News

 

2021

January 26, 2021

James (Jim) Monson (1932 - 2021)

James-Monson-photo.png


James Edward Monson
June 20, 1932 - January 1, 2021


On January 1st, 2021, Jim Monson, a giant in the field of magnetic recording, passed quietly and peacefully at home in Point Reyes, surrounded by his three children and Julie, his wife of 65 years. He led a full life, of teaching, research, caring for his family and volunteering in the communities he lived in.

Read his obituary here: https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgate/obituary.aspx?n=james-monson-jim&pid=197548336 

 

2018

2018

April 26, 2018

Center for Memory and Recording Research Makes Big Contribution to Data Storage Advances Over Past 35 Years

In 1983, the state-of-the-art in data storage was a 1 gigabyte hard drive that cost $100,000 and weighed 50 pounds. Today, there are 10 terabytes of storage on a single drive at a cost of 3 cents per gigabyte.

The UC San Diego Center for Memory and Recording Research (CMRR), which is celebrating its 35th year of groundbreaking research, is responsible for many of the technological developments that enabled this transformation.

“I can’t think of another area of research that scientists and engineers are involved in that has a more profound effect on our routine way of living,” said George Tynan, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and Associate Dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering. “The device I carry in my pocket—and all of you have one— contains all the photographs I’ve taken since my daughter was an infant. It contains all the music I love… it contains every email correspondence I’ve had for the last decade, and allows me to communicate with anyone I need to anywhere in the world. All in a device that weighs 8 ounces and is incredibly robust even when I drop it. And that is made possible in part because of the work that goes on here.”

Read the full article on thisweek@ucsandiego


April 6, 2018

Dr. Oscar Vazquez Mena - Faculty Recipient in appreciation for his commitment to carry on the César E. Chávez legacy

Congratulations to Dr. Oscar Vazquez Mena for being honored by UC San Diego as an individual who upholds the legacy of César E. Chávez by serving the community and advocating for the rights of the voiceless and underserved!

Before joining UCSD, Dr. Vazquez founded the Indigenous Pipeline to UC Berkeley, promoting the access of first-generation children of indigenous nahuatl and mayan communities to higher education in the Bay Area. Currently at UC San Diego, he is on the committee and a speaker for “Comienza con un Sueño”. He is also the faculty coordinator of Bridges to Education, a joint effort with Border Angels supported by the VC for Equity and Inclusion. This program provides resources and support for U.S. students whose parents were deported, living in Tijuana and crossing the border everyday to go to high-school in San Diego. He has established a collaboration with Calexico Unified School District,  bringing students to UC San Diego to promote science and technology for children of farm workers in the Calexico-Mexicali border zone. 

UC San Diego’s César E. Chávez celebrations during the month of April honor the life and legacy of Chávez, an American farm worker, labor leader and civil rights activist, who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association.

For more information on UC San Diego's celebration events for César E. Chávez, click here


March 14, 2018

Sheldon Schultz Prize Winners Announcement - Congratulations to Alex Phan and Pengfei Huang!

Alex Phan is the first Ph.D. student in Professor Talke's group graduating in the area of biomedical device technology. His research topic is the development of a MEMS type pressure sensor for implantation in the human eye for managing glaucoma. Alex has done an outstanding job in this new field of research for Talke's group. He started a new lab on the second floor of CMRR, implemented various Mems designs, and finalized on a design using interferometry to determine the pressure changes in the eye. The sensor is a passive device, using external light, thereby eliminating the need for an internal power source. Alex is the author of six publications (four conference papers and two journal papers), and one filed patent. Alex has given a number of presentations and talks at conferences, and he received the best poster Award at the CMRR Spring Research Review in 2017.

Pengfei is a 5th year student in the doctoral program in Electrical and Computer Engineering who will defend his Ph.D. thesis in Spring Quarter 2018. The tentative title of his thesis is “Code Design and Analysis for Distributed Storage Systems and Flash Memories.” He is the lead author on two journal papers, five peer-reviewed conference papers, and a peer-reviewed conference abstract. He also is a co-author on another conference paper and conference abstract. In his research at CMRR, Pengfei has worked on a variety of problems in information theory and coding theory, focusing on applications to distributed storage systems and non-volatile memories. He developed new general bounds on the parameters of binary linear locally repairable codes for correction of erasures in distributed storage systems, and then elucidated the properties of cyclic binary codes with local repair and availability. He also studied a class of erasure codes called Multi-Erasure Locally Recoverable Codes (ME-LRCs) for storage arrays, with emphasis on code constructions over small finite fields. In these works, he advanced the state of the art in terms of theoretical analysis and code construction techniques.


March 2, 2018

Endowed Chair Frank E. Talke - Membership to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts

The Academy’s mission is to stimulate cross-disciplinary collaboration between reputable scientists of all disciplines, leading artists and practitioners of governance. Their purpose is to analyze important societal challenges and to help solving complex issues for the wellbeing of Europeans’ future.

The Academy brings together over 2000 eminent scholars and practitioners, among them 31 Nobel Prize winners, from across Europe. They are divided into 8 classes: Humanities; Medicine; Arts; Natural Sciences; Social Sciences, Law and Economics; Technical and Environmental Sciences; World Religions; Corporate and Public Governance.

New members are received formally at the annual Festive Session of the Academy, which takes place always on the first Saturday of March. The next Festive Session takes place on March 2nd, 2019.


February 7, 2018

Director Eric Fullerton - Membership to the National Academy of Engineering Elects

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."

Individuals in the newly elected class will be formally inducted during a ceremoney at the NAE's annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 20, 2018.

