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	©2004 The Regents of the University of California

VOL. 24. NO.2 SEPTEMBER 23, 2003

BUREAU BRIEFS

RESEARCH

The National Science Foundation reported last month that research and development spending at universities and colleges grew in 2001-02, increasing 9% over the previous year. UCLA ranked No. 2 among the top 20 institutions reporting the largest academic R&D expenditures in science and engineering. A sign of its powerful impact on the local and state economy, the campus spent $694 million in 2001-02, up from $531 million the year before, according to the NSF. Ranked No. 1 was Johns Hopkins with $999 million for 2001-02.

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING

Deborah Estrin, professor of computer science, has been named to Popular Science magazine’s annual “Brilliant 10,” young scientists doing extraordinary work. The magazine highlights Estrin’s work in embedded networks, the focus of the UCLA Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, which she directs. Last February, MIT Technology Review magazine identified Estrin’s work in wireless sensor networks as one of 10 emerging technologies that will change the world.

TECHNOLOGY

A National Science Foundation grant will help UCLA build a 256-node, 512-processor computer cluster to advance research and education in plasma science. The cluster will have a peak speed of three teraflops (one teraflop is 10-to-the-12th power floating point operations every second). This would place the UCLA system at No. 33 among the world’s top 500 supercomputer sites in industry, academia and government. Among universities, the UCLA plasma cluster would rank No. 3 in the nation. The cluster will be housed in the Academic Technology Services data center.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

The UC Board of Regents selected UCLA doctoral student Jodi Lynette Anderson as the student regent for 2004-05. Anderson is a graduate student researcher at the Higher Education Research Institute and a teaching assistant in the education department. Also, Dolores Huerta was appointed Sept. 9 by Gov. Gray Davis to serve out Regent Norman J. Pattiz’s term, ending March 1. Along with César Chávez, Huerta founded the United Farm Workers union and remains its secretary-treasurer. Pattiz, founder and chairman of the board of Westwood One, was reappointed to a new term expiring March 1, 2014.