Vo l u m e V • I s s u e 1 • S p r i n g 2 0 0 6
• Engineering education, to give
DEAN’S MESSAGE
The Bigger Picture
E Not surprisingly, the Council on Com-
ach week, I gather up intriguing
newspaper, magazine, and Web
clippings, along with a few technical
papers, and stuff them into a well-worn
red folder marked “readings.”
Here’s a quick sampling of some of my
favorite headlines of the past few years:
“The Tinkerer as an Engineer”; “How
Blackberry Conquered the World”;
“Googlemania”; “All Science is Com-
puter Science”; “Nanotechnology Takes
Aim at Cancer”; “Why Math Will Rock
Your World.”
Whether the articles come from Nature
or Science, The New York Times or Wired,
BusinessWeek or The Economist, or from
the countless online sources, they all
tell the same story:
Engineering and applied sciences are
everywhere and underlie everything,
from commerce to quantum physics,
and connect every place, from Boston
to Bangladesh.
Thomas L. Friedman summed up the
consequences of this fact in his fascinat-
ing book, The World Is Flat: “I’m not say-
ing that every politician needs to be an
engineer, but it would be helpful if they
had a basic understanding of the forces
that are flattening the world.”
petitiveness stated in 2005 that “[tech-
nological] innovation will be the single
most important factor in determining
America’s success through the 21st
century.” Likewise, I believe a large part
of Harvard’s future success depends on
fostering a culture of innovation.
To remain a leading and societally rel-
evant university in a globalized world,
we must do two things:
• Continue to enhance our efforts in
science and engineering
• Create a global campus and train
global citizens
The changing university
During this time of institutional transi-
tion, Harvard’s commitment to expand-
ing its pedagogical and research efforts
in science, engineering, and technol-
ogy remains firm. Such emphasis is also
supported in a report by the National
Academy of Engineering, Engineering
Research and America’s Future: Meeting
the Challenges of a Global Economy, which
suggests investment in three key areas:
• Engineering research, to bridge
scientific discovery and practical
applications
engineers and technologists the
skills to create and exploit knowledge
• Engineering profession and practice,
to translate knowledge into innova-
tive, competitive products and services
We need only look at our past for a
reminder of the potential intellectual
and social return on investment such
a strategy can bring. Nuclear Mag-
netic Resonance (NMR), the scientific
foundation for MRI, was pioneered by
Bloembergen, Purcell, and Pound at
Harvard. Purcell won the 1952 Nobel
Prize in Physics for this discovery. As
the ultimate capstone, the 2003 Nobel
Prize in Medicine was awarded to Laut-
erbur and Mansfield for work leading to
the development of modern magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI).
That’s the power and the promise that
engineering and applied sciences hold.
That’s why we must make them a natu-
ral part of everything we do at Harvard.
The global university
What we do outside the lab and off
Harvard’s campus matters as well.
Already, we host researchers from all
over the globe and attract an interna-
tional student body. Harvard is also
going global with efforts such as the
U.S.-Indo Alliance (page 7), by hosting
alumni events in Mexico and India, and
with in-country academic partnerships
such as those sponsored by the Medical
and Business schools.
As engineering has become as much
about bridging information as building
bridges, the talent pool for creative and
innovative individuals has widened
and will continue to do so. Put simply,
great ideas can come from anywhere;
we must be open to hearing them and
create more opportunities to harness
such knowledge and ability.
Likewise, our students need to both
master the language of engineering and
technology and gain an understand-
Dean’s Message

ing of how it is shaping and is shaped learn how to Google. That’s why the ef- to transform developing countries, like
by the world. The National Academy fects of engineering are as important as my birthplace of India, into lands of
of Engineering’s assessment, The En- the practice of engineering. That’s why technology developers. Most fortunate,
gineer of 2020, asks questions that all studying engineering in this era must I have been part of a great community
our programs need not only be about cre- and of an entire university where engi-
to address: “Do our
engineers understand
Our students need to both ating engineers but
studying the two-way
neering and the applied sciences have
been renewed and have emerged.
enough culturally, for
example, to respond
master the language of relationship between
technology and so-
These days, in my red folder I see more
headlines that pair Harvard with tech-
to the needs of the engineering and technology ciety—essential for nology and innovation: “Transplanted
multiple niches in a developing global Cells Regenerate Muscles”; “Undergrads
global market? Can and gain an understanding citizens and leaders. Develop System to Fight TB”; “Harvard
we continue to ex-
pect everyone else to of how it is shaping and is As an applied sci-
entist, head of a re-
Launches Wireless Classroom”; “New
Light on Modern Optics (Harvard’s Roy
speak English? What
will be our special shaped by the world. search lab, and a man
of two countries, I
Glauber Wins the Nobel Prize).”

value added?” They are my weekly reminder of what

Being bilingual in today’s world may
mean knowing a foreign language and
a computer language. Appreciating cul-
ture may mean studying abroad in an-
other country and understanding how
that culture is evolving as its citizens
have experienced DEAS and Harvard have always been
the flattening of the world firsthand. I about. It is also why I’m so excited about
have watched nanoscience go from an where all of us can go. J
intriguing idea to an entire field that’s
changed the way we think about matter,
and thus to an emerging industry. I have
seen how the IT revolution has begun

“The Tinkerer as an Engineer”

“How Blackberry Conquered the World”
“Googlemania”
“All Science is Computer Science”
“Nanotechnology Takes Aim at Cancer”
“Why Math Will Rock Your World.”
Whether the articles come from Nature or Science, The New York Times
or Wired, BusinessWeek or The Economist, or from the countless online
sources, they all tell the same story: Engineering and applied sciences
are everywhere and underlie everything, from commerce to quantum
physics, and connect connect every place, from Boston to Bangladesh

 I DEAS – Spring 2006

 Crosscurrents
Future dimensions
“It is a paradoxical but
profoundly true and important
principle of life that the most

10
likely way to reach a goal is

-9
to be aiming not at that goal
I n Ray Bradbury’s short
story, The Toynbee Convec-
tor, an engineer who claims
itself but at some more
ambitious goal beyond it.”
to have built a time machine
returns from his trip to the —Arnold Toynbee
future with astounding
news. Despite the current
dismal state of the earth
and of society, he assures
his fellow citizens that 100
years hence, human beings
will live in a near utopia. In meters, the size of a nanoparticle
In the decades following, the
traveler’s snapshot of the
future—a clean and healthy
environment, technologi-
I f you want to experience an MP3 player
that actually lives up to the name nano, you
better trim your fingernails. A human nail is
Joint DEAS and Physics appointee Vinothan
Manoharan, Assistant Professor of Physics
and Chemical Engineering, also explores the
cal marvels, and a peaceful
and prosperous society—be- about 10 million nanometers thick. Despite shapes of things to come. Manoharan co-
comes a reality. the liberty taken by Apple’s marketing depart- authored a groundbreaking paper in Science
ment, science and engineering at the smallest about predicting how groups of colloids, tiny
In typical Bradbury fashion, scales will likely mean sweet music for basic suspended particles floating like Ping-Pong
the objects in the mirror end
research and consumer products. balls in glue, might arrange themselves.
up being much closer than
they first appear. Having Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering The researchers discovered that when squeezed
grown up hearing the tale of Ken Crozier recently set up a new lab dedicated by a liquid droplet, the microspheres form an
the time traveler from their to nanophotonics, or optics on the nanometer unusual sequence of structures. Despite some
parents, members of the scale. His particular interests involve develop- of the shapes looking decidedly unfamiliar,
future generation expect to ing greatly improved imaging techniques for they all follow the same mathematical rule:
live long enough to greet the scientists and building new devices based on Particles favor groupings that minimize the
inventor upon his arrival. photonic crystals, materials used to control distribution of particle distances from the
On the appointed day and and manipulate the spread of light. center of mass of a given cluster. More amaz-
time, the machine and its On an everyday level, movie fans already reap ing, Manoharan did not set out to make such
occupant fail to shimmer the benefits of such research in the form of a fundamental discovery; the original research
into view. Instead of bend- flat-panel and plasma displays. Continued involved trying to refine the manufacture of
ing the laws of physics, the advances will likely lead to new fabrication photonic crystals.
engineer bent the truth. methods, such as electron-beam lithography Even the smallest predictions in this smallest
With inspiration rather than and plasma etching, critical for next-genera- of fields will likely continue to surprise us.
real evidence, he succeeded tion optical circuits and electronics.
in encouraging the citizens
to dream big, and in doing
so, they banded together to
build a brighter future.
When we imagine the fu-
ture, by definition we think
travel. Advances in basic and of dollars. Engineering and So, strap yourself in for
in terms of time, fast-for-
applied research will depend biology will begin to un- a tour of some of the fu-
warding through the years,
on events happening at the tangle networks on a human ture dimensions of science
decades, or even centuries.
nanoscale and machines scale (the neurons inside and engineering developing
But to get a sense of what’s
built at the microscale. your head) and make con- at DEAS right now—no
to come in engineering and
Financial scales will rise and nections on a global scale time machine (or tall tale)
applied sciences at Harvard,
fall based on billions of bits (new cures and drugs). required. J
the trick is to see time as just
intersecting with billions
one dimension in which to

