The more that I do, the more excited I am. I really see a huge potential for using microbes to grow food, break down waste and help the environment,” she said. “There’s a lot of power in that.”

Top photo: Isaya Kisekka (Lucy Knowles/UC Davis)

Bottom photo: Zhang’s lab uses agricultural byproducts to grow pellets of fungal protein, a new, sustainable source of food. (Ruihong Zhang/UC Davis)

Cover Story

Professor Ruihong Zhang. Her new research looks to microbes like algae and fungi as new, sustainable sources of food. (Gregory Urquiaga/UC Davis)

HARNESSING THE POWER OF MICROBES

MAKING THE MOST OF RESOURCES

In the U.S., California is king in agriculture, but the state’s susceptibility to climate change-induced drought makes the over $46 billion industry vulnerable.

“If you are growing an annual crop, you can say, ‘I’m not going to plant this year,’ but if you’re growing trees, you’re locked in for 25 years,” said biological and agricultural engineering associate professor Isaya Kisekka. “When you have these extreme droughts, you really have a very limited number of tools in your toolbox to adopt.”

Growers face limited options: buy water, which can be extremely expensive, pump groundwater, a practice that’s now heavily regulated, or make the most of existing resources through methods like regulated deficit irrigation.

As an expert in precision irrigation, Kisekka and his team work with farmers to develop smart irrigation systems and management strategies that use water and fertilizer as efficiently as possible without damaging the environment.

Developing a precision irrigation system means understanding an orchard on a very detailed level from the soil upwards. Even within 1,000 acres, the type of soil can vary a lot and make some parts of an orchard produce differently than others. Kisekka’s team helps growers figure this out by mapping the soil texture and quality across an orchard, which tells them how well it can hold water.

“Each farm is different,” he said. “If you have an orchard that yields very high in one corner and low in another corner, you shouldn’t be giving the entire orchard the same water because you’re going to waste water, nutrients and energy.”

After mapping the soil, the teams run a wide range of computer simulations on the orchard to predict how the crop will grow in response to different irrigation management strategies, soils and climates. They also consider the potential environmental impact, as precision irrigation can negatively affect both soil and groundwater quality through salt buildup in the roots.

“If you use these highly-efficient systems without thinking about large-scale impacts at the watershed scale, you’re going to overdraft groundwater, so we need to couple these precision techniques with sustainable practices,” he said.

The team then leverages sensing and automation technologies to learn more about the specific plants and water flow in the field to optimize the entire production system. All of these data coming from the various sensors are fed into simulations, which use biophysical models and artificial intelligence to recommend an optimal irrigation schedule for a specific area of an orchard. With this information, growers can ensure they grow the same crops using fewer resources and with a lower carbon footprint.

“Right now, we’re in the age of data, so growers can really take advantage of all data coming back from all these different sensing platforms to grow crops sustainably,” he said.

Top photos: Different types of soil, as shown above, can exist within the same orchard, which means some areas might need less water to produce the same results.

(Isaya Kisekka/UC Davis)

Left photo: A remote sensing map of a walnut tree orchard. Blue areas have better soil and therefore retain more water while the red areas don’t retain water well and therefore will need more water than blue.

(Isaya Kisekka/UC Davis)

Microtensiometers help Kisekka’s team better understand the trees in an orchard so they can develop a precision irrigation system. (Isaya Kisekka/UC Davis)

All

online

Promoversity,

If

Mentor Collective

at UC Davis College of Engineering

By Rachel Steere

THE MENTOR COLLECTIVE PROGRAM CONNECTS FIRST-YEAR AND TRANSFER ENGINEERING STUDENTS with a recent UC Davis engineering graduate to help them navigate challenges and recognize the various opportunities the College of Engineering has to offer. These alumni mentors are ready to listen, inspire and guide students when needed.

“I’m grateful that someone who has done very well for himself is willing to take time to share knowledge with me,” said Nasser Issa, computer science transfer student. “He helped me gain confidence with my coursework and helped come up with new strategies to succeed in the classroom and with personal development as a future software engineer.”

To get connected, students and alumni mentors register and complete an online survey to assess personality and experience. Students are then matched with an alumni mentor based on common interests, background, academics and professional aspirations.

Since this program began in fall 2019, 451 students have matched with a mentor and more than 2,500 conversations have been logged at the College of Engineering.

“When I was in college, I was terrified of the future. I wasn’t doing well in classes because I didn’t know how to ask for help. I struggled with balancing time between projects, classes and friends,” said Cheryl Kung, electrical engineering alumna. “At that time, I wish I had someone who I could talk to about my problems without judgement. I only learned after graduating that the future is actually not as terrifying or confusing as it may seem. I hope that I can help someone else who struggled like I did.”

Through Mentor Collective, students learn what to expect in classes and how to approach new experiences. They also gain career advice and valuable insights from alumni who are professionals and leaders in their fields.

“I was offered a student assistant position, thanks to my mentor. She encouraged me to look for an internship and prepared me for the interview. I couldn’t have done it without her,” said Amelia Nye, civil engineering transfer student.

Alumni also expand their networks and hone their management skills through Mentor Collective.

“Helping my mentee see what it’s like to have a career in her major is helpful, also my experiences in school and internships helped her see what is out there,” said Kinsey Mead, mechanical engineering alumna.

Starting college can be difficult to navigate—especially in our current situation—but the support of a mentor can help ease this transition and set up students to have a positive experience during their first year on campus.

