On August 14, HP Labs announced that ECE Professor Narendra Ahuja received an HP Labs Innovation Research Program Award for his proposal "3D Reconstruction of Dynamic Real-World Objects and 3D Motion Aided Gesture Recognition."

An Orientation Program for new graduate students will take place on August 20, 2008. Students will be able to meet with other graduate student and become more familiar with the department and its facilities.

ECE Professor William H. Sanders has been named acting director of the Coordinated Science Laboratory (CSL) at the University of Illinois. He replaces Ravi K. Iyer, who was recently appointed Illinois's interim vice chancellor for research.

ECE Assistant Professor Jonathan Makela was recently honored with two prestigious, international awards for young scientists. The awards recognize his outstanding research of the ionosphere.

ECE Professor Ravi K. Iyer (ECE), together with Coordinated Science Laboratory (CSL) Research Professor Zbigniew Kalbarczyk, has received a 2008 IBM Faculty Fellow Award.

Molly M. Tracy has been named Associate Dean for Advancement for the College of Engineering, pending approval of the Board of Trustees.

The Center for Nanoscale Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manufacturing Systems (Nano-CEMMS) recently received a National Science Foundation $12.5 million grant renewal for an additional five years. University of Illinois ECE professors and graduate students play an integral role at the center, which encompasses researchers from various backgrounds, as they work to develop and improve the latest technologies.

ECE graduate student Robert Gregg recently received the award for best student paper at the 2008 American Control Conference. The paper, "Reduction-Based Control with Application to Three-Dimensional Bipedal Walking Robots," was co-authored by ECE Professor Mark W. Spong.

ECE Professor and Donald Biggar Willett Scholar Andrew Singer was selected to participate in the National Academy of Engineering's 14th annual U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium. He was one of 82 rising engineers chosen from more than 230 applicants.

The Information Trust Institute at the University of Illinois 2008 summer research internship program is in full swing, with 19 undergraduate students from across the world participating.