To Our Readers:

As a NYU-Poly employee and alum, it is an honor to report on the many exciting things happening in and around NYU-Poly as we embark on an institutional journey of self-discovery and re-invention under President Hultin's leadership.

This issue of Poly's e-newsletter covers events during the first quarter of 2006. With a new look, e-NYU-Poly Briefs has been re-named NYU-Poly eBriefs, to clearly reflects the publication's format and purpose—a collection of short articles of interest to the NYU-Poly community that are distributed electronically.

We also have a new email address, ebriefs@poly.edu, which you may use to send articles about activities going on around Poly. So, we hope you enjoy the new NYU-Poly eBriefs, and drop us a line when you see something that you think should be featured in the newsletter.

NYU-Poly eBriefs belongs to all of us—because it is about us—so please keep our e-mail handy, so you'll know where to send the information when something worthwhile comes up .

Best regards,
Christopher Hayes
Editor, NYU-Poly eBriefs
ebriefs@poly.edu
718-260-3971
Postbox # 215

NYU-Poly Subway Advertisement

Poly's branding campaign is riding the rails of the New York City Transit System. The campaign is now underway on select lines and will appear throughout the rail transit system by April 10. In addition, NYU-Poly is featured on four Web sites:

• EA Games (www.ea.com);
• SparkNotes (www.sparknotes.com);
• Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com); and
• MSN (www.msn.com).

The transit campaign is scheduled to run through May.

Promise Fund attendees recite the pledge, (left to right) Promise Fund Scholars, Polytechnic Chairman, Craig G. Matthews (at podium) and President Jerry MacAurthur Hultin.

Over 50 talented Polytechnic students pledged their commitment "to maintain high academic standards and to mentor future Promise Scholars" at the Promise Fund Scholars' induction ceremony in the Pfizer Auditorium adjacent to the CATT-Dibner foyer. In response, Polytechnic Trustees and Promise Fund Board Members pledged their "continuing support for funding scholarships and providing career guidance to Promise Fund Scholars." Polytechnic's Promise Fund provides scholarships for talented students of modest income, and supports the University's community outreach effort, the Center for Youth in Engineering and Science (YES).

Read more about the Promise Fund ceremony

Polytechnic Institute of NYU's Center for Youth in Engineering & Science, the New York City Department of Education and the New York Academy of Sciences welcomed over 300 students representing 38 parochial, private and public New York City high schools to the New York Marriot for the 11^th Annual New York City Science, Mathematics & Technology Regional Fair.

231 individual projects and 32 group projects in categories ranging from Behavioral Sciences to Zoology competed for prizes, including cash awards, scholarships, savings bonds and the grand prize of representing New York City as the regional science fair finalists. Student projects were evaluated by 121 distinguished judges representing various sciences and engineering fields, many of whom were Polytechnic Institute of NYU professors and graduate students

Over 250 projects were judged and 12 individual and 3 team projects from 12 different New York City high schools were selected as the New York City finalist. The Science Fair finalists who attend NYC public schools will receive an all expense paid trip to represent New York City at the 57th International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) which will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana May 7- 13, 2006. An official awards ceremony recognizing all science fair winners will be held at Polytechnic Institute of NYU on Monday, May 1, 2006 in the Pfizer Auditorium adjacent to the CATT-Dibner foyer.

A complete list of participants and finalists is available on Poly's website.

Polytechnic Institute of NYU announced the appointment of Dr. Gordon Danby as research professor in the Department of Civil Engineering. Dr. Danby is co-inventor of super-conducting magnetically levitated trains (maglev trains), the first economically viable, environmentally friendly, high speed ground transportation that is comfortable and safe for passengers, as well as freight cargo. Dr. Danby pioneered superconducting magnetics and his concepts were used in building the first large system, which operated for years as part of the world's most powerful accelerator located near Chicago. He was also a team member of the Nobel Prize winning experiment that studied the properties of the neutrino. Dr. Danby, a co-recipient with James Powell, of the 2000 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Engineering awarded by the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, also pioneered Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRT) to form the basis for the world's first commercially successful magnetic medical scanners. Read more about Dr. Danby joining NYU-Poly here.