“I feel that I had a unique college experience where I struggled with a lot and had to find myself mostly on my own. Luckily, had the help of some friends, mentors and faculty members. Now, at 25, two years after college, I feel content and successful currently in life, despite all of my hardships,” said Ryan Chen, chemical engineering alumnus. “I want to be able to give back and be that mentor for someone who may not know how to deal with certain things, struggle with the pressure to be successful and obtain prestigious internships, or not even know what they should study and get a career in.”

Mentor Collective continues to be available this fall for first-year and transfer students.

are an engineering alumni interested in this program, visit http://bit.ly/MentorCollectiveCOE

(Reeta Asmai/UC Davis)

Hope Bovenzi

Engineered to Serve

By Rachel Steere

HOPE BOVENZI RECEIVED HER B.S. DEGREE IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AT THE UC DAVIS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING IN 2012.

Hope Bovenzi received her B.S. degree in electrical engineering at the UC Davis College of Engineering in 2012. Since graduating, she has been successful in the industry while continuing to give back to her community and the college.

“Giving back is extremely important, especially being one of the few women, albeit white women, in my program, I think it is really important to recognize the amount of privilege and the amount of resources I was able to utilize while I was at Davis,” said Bovenzi. “I want to make sure that that doesn’t stop with me and that I turn around and lift up the next generation of students.”

After Hope earned her degree at UC Davis, she went on to work for Texas Instruments and quickly became the youngest sector general manager for Automotive Infotainment, while earning her MBA at UCLA. In the short time since her graduation, she has earned a reputation as an expert in infotainment media interfaces.

In addition to her work at Texas Instruments, Hope is dedicated to helping women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

She was instrumental in beginning a Silicon Valley chapter of High-Tech High Heels (HTHH), a non-profit organization that strives to eliminate the gender gap in STEM. HTHH hosts camps and trainings for young girls and women that create a supportive environment of learning and mentorship. Hope served as the expansion manager, is a member of the Board of Directors and leads the volunteer committee for HTHH. She also volunteers for EngineerGirl, a website that

connects young girls and women who are interested in pursuing a career in engineering connect with women who are established in the field.

“I really believe in UC Davis’ vision for STEM. It’s a worldrenowned school and they have done so much when it comes to diversity and engaging with students that have diverse backgrounds,” said Bovenzi.

Each year, the Cal Aggie Alumni Association (CAAA) recognizes alumni who have provided extraordinary service to UC Davis, their professions and communities. This year, Bovenzi was one of eight UC Davis alumni to receive a 2020 UC Davis Alumni Award and was honored for her accomplishments thus far.

“I felt so honored. I believe in the vision and I believe in the importance of giving back, so to be recognized for that – it was above and beyond. I love UC Davis and I think this is an example of them showing how great they are at maintaining connections with their alumni,” said Bovenzi.

BOVENZI CONTINUES TO FIND WAYS TO STAY INVOLVED WITH THE COLLEGE.

Bovenzi joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s Industrial Affiliates Board in 2019. The board’s mission is to provide a platform for research and industry collaboration. With an established connection between industry and the department, students and faculty gain the opportunity to learn about industry, while affiliates are exposed to next-generation talent, new ideas and research directions.

As part of her commitment to the board, Bovenzi helped coordinate the ECExpo that the department held at Texas Instruments in February 2020.

“STEM and STEM education is a huge focus for Texas Instruments. To be able to host this event and bring in industry affiliates and connect current students to former students and those who work in the industry was a great experience,” said Bovenzi.

She is also involved in the college’s Mentor Collective program, which connects first-year and transfer engineering students with a recent UC Davis engineering graduate to help them navigate challenges and leverage various opportunities the college has to offer.

For Bovenzi, one of the most straightforward ways to give back is connecting with current students.

“I brought one of the students I mentored last year to

the CAAA award ceremony because I have had mentors bring me to these type of events and I wanted to take the opportunity to connect her with folks and shine a light on the importance of mentorship – especially for women and people of color who don’t always have that role model or person in industry already to look to,” said Bovenzi. “Being a mentor has been super-rewarding because I can see the next generation of engineers that are phenomenal already and I can’t wait to see what they do.”

Bovenzi has many fond memories from her time at UC Davis and is thankful for the connections she has made.

HOPE

“I am so grateful for my time in Davis and in the College of Engineering,” said Bovenzi. “These relationships that you make at Davis and especially in the college stick with you. I am grateful for the way those have impacted my life.”

Below: Hope Bovenzi (middle) and her mentee with Chancellor May at the Cal Aggie Alumni Association Awards. (Hope Bovenzi/UC Davis)

ON SEPTEMBER 9, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA residents woke up to a dark orange smoky sky that rained down ash and made it hard to breathe. Sadly, days like this are becoming our “new normal.” As climate change makes wildfires burn faster, hotter and more often, humans need to understand the effects of these disasters and how to live with them.

UC Davis engineers are rising to the challenge by finding new ways to monitor and mitigate the effects of wildfires through new technology such as fire-proof houses, chemical sensors to study smoke and drones to monitor fires in real time. These efforts aim to keep people safer as disasters become more

Fighting

FIRE FIRE

with engineering

By Noah Pflueger-Peters

“We need to do something both now and in the long run,” said civil and environmental engineering professor Michele Barbato. “Significant [environmental] damage has already been done and we are going to live with our current situation and even worse, so we need to be prepared and do something now so it doesn’t get really, really tough.”

STRUCTURING A WILDFIRE RESPONSE

Barbato, a structural engineer, is driven by the needs of his community. As a graduate student at UC San Diego, he studied earthquake-resistant structures and when he moved to Louisiana State University, he shifted his work toward hurricane and tornado-resistant structures.

He had been teaching at UC Davis for less than two months when the 2018 Camp Fire wreaked havoc on nearby Paradise and sent smoke billowing across the state. As he struggled to breathe the smoky air, he decided he needed to help his new community.