NAE news release.

Jacobs news release.


January 26, 2018

Scientists Catch Light Squeezing and Stretching Next-Gen Data Storage Material

Combining X-ray and electron data from two cutting-edge SLAC instruments, researchers observe the rapid atomic response of iron-platinum nanoparticles to light, which could help control future magnetic data storage devices. Read more.


 

2017

May 18-19, 2017

CMRR Spring Research Review

The Spring CMRR Research Review is May 18-19, 2017. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196.


March 12-14, 2017

8th Annual UCSD Non-Volatile Memories Workshop

The workshop will bring together scientists and engineers from industry and academia who are working on advanced non-volatile storage devices and systems. The goal is to facilitate the exchange of ideas, insights, and knowledge within this broad community of practitioners and researchers, and to foster the establishment of new collaborations that can propel future progress in the design and application of non-volatile memories. NVMW Website

2016

October 13-14, 2016

CMRR Fall Research Review

The Fall CMRR Research Review is October 13-14, 2016. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196


October 10, 2016

Shannon Centenary Celebration

The Shannon Centenary Celebration will take place on Monday, October 10, 2016. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196.

[Event Program] [Event Schedule]


June 2-3, 2016

CMRR Spring Research Review

The Spring CMRR Research Review is June 2-3, 2016. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196


March 6-8, 2016

7th Annual UCSD Non-Volatile Memories Workshop

The workshop will bring together scientists and engineers from industry and academia who are working on advanced non-volatile storage devices and systems. The goal is to facilitate the exchange of ideas, insights, and knowledge within this broad community of practitioners and researchers, and to foster the establishment of new collaborations that can propel future progress in the design and application of non-volatile memories. Website

2015

October 8-9, 2015

CMRR Fall Research Review

The Fall CMRR Research Review is October 8-9, 2015. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196


July, 2015

The Center for Magnetic Recording Research officially changed it's name to Center for Memory and Recording Research.


April 30 - May 1, 2015

CMRR Spring Research Review

The Spring CMRR Research Review is April 30 - May 1, 2015. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196


March 1-3, 2015

6th Annual UCSD Non-Volatile Memories Workshop

The workshop will bring together scientists and engineers from industry and academia who are working on advanced non-volatile storage devices and systems. The goal is to facilitate the exchange of ideas, insights, and knowledge within this broad community of practitioners and researchers, and to foster the establishment of new collaborations that can propel future progress in the design and application of non-volatile memories. Website

2014

October 23-24, 2014

CMRR Fall Research Review

The Fall CMRR Research Review is October 23-24, 2014. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196


May 22-23, 2014

CMRR Spring Research Review

The Spring CMRR Research Review is May 22-23, 2014. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196


March 9-11, 2014

5th Annual UCSD Non-Volatile Memories Workshop

The workshop will bring together scientists and engineers from industry and academia who are working on advanced non-volatile storage devices and systems. The goal is to facilitate the exchange of ideas, insights, and knowledge within this broad community of practitioners and researchers, and to foster the establishment of new collaborations that can propel future progress in the design and application of non-volatile memories.

Website


February 21, 2014

Jack Keil Wolf Lecture In Information Theory And Applications

The University of California, San Diego and its Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering cordially invite you to the Jack Keil Wolf Lecture In Information Theory And Applications: “The Curse and Blessing of Dimensionality in Constrained Coding”.
Speaker: Ron M. Roth, Professor, Computer Science, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
For more information: JKW Lecture

2013

October 24-25, 2013

CMRR Fall Research Review

The Fall CMRR Research Review is October 24-25, 2013. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196


July 8-12, 2013

International French-US Workshop

The aim of this workshop is to gather the scientific and engineering communities in the fast growing field of spintronics and its applications. The workshop will cover the innovation process from discovering scientific knowledge to creating new products, including STT-MRAM, oscillators, and novel magnetic memory and logic structures. It will provide attendees opportunities to discuss new developments and to initiate collaborations and research projects. The workshop will benefit from the attendance of well-known contributors from academy, industry, and startups, but also from funding agencies and venture capital firms.

Two special sessions will be dedicated to fostering research cooperation between French and US researchers with emphasis on 3 domains: fundamental science, innovation and education of the next generation of scientists.


May 2-3, 2013

CMRR Spring Research Review

The Spring CMRR Research Review is May 2-3, 2013. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196


March 3-5, 2013

4th Annual UCSD Non-Volatile Memories Workshop

The workshop will bring together scientists and engineers from industry and academia who are working on advanced non-volatile storage devices and systems. The goal is to facilitate the exchange of ideas, insights, and knowledge within this broad community of practitioners and researchers, and to foster the establishment of new collaborations that can propel future progress in the design and application of non-volatile memories.

Website

2012

October 25-26, 2012

CMRR Fall Research Review

The Fall CMRR Research Review is October 25-26, 2012. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196


May 24-25, 2012

CMRR Spring Research Review

The Spring CMRR Research Review is May 24-25, 2012. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196


March 4-6, 2012

3rd Annual UCSD Non-Volatile Memories Workshop

NVMW 2012 provides a unique showcase for outstanding research on solid state, non-volatile memories. It features a "vertically integrated" program that includes presentations on devices, data encoding, systems architecture, and applications related to these exciting new data storage technologies.

The organizing committee is soliciting presentations on any topic related to non-volatile, solid state memories, including:
  • Advances in memory devices or memory cell design.
  • Characterization of commercial or experimental memory devices.
  • Error correction and data encoding schemes for non-volatile memories.
  • Advances in non-volatile memory-based storage system design (e.g., SSDs)
  • New applications of non-volatile memories.
  • Operating system and file system designs for non-volatile memories.
  • Non-volatile storage system performance measurements.
  • Security and reliability of solid-state storage systems.