DEAS – Spring 2006 I 
 1 10
Crosscurrents

Weight, Dollars,
in grams, of a proposed that intellectual property leakage
autonomous micro air glider costs U.S. companies

I n the near future, you might

want to think twice before you
swat that small buzzing intruder
B its affect, if not determine,
the bottom line. A steel
maker and a software maker
interrupting your picnic lunch. might seem worlds apart, but
Rob Wood is working to develop they both travel along the same
tiny flying vehicles weighing in at highway system to conduct
one gram or less. The Assistant business. As a result, today’s

,000
Professor of Electrical Engineer- roadside bandits have aban-
ing plans to continue and expand doned their six-shooters and
research on micro air vehicles horses in favor of laptops and
(MAVs) begun at the University broadband access.
of California, Berkeley. The loss of sensitive corporate

,000
His goal is to produce au- data has become an increas-
tonomous (no pilot) low-cost ingly important issue for comp-
fliers that can cover a wide area anies. In fact, Pricewaterhouse-
using gliding or active flight. Coopers estimates that intel-

Using insect-inspired optical-
flow motion detection, large
numbers of fliers could rapidly
fan out to scout an area. Rather
than looking for a piece of fruit
to perch on, the machines could use sensors to check for potential
forest fires or incorporate on-board audio or visual detection systems
to enhance search-and-rescue missions in hard-to-reach or danger-
ous places.
Wood also plans to focus on ways to enable the small planes to hover,
taking lessons from the way insects and birds flap and rotate their
wings. Ultimately, to get his planes ready for takeoff will require more
than a sheet of sturdy paper, fancy folding, and a steady throwing
hand. Wood anticipates using novel prototyping methods and laser-
micromachined composite materials to craft stiff and lightweight
links, articulated joints, and rigid exoskeletons and airframes for his
future fleet. Ultimately, the Harvard Micro Air Vehicle group could
allow history to repeat itself, but the Kitty Hawk for the tiny fliers
might end up being no bigger than his desk.
,000
lectual property leakage costs
U.S. companies more than $50
billion per year. Luckily, there’s a
new sheriff in town: Mike Smith,
Gordon McKay Professor of
Computer Science and Associate
Dean for Computer Science and
Engineering. Liquid Machines,
a data and enterprise rights management security firm Smith
co-founded, aims to protect the travelers of the digital frontier.
Thwarting today’s and tomorrow’s sophisticated cyber thieves means
implementing smarter processes, not just investing in stronger locks
and additional bodyguards. Smith and his posse of digital law enforcers
offer systems that track and control a firm’s documents and emails
wherever the data ends up going, allowing employees to share informa-
tion easily and securely, within any operating or software environment.
Corralling sensitive data ultimately helps “insulate companies from the
enormous costs, damage, and penalties of data leakage and noncom-
pliance,” Smith says. Such protection in the wildest parts of the digital
domain has become one of the only secure ways to do business.

 I DEAS – Spring 2006

Number of neurons,

of the human brain

50 5
that make up the motor system

hile we stare in awe of the

fluid grace of a gymnast
tumbling or jump out of our seats
when a receiver’s nimble hands
snatch an impossible pass, it’s
the athlete on the inside—the
human brain—that deserves
the ovation. Professional and
armchair athletes alike have
their gray matter to thank for
orchestrating their bodies’ 600
highly interdependent muscles.
However, when something goes
awry, we likely only notice the
astounding role the brain plays
in motor control, allowing us to
,000
,000
Number of deaths,
from AIDS and tuberculosis
in the world per year

F ew relish getting a shot or

taking medicine, but the rou-
tine requires little effort. In the
United States, even individuals
with severe conditions such as
HIV-AIDS and tuberculosis (TB)
can readily rely on traditional
antibiotic therapy. Much of the
world’s population, however,
does not enjoy the simple luxury
of driving to a 24-7 pharmacy or
local hospital to get a shot.
David Edwards, Professor of the
Practice of Bioengineering, says
doctors inevitably face major
obstacles when trying to ef-
,000
,000
,000
do everything from walk to sing. ficiently administer similar treat-
Recent arrival Maurice Smith, ments and vaccines to patients
Assistant Professor of Bio- in the developing world. As a
engineering at DEAS and a result, AIDS and TB have spread
member of the Center for Brain dramatically. The two diseases
Science, studies the motor now account for more than 5
coordination of people with million deaths per year. It is also
Huntington’s disease, an incur- estimated that a third to a half of
able genetic disease in which involuntary erratic movements develop the 30 million AIDS deaths to date have been the direct result of TB.
in middle age. Smith relies on a robotic arm to measure (hundreds An AIDS vaccine or an improved TB vaccine or TB drug therapy
of times a second, in fractions of a millimeter) how a person with might help control and ultimately stop the spread of these mutually
Huntington’s reacts to external forces. exacerbating diseases. Edwards’s team is investigating a new needle-
The precise measurements have been better than brain imaging at less vaccine platform for TB and other infectious diseases and a new
predicting the progression of the disease, making the engineer-based inhaled antibiotic therapy designed to specifically treat TB. Therein
method attractive for testing the effectiveness of new drugs. In also lies one of the most powerful dimensions of technology: A tiny
addition, analyzing the data provides Smith with insights into the way particle developed in a lab could one day circle the globe and in the
the brain’s motor system works, which could lead to the design of process transform the lives of individuals.
new rehabilitation strategies that reduce the motor disability caused
by neurological disease.

Timely Advice
For those still holding out hope for the possibility of time travel, we have a few real-world references. Harvard’s Derek Parfit, Professor of Philosophy,
teaches a course that explores some of the metaphysical implications of time travel. The Physics of Star Trek, by Lawrence Krauss , blends pop culture
with serious science. Finally, a group at MIT held the first-ever Time Traveler Convention in May 2005. The conference site reports, “Unfortunately,
we had no confirmed time travelers visit us, yet many time travelers could have attended incognito to avoid endless questions about the future.” J