“I like to solve problems that have an impact,” he said, “And it seemed like a very natural extension of my previous research to learn what happens when we put [structures] in a fire.”

His goal is to design houses that can withstand fire without burning, compromising structural integrity, or destroying everything inside. His team is studying the different way houses burn, from the flames hitting a house, to embers accumulating on the roof or deck, to embers falling through vents and burning a house from the inside. They will eventually conduct tests to study the large-scale effects on the structure and the air inside.

“You need a material that protects not only the walls and everything inside the house, but also reduces a lot of the plastic being burned in the air,” he said.

The Ranch 2 Fire burns in Southern California in August 2020.

(Noah Pflueger-Peters/UC Davis)

Barbato and his team are studying adobe, which is made from soil. It has been around for thousands of years and is still widely used to build houses around the world, including those he has designed in the past. He says adobe has a lot of potential because it’s non-combustible and has a very low carbon footprint.

“What we are doing is generating the engineering knowledge to take a construction technology that is more than 10,000 years old and turn it into something that is affordable, resilient, sustainable and doesn’t burn,” he said.

In addition, Barbato leads the $4.8 million project, “Assessment and Mitigation of Wildfire Induced Air Pollution,” which he formed in response to the Camp Fire. The project features collaborators from two national laboratories, a non-governmental organization and multiple UC campuses and is funded by the UC Office of the President’s Lab Fees Program.

This multidisciplinary team involves more than 20 researchers with expertise ranging from data science to physics, environmental policy, public health and human ecology who will use their diverse perspectives to understand how wildfire smoke propagates, its effects on communities and how to mitigate them. The project kicked off this spring with a virtual symposium on wildfire smoke.

“The problem is so complex that we really need to think about it in a more holistic way and develop possible solutions,” he said. “Our project is really a team effort.”

BETTER AIR QUALITY READINGS THROUGH CHEMICAL SENSING

Monitoring wildfire smoke is critical to understand how wildfires might be spreading their potential health impacts on nearby communities. Mechanical and aerospace engineering (MAE) professor Cristina Davis’ lab is using its novel chemical sensing technology, which uses a powder-like material called sorbent, to trap volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) in the air for analysis.

MAE Ph.D. student Leslie Simms started the team on a path to wildfire sensors by collecting air VOC samples around Davis during the Camp Fire. The device worked exceptionally, and the team partnered with MAE professor Steve Robinson to deploy it on drones for further tests.

“It would be great if you could deploy many drones with many different samplers set out as a fire is in process so you can get more localized air quality readings,” said Simms.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) is helpful, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Readings are based on concentrations of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and PM2.5— atmospheric particles less than 2.5 nanometers—but not other hazardous VOCs like

BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene) compounds that are also abundant during fires. In addition, AQI readings aren’t done in every neighborhood and may therefore not reflect the actual air quality.

Simms was surprised by the lack of forecasts and preventative measures for wildfires in California compared to what she was used to with hurricanes in her home state of Florida. More accurate and localized air quality readings that also measure VOCs, she says, can help people get a more accurate sense of how the fire is developing.

“In Florida, you know exactly where that hurricane is, the wind direction and exactly what’s happening,” she said. “With the Camp Fire, there was a little confusion in the community and if you turned on the news, it wasn’t very clear how it was developing and that was concerning to me.”

She also thinks the readings can lead to a better response time when issuing evacuation orders.

“If you’re getting localized air quality map updates every two hours, you could more easily determine when the winds change direction, when the fire gets bigger, or if it starts going in a new direction,” she said. “That might give us a little bit more time to refine evacuations and two hours in a situation like that is life-and-death—literally.”

Davis’ team has continued to develop this technology with two successful proof-of-concept tests on a drone—one in the presence of a controlled fire.

USING DRONES TO MONITOR SMOKE

MAE associate professor Zhaodan Kong approaches the same problem from a different perspective. His group is developing a new drone specifically for collecting data on wildfire smoke. Because they can be deployed anywhere and can hover in place, drones are better than ground sensors, fixed-wing aircraft and satellites for measuring smoke propagation, air quality and chemical composition as a function of time.

“In the next 10 years, we can use a lot of the knowledge and tools we have developed in robotics to help us fight wildfires,” he said. “We want to see whether we are able to build a drone specifically for environmental monitoring.”

The craft has to be able to carry the environmental sensing equipment necessary for accurate readings, while being able to reliably stay in the air for an extended period of time. This means designing the drone around sensor and battery weight to optimize flight time and functionality.

“There is a tradeoff between the number of batteries you can use and how long your drone can fly,” he said.

“Our goal is to find the sweet spot.”

This work builds on some of the team’s preliminary tests with researchers from the UC Davis Air Quality Research Center where they equipped sensors on an unmanned aerial vehicle, or UAV, and surveyed controlled burns of agricultural waste. If the project is successful, Kong thinks this will be the first of many for his team involving wildfires.

“The standards we use in robotics to determine whether a robot should do a job are what we call the three D’s— dirty, dangerous and dark,” he said. “Firefighting fits perfectly into this criteria. My dream is to have UAV swarms that can guard a community and work together so humans don’t need to put their lives in danger.”

Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor and chair Cristina Davis. (Greg Urquiaga/UC Davis)

Civil and environmental engineering professor Michele Barbato. (Gregory Urquiaga/UC Davis)

Mechanical and aerospace engineering associate professor Zhaodan Kong. (Reeta Asmai/UC Davis)

Mechanical and aerospace engineering Ph.D. student Leslie Simms. (Josh Moy/UC Davis)

Photo above: Northern California Air Quality map on September 8, 2020.