Website


Feburary 27, 2013

Renowned Physicist and Innovator Eric Fullerton Wins 2012 AIP Industrial Application of Physics Prize

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) has awarded the 2012 AIP Prize for Industrial Applications of Physics to Professor Eric Fullerton for his pioneering work in advancing magnetic recording media.

Complete Story

2011

November 22, 2011

IEEE Distinguished Lecturer

CMRR will host the 2011 IEEE Distinguished Lecture by Axel Hoffmann from Argonne National Laboratory on November 22, 2011 at 4 p.m. in the CMRR Auditorium. His talk is entitled "Pure Spin Currents: Discharging Spintronics".

Complete Information


August 12, 2011

CMRR Seminar

CMRR will host a lecture from Masashi Sahashi from Tohoku University. His seminar titled "Nano-Oxide-Layer with Magnetic Nano-Contacts and its Applications to Microwave/Magnetoelectric Devices" will begin at 3 p.m. in the CMRR Audtiorium.

Complete Information


May 31, 2011

IEEE Distinguished Lecturer

CMRR will host the 2011 IEEE Distinguished Lecture by Peter Fischer from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His talk is entitled "Magnetic Soft X-Ray Microscopy: A Path Towards Imaging Magnetism Down to Fundamental Length and Time Scales". His lecture will be at 4 p.m. in the CMRR Auditorium.

Complete Information


May 4-5, 2011

CMRR Spring Research Review

The Spring CMRR Research Review is May 4-5, 2011. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196


April 19, 2011

CMRR Seminar

CMRR will host a lecture by Professor Young Keun Kim from Korea University. His lecture entitled "Multifunctional Magnetic-Photonic Nanostructures for Biomedical Applications" will be at 4 p.m. in the CMRR Auditorium.

Complete Information


April 12, 2011

CMRR Seminar

CMRR will host a lecture by Massimiliano Di Ventra, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, at 4 p.m. in the CMRR Auditorium. His talk is entitled "Memory Effects in Nanoscale Systems".

Complete Information


March 6-8, 2011

2nd Annual UCSD Non-Volatile Memories Workshop

The UCSD Non-Volatile Memories Workshop is a unique showcase for outstanding work related to solid state, non-volatile memories. NVMW brings together researchers and engineers from disciplines ranging across memory devices, data encoding, systems architecture, applications, and more. NVMW 2010 attracted more than 130 academic and industrial researchers from 23 universities and national labs and 33 companies. Please join us for NVMW 2011!

The topics to be presented include:

  • Circuits and non-volatile memory devices
  • Systems architecture
  • Solid state storage systems
  • ECC and coding for flash memories
  • Other non-volatile memories
  • Tutorials and panel discussions

 Flyer

2010

December 2010

2010 Tribology Gold Medal

CMRR Professor Frank Talke has been awarded the 2010 Tribology Gold Medal from the United Kingdom Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Tribology Trust. This award is "in recognition of his outstanding achievements in Tribology in particular for his meritorious work in the field of magnetic storage systems, ink jet technology and interferometric instrumentation".

Complete Story


November 4, 2010

Shelly Schultz Symposium

The Discovery of Metamaterials
10:00am - 3:00pm - CMRR Auditorium

Flyer | Website


October 26, 2010

CMRR Seminar

CMRR will host a lecture by Ilya Krivorotov, a professor at UC Irvine, at 4:00 pm in the CMRR Auditorium. His talk is entitled "Spin Transfer Torque Devices for Nonvolatile Memory, Microwave Signal Detection and Magnetic Field Sensing".

Complete Information


October 13-14, 2010

CMRR Fall Research Review

The Fall CMRR Research Review is October 13-14, 2010. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196


August 17-19, 2010

Flash Memory Summit

CMRR will exhibit in booth 510 at the Flash Memory Summit held at the Santa Clara Convention on August 17-19, 2010. CMRR graduate student Eitan Yaakobi will present a paper. Students can register for the Flash Memory Summit at a discounted rate, by using the code "SPGP" to register as a sponsor-attendee.

Complete Information - UCSD Speakers


July 16, 2010

CMRR Seminar

CMRR will host a lecture by Edward Au, a Principal Research Engineer at Huawei Technologies at 2:00pm in the CMRR Auditorium. His talk is entitled "100G and Beyond".


June 3, 2010

CMRR Seminar

CMRR will host a lecture by Professor Wai Ho Mow from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on June 3, 2010 at 2 p.m. at the CMRR Auditorium. Professor Mow's talk is entitled "Recursive Constructions of Detecting Matrices for Uniquely Decodable Multiuser Coding: A Unifying Framework".

Complete Information


May 27, 2010

CMRR Seminar

CMRR will host a lecture by Professor Wai Ho Mow from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on May 27, 2010 at 2 p.m. at the CMRR Auditorium. Professor Mow's talk is entitled "Perfect (or CAZAC) Roots-of-Unity Sequences: A Closed-Form Unified Construction with Application to Low-PAPR Channel Sounding".

Complete Information


May 11, 2010

CMRR Seminar - 2010 IEEE Distinguished Lecturer

CMRR will host a lecture by Professor E. Dan Dahlberg from the University of Minnesota of on May 27, 2010 at 4 p.m. at the CMRR Auditorium. Professor Dahlberg's talk is entitled "An Investigation of Magnetic Reversal at Almost the Nanoscale".