DEAS – Spring 2006 I 
Faculty News
Promotions and Appointments
At the end of the 2005-06
academic year Michael Tinkham, Gordon
McKay Professor of Applied Physics
and Rumford Professor of Physics,
will be named a Research Professor.
Tinkham has been a defining figure in
 I DEAS – Spring 2006
superconductivity research for more
than half-a-century. In a 2004 issue
of the Journal of Superconductivity
celebrating his accomplishments and his
75th birthday, Donald M. Ginsberg, one
of Tinkham’s first three Ph.D. students,
New Arrivals
The Division is pleased to welcome three new faculty members this
spring.
Debra T. Auguste
Assistant Professor of Bioengineering
Background: S.B. (1999) in Chemical Engineering, Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology; Ph.D. (2005) in Chemical
Engineering, Princeton University
Areas of focus: Biomaterials, tissue engineering, and drug
delivery
http://deas.harvard.edu/ourfaculty/profile/Debra_Auguste
Shriram Ramanathan
Assistant Professor of Materials Science on the Gordon
McKay Endowment
Background: B. Tech. (1996) in Metallurgical Engineering,
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India; M.S. (1997) in
Materials Engineering, University of Houston; Ph.D. (2002)
in Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University
Areas of focus: Electronic and magnetic systems and devices,
materials science, surface and interface science
http://deas.harvard.edu/ourfaculty/profile/Shriram_Ramanathan
Robert J. Wood
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering
Background: B.S. (1998) in Electrical Engineering,
Syracuse University; M.S. (2001) and Ph.D. (2004)
in Electrical Engineering, University of California
at Berkeley
Areas of focus: Biomechanics, intelligent systems and
computer vision, robotics
http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~rjwood J
wrote: “His unfailing good humor
and constructive remarks, even when
confronted with minor catastrophes
in the lab, taught us how to meet the
challenges of a physicist.”
 Faculty News
The Harvard Alumni Association’s most recent Global Series event was held in New Dehli. Previous events have taken place in Mexico City, London, and Beijing.

Collaborations
A Passage to India: Harvard and DEAS collaborate with India

P resident Lawrence Summers and Dean Venkatesh Naray-

anamurti were two of more than a dozen Harvard affiliates
who participated in the Harvard Alumni Association’s Global
Initiative in Higher Education and Research, a partnership
composed of Indian education and government institutions,
U.S. universities, and international corporate sponsors and
Series event held on March 25 and 26 in New Delhi, India. intended to enhance engineering and science education
The conference, opened by India’s Prime Minister, Dr. Manmo- throughout India via distance learning technology.
han Singh, brought alumni together to learn about important The initiative began with a memorandum of understanding
initiatives shaping Harvard’s future in the region. Dean Venky signed on July 20, 2005, and was broadened with a subse-
hosted a panel discussion, “South Asia and Global Science and quent addendum. Taking advantage of the “tremendous
Technology,” featuring Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, Director General synergy between the U.S. and India” and using EDUSAT, a
of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and satellite launched by the Indian Space Research Organization
Ashok Misra, Director of the Indian Institute of Technology that can transmit educational programs to institutions across
in Bombay. India, the program’s aim is to “uplift a vast majority of India’s
The Hindustan Times reported, “It’s the largest meeting of educational institutions to international standards.”
Harvard alumni and faculty ever to be held in India. Over “This is a terrific opportunity to share knowledge, expertise,
130 delegates, including Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and resources, and, most important, become a more engaged,
Harvard president Lawrence H. Summers are in the Capital to active participant in our increasingly connected and ‘flat’
not just deliberate on the university’s outreach in South Asia, world,” said Dean Venky, who attended a signing and launch
but also to mark the opening of the Harvard Business School’s ceremony held by India’s President, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, on
India Research Center and the first South Asia Initiative office December 7, in New Delhi. J
in Mumbai.”
In an interview prior to his talk President Summers com-
Dean Venky (seated, sixth from the left) and other participants of the Indo-US
mented, “Interactions between India and Harvard will be Collaborative Initiative.
good for both the parties. It will allow us to strengthen our
ties with the 1000–strong alumni in India who come from all
walks of life … India is a growing economy in the region and
improved interactions will improve ties on all levels. It will
allow more Indian students to come to Harvard. The Harvard
Business School research centre, Asia Initiative and the School
of Public Health are already taking up partnerships with their
counterparts in India.”
The event marked Dean Venky’s second trip to the country
in less than a year. In December, Harvard University, through
DEAS, joined the Indo-U.S. Inter-University Collaborative

DEAS – Spring 2006 I 
Faculty News
An initial version of the future mural at 60 Oxford Street. Jessica Sciullo of the Casali Group, the firm which has managed projects related to 60, says, “Trying to
represent science through art is a fascinating endeavor!”
Links and Nodes
Mural in motion: Plants, flying machines, and brains, oh my
Visitors to 60 Oxford Street will likely stop and stare once a
planned new mural graces the open entryway. The collage, the
final design of which is still evolving (see draft above), repre-
sents the work of DEAS members Robert Howe, L. Mahadevan,
John Myers, Maurice Stanley, Robert Wood, Tai T. Wu, and the
Physics Department’s Aravinthan Samuel. All the researchers
have or will have labs at 60.
Finding a link that brings together interests as diverse as
robotic surgery, quantum information transfer, neuromuscular
disease, plant movements, autonomous flying microvehicles,
and even how the c. elegans (a worm dearly loved by neurosci-
entists for its easy-to-see neurons) navigates posed an intel-
lectual and an artistic challenge. Moreover, the researchers
worried that a snapshot of their investigations today would
look anachronistic a few years or, given the pace of science and
engineering, months hence.
Indirectly, the process of creating the mural reflects many of
the challenges administrators and planners face when figuring
A computer rendering of the mural as it will appear inside of 60 Oxford Street.
 I DEAS – Spring 2006
out how to build flexible research space in an era where change
happens almost daily.
“We have to be incredibly careful what sort of labs we build,”
says Associate Dean for Research and Planning Fawwaz Habbal.
“We do not want to get in the way of research, so the ability
to rapidly change set-ups is essential as nascent fields take off.”
Viewers looking for a common narrative that links the seem-
ingly disparate parts of the mural might want to consider
locomotion, whether involving bits, muscles, insects, or
machines. Of course, even in the case of a mural about science
and technology, the final verdict lies with the viewer. Art should
give one pause— even when it captures kinetic energy. J
Public art is elsewhere at and around DEAS. Paul Horowitz,
Professor of Physics and of Electrical Engineering, displays
his own photographs outside his office. Professor of Chem-
istry and Physics Eric Heller’s digital prints now grace the
Dean’s Office (see: http://www.ericjhellergallery.com).
In addition, applied mathematics graduate Student Erez Li-
eberman has taken his “art” to an even larger audience. Last
fall he wrote part of the text for City of Salt, a book featuring
panoramic photographs of fantastical landscapes by visual
artists. Nicholas Kahn and Richard Selesnick. The artists’
process combines sculptural and photographic media. They
first construct detailed worlds by building three-dimensional
miniatures, digitally photograph the scene, and then popu-
late it with characters in an allegorical, though intriguingly
puzzling, tableaux. You can learn (and see) more by visiting
http://kahnselesnick.free.fr/cityofsalt.htm