Graphic: AirNow

A drone flies near a controlled burn to conduct tests. Mechanical and aerospace engineers at UC Davis think drones are perfect for monitoing the chemical composition and propagation of wildfire smoke. (Zhaodan Kong/UC Davis)

Smoke from the 2018 Camp Fire turned the sun orange and spread poor air quality across Northern California. (Noah Pflueger-Peters/UC Davis)

An eSlate VVPAT electronic voting machine. These machines are used across the country as alternatives to paper ballots.

Despite the advantages, these machines can pose security risks through both hardware and software, as hackers can mess with the source code as well as break into the machine to tamper with the data. During vulnerability analysis, Bishop and his team try to do both to identify potential points of failure. With this information, companies or organizations can plug security holes the team uncovers to make systems more secure.

“The question people usually ask is, ‘are electronic voting machines secure?’ and that’s exactly the wrong question because nothing is perfectly secure,” he said. “The right questions to ask are, ‘if I use this computer, does it make it harder to attack to the elections?’ and, ‘Does it eliminate problems that exist now, does it create new ones and if it does, are these more serious than the ones it addresses?’”

CHANGING THE CONVERSATION

Bishop began studying electronic voting in 2003. He was invited by a former UC Davis graduate student at RABA Technologies to join a study of voting machines the State of Maryland had bought for the 2004 election. The team wrote a report for the state and the manufacturer finding severe security issues that made the machines easy to tamper with.

“It took one of us five minutes to get complete control of the machine you voted on and 30 minutes to get complete control of the machine that had the databases where the ballots were stored. The only reason it took that

long was that it took us 25 minutes to get the program we wanted to use,” he said.

Though these machines were still used in the election, the RABA study made national headlines and soon, Bishop was contacted by election officials across the country. In 2006, he joined a team that evaluated a hotly-contested congressional race in Florida to see if the machines made a mistake in counting votes. Though the team concluded that the machines weren’t at fault, they identified similar flaws to those in the RABA study and wrote a report on how they could be used to attack the machines.

In 2007, then-California Secretary of State Debra Bowen asked the University of California to perform a “top to bottom” review of the state’s e-voting systems. Bishop co-led this study, finding major issues with all three systems they studied. Their results led to two of these systems being decertified until the security concerns were addressed; special procedures were required to use the third. This study, along with the RABA study and others, began to change the public perception of the technology.

“The entire dialogue changed from, ‘why are you objecting to the use of computers?’ to ‘maybe we’d better look at this more carefully,’” he said.

Since then, Bishop has worked closely with election officials in his home of Yolo County to help with vulnerability analysis each election cycle. Bishop hopes to audit the machines for Yolo County and probe the county’s voter registration database.

SECURING ELECTIONS

Top photo: An eSlate VVPAT electronic voting machine. These machines are used across the country as alternatives to paper ballots. (Matt Bishop/UC Davis)

Bottom photo: The eSlate JBC system connects to the eSlate VVPAT machine and records votes. This system, as well as the connection between the two machines, are two potential security risks that need to be accounted for. (Matt Bishop/UC Davis)

Despite having been around for almost 20 years, today’s machines, Bishop says, still have many of the same problems as the ones from the RABA study. However, he says there are a lot of steps officials can take to make the entire election procedure as foolproof as possible.

“All of security is a balancing act,” he said. “So when you pick a voting machine, you have to integrate it into the physical election process because people will be handling and setting up the machines, tearing them down, programming the ballots, counting the vote cards and things like that.”

Recently, Bishop has modeled electoral systems using “fault trees,” or maps that show the potential ways the election’s security can be compromised. In Yolo County, election officials have listened and implemented rigorous procedures to secure the election process. Though e-voting machines are required by law for people with disabilities, almost all voting in the county is still done, counted and re-counted using paper ballots. These machines are rigorously tested before the election, securely stored between elections and all ballots are accompanied by at least two people at all times on Election Day.

“The goal is to make sure you don’t have any single points of failure, so that if one thing goes wrong, the whole election is corrupted,” he said. “You want a system where two or more things have to go wrong for failure to occur, and ideally you want different people handling these things.”

Though the machines themselves have their problems and no election is 100 percent secure, he says that election officials are taking the right security measures and are more than happy to talk with voters about concerns. Above all, he says that none of these issues should scare people away from voting.

“Voting is absolutely critical because if you don’t vote, I guarantee you it’s not going to count,” he said. “If you have a choice, vote on paper and double-check that you voted the way you wanted to before you turn in your ballot.”

As Election Day approaches, keeping the voting booth safe is as important as ever. For UC Davis’ Matt Bishop, 2020 is just another year of work to keep electronic voting safe. As a cybersecurity expert and professor of computer science, Bishop helps election officials vet electronic voting systems and the electoral process they’re a part of to find and fix as many security issues as they can to make elections as secure as possible.

Electronic voting machines have become widely adopted across the country as an alternative or supplement to paper ballots. These machines not only give election officials results faster, but also make it a lot easier and cheaper to print ballots for people who don’t speak English, easier for people with disabilities to vote and easier to identify ballots with stray marks.

By Noah Pflueger-Peters

Matt Bishop, Department of Computer Science professor (Reeta Asmai/UC Davis)

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Geotechnical Engineering Trailblazer Professor Emeritus Izzat (Ed) Idriss

By Aditi Risbud Bartl

An internationally-recognized leader in the field of soil mechanics and foundation engineering, civil engineer Izzat (Ed) Idriss, professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering, has influenced the construction of dams, nuclear power plants, office buildings, hospitals and bridges around the world.