Complete Information


May 10, 2010

CMRR Professor Frank Talke Awarded the ASME Mayo D. Hersey Award

Frank E. Talke, an Endowed Chaired Professor at CMRR has been selected to receive the 2010 Mayo D. Hersey Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). This award, as described on the ASME website was “established in 1965, and is given in recognition of distinguished and continued contribution over a substantial period of time to the advancement of lubrication science and engineering".

Complete Story


May 5-6, 2010

CMRR Spring Research Review

The Spring CMRR Research Review is May 5-6, 2010. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196. To register, visit Research Review.


May 5, 2010

Schultz Prize Awarded

On May 5th, 2010, the Schultz Prize was awarded to Seyhan Karakulak, a student co-advised by CMRR Professors Paul Siegel and Jack Wolf, and Chulmin (Edward) Choi, a graduate student of Professor Sungho Jin. The prize is presented in recognition of CMRR graduate students who have distinguished themselves through the creativity of their research and the impact of their publications.


April 30, 2010

8th Annual Shannon Memorial Lecture

Speaker: Andrew Viterbi
Location: Calit2 - Atkinson Hall
Time: 4 p.m.
Professor Emeritus Andrew Viterbi will present the 8th Annual Shannon Memorial Lecture. His talk is entitled "Markov, Wiener and Shannon: a Progression".

Flyer


April 30, 2010

2010-2011 Shannon Memorial Fellowship Awarded

Ehsan Ardestanizadeh, a Ph.D. student in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is the 2010-2011 recipient of the Shannon Memorial Fellowship.This endowed fellowship was created to honor an outstanding graduate student at UCSD whose research is in the field of information theory.

Complete Story


April 27, 2010

CMRR Professor Jack Wolf Elected to National Academy of Sciences

On April 27, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) announced the election of CMRR Prof. Jack K. Wolf to membership in that prestigious institution, one of the highest honors that can be bestowed on U.S. scientists and engineers.

Complete Story


April 22, 2010

CMRR Seminar

CMRR will host a lecture by Professor Wai Ho Mow from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on April 22, 2010 at 2:00 pm at the CMRR Auditorium. Professor Mow's talk is entitled "MIMO Detection Aided by Lattice Reduction: Introduction and Recent Advances".

Complete Information


April 11-13, 2010

Non-Volatile Memories Workshop

The Center for Memory and Recording Research, the Non-Volatile Systems Laboratory, and the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at UCSD will be hosting the first UCSD Non-Volatile Memories Workshop on April 11-13, 2010.

The workshop will bring together scientists and engineers from industry and academia who are working on advanced non-volatile storage devices and systems. The goal is to facilitate the exchange of ideas, insights, and knowledge within this broad community of practitioners and researchers, and to foster the establishment of new collaborations that can propel future progress in the design and application of non-volatile memories.

The program will take a “vertical” approach, with technical sessions that encompass solid-state and magnetic storage technologies; coding techniques for data integrity, preservation, and security; system-level storage architectures; and new applications enabled by advances in these areas.

Jacobs School of Engineering article on the NVMW


March 25, 2010

CMRR Seminar

CMRR will host a lecture by Professor Wai Ho Mow from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on March 25, 2010 at 2:00 pm at the CMRR Auditorium. Professor Mow's talk is titled "Minimum Distance Analysis of a Certain Class of 2-Dimensional Intersymbol-Interference (ISI) Channels".

Complete Information


January 22, 2010

CMRR Seminar

CMRR will host a lecture by Warren Gross from McGill University on January 22, 2010 at 4:00 pm at the CMRR Auditorium. Dr. Gross's talk is entitled "Stochastic Decoding of LDPC Codes over GF(q)".

Complete Information

2009

October 28-29, 2009

CMRR Fall Research Review

The Fall CMRR Research Review is October 28-29, 2009. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196. To register, visit Research Review.


October 21, 2009

CMRR will host a lecture by Virtu Tomas, from the University of Alicante (Spain) on October 21, 2009 at 4 p.m. at the CMRR Auditorium. Ms. Tomas's talk is entitled "On the Decoding of Convolutional Codes Over the Erasure Channel".

Complete Information

October 2009

Former CMRR Director, Professor Sheldon Schultz, has appeared on Thomson Reuters 2009 Nobel Prize predications for physics. Professor Schultz is cited for his development of “a new class of composite materials with 'reversed' physical properties never before seen”.

Complete Story


September 8, 2009

CMRR Seminar

CMRR will host a lecture by Dr. Neal Bertram on September 8, 2009 at 4 p.m. at the CMRR Auditorium. Dr. Bertram's talk is titled "A Model for Noise Power versus Density in a Perpendicular Digital Magnetic Recording System ".

Complete Information


August 12, 2009

2009 Albert Sauveur Achievement Award

Dr. Sungho Jin, FASM, Distinguished Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and the Center for Memory and Recording Research, University of California at San Diego, will receive this year's award for "pioneering research for discovery of new materials and phenomena in the fields of electronic, magnetic and superconducting materials". This award was established in 1934. It recognizes pioneering materials science and engineering achievements that have stimulated organized work along similar lines to such an extent that a marked basic advance has been made in the knowledge of materials.

Complete Story


August 11-13, 2009

Flash Memory Summit

CMRR will exhibit in booth 109 at the Flash Memory Summit held at the Santa Clara Convention on August 11-13, 2009. CMRR graduate student Eitan Yaakobi will present a paper entitled "Error Correction Coding for Flash Memories". Students can register for the Flash Memory Summit at a discounted rate, by using the code “SPGP” to register as a sponsor-attendee.