Nota bene
Xiaofeng Li, Donhee Ham, and David Ricketts and their soliton oscillator.
Seeing solitons … “Individual packets of
light energy, known as optical solitons,
have long been the darlings of communi-
cations engineers. Finally, their electrical
siblings are getting a look in—and could
become the new favourites,” wrote
Thomas H. Lee, a professor at Stanford
University. Donhee Ham’s group’s dem-
onstration of a robust, self-sustained
electrical soliton oscillator so intrigued
Lee, a leader in integrated circuit design,
that he discussed the finding in the March
2, 2006, edition of Nature Magazine’s
News and Views section. “The short-
duration, periodic soliton train produced
by the oscillator could be widely deployed
in communication and instrumentation
technologies,” the article states. Ham
reports that David Ricketts and Xiaofeng
Li deserve the lion’s share of the credit,
saying he only posed the problem but
they actually went on to solve it. As a side
note, Lee served as Ham’s thesis advisor.
A bit more press ... The Financial Times
featured a piece highlighting Professor
Harry Lewis’s course, Bits. Starting this
term, students will be able to download
podcasts of lectures from the course.
The general public will get to listen in
(for free) at a later date. According to
the Times, “Podcast proponents say the
technology helps the flow of information.
Harry Lewis, professor of computer
science at Harvard University, is teach-
ing the school’s first podcast class this
semester … ‘My hope is that if I can reach
a few people inside the college or out who
learn something because we are distribut-
ing information this way instead of the old
way, that’s a good thing,’ he says.”
Matt Welsh and Todd Zickler are
in good company—both won NSF
CAREER awards.
Faculty News
Mahadevan Series # 1, 2005 (oil on canvas) by Boston-based painter and sculpter
Jonathan Nix. Images from the complete Mahadevan series are available on the
artist’s website: http://www.jonnix.net
Puny paddlers … The February 18, 2006, co-organizer Woodward Yang. Together
Science News mentioned Howard Stone’s with Innovo Inc., the consulting firm
microfluidics work as part of a cover that helped work out the organization
article on small-scale swimming, stating, and agenda of the workshop, Yang and
“In science fiction flicks and futurists’ Christensen hope to have a final road
predictions, medical microrobots patrol map for the industry ‘very soon,’ Yang
within the human body. In reality, designs said.” Yang also spoke about the topic at
—such as this pocket-size model of a the Consumer Electronics Show held in
two-hinge microswimmer—must over- January 2006.
come tough challenges. Marking progress
Inspired engineering ... Artist Jonathon
in this effort, scientists recently built the
Nix created the “Mahadevan Series”, a
first swimming micromachine.”
group of paintings inspired by Professor
A welcome disruption … The EE Times L. Mahadevan’s elegant research on
reported on the Semiconductor Industry the science of everyday life. The works
Roadmap for Creating Profitable Growth are on display at the BAAK Gallery, 35
meeting held on February 6, 2006, Brattle Street (Cambridge, MA) through
at DEAS. “Semiconductor companies’ March 21. J
quest to establish a business model for Little swimmers, as explored by
sustainable profitability is taking place Howard Stone’s research group, are
on a battlefield … The preliminary road still making waves in microfluidics
map distributed at the workshop … research.
[has] among its main points … that the
pursuit of Moore’s Law occupies an ever-
shrinking segment of industry activity.
It also predicts that the most successful
companies will be those that concentrate
on performance-defining nonstandard
integration, and that market expansion
in near-commodity products might force
a migration to simple design tools, letting
less skilled designers create application-
specific ICs that enable market growth.
‘These preliminary, suggested scenarios
are talking points so far,’ said workshop
Awards
Sensible healthcare and better vision … Assistant Professor of Computer Science Matt
Welsh has won an NSF CAREER Award for his work on wireless medical sensors. Welsh’s
group is exploring applications of wireless sensor network technology to a range of
medical applications, including pre-hospital and in-hospital emergency care, disaster
response, and stroke patient rehabilitation. Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering
Todd Zickler also won a CAREER Award for his work related to building systems that can
visually understand and interact with their environment. J
DEAS – Spring 2006 I 
In Medias Res

Selected articles about the Division

Bioengineer David Mooney makes a muscle cell
come into focus.

fused, the product is a larger but still

spherical bubble. But when particles
are strongly anchored to the bubble
surface and the bubbles are fused,
a stable sausage shape is produced.
Although the particles are jammed,
they are not bonded to each other, Bala
Subramaniam adds. It is this absence
of permanent bonds that allowed the
Transplanted cells The shapes of things researchers to reshape and remold the
initially sausage-shaped bubbles into
regenerate muscles Anand Bala Subramaniam, Howard
peapod, disk, and donut shapes.
A new approach for transplanting cells Stone, Manouk Abkarian, and Lakshmi-
narayanan Mahadevan have demonstrat- “Bubbles are engineered into many
shows promise for regenerating injured
ed that gas bubbles can exist in stable consumer products. The ability to alter
and diseased tissues and whole organs.
nonspherical shapes without the appli- the shapes of bubbles and liquid drops
“We transplant the cells on a scaffold that
cation of external force. The micron- to in products like ice cream or shaving
keeps them alive, then directs them to
millimeter-scale peapod-, doughnut- and foams or creams may provide a means
leave in a controlled manner and migrate
sausage-shaped bubbles, created by coat- to alter the consistency or texture
into the surrounding tissue,” explains
ing ordinary gas bubbles with a tightly of these products. The nonspherical
David Mooney, Gordon McKay Professor
packed layer of tiny particles and then bubbles could also find use as vessels for
of Bioengineering. “This is the first time
fusing them, are described this week on delivering drugs, vitamins, or flavors,”
that has been done.”
the Web site of the journal Nature. Bala Subramaniam explains.
The strategy successfully heals lacerated Adapted from a December 15, 2006, press release
muscles in mice, but the potential exists Surface tension gives all bubbles and
prepared by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
for applying it to a wide variety of situa- drops their perfectly spherical shape by Office of Communications. Related media stories
tions in humans, including treatment of minimizing the surface area for a given appeared in Nature, The Harvard Gazette, and
muscular dystrophy, heart disease, and volume. Ordinarily, if two bubbles are Science Daily.
some brain disorders as well as regenerat- Bubbles come in all forms, including peapod, disk, and donut shapes.
ing bone.
“We don’t know yet whether the specific
materials and approach we used [will]
work in humans,” Mooney says. “However,
I think the basic concept is a very power-
ful one that will likely have application in
humans, in some form. We demonstrated
the concept with muscle, and this could
be useful to treat wounds and, perhaps
some day, muscular dystrophy.”
By “we,” Mooney means himself, Elliot
Hill, a member of his Michigan team,
and Tanyarut (Joy) Boontheekul, a gradu-
ate student who followed Mooney to
Harvard. The three published their results
in the February 21, 2006, issue of Proceed-
ings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Adapted from an article in the March 2, 2006,
Harvard Gazette.

10 I DEAS – Spring 2006


Color me crimson
W hile the Crimson has contributed its fair share of breaking news in light of re-
cent events at Harvard, the famed daily has also found several DEAS students
worthy of some major ink. Below are some highlights nice enough to make us blush
The CUE guide gets a slimmer look once online.
CUE Innovation
Michael W. Reckhow ’06 has created a
Web site listing all the classes offered
this semester, then ranking them with-
in departments and overall from easiest
to hardest and best to worst, using the
information supplied by the current
Committee on Undergraduate Educa-
tion (CUE) Guide. Over 2,600 unique
users had visited people.fas.harvard.
edu/~mreckhow within the first few
days of its release, according to the site’s
creator.
Reckhow, who has also built Web sites
for the student-run companies Let’s Go
Publications and Redline Textbooks,
said that the inspiration for his new
course site struck as he noticed how
time-consuming it was to flip through
the CUE Guide and manually compare
class ratings this past exam period. “I
realized there was a need to have some-
thing to aggregate all this information,”
he said. “I’m interested to see how fac-
ulty will react to getting recognition
that their course is the sort of ‘best’ in
the department or being the teacher of
the lowest-rated course.”
Adapted from a February 1, 2006, article in
The Crimson.
Catching the shuttle
David Malan ’99, current CS grad stu-
dent and the prime mover behind the
first podcast of a Harvard course, is also
the man (or the boy) behind software
In Medias Res
featured on Animal Planet’s new reality
TV series, Chasing Nature.
“I want to be the person that makes
science cool,” says Martinez, who is
working on a doctorate in engineering
and applied sciences. “Like a basketball
star or a rapper or something—but a
string theorist.”
Martinez and his group faced a formi-
dable task: recreating with manmade
materials a vicious scorpion’s tail on
a grander scale—and affix the giant
hinged metal contraption atop a dune
buggy. The result is something out of
Real World/Road Rules Challenge, with
the scorpion-tail dune buggy chasing
around smaller dune buggies in the “kill
zone” in an attempt to pop the large bal-
loons attached to the smaller buggies.
It’s complicated.
Dubbed “the brains of the team” by a
that makes missing the bus a thing of
Stanford co-star, Martinez says he used
the past. Finding continued inspiration
his solid background in mathematical
from his days in CS50 (the most com-
physics to help a team more versed in
mon entry into the CS concentration),
mechanical engineering. “It was my
Malan piggybacked on earlier work to
chance to really use the tools I had
create Shuttleboybot, a smart script
gathered in the classroom for the real
that allows students to instantly view
world,” he says.
the Harvard shuttle bus schedules via
instant messaging. At Harvard, Martinez wears many hats:
a Quincy House residential tutor, a
Shuttleboybot’s profile reads, “Think of
mathematics instructor at the extension
me as a buddy who allows you to check
school, a DJ at local clubs, and a student
quickly the schedules of Harvard Univer-
pursuing his own research.
sity’s shuttles. Anytime you want to chat,
just say ‘hi.’ I’ll ask you where you’d like Adapted from a January 22, 2006, article in The
Crimson. Related media stories appeared in The
to catch a shuttle and where you’d like to Boston Globe. The show featuring Martinez will
deshuttle. I’ll then tell you the next few air sometime this summer. Stay tuned for details. J
shuttles for that route!”
Since its creation late last week, Shuttle-
boybot has been hailed 300 times. The
Graduate student Robbie Martinez “keeps it real”
both inside and outside of class
ShuttleTime Web site has received
11,000 hits over the course of the year.
Although it might seem a roundabout
way of getting around, during Boston’s
cold winters saving a few seconds trans-
lates to warm relief.
Adapted from a December 16, 2005, article in
The Crimson.
Jungle king
Roberto E. Martinez, a 26-year-old Ph.D.
candidate in applied physics, refuses to
conform to the “nerdy scientist” stereo-
type, which is why the young Harvard
physicist jumped at the chance to be
DEAS – Spring 2006 I 11
Student News