Born in Syria and raised in raised in Damascus and Beirut, Lebanon, Professor Emeritus Izzat (Ed) Idriss came to the United States in 1954 to complete his bachelor’s degree at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He received a M.S. degree from Caltech in civil engineering in 1959 and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from UC Berkeley in 1966 with a research focus in geotechnical earthquake engineering—a new field at the time. He spent 20 years at the international consulting firm Woodward-Clyde Consultants (now part of AECOM), serving as senior principal and vice-president of a world-renowned geotechnical engineering consulting team.

Upon his arrival at UC Davis in 1989, the same year he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for “major contributions to the understanding of soil behavior during earthquakes and for the application of these contributions in engineering practice,” Idriss joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as a faculty member and Director of the Center for Geotechnical Modeling. He says one of his fondest memories at UC Davis was teaching an introduction to civil and environmental engineering class to first-year undergraduates.

“I thought I would show students how important engineers are by saying that when a doctor or lawyer works with a person, it affects one person at a time. But for engineers, if you’re involved in the construction of a dam, if something happens to a dam, it could affect tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people. I thought it would be inspiring, but boy, did I scare them!” Idriss said, laughing. “This is the time when students are still deciding what they’re going to do and I could encourage them to do things they really love. It was so wonderful to sit down and grade their exams. When somebody does well you say, ‘Oh, my gosh. They got it!’”

As director of the Center for Geotechnical Modeling from 1989-1996, Idriss was instrumental in growing the scope of the center in the early 1990s by securing funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Caltrans and Obayashi Corporation in Japan for a shaker for its centrifuge to measure the performance of soil and soil-structure systems during earthquakes and other catastrophic events. Working closely with Professor Bruce Kutter and facility manager Dan Wilson, Idriss and his colleagues were able to install a shaker on the largest (at the time) geotechnical centrifuge in the world and generate data that were openly distributed for use by other researchers.

From 2000 to 2004, more than $5M in major upgrades to the facility were implemented with NSF funding, including a new centrifuge drivetrain, shaking table upgrades, new model containers, advanced data acquisition systems, high-speed cameras and visualization tools. UC Davis supported the project by constructing the Geotechnical Modeling Facility building in 2003.

“It took a lot of effort to secure the early financing for the center because there was a little bit of skepticism about the usefulness of the centrifuge,” Idriss said. “For the past 20 years, it’s grown by leaps and bounds.”

Today, the CGM provides users access to world-class geotechnical modeling facilities, including 9-meter and one-meter radius centrifuges with shaking tables. Centrifuges use scale models to accurately study nonlinear, stress-dependent responses of soil masses. The 9-meter radius centrifuge has the largest radius of any centrifuge with a shake table worldwide.

“I have known Ed for 28 years as a mentee, colleague and friend. I hit the jackpot in finding such a mentor when I arrived in Davis in 1992 as an assistant professor. He helped me, through his example and guidance, to be not only a better researcher, teacher and professional, but to be also a better person,” said Ross Boulanger, civil and environmental engineering professor and CGM director. “This commitment to excellence is now embedded in the DNA of our program. It is hard to overstate the impact that Ed has had on the geotechnical engineering profession, our geotechnical engineering group and the lives of the people fortunate enough to have worked with him.”

In 2004, the year he retired, Idriss and his wife established the “Excellence in Geotechnical Engineering Award” to support up to two graduate students’ educational experiences in geotechnical engineering. In 2016, Idriss and his wife established the “Mariam and I. M. Idriss Endowed Fund for Geotechnical Engineering Education” that helps promote the next generation of geotechnical engineers through symposia held at UC Davis and to support attendance of graduate students at technical conferences.

“Ed’s professionalism, thoughtfulness, humor and thirst for learning have been impressed upon me. He has left his fingerprints all over the geotechnical group, and specifically the Geotechnical Graduate Student Society (GGSS) at UC Davis. Ed prioritizes scholarship, leadership and fellowship and these are now the pillars of the GGSS and the base criteria for our annual Excellence in Geotechnical Engineering Award,” said Jason DeJong, professor of civil and environmental engineering. “From simple life mantras, to deep discussions on technical issues in the geotechnical profession, to demonstrating lifelong learning, Ed’s perspective and example has guided me in my professional interactions, development of research ideas and advising of students.”

Today, Idriss and his wife live in Santa Fe, NM. He continues in his research as a UC Davis professor emeritus and in practice as a consultant, while serving on several advisory boards. He returns to campus for the GGSS symposium each year and says he is energized hearing about new research from graduate students. “It’s so satisfying and humbling to help students succeed.”

“From our first interaction in 2009, when was making my first steps in graduate school at UC Davis, to today, Professor Idriss has not ceased to profoundly impact my way of thinking and my perception of life and geotechnical engineering,” said Katerina Ziotopoulou, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering. “Every moment spent with him has been full of illuminating technical conversations and exemplary work ethic, professional and personal advice, unbounded passion for learning, always with a generous sprinkle of humor. At UC Davis, and in the geotechnical program specifically, Professor Idriss has embodied scholarship, leadership, and fellowship which through the years became our own principles of community and a guiding light for all of us to work and live by.”

“From our first interaction in 2009, when I was making my first steps in graduate school at UC Davis, to today, Professor Idriss has not ceased to profoundly impact my way of thinking and my perception of life and geotechnical engineering,” - Katerina Ziotopoulou

Professor Izzat “Ed” Idriss (third from right) with geotechnical engineering faculty at UC Davis.