Flyer | Complete Information


July 23, 2009

IEEE Distinguished Lecture

CMRR will host a lecture by Dr. Michael Mallary on July 23, 2009 at 4 p.m. in the CMRR Auditorium. Dr. Mallary's talk is titled "The Evolution and Revolutions in Disk Drive Recording".

Complete Information


June 3, 2009

IEEE Distinguished Lecture

CMRR will host a lecture by Dr. Theo Rasing on June 3rd 2009 at the CMRR Auditorium. Dr. Rasing's talk is titled "Controlling Magnetism with Light ".


June 1, 2009

IEEE Distinguished Lecture

CMRR will host a lecture by Dr. Kannan Krishnan on June 1st 2009 at the CMRR Auditorium. Dr. Krishnan's talk is entitled "Biomedical Nano Magnetics: A Spin Through New Possibilities".


May 27, 2009

MAE Distinguished Lecture - CMRR Professor Frank Talke

Frank E. Talke, an Endowed Chaired Professor at CMRR will deliver the 2009 Distinguished Lecture for the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering at the Powell - Focht Bioengineering Hall - Fung Auditorium. His lecture is entitled "Nano-Technology in Present and Future Hard Disk Drives".


May 20, 2009

CMRR Students Selected as Young Marconi Scholars

CMRR graduate student Eitan Yaakobi and CMRR visiting graduate student Marco Papaleo have been selected as Marconi Scholars for 2009 by the Marconi Society. The honor includes a $4,000 cash prize, which will be presented at the Marconi Society Award Dinner in Bologna, Italy, on October 9, 2009. The prize also includes $1,000 to help defray travel expenses to the event.

Eitan Yaakobi

The event includes two days of symposia. October 8th includes a historical focus, and presentations by the Young Scholars. October 9th will include presentations by former Marconi Fellows, this year's winners, and culminates with the Gala Award Dinner.

Complete Information

Marco Papaleo


May 11-12, 2009

CMRR Spring Research Review

The Spring CMRR Research Review as been scheduled for May 11-12, 2009. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone(858) 534-6196. To register, visit Research Review.


May 11, 2009

Schultz Prize Awarded

On May 10th, 2009, the Schultz Prize was awarded to Zheng Wu, a student co-advised by CMRR Professors Paul Siegel and Jack Wolf. The prize is presented in recognition of CMRR graduate students who have distinguished themselves through the creativity of their research and the impact of their publications.

Complete Story


April 21, 2009

Shannon Memorial Fellowship Awarded

Yuzhe Jin, a Ph.D. student of ECE Professor Bhaskar Rao, is the recipient of the 2009-2010 Shannon Memorial Fellowship. The purpose of this endowed fellowship is to honor an outstanding graduate student at UCSD whose research is in the field of information theory.

Mr. Jin came to UCSD in the fall of 2005 from Tsinghua University where he obtained a Bachelors degree. His current work involves the interface between network information theory and sparse signal recovery problems that arise in compressed sensing and other applications.


April 21, 2009

7th Annual Shannon Memorial Lecture - April 21, 2009

Reception: 2:30 p.m. at the Center for Memory and Recording Research
Lecture: 4 p.m. at the Calit2 auditorium - Atkinson Hall
Speaker: Professor Robert M. Gray, Stanford University
Title: Shannon Source Coding, Ornstein Isomorphism, and Random Process Models

Poster | Abstract | Biography


April 13, 15, & 17, 2009

CMRR Short Course

H. Neal Bertram
Professor Emeritus
Electrical and Computer Engineering, and
Center for Memory and Recording Research
University of California-San Diego

We wish to understand design criteria for high density recording systems: e.g. 500Gbits/in2 at 1GHz with 10-6 BER stable to 10 years. What are the essential characteristics of the medium and the write and read transducers to achieve this goal? This course will focus on understanding essentials of magnetic recording leading to such design goals. The course begins with basic material design and nature of the medium and transducers of a digital drive. At the end design criteria will be presented based on the earlier fundamentals.

PART II: Write Process, Medium Noise, SNR and BER, System Density Limitations, April 13, 15, 17, 2009 (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), 9:00 – 11:00 AM
To reserve a seat and a copy the material please send your full name and email address to bmanoulian@ucsd.edu by Friday, April 8, 2009.

Course PDF


April 4, 2009

Visit CMRR at the San Diego Science Festival Expo in Balboa Park on April 4, 2009. Students and staff have created a fascinating exhibit about "The Incredible Shrinking Hard Drive" and will be at the Expo in the park from 10:30 am to 6 pm to answer questions, give demonstrations, and share information about data storage devices all around us in daily life. For more information, search "magnetic" at www.sdsciencefestival.org


March 2009

Young Engineer of the Year

Dr. Kai-Zhong Gao, a CMRR graduate, was recently named the 2009 Minnesota Young Engineer of the Year by the Minnesota Federation of Engineering, Science and Technology Societies. Kai-Zhong is currently a Senior Engineer and Manager at the Seagate R & D facility in Bloomington, MN.

Complete Story


February 23, 2009

CMRR Short Course

CMRR Professor Emeritus H. Neal Bertram will be teaching a short course entitled "Introduction to Magnetic Materials and Magnetic Recording". Part I of the course will be held at the CMRR Auditorium on February 23, 25, & 26, 2009. Part II of the course will be held on April 13, 15, 17, 2009 at CMRR.