WASHINGTON — In an announcement designating 76 new members and nine foreign associates to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) David J. Goodman, professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was elected to the Academy for his contributions to the theory and practice of wireless communications and digital signal processing. This brings the total U.S. membership in the NAE to 2,216 and the number of foreign associates to 186.

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature," and to the "pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education." George Bugliarello, president emeritus of Polytechnic, is the current foreign secretary of the National Academy of Engineering and William L. Friend '56, a Polytechnic trustee, is the Academy's Treasurer.

Prof. Goodman also recently joined the National Science Foundation as a program director "on rotation" from Poly. The appointment is for one year, and is renewable for one or two additional years.

After nearly a year-long effort, Prof. Kalle Levon, Associate Provost for Research & Intelectual Property, Polytechnic Institute of NYU, in association with the NYC Board of Education, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, has played an integral role in establishing a new high school in Brooklyn, the Academy for College Preparation and Career Exploration. The proposal for this school was prepared by a group of six high school teachers, a student, a parent and three college professors.

The school is devoted to promoting academic excellence and to guiding students along a path to self-discovery that will lead them to successfully complete college and select the career best suited for their talents and true potential. Polytechnic Institute of NYU played the lead role in the establishment of the school, which admits 6th and 9th grade students. The school has extended day programs, small class sizes and demands compulsory summer internships at colleges. In the coming months, 160 new students along with their parents will be visiting NYU-Poly to learn about careers in science, engineering, technology and other fields through Poly's internship programs.

With the intent of establishing more feeder schools for new students, Prof. Levon's involvement in this enterprise ingeniously addresses President Hultin's emphasis on recruitment and enrollment. For more information about the schools, visit the College Board Website's announcement about the school, or download a PDF brochure that describes this new endeavor.

President Hultin congratulates Polytechnic's PolyBOTS.
Pictured (Left to Right) are: Mark Scharfshteyn, PolyBOTS Co-founder and former VP; Ana Martinez, Co-Director of New York City FIRST; Polytechnic's President Jerry Hultin; John Mahlmann, President of the PolyBOTS; Noel Kriftcher, Executive Director of David Packard Center for Technology and Educational Alliances.

Polytechnic's PolyBOTS, a student club, conducted a month long series of weekend robotics workshops for secondary school students and teachers to help them prepare for the FIRST Lego League and FIRST Robotics Competitions. New York City's FIRST Lego League event occurred on January 28-29 and the First Robotics Competition on March 23-25 at Riverbank State Park in Manhattan. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology) is a national organization created by the inventor, Dean Kamen, to excite young people about science and technology.

The overwhelmingly positive response to the sesquicentennial festivities gives us all something to be genuinely proud of.

"The 'Inspiration & Innovation' video is a wonderful encapsulation of Poly's first 150 years, and those interested in learning more about Poly's contributions to modern science and technology should read Poly's 150 year history book, Changing the World," said Richard Thorsen, Vice President for Development and University Relations.

As we mark the completion of Poly's 150^th anniversary activities and launch into a new year, the convocation and inaugural festivities areavailable for viewing on-line at www.poly.edu/sesquicentennial. There you can view the host of individuals attending the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) event, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and learn about the institution's rich legacy in a 20-minute video entitled, "Inspiration & Innovation: 150 Years of Discovery and Invention at Polytechnic Institute of NYU" which was written and directed by Christopher Hayes, Director of Special Projects.

To obtain a copy of the 150 history book, "CHANGING THE WORLD: Polytechnic Institute of NYU, The First 150 Years," please contact Christine Myers, cmyers@poly.edu, at 718-260-3342.

One of the fundamental precepts of an organization wishing to maintain and protect its intellectual property is that the institution has a clear and demonstrative policy regarding the use of and access to its proprietary information. As NYU-Poly rigorously pursues advances in research and applied technology, it is essential that we take great care in attending to, and protecting, our most important capital—our employees' original knowledge developed in the form of intellectual property.