UC Davis CHEST Center

By Rachel Steere

Bolstering Cybersecurity Efforts Nationwide

What started as a hobby in security hardware for Houman Homayoun has grown into a cybersecurity consortium led by the University of Cincinnati in partnership with several other national universities, including the University of California at Davis, Northeastern University, the University of Connecticut, the University of Virginia and the University of Dallas.

Since 2019, when Homayoun joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as an associate professor, he has served as the site director for the National Science Foundation Center for Hardware and Embedded Systems Security and Trust (CHEST). His research focus is in the broad area of computer engineering, with an emphasis on hardware security and trust, computer system security, heterogeneous computing and energy-efficient computing. The U.S. House of Representatives also recently approved a $3 million grant to help ensure that the center can continue its efforts to establish whole-of-government and whole-of-nation cybersecurity best practices.

“When your background is in computer architecture like me, you become an expert in how computer design and computer systems work,” said Homayoun. “I gradually moved from the application of computer architecture to focus on security when I had an idea to design electronics resilient against reverse engineering attacks.”

The mission of the CHEST Center is to address the research challenges that industry faces in the design, protection and resilience of hardware from the security vulnerabilities associated with electronic hardware and embedded systems. The ultimate goal is to develop a much-needed workforce for government and industry in security hardware. The center aims to coordinate university-based research with the needs of industry and government partners to advance knowledge of security, assurance and trust for electronic hardware and embedded systems.

“There is not a large presence of hardware security research within universities on the West Coast. UC Davis is in a good position as an established hardware security center because they are close to the Bay Area,” said Homayoun. “As a result, we are able to have a strong presence with our alumni and an established connection with those companies who have projects around hardware security.”

Homayoun and his team have recently been awarded two new projects that focus on developing new methods to detect hardware trojans, a malicious modification of the circuitry of an integrated circuit. The team uses frequency profiling of fabricated chips and develops a cognitive solution to automatically identify the best strategy to prevent reverse engineering. He has also recently received funding to develop models for the COVID-19 pandemic, looking at community spread and mitigation measures for better and scalable policy alternatives to full lockdown. The solutions his team are deploying for the COVID-19 pandemic model are inspired by a similar model they developed for malware epidemics containment in Internet of Things (IoT) networks.

UC DAVIS STUDENTS BECOME EXPERTS IN HARDWARE SECURITY

The CHEST center at UC Davis supports ten Ph.D. students. Homayoun says he looks forward to the center growing through additional faculty and student involvement.

Homayoun says he owes much of his early success in hardware security to Kerry Bernstein from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Len Orlando from the Air Force Research Laboratory, who were his project managers at the time.

“Kerry was truly instrumental to my success in preventing reverse engineering attacks in hardware security,” said Homayoun. “Initially I was investigating new device technology in microprocessors to reduce their power consumption. However, I thought the same technology could be adapted to prevent hardware reverse engineering of integrated circuits. I pitched the idea to Kerry and Len, and after many conversations, meetings and technical discussions, we moved to a successful design of the concept.”

The CHEST Center is funded by a combination of National Science Foundation grants and memberships by industry and non-profit institutions, and the center coordinates university-based research with partner needs to advance knowledge of security, assurance and trust for electronic hardware and embedded systems. This center currently has more than 20 industry partners committed to provide funding to the center including the Air Force Research Laboratory, Booz Allen Hamilton, the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Logistics Systems and Raytheon Technologies.

Homayoun also teaches three courses for undergraduate students is the director of the Accelerated, Secure and EnergyEfficient Computing Laboratory (ASEEC) in the electrical and computer engineering department. This lab investigates secure, energy-efficient and high performance computer architecture design.

“Our students have really become experts in hardware security; they are publishing excellent papers and winning various awards. Essentially, we are building a strong pool of human resources for companies who are looking to hire,” said Homayoun. “UC Davis receives a strong pool of Ph.D. applicants which is fundamental to making our projects successful –if the students are able to execute the projects successfully then we will be successful in sustaining our center.”

The first grant planning meeting for the CHEST Center in 2018 with members from all six universities in the consortium. (Houman Homayoun/UC Davis)

Electrical and computer engineering associate professor Houman Homayoun. (Josh Moy/UC Davis)

Davis Engineering Receives

$107M

in Research Funding

By Constanze Ditterich

THE UC DAVIS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING HAS GROWN ITS RESEARCH EFFORTS this year to an all-time high of $107M in funding, highlighting the knowledge and expertise of our engineers at UC Davis solving the world’s most pressing problems. Here are four new research centers at UC Davis that showcase the college’s research strengths.

BRIDGING THE GAP + SPINAL CORD INJURY TREATMENT PROGRAM

Karen Moxon, professor of biomedical engineering at UC Davis, will lead a five-year, $36M contract as part of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) Bridging the Gap Plus Program. Moxon will lead a consortium of universities, biomedical startups and nonprofit organizations to develop interventions for spinal cord injuries that can be applied within days of injury to improve long-term outcomes.

“Spinal cord injury is a complex condition that causes partial or complete loss of function below the location of injury. We will develop systems for real-time biomarker monitoring and intervention to stabilize and rebuild neural communications pathways between the brain and spinal cord,” Moxon said, adding that she is excited to be in a position to effect real change for people who sustain a spinal cord injury.

CENTER FOR HARDWARE AND EMBEDDED SYSTEMS SECURITY AND TRUST

Electrical and computer engineering associate professor Houman Homayoun, director of the UC Davis site of the Center for Hardware and Embedded Systems Security and Trust (CHEST) and his team were awarded $3M for two new projects to advance knowledge of security, assurance and trust for electronic hardware and embedded systems. Funded by the National Science Foundation, industry partners and nonprofit institutions, the goal of these projects is to detect hardware trojans, a malicious modification of the circuitry of an integrated circuit. The team uses frequency profiling of fabricated chips and develops a cognitive solution to automatically identify the best strategy to prevent reverse engineering.