Course Announcement | Course PDF

2008

December 2008

Frank E. Talke, an Endowed Chaired Professor at CMRR has been inducted into the Academy der Technikwissenschaften (Acatech). The Academy is the equivalent of the National Academy of Engineering in the United States. Members are nominated and voted on by all 296 members of the Acatech. The Acatech brings together the best minds in science and business. The members are admitted into the organization based on their outstanding scientific achievements and excellent reputation. Since Acatech handles a broad spectrum of interdisciplinary issues in science and technology, members stem from the engineering and natural sciences, the humanities and the social sciences.

Professor Talke will be officially inducted into Acatech in March 2009.


October 30, 2008

CMRR 25th anniversary celebration


October 1, 2008

Nate Heintzman was appointed as the new Associate Director at the Center for Magnetic Recording Research under the UC Discovery Fellow Program. Nate will manage diverse programs within the Center that focus on facilitating collaborative information technology ventures between CMRR scientists and industry affiliates in the San Diego area and beyond. He will perform similar duties at UCSD's Center for Wireless Communications (CWC). Nate received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at UCSD, has consulted for various companies in the science community, and serves as the Vice President of Operations and Chief Academic Advisor for Insulindependence, a non-profit diabetes advocacy organization.


September 2008

Two CMRR graduates, Henry Pfister and Joseph Soriaga, have received a “2007 Best Paper Award” from the Data Storage Technical Committee of the IEEE Communications Society. The paper titled “Determining and Approaching Achievable Rates of Binary Intersymbol Interference Channels Using Multistage Decoding”, was published in the April 2007 issue of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory and was coauthored with Professor Paul H. Siegel.


September 2008

Ralf Brunner, a graduate student in Professor Talke’s lab has received the UCSD MAE award for “2008 Outstanding Graduate Student”. He has been recognized as a dedicated researcher in his field.


September 2008

Hao Zheng, a graduate student in Professor Talke’s lab received the “2008 ASME/ISPS Best Conference Paper”. The paper titled “Effect of Suspension Design on the Non-Operational Shock Response in a Load/Unload Hard Disk Drive” was coauthored with A.N. Murthy, E.B. Fanslau Jr., and Professor F.E. Talke.


August 13, 2008

INSIC’s thirteenth annual Leadership Achievement and Technical Achievement Awards were presented at the 2008 INSIC Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, on August 13th, 2008. INSIC’s Technical Achievement Award, which recognizes the contributor of a specific technical achievement in an INSIC Research Program, for a contribution judged to provide a significant advancement toward the Program’s goals, was presented to Dr. Frederick E. Spada, University of California San Diego, Center for Memory and Recording Research (UCSD CMRR). Dr. Spada has been engaged in a meticulous investigation over an extended period of the possible erosion, corrosion and deposition of materials in magnetic tape recording heads which may result from electrochemical processes at the head-tape interface during tape motion. His research has identified conditions under which material deposition will occur on the critical areas of the head near the poles and gap. Dr. Spada’s methodology has been actively peeling away the layers of this very complex problem. His work has clearly demonstrated the following important findings:

  • The role of the tape’s fatty acid ester lubricants in material transport and deposition.
  • The role of head material composition in the wear and deposition processes.
  • The very dramatic change in the operational chemistry of material removal from the metal elements in recording head structures and the re-deposition on the substrates, as a function of humidity and Galvanic current path.
  • The importance of electrochemical effects on material migration (both corrosion and deposition) in head structures.

June 2008

CMRR Professor Frank E. Talke has been awarded the 2008 ASME Medal. The ASME Medal, established in 1929, is the highest award that the Society can bestow and is to recognize “eminently distinguished engineering achievement”. Only one ASME Medal may be awarded annually. Although some individuals have been honored by both the ASME Medal and Honorary Membership, each award has been made on the basis of different Accomplishments.


April 30, 2008

6th Annual Shannon Memorial Lecture

Speaker: Professor Sergio Verdu from Princeton University
Title: Information theory and Minimum Mean-Square Estimation
Reception: 2:30 p.m. at the Center for Memory and Recording Research
Lecture: 4 p.m. at the Calit2 auditorium
Abstract: In this talk Prof. Sergio will survey his work on the interactions between information theory and estimation theory. In particular, he will show how to express any information measure as a function of the minimum mean-square error achievable when observing a random variable in Gaussian noise. These relationships lead to surprising applications, including a new universal relationship in continuous-time nonlinear filtering, the optimization of the input power spectrum in DSL lines, and the simplest proof of the entropy-power inequality
Biography: Sergio Verdú has been on the Faculty of Princeton University since 1984. He teaches and conducts research in the Department of Electrical Engineering of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. A member of the Information Sciences and Systems group and the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics, his research interests are in Information Theory, Data Compression and Transmission, and Signal Processing.

A native of Barcelona, Spain, Sergio Verdú received the Telecommunications Engineering degree from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain, in 1980 and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1984. Conducted at the Coordinated Science Laboratory of the University of Illinois, his doctoral research pioneered the field of Multiuser Detection.

Sergio Verdú was elected Fellow of the IEEE in 1992 and member of the U. S. National Academy of Engineering in 2007. He received the 2000 Frederick E. Terman Award from the American Society for Engineering Education, and the IEEE Third Millennium Medal in 2000. In 2005, he received a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. He is the recipient of the 2007 Claude E. Shannon Award, and the 2008 IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal.

In 1998, Cambridge University Press published his book Multiuser Detection. His papers have received several awards: the 1992 IEEE Donald Fink Paper Award, the 1998 Information Theory Outstanding Paper Award, a IEEE Information Theory Golden Jubilee Paper Award, the 2000 Paper Award from the Japan Telecommunications Advancement Foundation, the 2002 Leonard G. Abraham Prize Award in the field of Communications Systems and the 2007 IEEE Joint Communications/Information Theory Paper Award.