Harvard Extension on headphones

David Malan’s CS E-1 course casts a wide net
It turns out that incorporating the technology not only makes
distance learning more handy and hip, it also enhances what
goes on in the classroom as well. What Malan dubs “computer
science on TiVo” gives students greater freedom to ask ques-
tions without fear of missing a key point.
Moreover, anyone who wishes to take advantage of such flex-
ible learning can tune in. “[After] a Crimson article ran about
the course in December, it was picked up by several online
news outlets and dozens of blogs,” Malan says. After a few
roving Web journalists decided they liked what they saw and
reported on it, news about the course spread—rapidly going
global.
Of course, only those registered and enrolled in the class
receive credit or a grade, but the motivation for most tag-along
pupils has nothing to do with getting an A or, for that mat-
ter, with the novelty of the podcast itself. The most common
e-mails (see sidebar) Malan receives are those that say, “That’s
exactly the sort of course I want to take.”
Podcasts of course lectures aren’t likely to replace the full class-
room experience any time soon. Still, the enthusiastic recep-
tion given CS E-1’s podcasts suggest a bright future for learn-
ing via iPod. With due respect to futurist Marshall McLuhan,
listeners have been as attracted to the engaging content and the
excellence of Malan’s lectures as they have been to the medium.
Even an employee at the very company that produced the iPod
agreed. After experiencing Harvard on headphones, the Apple
staffer sent Malan a one-line e-mail: “This is awesome!” J

CS graduate student David Malan’s lectures make for compelling viewing.

Overheard at the listening post
D uring the fall 2005 term, podcasts of David Malan’s
lectures from his popular Harvard Extension School
course, Computer Science E-1: Understanding Computers and
Reality shows and sitcoms might rule
the airwaves, but cultural cynics take
heart: Avid learners from across the
the Internet, found their way around the world. Podcasts, an country and around the globe have
offshoot of the Apple iPod vogue, provide an easy way for users nestled up to David Malan’s fireside
technology chats as a way to make
to download and play back stored audio and video segments
the most of their commutes—and
via the iTunes software program or through a portable device. their minds. Thanks in large part to
“As the digital equivalents of books on tape, they’re a wonder- bloggers, the intellectually curious
ful way to take advantage of commute time or even jogging from the Midwest to Mexico have
discovered podcasts from CS E-1,
time,” says Malan, a graduate of Harvard College and now a
and they like what they’ve heard (or
PhD candidate in computer science. seen). If you would like to listen in
“We were already making the lectures from CS E-1 available in yourself, visit the course Web page:
RealVideo format for the Extension School’s distance educa- http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~cscie1
tion program. iPods, though, have freed our students from the “I have always loved technology and
tether of their computer.” Keeping up with the latest technol- have only really been able to learn on
ogy trends only makes sense for CS E-1, a course whose aim, as my own, and by listening to just the
he puts it, is “removing the fear factor from technology.” One first one, so far, I have filled in a lot
of the first courses to be offered online through the Extension of blanks.”
—High school student in Decatur, Illinois
School’s distance education program, it’s now the first course
to be podcast.
“Just wanted to say that I love the class.
I’m a Computer Information Systems
junior at Missouri State and I love
re-encoding your vidcast to mpeg 2
and playing it through my TIVO while
I study :)”
—Tech-savvy college student in Missouri
“Many thanks … My International
Baccalaureate students here at the
Bolitho School … have all subscribed
and considered it an essential tool …”
—IT director and instructor, Penzance, U.K.
“I thought you would be glad to know
that your lectures are listened by
podcasting as far as France.”
—Listener living somewhere in France
“If you ever wanted someone to walk
you through basic computer science
principles step-by-step, this is the
podcast you have been looking for.”
—Stingy Scholar, a blog dedicated to sharing
information about how to learn for free

12 I DEAS – Spring 2006

 Student News
(Left) Jeff Ma ’07 holds up a soccer bot; (middle) Harvard and MIT students find common ground; (right) Soldering silicon is painstaking work.

Kicking and Scheming

In a suite of newly remodeled offices in the basement of Pierce
Hall, a group of undergraduates huddles near a whiteboard
besmirched with diagrams. Laptops glow. Uncompleted circuit
boards lay scattered across tables like abandoned blue books.
Physics concentrator Jeff Ma ’07 and Kristina Haller, a mechan-
ical engineering major from MIT, monitor the situation with
perfect ease and understanding. The co-founders of the Robotic
Futbol Club of Cambridge (RFC), although still scrambling for
every free second before, between, and after classes, remain
nearly on schedule. The $30,000 grant the RFC won from the
MIT-sponsored and Microsoft-funded iCampus initiative in
January may also explain their cool composure. As important,
the students have opted for intellectual collaboration rather
than competition along their shared stretch of the Charles.
“I started the Harvard College Engineering Society last year
with the help of Computer Science concentrator Jie Tang
[‘08],” says Ma. “We were looking for an ambitious engineering
competition in which to compete, and after much searching
we came across RoboCup.”
Haller, fresh from the frenzy of a Battlebots competition
(a mechanized gladiatorial melee), was also looking for a new
challenge. She says, “Because RoboCup is a more compre-
hensive project involving more disciplines and resources, I
suggested to the MIT Battlebots team that we should work
with Harvard.”
RoboCup, an international robotic football (American soc-
cer) competition created to “foster AI and intelligent robotics
research,” offers university-based teams the chance to build
groups of autonomous robots (some near human scale) and
compete in head-to-head matches. The Harvard-MIT team
aims to enter the F-180, or small-sized league competitions
held in April and June.
As in real football, the ersatz athletes must follow the tradi-
tional rules of hands-free play, but with a slight twist. Once
the mechanical athletes roll onto the field, only smart design
and smart programming may guide them to victory. Getting a
single bot to behave, let alone five to pass, kick, and defend in
coordination, takes a great deal of technical skill.
For advice and inspiration, students have relied on MIT’s
Professor David Trumper, a renowned expert in mechatron-
ics, and Associate Professor Daniela Rus, a MacArthur Genius
Award winner and a leader in distributed robotics. At Harvard,
Assistant Professor of Computer Science Radhika Nagpal, a
rising start in biomemetic computing, and Professor Howard
Stone, Associate Dean for Academic Programs at DEAS, have
been active mentors to the club.
“The competition this year does not mark the end of RFC
Cambridge,” says Ma. “One of our main goals is to build an
organization that will outlast the current board and, one day,
be able to dominate the RoboCup league.” J