To this end, TC Westcott, vice president of Finance and Administration, has release updated documentation on the care and handling of intellectual property developed at Polytechnic Institute of NYU. Employees charged with oversight of these materials are requested to review the following information and apply as appropriate.

• Intellectual Property Policy
• Agreement Concerning Intellectual Property
• Prototype Invention Disclosure Form

In a related article below, Polytechnic Univiersity's Office of Finance and Administration has also released a brief summary of the United States Government Export Control Requirements regarding the handling of sensitive goods and technology that are subject to export restrictions and regulations

Human Resources hosted several "Brown Bag Luncheons" discussing a wide range of organizational and employee items that make for a better work environment, and better management of your personal concerns relating to procedural guidelines, deadlines and benefits. Recent "Brown Bag Luncheons" included:

• Avoiding Employment Landmines;
• Don't Lose Vacation Time at Poly;
• Tolerance and Civility at Poly; and,
• New Policies at Poly.

To obtain a list of upcoming Brown Bag Luncheons, please contact the Human Resources Department

Polytechnic has partnered with Chase to provide NYU-Poly employees with more value, more convenience and more choices when you enroll in the Chase At Work program. Whether it's getting out of debt, getting a better return on your money or retiring in comfort, the professionals at Chase are here to help you. As an employee of Polytechnic, you can receive exclusive discounts and services not available to the general public. To learn more, please see the Chase at Work memorandum provided by Dennis Dintino, asstistant vice president for Financial Operations.

Federal laws restricting exports of goods and technology have been in existence in one form or another since the 1940s. To keep the Polytechnic community informed of these regulations, T.C. Westcott, Vice President of Finance and Administration, circulated a summary of the US Government's Export Control requirements.

This summary explains the regulations and should be helpful in answering questions relating to departmental policy. In an effort to keep the information both useful and digestible, this synopsis provides basic information, along with the general background and procedural information to help guide individuals and departments in making decisions.

If your research falls into the protected categories, it is essential that you review this information carefully and take the necessary action. Should you have any questions, you may contact the Office of Finance and Administration at westcott@poly.edu, ext.# 3026.

With the rising cost of electricity, energy usage at NYU-Poly directly affects our bottom line. To address this costly concern, Polytechnic Institute of NYU is constantly seeking ways to reduce operational costs and improve operational efficiencies. Personal computers and lighting consume a huge amount of energy on campus. So, please take a few minutes to read through Poly's Energy Saving Guideline for Personal Computers , and don't forget to turn the lights off when leaving the office! This document is also available on MyNYU-Poly under: Polytechnic Community--->Documents--->Energy Saving Guideline for Personal Computers.

In an ongoing effort to keep faculty, staff, students and others informed about the University, Polytechnic President Jerry Hultin circulated a "State of the University" e-mail newsletter summing up the year-end activities. The newsletter, covering the period from September through December 2005 addressed a wide range of issues and concerns throughout the organization, including:

• Undergraduate and Graduate Enrollment;
• Research Funding;
• Intellectual Property;
• Financial News;
• Endowments;
• Real Estate;
• Donations;
• The Sesquicentennial Celebrations;
• Leadership Recruitment;
• Strategic Workshops;
• Global Outreach;
• Academic Departments,
• Poly's Rankings; and,
• the Transit Strike.

Dr. Nancy M. Amato, professor of Computer Science at Texas A&M University, presented an Othmer Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies lecture on motion planning technologies, which arise in many application domains such as computer animation (digital actors), mixed reality systems and intelligent CAD (virtual prototyping and training). Dr. Amato's main areas of research are motion planning, computational biology and geometry, and high-performance computing.

The talk described the framework of Probabilistic Roadmap Methods (PRM) and gave an overview of several PRM variants developed in the Texas A&M research group. The strengths of PRMs, in addition to versatility, are simplicity and efficiency, even in high-dimensional configuration spaces.