Sergio Verdú has served as Associate Editor of the IEEE Trans. on Automatic Control, and as Associate Editor for Shannon Theory of the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. He served as President of the IEEE Information Theory Society in 1997. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Foundations and Trends in Communications and Information Theory.

He has held visiting appointments at the Australian National University, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and the University of Tokyo. In 1998 he was Visiting Professor at the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department of the University of California, Berkeley, and in 2002 he held the Hewlett-Packard Visiting Research Professorship at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, Berkeley. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Telefónica I+D.


April 29, 2008

CMRR Seminar

Lecture: April 29, 2008, at 4 p.m., CMRR Auditorium
Speaker: Jordan A. Katine
Title: Materials and Processing Techniques in Magnetic Nanofabrication
Abstract: The ability to fabricate nanoscale devices has opened up exciting new areas of research in magnetism such as the spin torque effect. Unfortunately for scientists interested in this field, there is a scarcity of publications that explain how these nanoscale magnetic devices are built. In this talk, I will present an overview of magnetic device nanofabrication, using specific examples such as current-perpendicular-to-the-plane (CPP) GMR nanopillars, to highlight the techniques that are used to create these structures.
Biography: Jordan Katine received his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University where he researched quantum interference phenomena in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots. He moved to Cornell for post-doctoral work in Bob Buhrman's laboratory, where he studied electronic transport in nanostructured magnetic multilayer devices, which included measurements of the spin torque effect. In 1999 Jordan moved to the IBM Almaden Research Center. Since moving to IBM, and subsequently to Hitachi, Jordan has continued his research in nanoscale devices, including magnetic recording heads.


April 23-24, 2008

CMRR Spring Research Review The Spring CMRR Research Review as been scheduled for April 23-24, 2008. Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196.


April 10, 2008

CMRR Seminar

Lecture: April 10, 2008 at 4 p.m., CMRR Auditorium
Speaker: Warren Gross, McGill University
Title: Stochastic Decoding of LDPC Codes
Abstract: Stochastic decoding is a new approach to iterative decoding of error-correcting codes. Stochastic decoding of practical Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) codes has recently been shown to be able to provide near-optimal decoding performance with respect to the Sum-Product Algorithm. In this approach, information is represented by the statistics of bit streams, resulting in simple, high-speed hardware implementation of graph-based decoding algorithms. This talk provides a survey of stochastic methods for graph-based iterative decoding and the state-of-the-art in stochastic decoder hardware implementations.
Biography: Warren J. Gross is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at McGill University. His research interests are in the design and application of signal processing microsystems and custom computer architectures. He received the PhD degree from the University of Toronto in 2003. In the summers of 2004 and 2005, he was a Visiting Professor at the Université de Bretagne-Sud. Lorient, France. He served as the General Chair of the 6th Analog Decoding Workshop. He is a member of the Design and Implementation of Signal Processing Systems Technical Committee of the IEEE Signal Processing Society and served on the program committees of the IEEE Workshop on Signal Processing Systems, the IEEE Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines and the International Conference on Field-Programmable Logic and Applications. Dr. Gross is a member of the IEEE and a licensed Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario.


April 1, 2008

CMRR Seminar

Lecture: April 1, 2008 at 4 p.m., CMRR Auditorium
Speaker: Thomas M. Coughlin
Title: Storing Your Life: Consumer Digital Storage - Personal, Hierarchical and Virtual
Abstract: This presentation discusses different mobile and static usage models for digital storage in consumer devices. These models define storage hierarchies that are useful for analyzing the proper digital storage technology for a consumer electronics application. Important characteristics of consumer storage devices are shown and guidelines are given for how digital storage should be designed in consumer devices. Demand for higher resolution content and for capturing ever greater details of the life of family members will drive increases in commercial as well as personal content storage demand. Sharing of content within a home or over the Internet creates much greater demand for storage since a shared file can be multiplied many times through network sharing. Ultimately this content must be indexed, protected, managed and the physical complexity of the storage devices must be hidden to the user by home storage virtualization
Biography: Dr. Coughlin is the Founder and President of Coughlin Associates. Tom has over 30 years of experience in the data storage industry as a working engineer and high level technical manager. In addition to regular technical and management consulting projects he is the publisher of reports on digital storage in consumer electronics as a content creation and distribution. He is the author of the recently published Digital Storage in Consumer Electronics: The Essential Guide from Newnes (a division of Elsevier). Tom has many published reports and articles on digital storage and its applications. He has 6 patents on magnetic recording and related technologies. Tom is the founder and organizer of the annual Storage Visions Conference, a partner to the International CES. Tom is a senior member and was 2007 chairman of the Santa Clara Valley IEEE Section and San Francisco Bay Area Council and was chairman of the Santa Clara Valley IEEE Consumer Electronics Society in 2006 and past chairman of the SCV IEEE Magnetics Society more than once. Tom is a member of the IEEE CE Society Adcom. He is also a member of APS, AVS, IDEMA, SNIA, AAAS, TCG and SMPTE.
Tom received a B.S. in Physics and an M.S.E.E. from the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Shinshu University in Nagano, Japan


March 24, 2008

Sungho Jin, Distinguished Professor of Materials Science, has been selected as Fellow of the MRS (Materials Research Society) for pioneering research on magnetic, superconducting, environmental, nano and bio materials, and for significant publications, patents and industrial applications. The title of MRS Fellow honors scientists who are notable for their distinguished research accomplishments and their outstanding contributions to the advancement of materials research, world-wide. The inaugural class of Fellows will be recognized at the 2008 MRS Spring Meeting, March 24-28, in San Francisco.