Awards
Undergraduates Elaine Angelino ‘06
(Applied Math), Shaun Fitzgibbons
‘06 (Physics & Math), Alex Glasser ‘06
(Physics & Math) won the 2006 Consor-
tium for Mathematics and Its Applica-
tions (COMAP) Mathematical Modeling
Competition.
Harvard College senior Daniel Foti has
been awarded the 2005 Colonel and
Mrs. S. S. Dennis III Scholarship in rec-
ognition of his hard work and dedication
to research. Foti, a 2006 candidate for
the A.B. degree in Engineering Sciences
(honors biomedical track), is originally
from New Windsor, New York.
Congrats to David Ricketts and Kyoungho
Woo in Donhee Ham’s group for winning
the 2006 ADI Outstanding Student De-
signer Awards from Analog Devices. Rick-
etts was honored for his development of
the first electrical soliton oscillator, and
Woo was recognized for his design of
a new fast-lock frequency synthesizer
architecture.
Three DEAS graduate students were se-
lected in February as the first group of
Eliahu I. Jury Travel and Research Award
winners. The award, made possible by
the generosity of Eliahu I. Jury, SM ’49,
supports the travel and research of out-
standing graduate students, primarily in
the field of electrical engineering or its
successor technologies. The award win-
ners were Andrew Howard (advisors Paul
Horowitz and Gu-Yeon Wei) for innovative
ASIC design for digitizing massive data
flows in real time; Dionisis Stefanatos
(advisor Navin Khaneja) for groundbreak-
ing work on optimal quantum control; and
Patrick Mitrin (advisors Vahid Tarokh and
Alex Kavcic) for outstanding work in the
areas of magnetic recording, communica-
tions, and information theory. J

DEAS – Spring 2006 I 13
In Profile
Changing States
Marie Dahleh, Assistant Dean for Academic Programs, adapts to the academic weather
Assistant Dean of Academic Programs Marie Dahleh (right) and Associate Dean of Academic Programs Howard Stone (left) face future challenges together.
M oving to Lexington, Massachu-
setts, after 13 years of California
sunshine and slowly realizing that the
’70s-era snow blower came standard
with her new home, Marie Dahleh still
decided to stay. In fact, her two kids have
taken Nor’easters in stride. Taher and
Jumana, ages 11 and 9, effortlessly went
from fresh water to frozen, exchanging
flippers for hockey skates. Only the
family dog, a gargantuan clumber span-
iel, gave the new climate a vote of no
confidence. (He now lives on a farm.)
In her role as Assistant Dean for Aca-
demic Programs at DEAS, Dahleh is
confronting a similar change in the
weather: the continued fluctuation of
the number of U.S. college students
pursuing engineering and computer
science, the evolving nature of tech-
nology as a discipline, and the shifting
global economy. Under such conditions,
what is the best way to present the Divi-
sion to prospective concentrators?
In response to this question, she proud-
ly displays her bent, well-read copy of Is
There an Engineer Inside You? and points
to a water-bottle rocket apparatus (used
14 I DEAS – Spring 2006
during a freshman orientation event),
lying inert on her office floor. “I tell stu-
dents to do engineering because they
like it — and because it is fun,” she says.
“They should worry about what they
are going to do for a career when they
are approaching graduation. That is the
best way to do anything and is consis-
tent with a liberal arts education.”
Dahleh is a product of her own advice.
She studied mathematics while an un-
dergraduate at Mount Holyoke, one of
the famed seven sisters. At Princeton
she earned a Ph.D. in applied mathemat-
ics during a time when she was not only
one of the few women in the classroom,
but in the entire field. Add on her past
research, faculty, and administration
positions at such places as UCLA and
UCSB and you realize she would be able
to inspire any student to become an en-
gineer or applied scientist.
The math factor
Yet, however convincing Dahleh may
be and however much fun DEAS offers
(from building robot soccer players to
playing with silly putty), even entering
students with perfect math SAT scores
often balk at the thought of spending
four years immersed in equations, al-
gorithms, and code. The math factor,
says Dahleh, often scares prospective
students away. “Unfortunately, there’s
a perception that if you somehow did
not have an opportunity to get a strong
background in mathematics in high
school, it is all over.”
Thus, she has been working hard to get
students beyond such a binary perspec-
tive — not by easing up on requirements,
but by convincing them to stretch their
minds. She advises undergraduates to
treat mathematics or programming,
as in the case of computer science, as
they would a second language. “A lot of
people will major in a language even if
they have never studied it or the region
at all,” she explains. Moreover, Division
concentrators enjoy a level of flexibility
not as common in traditional discipline
based engineering curriculums.
“One of the unique aspects of Harvard’s
Engineering Sciences programs is that
students may enter both the A.B. and
S.B. degrees at a variety of levels and

times,” says Dahleh. This more flexible
approach may become increasingly
important, not just for attracting more
students to engineering, but to related
fields like biology.
While once a safe
haven for those
“I tell students to do engineering
with math pho-
bia, biology has
because they like it—and because
become increas- it is fun.”
ingly quantitative
in the age of genomics. Dahleh cautions,
however, that although the more open
structure has benefits, balancing the
needs and mandating the proper require-
ments for an extremely diverse level of
students are incredibly challenging.
“You may have one student who plans
to become a CTO, another who wants to
design jet airplanes, and one more who
has no idea what she wants to do, all in
the same program and often the same
class,” she says. In other words, what the
“engineer inside” someone should know
and how he or she should be educated
are evolving.
Beyond the numbers
At a conference held in March at the
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Dahleh
was asked to speak about engineering
education in the liberal arts setting.
That, she says, is often shorthand for
how engineering is becoming increas-
ingly positioned as both a liberal arts
degree and a professional one. “Engi-
neering is not just the Big Dig, but im-
proving the quality of life in developing
nations,” Dahleh explains.
That change means future engineers
must understand the societal implica-
tions of technology and develop an
appreciation of new cultures and that
future leaders in any field must ap-
preciate how technology continues to
shape the world. “Clean water and clean
energy sources are huge issues for the
world. People are now putting those as
the big problems for the next century,”
she says.
The latest cover of the American Soci-
ety for Engineering Education’s Prism
magazine features the headline: The
Incredibles: Engineers Tackle Poverty and
Disease Around the World. National
societies have long recognized what
In Profile
the National Academy of Engineering
(NAE) dubbed the “gathering storm” of
technology wed with globalization. In
2000, the ABET accreditation standards
changed. Today,
all accredited S.B.
degrees must em-
phasize interdis-
ciplinary learn-
ing, team build-
ing, and courses
that cover the global and societal
impacts of engineering. The NAE’s
report, Engineering 2020, also suggests
a similar path for creating broadly edu-
cated engineers and, in particular, en-
courages students to become involved
in community-based projects that Sweet Returns
require engineering skills. Dahleh cites
the highly touted Engineering Projects So much depends
in Community Service (EPICS) project upon a blue plastic bowl
at Purdue University as well as the dusted with sugar crystals
design-centric, bottom-up curriculum atop the black counter.
at nearby Olin University, located in
Even if you missed or blocked out the reference
Needham, Massachusetts, as two ways to William Carlos Williams’s poem about the red
to implement such plans. wheelbarrow, oft-lampooned and lamented by high
“Harvard, in fact, has incorporated school English students everywhere, you still may
win a sweet prize the next time you visit DEAS.
elements like interdisciplinary courses,
The famed blue candy bowl in question rests upon a
team-focused projects, and cross-school jut of counter outside the entryway to the Academic
activities (what Venky calls ‘renais- Office.
sance engineering’) for some time,”
M&Ms, SweeTarts, Hershey’s Kisses, or the remain-
she says. The head start will prove ders of a Halloween or Valentine’s candy blow-out
useful as Dahleh, along with Associ- sale at the local CVS appear with uncanny regularity.
ate Dean Howard Stone, the Division’s The bottomless pit, however, is not courtesy of
faculty, and other administrators, assess self-replicating nanobots. Staff Assistant Tricia
the Division’s current undergraduate Ryan, Academic Programs Coordinator Sandi God-
programs in light of the University- frey, and Graduate Program Administrator Susan
Wieczorek ultimately keep the candy bowl filled.
level curricular review. With the likely That welcoming touch mimics their attitude towards
addition of secondary concentrations the students, faculty, and staff who treat the office
(minors) and introduction of entirely almost like a second home.
new concentrations that blend technol- Not surprisingly, students, especially those on the
ogy with the social sciences, finding the grueling Ph.D. track, inevitably credit the trio with
right academic mix will be a challenge. helping them en route to their caps and gowns.
Stone and Dahleh give the three equal praise for
Dahleh, however, remains optimistic
their deft ability to make even the most arcane
about this broader, evolving vision of an academic regulations make sense.
engineering and liberal arts education.
She believes that students, will respond
favorably and want to be a part of the
change. “After all, we all are engineers
when solving certain problems. Who
wouldn’t want to delve into puzzles for
four years?” Dahleh says. “We can influ-
ence students in positive ways so they
think about doing things they didn’t
even think were possible when they
arrived here.” J
DEAS – Spring 2006 I 15
Intersections