“AI will serve as both the enabling technology and the connective tissue that brings together these elements and catalyzes this transformation to a safer, fairer and more efficient food system for the next generation.”

– Ilias Tagkopoulos

AI INSTITUTE FOR NEXT GENERATION FOOD SYSTEMS

A team of UC Davis researchers led by Ilias Tagkopoulos, professor in the Department of Computer Science and Genome Center, was awarded $20M to establish the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Institute for Next Generation Food Systems, part of -a multi-institutional collaboration between UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Cornell University, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. The goal of this center is to optimize plants for yield, quality and disease resistance, and minimize resource consumption and waste using AI.

“The food system is ripe for disruption, with many advances over the past decade paving the way to a transformation,” said Tagkopoulos, director of the new institute. “AI will serve as both the enabling technology and the connective tissue that brings together these elements and catalyzes this transformation to a safer, fairer and more efficient food system for the next generation.”

Tagkopoulos will be joined by UC Davis researchers Nitin Nitin, professor in the Departments of Biological and Agricultural Engineering and Food Science and Technology; Mason Earles, assistant professor in the Departments of Viticulture and Enology and Biological and Agricultural Engineering; and Xin Liu, professor in the Department of Computer Science.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PAVEMENT RESEARCH CENTER

The University of California Pavement Research Center (UCPRC) and Caltrans will continue their partnership through a $32M interagency agreement to expand the work of the Partnered Pavement Research Center project led by civil and environmental engineering professor John Harvey, who also serves as the director of the UCPRC.

“The UCPRC is pleased to be working with Caltrans for another three years to make pavements better for all users and improve their cost and environmental sustainability,” said Harvey.

Harvey and his team develop and implement support to help Caltrans improve the cost and environmental sustainability of the state highway network.

“A key to success for the people of California is that the partners work together, in consultation with industry, on the full arc of work necessary to move from conceptual ideas to research, development and solving the practical details needed for full implementation,” said Harvey.

Top photo: Computer science professor Ilias Tagkopoulos. (UC Davis College of Engineering)

Middle photo: Electrical and computer engineering associate professor Houman Homayoun. (Josh Moy/UC Davis)

Bottom photo: Civil and environmental engineering professor John Harvey. (Gregory Urquiaga/UC Davis)

Biomedical engineering professor Karen Moxon. (Alexander FisherWagner/UC Davis)

Thanks to the generosity of many College of Engineering supporters, in fiscal year 2019-20, the college raised over $14.8 million in gifts and grants from alumni, businesses, foundations and friends. Gifts supported faculty research and teaching, undergraduate scholarships, graduate student awards, facilities and equipment needs.

$500,000 and above

Richard C. and Joy M. Dorf

Hyundai Motor Company Medacta Toddy John and Gina Wasson Anonymous

$100,000 - $499,999

Avectas Maria Bainer Trust Anonymous

Chevron DMG MORI Co., Ltd. Jeffery and Marsha Gibeling Graniterock Intel Corporation Prem and Sandhya Jain Keysight Technologies La Marzocco LexisNexis Risk Solutions

Probat Philip Risken Brian Underwood and Carol Blacutt-Underwood Jerry Woodall, Ph.D. and Nancy Bulger, Ph.D.

$50,000 $99,999

Analog Devices Inc. Center for Advancing Women in Technology Facebook, Inc. Ford Motor Company L3 Technologies Narda Microwave-West MACOM Alyssa Panitch Qualcomm Inc. Radix DLT Robert Bosch, LLC Mr. Chand Shaik and Mrs. Shirin Sultana Stratovan Corporation Texas Instruments Incorporated

$25,000 $49,999

Bencafe S.A., Nicaragua Estate of Janice Causey Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions Inc. Mark and Margaret Garibaldi Robert L. Howe Timothy G. Jellison Josuma Coffee Company David Kappos and Leslie Kimball Earl and Suzette Rennison

Rizo-Lopez Foods Universal Sequencing Technology Corporation

$10,000 $24,999

Apple Behmor

Bruce and Rebecca Conrad Ann and Mike Duncan Susan Ellis and Mark Linton

George & Ruth Bradford

Foundation

GeoSyntec Consultants

Mohammed and Marilyn Ghausi Louanne and Brian Horsfield

Joseph Beggs Foundation for Kinematics Bill and Jaynie Kind

Jon and Bette Legallet Neville C. and Janet G. Luhmann Micron

Microsoft Corporation Mohamed and Shabnum Moledina

Nakatani Foundation Nomad Bioscience GMBH Northrop Grumman Opus One Winery Laird and Shawna Parry Ron and Shellie Ramos Scott and Virginia Stedman Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Eileen and Rob Tobias ‘86 Trend Micro Wells Fargo Foundation King and Linda Won

$5,000 - $9,999

Kenton Day Bob and Dorothy Doss Ernst & Young Google LLC Victoria Hall Layton and Melinda Han Larry B. Harvey Bruce L. Kutter and Louisa Ruedas

Jok and Kirsten Legallet Sally L. Lucia

MouseBelt

Reba Mullins

Origin Materials Bruce Raabe and Sara WardellSmith Liz Schenk

Anthony J. and Jennifer Silveira Babak A. Taheri Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley

