Gold Shield Alumnae

Professor William J. Kaiser

2007 Faculty Prize Recipient

Professor William J. Kaiser received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Wayne State University, the latter in 1984. His field is electrical engineering with a focus on sensor networks and embedded computing systems. He arrived as a professor at UCLA in 1994 after work at Ford Motor Company Research and later at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). At Ford, his research focused on the development of automotive emission control sensors and embedded control systems. These are devices now in use in vehicles today. At JPL, he developed microinstrument technologies that have appeared in both past missions and will appear in the next planned Mars mission. He was a member of the team that developed the first Mars Rover and led seismic sensor development for this program. He has boundless creativity in his field as demonstrated by his 22 patents and more than 170 publications.

Dr. Kaiser’s research is quite broad, but his success has been most notable in the development of the field of modern wireless sensor networks including his recent development of NIMS (Networked Infomechanical Systems). Nims was a primary feature of a recent New York Times article and in two television programs.

Encouraging undergraduates with research opportunities has always been important in his career where he has created large summer undergraduate research programs and engineering design courses. He also developed the 3i program, Individualized Interactive Instruction, a student-centered learning method. Using this new networked tool, students can respond to questions and provide answers in an anonymous, private way, and the professor can then shape his lectures using the direct knowledge of the students’ level of understanding and their problem-solving abilities.

In spite of his heavy research and teaching schedule, Dr. Kaiser has served as Department chair and on various university-wide committees. Among his many honors, he is the recipient of the Brian P. Copenhaver Award for Innovation in Teaching with Technology and was selected as the UCLA Engineering Professor of the Year in 2004 by the students of the Engineering Society of the University of California.

Professor Kaiser’s students hold him in the highest esteem. On the uclaprofessors.com web site (which is prepared by a student organization), he was voted one of the top ten faculty members from across the entire campus in terms of Highest Effectiveness; he was ranked third among the Most Recommended; and he was named number one among faculty having the Highest Concern for students.

In student comments submitted after taking a Kaiser class, they speak of midnight emails being answered promptly, the obvious care he has for his students, his intense desire to help them to understand, and his constant availability. Gold Shield is indeed fortunate to honor Professor William Kaiser as the twelfth recipient of the Gold Shield Faculty Prize.