February 27, 2008

CMRR Seminar

Lecture: February 27, 2008 at 4 p.m., CMRR Auditorium
Speaker: Zsigmond Nagy
Title: Efficient Coding and a Capacity Lower Bound for the Square-1 Constraint
Abstract: Binary constrained codes in 1 and 2 dimensions are used in magnetic and optical recording devices and have been studied extensively. A key property associated with each constraint is its capacity, which is an asymptotically tight upper bound on the average number of information bits that can be stored per position by any code that satisfies the constraint. Since the capacity of 2-dimensional constraints is not known in general, it is of great interest to calculate numerical capacity upper and lower bounds for 2-dimensional constraints. Furthermore, efficient encoding algorithms that achieve an encoding rate close to the capacity are important in practical applications. We present a new bit stuffing-type encoder for the binary Square-1 constraint (no two 1s appear on neighboring positions horizontally, vertically, or diagonally in the 2-dimensional plane), and show that its encoding rate is R=0.415681, which improves on the previously known capacity lower bounds for the Square-1 constraint.


February 19, 2008

CMRR Seminar

Lecture: February 19, 2008, at 4 p.m., CMRR Auditorium
Speaker: Kannan M. Krishnan – University of Washington
Title: Spins, Bytes and Cures: Materials, Devices and Biomedical Nanomagnetics
Abstract: There is a resurgence of interest in magnetic materials on the nanometer length scale largely driven by new synthesis and characterization capabilities as well as potential applications in information storage, spintronics and biomedical applications. Size-dependent scaling laws, exchange, proximity and interface effects and studies of spin transport are increasingly of fundamental and technological interest. Following a brief outlook on nanotechnology and an overview [1] of our research, I will present highlights of our work in dilute magnetic semiconductors [2,3] and exchange-biased thin film heterostructures [4,5]. The rest of the talk will focus on biomedical nanomagnetics using functionalized nanoparticles emphasizing their synthesis [6,7,8], morphology [9,10], surface functionalization [11,12], self-organization [13], inter-particle interactions [14], cytotoxicity and biomedical applications [15,16] including therapy, imaging and diagnostics. Our work is supported by NSF/dmr, NSF/ecs, NSF/imr, NIH/ninds, DoE/bes and the Campbell, Murdock and Guggenheim Foundations


February 8, 2008

CMRR Professor Paul Siegel – a leading authority on coding for hard disk magnetic recording systems – has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering “for the invention and development of advanced coding techniques for digital recording systems”.

View Article


January 8, 2008

CMRR Seminar

Lecture: January 8, 2008, at 4 p.m., CMRR Auditorium.
Speaker: Dr. Ori Shental
Title: Gaussian Belief Propagation for Solving Systems of Linear Equations: Theory and Application
Abstract: The canonical linear-algebraic problem of solving a system of linear equations arises in numerous contexts in the mathematical sciences and engineering. In this talk, we introduce an efficient Gaussian belief propagation (GaBP) solver that does not involve direct matrix inversion. The iterative nature of our approach allows for a distributed message-passing implementation of the solution algorithm. We discuss the properties of the GaBP solver, including convergence, exactness, computational complexity, message-passing efficiency and its relation to classical solution methods. The attractiveness of the proposed solver, in comparison to conventional iterative solution methods, is demonstrated using numerical examples and applications, like linear detection. The talk is based on a joint work with Prof. Jack K. Wolf, Prof. Paul H. Siegel, Prof. Danny Dolev (HUJI) and Mr. Danny Bickson (HUJI)

2007

October 31 - November 1, 2007

CMRR Fall Research Review - November 2007

Attendance is limited to CMRR sponsors and invited guests. For more information, please contact Iris Villanueva, phone (858) 534-6196.


August 21, 2007

Paul H. Siegel - On August 21, 2007 a reception was held at CMRR in honor of CMRR Director Paul H. Siegel who was awarded an Endowed Professorship at UCSD.
Frieder Sieble, Dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering, began the proceedings by explaining what a great honor it is to be awarded an endowed chair at UCSD. He also spoke of Paul's many achievements in research, teaching and service. The program continued with remarks by Larry Larson (ECE Chairman), Eric Fullerton, Larry Milstein, Jack Wolf, Gordon Hughes, Ami Berkowitz, James Lemke (founder of CMRR), and former students Joseph Soriaga and Jilei Hou. Professor Wolf also read a congratulatory letter from Neal Bertram who could not attend. Paul Siegel ended the formal proceedings with a heart warming “thank you.”


2007

Jack Keil Wolf, the Stephen O. Rice Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UCSD and CMRR Endowed Chair has been selected to receive the 2007 Aaron Wyner Distinguished Service Award from the Information Theory (IT) Society. This award recognizes his many years of inspiring leadership and service to the IT Society.


2007

Frank Talke, an Endowed Chaired Professor at CMRR has been awarded the Humboldt Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. This award is one of the most prestigious awards in German academia and based primarily on the scientist's/scholar's entire academic record. In addition, awardees are invited to conduct an original research project of their own design in close collaboration with colleagues in Germany over a period of six to twelve months.


February 27, 2007

Sungho Jin, the Iwama Professor of Materials Science at UCSD, and a CMRR faculty member, has received The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society's (TMS) 2007 John Bardeen Award. This award recognizes an individual who has made outstanding contributions and is a leader in the field of electronic materials. The award was presented at the TMS Awards Dinner on February 27, 2007 during the 136th TMS Annual Meeting in Orlando Florida.