“The format for this and other

lectures ... is modeled on a
famous set of talks first given
to children a century ago as
part of the Royal Institution
Christmas lectures in London.”

Physicist Mark Haw, in an article in

PhysicsWeb, sums up this often-forgot-
ten contribution: “Brownian motion
was one of three fundamental advances
that Einstein made in 1905, the others
A “young Einstein” learns the basics from postdoc Dan Blair.
being special relativity and the idea of
light quanta. Of these three great works,
Einstein’s secret life Einstein’s analysis of Brownian motion
remains the least well known. But this
part of Einstein’s scientific legacy was

U ndaunted by the first real snow- lectures in London.” In addition to the key to a revolution that is at least
storm of the season, more than some hands-on exposure to science, one as important as relativity or quantum
300 geniuses-in-the-making trudged of the goals of the talk, she said, was physics. One century later, Brownian
through the muck in mid-December to to emphasize how Einstein’s advances motion continues to be of immeasur-
see “It’s Elementary, My Dear Einstein: went well beyond his famed theory of able importance in modern science,
A Celebration of the 100th Anniversary relativity. For instance, his quantitative from physics through biology to the
of Einstein’s Miraculous Year.” modeling of Brownian motion, a theory latest wonders of nanotechnology.” In
describing how minute particles im- short, there’s even more to Einstein’s
The family-friendly talk—organized genus than most people realize.
by Kathryn Hollar, Director of Educa- mersed in a fluid move about randomly,
tional Programs, and presented by Vicky allowed scientists to prove the physical The talk was so popular, an encore
Joseph Professor of Engineering and reality of molecules and atoms. performance was held in April. J
Applied Mathematics Howard Stone, The audience at the Harvard Science Center discovered that there is more to the world’s great physicist than
postdoctoral student Dan Blair, and the familiar e=mc2.
lecturer Daniel Rosenberg ’84—paid
homage to the world’s most famed wild-
haired physicist, Albert Einstein.
Kids, families, teachers, and the just
plain curious from Boston environs
and beyond did more than simply
listen to explanations of how Einstein
revolutionized the way we think about
physics and chemistry. The audience
left their seats to tackle firsthand some
of the great thinker’s experiments
(slightly simplified, of course).
“The format for this and other lectures
we’ve done for the past few years, on
topics ranging from electronic ink to
microfluidics,” explained Hollar, “is
modeled on a famous set of talks first
given to children a century ago as part
of the Royal Institution Christmas

16 I DEAS – Spring 2006


Opportunity knocks
L aunched in 2001, the TECH-spon-
sored “Mini-M.B.A.” in Entrepre-
neurial Finance offers Harvard students
a semester-long menu of topics, ranging
from how to read an income statement
to how to navigate, and sometimes cir-
cumnavigate, the land of venture capi-
tal and start-up finance.
The modular, no-credit structure al-
lows students to customize the content
and pace of their learning. In keeping
with the real-world emphasis of the
course, stellar faculty from the Har-
vard Business School as well as some of
Events
Visit www.deas.harvard.edu/newsandevents for the latest details, dates, and times.
Here are some highlights from the past months.
The soul of the machine
In April, Harvard artist-in-residence
Brian Knep visited DEAS to give a talk
entitled Deep Wounds. Knep’s creations
span the realms of visual imagination,
technology, and science. He says of his
art, “I’ve been trying to find what I think
of as the ‘soul’ in technology by creating
works that, though obviously manmade,
show the complexity, in behavior and
aesthetics, of natural objects. Works that
interact with people and encourage in-
teraction among people, even strangers.”
One recent computer-generated work
uses an algorithm, based on chemical
Art from Brian Knep is meant to be stared at—and
stepped upon.
Intersections
Cambridge’s most successful practicing
entrepreneurs teach the courses.
concepts I probably should have, but
haven’t, encountered before.” J
The reviews have been glowing. Kwa Over 200 students signed up for TECH’s
Liou, a Ph.D. student in Biomedical
“Mini-M.B.A” program.
Sciences, said the seminars provided
“helpful, coherent instruction in basic
finance and entrepreneurial concepts.”
Nicole Mammarrella, a third-year Ph.D.
candidate who signed up for the semi-
nars to help her weigh career options,
said, “Hearing from a venture capitalist
is helpful as I consider entering a career
in industry.” She also echoed a common
refrain from most students: “These are
Bioengineering,
materials science,
reaction-diffusion equations describing and nanosystems
cellular processes, to project an image On May 5, 2005, with the help of two of
that evolves in response to movements Harvard’s NSF-funded research centers,
of people in the projection field. An- the Materials Science and Engineering
other recent work consists of dynamic Center (MRSEC) and the Nanoscale Sci-
panels with drifting shapes that shift ence and Engineering Center (NSEC),
their movements in reaction to the DEAS hosted a workshop dedicated to
viewer’s gaze. Knep’s comfort in differ- promoting collaborations with mem-
ent media also extends to subject mat- bers of government and industry. Key
ter; he welcomes input from scientists topics included the creation and use
and engineers. In fact, DEAS’s Radhika of novel biomaterials; organ repair
Nagpal joined Knep and others as part with engineered tissues; novel drug
of an earlier lecture on the relationship delivery technologies; and anotechnol-
among biology, engineering, and art, ogy/bionanotechnology. For more, see
held at the Medical School. www.deas.harvard.edu/partnerships. J
Semiconductor meeting The new industry partnerships website went live
this past spring.
In September 2005 and February 2006,
DEAS’s industrial partnership program
hosted The Roadmap for Creating Prof-
itable Growth in the Semiconductor
Industry. Leading firms attended an in-
tensive workshop, based on the research
of Clayton Christensen, Robert and Jane
Cizik Professor of Business Administra-
tion at the Harvard Business School, aid-
ed by the technical expertise of Wood-
ward Yang, Gordon McKay Professor of
Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science. EE Times (see page x) covered
the event.
DEAS – Spring 2006 I 17
Alumni Notes
Q&A with Gary Schermerhorn
ROUNDING THE SQUARE
Gary Schermerhorn ’85 may button-up for work, but he also relishes informal discussions with students.
A song from Cabaret claims “money
makes the world go round,” but
Gary Schermerhorn’s success suggests
putting more stock in being (and stay-
ing) well-rounded. Schermerhorn A.B.
’85 (Computer Science), who serves
as co-chief operating officer for the
Goldman Sachs Technology Division,
credits his broad education and global
perspective (he and his family lived in
Japan for four years) as providing the
best route to get from Harvard Square to
Wall Street and beyond.
18 I DEAS – Spring 2006
He currently resides in New Jersey with
his wife Miriam Esteve A.B. ’85 (Applied
Mathematics) and their three sons.
Esteve, who also earned an M.B.A. in
operations management and marketing
from Columbia University, is execu-
tive vice president of Operations and
Technology at U.S. Trust and previously
served as head of Operations and Tech-
nology for the Global Wealth Manage-
ment at Citigroup.
Their travels away from the Yard, how-
ever, have ultimately brought them
closer to it. The couple created the
Miriam Esteve and Gary Schermerhorn
Undergraduate Financial Aid Fund in
2005, easing the first steps for future
globe trotters, and most recently have
returned to the campus to share career
advice with students.
What’s your take on professional edu-
cation at the undergraduate level?
While I wrestled with philosophy or
abstract computing theories, I was
concerned that students at other
universities were receiving a more
practical, technical education. But I
gained a much broader perspective on
technology. I am very analytical and
tend to search for root causes in most
problems in my private and profes-
sional life. I can’t say that it’s only the
Harvard approach that has made me
this way, but I would be against diluting
the foundational approach to technical
learning to expand the practical.
But isn’t it important to know what’s
inside the ‘Intel inside’?
Sure. But it’s all based on foundational
computer and engineering sciences.
Implementations change and breath-
less advances are made, but they’re
all somewhat bounded by underlying
laws. It’s easier to navigate decisions if
you understand these laws. And huge
impacts on a place like Goldman Sachs
can be made.
How have innovations in technology
changed in your lifetime?
In the old days, corporate and govern-
ment investments resulted in consumer
technologies such as the personal com-
puter and the Internet. Today, consumer
technology companies like Apple and
Google are driving innovations we will
see in the workplace. This blurs the line
between your identity as an individual
consumer and as an employee in an
enterprise.

