Summary of Activities

Dr. Sheldon Tan recruited three students from UCR, Sojin Ahn, Leila Suasnabar, Hsin-Yu (Cindy) Fan Chiang, to participate this year IRES program, which is also called Ceitres (Computer Engineering International Training and Research Experience for Students, see  http://www.engr.ucr.edu/ceitres/)  at UC Riverside.  All of them are female students.

•Before Departure

The three US students spent six weeks in Beijing, China from July 1st to August 11th, 2014. Before the departure, all three students worked in Dr. Tan’s lab for one quarter (Winter quarter), which prepares them for the joint research project with Prof. Cai’s group at Tsinghua University. The three students were also supervised by Mr. James Zhou, who is the Principal Engineering at Qlogic Corporation, CA and PhD student Sahana Swarup of the Dr. Tan.  James provided some practical programming for the students. The three students also obtained basic survival Chinese language training in Dr. Tan’s Lab by talking to some Chinese Ph.D. students. The students were partially supported by the NSF REU programs for their studies at UCR.

The three U.S. students obtained all the necessary travel documents include visiting visas of China and finished all the required paper works such as Student Information Form, Waiver of Liability, Release Form, Student Agreement Form in May 2014. Dr. Sheldon Tan also made sure all the students had the health insurance covering their travel in China before they left U.S.

Figure 1 IRES student Cindy Fan Chiang and PhD student Sahana Swarup

The three students met Mr. Jun Wang, who was the undergraduate research director and the program manager for the program at the Bourns College of Engineering in UC Riverside during the pre-departure period. Jun brought many useful information materials to the students and introduced the several important culture and language issues that students need to pay attention to. Jun also helped student for obtaining the visa applications to the Chinese Consulate at Los Angeles in person. He was really helpful for the IRES students in this year and past several years.

•Arrived in Beijing on July 1st, 2014

Figure 2. The three IRES students  and Dr. Sheldon Tan at the Beijing International Airport (from left to right Dr. Sheldon Tan, Sojin Ahn, Leila Suasnabar, Cindy Fan Chiang on July 2nd, 2014.

Dr. Sheldon Tan arrived in Beijing on June 26 to take care of the housing and other issues. On July 1st, Dr. Sheldon Tan and the local host student Kevin Wang came to the Beijing International Airport to pick the three students. But due to the thunderstorm weather  around the arrival time of the plane in Beijing, the Delta flight was diverted to the Shanghai. After checking with the airline company (Delta),  Dr. Tan know that the airline safely arrived in Shanghai and all the passages will stay in a hotel in Shanghai for one night. So next day, Dr. Tan and the host student Kevin came to Airport again and after 4-hour wait, all three students eventually came out from the international arrival terminal. It was a relief for everyone.

Then all three students and Dr. Sheldon Tan, the Kevin headed to Tsinghua University.  Dr. Tan and the host student Kevin helped them settle down.  The apartment the student stayed have 3 bedrooms, one living room with kitchen and laundry inside. It was originally for the faculty and their family. So they are very conveniently located inside the Tsinghua University.

In their first week at Tsinghua, Dr. Sheldon Tan and the three students started to work in the EDA Lab at Tsinghua University. The research topic for this year focuses on high speed interconnect system modeling and network based analysis considering variational impacts. Prof. Yici Cai is the main host mentor at Tsinghua Univ.

Figure 3 Three student worked in  the EDA Lab at Tsinghua Univ. (From left to right: Sojin, Cindy and Leila)

Prof. Cai sent one student, Kevin Wang as mentioned before to help the US students for the joint research works and social activities as well.

Dr. Sheldon Tan also met several other faculties at Tsinghua University such as Prof. Prof. Zuochang Ye, Prof. Wenjian Yu, Prof. Hailong Yao and Prof. Yunchun Ma, Prof. Yan Wang, Prof Yu Wang.  Dr. Tan also met Prof. Yiran Chen and his wife Prof. Helen Li from University of Pittsburg during his stay in Beijing.

Dr. Tan also visited the Mr. Weiping Liu, who is the CEO of Empyrean Corporation, Beijing China to explore possibility of collaborations on July 3th, 2014. Empyrean is a electronic design automation (EDA) startup up company in China.

On July 4th, Dr. Sheldon Tan also visited the Prof. Yu Hu, who is a professor in the Institute of Computing Technologies, State-Key lab of Computer Architecture, Chinese Academy of Science in Beijing. Dr. Sheldon Tan also gave an invited talk during his visit.

The Institute of Computing Technologies, State Key Lab of Computer Architecture, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China, “Physics-Based Full-Chip Electron-Migration Analysis and System-level Reliability Management”,  July 4th, 2014. Host: Prof. Yu Hu of ICT, CAS.

Figure 4 Dr. Sheldon Tan gave the talk in the Institute of Computing Technologies, CSA, China on July 4th, 2014.

•July 09-July 22 2014

From July 09 to July 22, 2014, Dr. Sheldon Tan visited the School of Microelectronics and Solid State Electronics in the University of Electronic Science and Technologies of China (UESTC). Dr. Sheldon Tan visited several faculty members during his visit such as Prof. Hai Wang, Prof. Bo Zhang, who is the director of the Power Electronic Research Center at UESTC.

On July 16, 2014, Prof. David Pan from University of Taxes at Austin also visited School of Microelectronics and Solid State Electronics at UESTC and he presented invited talk on nanometer IC design and technology. Dr. Sheldon Tan has discussions with him during his visit.

•July 23 to July 26, 2014

Dr. Sheldon Tan came back to Beijing on July 22, 2014.  Prof. Tan and US students were mainly focusing the joint research works in the EDA Lab at Tsinghua University. The US students and their collaborative host students did a good job to finish the programming to implement the basic network analysis functions such as conversion between different network types and merging of two network functions.

•July 26 to August 11, 2014

Dr. Sheldon Tan went back to U.S. on July 26 to attend the 2nd International Workshop on Cross-Layer Resiliency (IWCR 2014), held in Marina Del Rey, CA. Dr. Sheldon Tan presented an invited talk during this workshop.

2nd International Workshop on Cross-layer Resiliency (IWCR 2014),  USC Information Science Institute (ISI),  Marina del Rey, CA, “Physics-Based Full-Chip Electron-Migration Modeling and System-level Reliability Management”, July 28, 2014.

On August 11, 2014, the three U.S. students went back to U.S. from Beijing after their visiting program ends. One of the students, Sojin Ahn,  continued working on the network-based analysis and modeling considering process variations after she came back to U.S.

•Post-IRES senimar at UC Riverside on Oct. 3th, 2014.

The three students (Sojin Ahn, Leila Suasnabar, Hsin-Yu (Cindy) Fan Chiang) participated in the post-IRES program seminar held in UC Riverside on Oct. 3th, 2014.  Three IRES students presented their research and social activities in the seminar. The seminar was jointly held with another IRES program at UC Riverside directed by Prof. Albert Wang.  About 30 UCR students participated this event. Their presentations were well received and many students were looking for opportunities to join this program in the future.

Figure 5 Sojin, Leila and Cindy presented their research and social activies of the IRES program

Figure 6 The group photo of all the participating students and faculty in the post-IRES program seminar

Figure 7 IRES students holding the IRES program certificates