Providing details on her research work, Dr. Amato discussed PRM's relation to virtual prototyping, computer animation, and protein folding. More information regarding the Texas A&M research group's work, including movies, can be found at http://parasol.tamu.edu/~amato/.

A joint presentation of the Othmer Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies and Poly's Mechanical Engineering Department on "Multiphase Fluid Transport at the Micro- and Nanoscale" was presented by Dr. Constantine Megaridis of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC).

Dr. Megaridis discussed two separate research programs at the UIC Droplet and Particle Technology Laboratory as examples of research targeting interactions between fluids and solids at the nanoscale.

One program features a technique capable of printing metal nanoparticle suspensions towards fabrication of low-resistance circuit electrodes/conductors for large-area, low-cost flexible electronics. Challenges on the road to commercialization of this technology were discussed, and relevant transport phenomena are analyzed using both experiments and modeling.

The second research program targets the dynamic behavior of multiphase fluids inside multiwall carbon nanotubes. This program offers new insight into fundamental questions on fluid behavior near the continuum limit, and has potential implications for technological and biological applications of the future.

Read more about the fluid transport presentaiton here.

Erich Kunhardt, former NYU-Poly faculty member and director of Poly's Weber Research Institute, spoke to a full room of faculty, staff, students and alumni on "A New University for a New Age." Currently Dean of the Imperatore School of Sciences and Arts at Stevens Institute of Technology, Dr. Kunhardt presented a history of the German Polytechnic Institute upon which United States technological-educational institutions were developed. Arguing that a new model is required to take advantage of modern science and engineering, Dr. Kunhardt also emphasized the importance of the humanities in pursuit of prowess in technological enterprises.

While at Poly, Dr. Kunhardt worked on research related to the Strategic Defense Initiative [SDI] program. More recently at Stevens, he played an instrumental role in the success of the Institute's technological incubator program that has launched a number of successful revenue-generating business ventures based on research conducted at Stevens Institute.

As the guest of President Hultin, Dr. Kunhardt explained the evolution and development of Stevens' Technogenesis® program that dramatically advanced the school's reputation and enhanced various programs' appeal to faculty and students. In his presentation, Dr. Kunhardt explained how the Technogenesis® concepts and model may be leveraged to benefit Polytechnic Institute of NYU.

Read more about Dr. Kunhardt's presentation here.

View Dr. Kunhardt's powerpoint presentation here.

View the webcast of Dr. Kunhardt's presentation here.

During the week of February 13th, NYU-Poly celebrated National Engineers Week [NEW] with a variety of events including several lectures on:

• Disruptive TechnoBusiness Systems;
• Science and Religion;
• Distributed Coding for Compression and Security;

The "National Engineers Week" events were hosted and presented by:

• National Society of Black Engineers-NYU-Poly chapter,
• Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
• Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs
• Department of Introductory Design and Science
• Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
• IEEE Communications Society NY Chapter

The Othmer Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies hosted a lecture by Dr. Afra Zomorodian of Stanford University, whose work concentrates on computational geometry and computational topology spanning different application areas, such as:

• computer graphics and visualization,
• computational topology; and,
• their applications to biology.

The shape of a given space affects our ability to resolve problems. Most disciplines focus on the geometry of this space, analyzing local properties quantitatively. Topology of the space often determines the effectiveness of such geometric algorithms. Topological questions have emerged naturally in many areas of computer science, giving rise to the area of computational topology.

This presentation focused on "persistence," a computational approach to discovering the shape of a space by blending geometric and topological techniques. Persistence reveals the underlying algebraic structure of a multi-scale view of a sampled space.

This lecture is part of the "Geometry in the Real World" Seminar Series sponsored by the Othmer Institute for Interdisciplinary Research and is dedicated to showcasing the application of geometry to 'real-world' computational problems. This series is moderated by Herve Bronnimann, Assistant Professor, Computer and Information Science at the Polytechnic.

