Three cheers! Did you ever think you’d finish? All the labs, problem sets, group projects and late nights seemed endless a year ago. But here you are, just a sliver away from graduating, so now it’s time to celebrate the Class of 2006. We dedicate this special Commencement issue of Engineering News to you.

Inside, you’ll read about your fellow seniors making College of Engineering news, winners of the College’s top awards as well as College and world milestones from the last four years. (Remember that Janet Jackson thing?) You’ll learn about our graduation speakers and find out how your class stacks up by the numbers. For a trip down memory lane, check out the year in photographs. And finally, in the last Pop Quiz of the year, read what you and your fellow graduating seniors said about life here at Berkeley. Appropriately, you get the last word.

Keep in touch. We’d love to hear about life after northside and the wonderful things you decide to do. From all of us at the College of Engineering, congratulations and best wishes!

-- Rachel Shafer, Editor, Engineering News

Senior moments from Engineering News
Class of 2006 takes the proverbial spotlight and makes College headlines

The stats are stellar. For the fourth year in a row, Berkeley Engineering took first in the NATCAR competition held each spring at UC Davis. In NATCAR, student teams develop small-scale electric cars that drive themselves efficiently around a preset, wired path. The fastest car wins. The team led by Quan Gan, an EECS senior with an ME minor, placed second behind another team of — you guessed it — EECS seniors from Berkeley.

While other seniors face the challenge of finding a job or applying to graduate school, 22-year-old ME senior John Makar faces his mortality. “I came to terms with it before I signed the contract,” says the Army ROTC graduate, who will be serving four years in the Army, most likely heading to Iraq, he says. [FULL STORY]

EECS alum and QUALCOMM CEO to deliver Commencement address

Paul Jacobs (B.S.’84, M.S.’86, Ph.D.’89 EECS) has been the primary driver of QUALCOMM’s focus on enabling wireless data services, which make the cellphone a tool for not only voice communications, but also for entertainment, computing and information access.

Jacobs was always a high achiever, and his rise at QUALCOMM is no exception. In his first five years in the engineering division, he produced technology that led to more than 25 patents in the area of wireless technology and devices. [FULL STORY]

Departments

• Awards and Scholarships

• The Year In Photos

• Looking Back

• Looking Forward

• Parting Words

• Fast Facts

To submit a seminar listing, please fill out the electronic form.

Win an award? Have an event coming up that you want publicized? E-mail news items and suggestions to the editor at Engineering News.

Send comments to editnews@coe.berkeley.edu © 2003 UC Regents