$1,000 - $4,999

Warren Abey

Aerojet Rocketdyne Foundation Brian and Kristen Andersen Jon and Andrea Archer Edward Bachand Roderick Bacon Beckman Coulter Foundation Arthur Bliss Andrew and Joanne Botka Richard and Claire Bradley Patrick and Freda Brinkley William and Elizabeth Brown Diane M. Bryant Kenneth and Michelle Bryden Tim and Mary Louise Bucher Charles and Linda Bunker Jeanine and Jeff Bush

David Capell and Sarah Hampson Catherine Cavaletto Alland Chee and Sanda LuiChee

Chih-Kang Chen and Hilda Zhang Jeffrey B. and Dianne D. Child

Alfred and Sharene Chuang Richard and Kitty Chuang Michael and Jody Coffey Mark Cowell

Andrew Cross Kenneth Culver Jeannie Darby Robert and Shirley Davis Qiuju Diao Harry and Mary Dwyer ExxonMobil Foundation Pamela J. Fair ‘80 and Glen J. Sullivan Linda Finley William and Judy Fleenor FM Global James Fridley and Elaine Scott Frank C. Galli, III and Lisa Galli Geopentech, Inc. Karl Gerdes and Pamela Rohrich

Bruce and Noretta Gilbert Frank and Mary Gill Thomas Gordon Carl and Donna Gowan Griffin Soil Group Abhishek Gupta John Guzman

Gary E. Hackney and Natalie A. Poole

James and Cynthia Hallenbeck HDR, Inc.

Elizabeth and Michael Helmer Jonathan and Muriel Heritage Leonard and Marilyn Herrmann Hewlett Packard Enterprise Frederick and Stella Hoffman Andrew Hulse and Margaret Fanucchi Christopher Hunt and Diona Cheng

Michael and Joelle Hurlston Saif Islam and Hasina Mamtaz

Logeeswaran Veerayah Jayaraman

Maxim and Sylvia Jovanovich

Marina Kalugina David Killeen

Bob and Linda Kiss Klohn Crippen Berger Ltd. Dieter Lamprecht Francis and Evelyn Lee Jens Legallet Trevor and Lindsay Longman Marathon Oil Earl and Barbara McCune Karen and Steven McDonald Lelio and Sandra Mejia Mara and Don Melandry Courtney and Craig Mizutani Patricia Montesinos

Ho Nguyen and Danna Wang Kenneth and Nancy Nittler Richard Noble, Ph.D. and Susan Richardson, Ph.D. Scott and Charlene Owens Pacific Gas & Electric Company Raymond Merala and Laura Perani Bryan M. Jenkins, Ph.D. Phillips 66 Kazim and Ozge Polat Union Pacific Railroad Fred and Carolyn Redeker Subhash H. Risbud, Ph.D. Sandia National Laboratories Clay S. Serrahn and Karen L. Mendonca

Estate of Hanson Siu

Specialty Coffee Association of America

John Stimson and Ellen Heian Howard and Valerie Stone Leah and John Stroup Ann Studer Sutter Health Lee D. Taubeneck

George and Rosemary Tchobanoglous Andrew Towarnicky UniDT

Douglas and Mary Wadman Dennis Walden

Bruce and Marie West West Yost & Associates, Inc. David and Barbara Wilbur Joseph D. Wong Charles R. Wright Wu Family Foundation Holly Runyon Yamini and Faris Yamini

Yin and Elizabeth Yeh $500 - $999

Aera Energy AGR Partners Smita Bakshi Alayne Bolster and Donna Rowell

Rich Bonderson, III and Anne Bonderson Gerard Borkovich George and Martha Branner Colleen Bronner Caterpillar Mei Lin Chan

Donald and Deborah Chigazola Daniel Chu Joseph Daniel Chua Cisco Randall Cobb

Condon-Johnson & Associates

Cornerstone Earth Group Cornforth Consultants

Cotton, Shires and Associates, Inc.

Samuel Dawson Michael and Nanette Dentinger Stephen Dey and Ashley Gibb Zhi Ding and Tonia Lu

Edward Domning and Elise Marshall

Kenneth Dyer

ENGEO

David and Christine Erickson

Daniel and Christine Facciotti

Gayle Fitzpatrick Steven C. George Randall and Carol German Kenneth Harris and Yuriko Shichishima Myron and Sharna Hoffman Kam-Hong Hoi Donna Horn IBM International Foundation Anthony Iwamiya Skyler Jackman and Jasmine Vazquez

Kennedy Jenks

Johnson & Johnson Nicholas and Christine Kenaston Maureen and David Kennedy Ruth and Garry Knipe André Knoesen

Lockheed Martin Jeffrey Lund and Rashmi Garde John Maroney and Sarah Bryan Maroney

Alan and Nancy Marx Arijit and Chandana Mukherji Steven Nakashima Charlotte and Erik Nelson New Relic Susan and Larry Norris James Murphy and Cynthia Murphy-Ortega Terry and Shirley Ota

Alejandro Paniagua

Habid Rascon-Ramos

Aditi Risbud Bartl Stanton and Chiyo Rowe Cheryl and Conrad Rowling Harrold and Margaret Rust Arland Schneider ServiceNow

David and Gisela Shonnard Silicon Laboratories Andrew Simanek

Richard and Mary Sproul

Fred and Joan Stephenson

Benjamin and Elinor Stetson

Curtis and Christine Swanson

Stephen Tartaglia

Jeffrey and Toneth Thompson

Jonathan Thurston

John To and Faith Vo Peter Tsai and Linlin Chen

Maria Vigil and William Galcher

Xiaodong and Yan Wang Watercourse Engineering, Inc.

Kathryn Werback

Tasha Wilson

Yanyan Yang and Suo Wu Scott and Traci Yerby August and Erin Zajonc Juan Zuniga