Mary K. Cowman, Ph.D. (mcowman@poly.edu), Associate Professor of Biochemistry

• "Reconciling Ssolution and Surface Properties of the Polysaccharide Hyaluronan", Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, (March 8, 2006)
• "Application of Atomic Force Microscopy to Macromolecular Structure Analysis", Westchester Chemical Society, New York Local Section, American Chemical Society, (December 12, 2005)
• "Theories of Polymer Solutions", Universitá di Roma "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy, (November 18, 2005)
• "Application of Atomic Force Microscopy to Macromolecular Structure Analysis", Universitá di Roma "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy, (November 17, 2005)
• "Experimental Approaches to Hyaluronan Structure", Fidia Farmaceutici s.p.a., Abano Terme, Italy, (November 14, 2005)

Zhong-Ping Jiang, Ph.D. (zjiang@control.poly.edu), Senior Research Scientist, Publications:

• (with H. Zhang) article, "Modeling and Performance Analysis of Ad Hoc Broadcasting Schemes" (to appear in Performance Evaluation, 2006)
• (with T.-C. Lee), "On Uniform Global Asymptotic Stability of Nonlinear Discrete-time Systems with Applications" (to appear in IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, 2006)
• (with P. Chen and D. Cheng), "A Constructive Approach to Local Stabilization of Nonlinear Systems by Dynamic Output Feedback," IEEE Trans. Automatic Control (in press.)
• (with H. Zhang), "Mobility Sensitive Broadcast Algorithms in Highly Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, (to appear in: Ad Hoc & Sensor Wireless Networks (2006)
• (with Y. Fan and H. Zhang), "Network Flow Control Under Capacity Constraints: A Case Study, Systems & Control Letters (Special Issue on "Trends in Applied Nonlinear Control", in press.)
• (with H. Zhang and H. Nagesh), "Pilot Power Minimization with Coverage and Locatability Constraints in CDMA Systems," IEEE Communication Letters, Vol. 10, No. 3, pp. 174-176, March 2006.)
• (with Y. Fan and X. Wu), "A Control Theoretic Approach to Stabilizing Queues in Large-scale Networks," IEEE Communications Letters, Vol. 9, no. 10, pp. 951-953, (Oct. 2005)
• (with K.D. Do and J. Pan), "Global Partial-state Feedback and Output-feedback Tracking Controllers for Underactuated Ships), Systems & Control Letters, Vol. 54, pp. 1015-1036, (2005)
• (with D. Karagiannis, R. Ortega and A. Astolfi), "Output Feedback Stabilization of a Class of Nonminimum-phase Nonlinear Systems", Automatica (Vol. 41, Issue 9 , pp. 1609-1615, (September 2005)
• (A. Astolfi and D. Karagiannis), "Output Ffeedback Stabilization and Approximate and Restricted Tracking for a Class of Cascaded Systems," IEEE Trans. Automatic Control (Vol. 50, no. 9, pp. 1390--1396, Sept. 2005)
• (with T.C. Lee), "A Generalization of Krasovskii-LaSalle Theorem for Nonlinear Time-varying Systems: Converse Results and Applications," IEEE Trans. Automatic Control (Vol. 50, No. 8, pp. 1147-1163, Aug. 2005)

Rao Bharat, Ph.D. (brao@poly.edu), Associate Professor

• (with Oded Nov and Bojan Angelov), "Fusion of Disruptive Technologies: Lessons from the Skype Case," European Management Journal, Vol. 23, No. 8 (April 2006)
• (with Oded Nov) "Give According to Your Abilities, Receive According to Your Needs: Threats and Opportunities," Communications of the ACM, accepted, (forthcoming 2006)
• (with Bojan Angelov) "The Progression of WiMAX: Towards a Peer-to-Peer Paradigm Shift," International Engineering Consortium, Annual Review of Communications, 59, accepted (forthcoming 2006)

The National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering Inc. (NACME) has awarded Polytechnic Institute of NYU a $50,000 block grant to support the education of minority engineering students.

Nineteen NYU-Poly students were named recipients of the grant. Since 1974, NACME has provided leadership and support for the national effort to increase representation of minority men and women in engineering and technology. The NACME scholars are:

Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society has established The George Bugliarello Prize, the first prize for writing about biology, society and technology in "American Scientist," the organization's 93-year-old bimonthly magazine of science and engineering.