You’ve also been open to the changes
in the wider world. What was living in
Japan like?
It was the greatest personal adventure in
my life. It’s instructive as an American to
experience an ancient culture and make
comparisons to your own. For instance,
it’s so pleasant that in Japan there is no
tipping! We also make it a point to see
more of the U.S. because international
travel has made us equally appreciate
the people and places close by.
With technology, doesn’t close by refer
to the next county and the next coun-
try?
You can find a Starbucks in Tokyo and
share Flickr photos with people you’ve
never met. Distances between places
and people matter less. Whether tech-
nology and finance help to magnify or
celebrate cultural differences is frankly
Challenge renewed
I nspired in part by the success of
DEAS’s own $45 million Challenge
Fund (completed in 2005), Harvard
University has announced the estab-
lishment of a $50 million Professorship
Challenge Fund. The group of generous
donors who created the fund hopes
to encourage gifts from alumni and
friends to endow named professorships
across the University and provide other
critically needed faculty support.
Donors making gifts of $3 million will
be matched with $1 million from the
From lasers to laser pointers, alumni gifts play a critical role in supporting Harvard’s outstanding faculty.
up to the people who harness them and
what ends they choose to put them to.
Is there any way for us to prepare for or
adapt to this global landscape?
As an American, it’s important to have a
sense of what America means and what
contributions this country has made
and can make to the world. This can be
easy to forget for someone committed
to “thinking global.” So adaptability is
important, but knowing yourself and
what you believe in may be the most
key preparation.
Does knowing yourself mean making
sure work does not solely define you?
I have played drums my whole life, been
active in sports (admittedly more so now
as a spectator), and have entertained (or
humiliated) my children for years with
sleight-of-hand I taught myself as a kid.
Challenge Fund to fully endow a named
professorship. Individuals interested
in establishing a faculty development
fund with a gift of $1.5 million will re-
ceive a match of $500,000.
The Professorship Challenge Fund has
been created through the leadership of
Charles J. Egan Jr. ’54 and Mary Bower-
sox Egan R’55 and the Stanley H. Dur-
wood Foundation; Alphonse Fletcher
Jr. ’87; J. Christopher Flowers ’79 and
Mary H. White; James F. ’68, M.B.A. ’70
and Anne Fitzpatrick Rothenberg; Brian
Alumni Notes
In addition to continued study in the
technology and mathematics fields, I
am also a director for several not-for-
profit boards.
What kind of view has life outside “The
Street” given you?
I am a trustee of the Population Refer-
ence Bureau (PRB), the oldest popula-
tion nongovernmental organization in
the country. PRB professionals regularly
visit the most undeveloped regions of
the world, getting health, family, and
environmental data to journalists,
governments, academic institutions,
and grassroots organizations. It’s about
as far from what I do day to day as you
can imagine. It is a humbling reminder
that not all the world’s movers and
shakers are on Wall Street. J
D. ’76 and Anne T. Young; and an anony-
mous donor.
“The University makes no investment
more important than building and sup-
porting an outstanding faculty,” said
President Lawrence H. Summers. “We
are grateful to these donors for estab-
lishing the challenge, which is critical
to realizing Harvard’s mission.” J
DEAS – Spring 2006 I 19
Connections
1 3
4 and in front of Memorial Hall.
5 tons) sits in Harvard’s Science Center today.
Feedback loop
We welcome and appreciate your
comments, suggestions, and
corrections. Please send feedback to
communications@deas.harvard.edu
or call us at 617-496-3815. This
newsletter is published biannually by
the Division of Engineering and Applied
Sciences Communications Office.
Harvard University
Pierce Hall
29 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Managing Editor/Writer:
Michael Patrick Rutter
Designer, Producer, Photographer:
Eliza Grinnell
This publication, including past issues,
is available on the Web at
www.deas.harvard.edu
Copyright © 2006 by the President
and Fellows of Harvard College
20 I DEAS – Spring 2006
Back to the Future
F or this edition of the newsletter we decided to take
a step back, both in time and in technology. These
duotones from the Harvard University Archives may
lack the high-definition, surround-sound “oomph” of
today’s digital devices, but their content still conveys
a rich message. Thanks to resident historians Martha
Mooney and Professor Fred Abernathy for helping to
identify many of the photos. We encourage alums to
send us more information, insights, corrections, and
2 any memories the images inspire. J
Image 1: All work and no play makes a dull engineer. Out-
side Pierce Hall, a group of students get up close and
personal for a civil engineering study of compactness
and weight distribution. Photo by E. E. Petee and N.
E. Olds, 1904.
Image 2: An anechoic (echoless) room, likely used in the
1940s for research related to sonar. The modern
composer John Cage credits his experience sitting in
such a chamber at Harvard, where he could hear noth-
ing but the rhythms of his own body, as the motive
for his controversial “silent” piece, 4’33”. We are not
sure whether Cage sat in the particular room pictured
above.
Image 3: Soldiers on the academic battlefield. The Division
of Engineering and Applied Physics offered training
during World War II. In 1944, the year the photo
was taken, marching drills or “parading” was also a
common sight on the on the back lawn of Pierce Hall
Image 4: A lone operator engulfed in the glow and hum of a
Harvard MARK series computer. Grace Murray Hopper
worked with Howard Aiken ’39 (Ph.D.) to develop the
machine in the early 1940s. Considered one of the first
large-scale automatic digital computers, a version of
this behemoth (the full system weighed about five
Image 5: Inside an expansive, high-ceilinged room dedi-
cated to gas dynamics and plasma physics, located in
Harvard’s Engineering Sciences Laboratory (ESL). To
achieve a completely open space, Minoru Yamasaki,
the architect of the World Trade Center and of the
William James tower on campus, used his signature
hull-core structure method—supporting a building
solely with steel and concrete outer walls. The photo
was likely taken in the late 1960s. Today ESL houses
faculty members in bioengineering and environmental
sciences as well as the machine shop.
Image 6: Radcliffe students hovering around a Teletype ma-
chine (connected to a sister machine in Philadelphia)
in 1966. As for the odd location, we can only guess—a
top-secret laundry room where students could wash
clothes and dry their hair while they worked, or a pro-
totype Internet café? Fred Abernathy provided a more
sober explanation: At Harvard, early “computers”
were routinely placed in the basements of buildings.
6