A prize of $5,000 will be awarded biennially "to a superior interdisciplinary essay, review of research or analytical article published in the magazine." According to the society, "the goal of the prize is to inspire thoughtful discourse about how technology, human society, our biological needs and the needs of other life on our planet can be advanced." More information about the prize and guidelines for authors can be found on the Sigma Xi website.

Polytechnic's Alumni Lecture Series presented a talk by NYU-Poly Alum Robert A. Bonelli, EE '72, currently President and Chief Operating Officer of Northeast Securities, Inc..

Robert A. Bonelli, EE '72

In building a successful business, Mr. Bonelli believes business professionals can benefit from techniques developed in the engineering disciplines. That is precisely what occurred at Northeast Securities, Inc. when transforming a small, single-line business into one of the fastest growing multi-line financial firms on Wall Street.

Whether it is a complex electronic or mechanical system, or a small-to-multinational business, Mr. Bonelli believes the thought process to a successful enterprise is based on basic engineering. Understanding the ambient, utilizing the appropriate resources to maximum advantage, and creating synergies that work all require an approach that links the tools to the problem in support of the desired solution. Put more plainly, basic engineering.

Read more about Mr. Bonelli's lecture here.

Thirty-eight alumni and friends attended a reception hosted by President Jerry Hultin for Southeast Florida alumni in Boca Raton. This was the first opportunity for alumni in the area to meet the president locally. Attendees were treated to a showing of Poly's sesquicentennial history video "Inspiration & Innovation: 150 Years of Discovery & Innovation at Polytechnic Institute of NYU," written and directed by Christopher Hayes, director of Special Projects. Donald Ivanoff, director of Alumni Relations, also attended the gathering which attracted alumni from the classes of 1949 through 1985 and included trustee Donald Weisstuch and advisory trustee Frank Blecher.

Polytechnic's Financial Engineering program is highlighted in the March/April edition of FE News, an industry publication, and in their annual "Report on Worldwide Graduate Education Programs in Financial Engineering." Prof. Fred Novomestky, the director of Polytechnic's Master of Science in Financial Engineering program, said "At Polytechnic, we understand that the financial engineering discipline has expanded into many fields and many professions, and we are adapting our curriculum in response and anticipation of this trend."

Enthusiasm for the program is shared among the Department of Technology Management faculty. Prof. Charles Tapiero, recently appointed as the Topfer Chair Professor of Management and Financial Engineering, adds "We're in the process of establishing a state-of-the-art computational finance laboratory with a broad range of software tools and databases for our students to use in everything from structured product valuation to risk management. The goal is to create, compile and share - as open source tools - software, data and analytical tools that are web-enabled and part of our students' learning experience at Polytechnic." Read more about the Financial Engineering program here

Cybercrime, or using the Internet and computers for the purposes of theft or fraud, is increasing today to the extent that in 2004 it totaled $400 billion, according to FBI figures. That's why prestigious universities around the country, including Brooklyn's Polytechnic, are trying to combat it. Last month, Polytechnic's Center for Advanced Technology in Telecommunications was given a $1.6 million grant to develop cybercrime detection strategies, in cooperation with Columbia University and large corporations such as SIAC, Lucent Technologies and AT&T.

The award was made through the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research Centers (NYSTAR), and will be administered by Professor Shivendra Panwar, director of CATT. Read more about Polytehcnic's grant.

NYU-Poly has recently filled the following positions (January-March 2006):

With NYU-Poly eBriefs' new look, comes a new guessing game!

After 150 years in operation, the University has collected a vast archive of images that are something of mystery now. So, to start things off have a look at the photo below from 1904 taken in the Institute's new building, dedicated in 1899.

If you think you know what it is, send us an email at ebriefs@poly.edu, and we will post the most accurate (or the most humorous) responses in the next edition of NYU-Poly eBriefs, along with a new (or rather old) image.