In fact, part of the reason I moved to California was because of Martin’s glowing reports. Another reason was because my wife Betty was not very happy living in the New Mexico desert. It was good to see Martin again, and to hear about his life and travels.

* * *

On Wednesday we went on a field trip to Sea World. I rode some rides, and saw some of the marine animal shows. We attended the Shamu show, and one of the killer whales splashed the heck out of us.

* * *

I recently received a note from Ron Gilgenbach, who is the chair of the University of Michigan Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences Department. Ron sent me a copy of two figures that appeared in a book titled Neutron Thermalization and Reactor Spectra back in 1968.

It’d been some time since I had last seen these figures, and I enjoyed seeing them again. I have included them below.

– Bob

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It is expected that the new Betty and Bob Beyster Institute for Nursing Research, Advanced Practice and Simulation will be completed and operational by 2017. The Hahn School is doing good work in advancing nursing and health science, and I am pleased that we can help the school do even more in this important field that touches so many lives.

* * *

When I visited the University of Michigan last month, I enjoyed a variety of presentations made by the engineering students and faculty. One of the presentations I found of particular interest was the work being done in the area of sensor-driven computing and what they call “smart dust.”

Prabal Dutta is a key researcher in this area, and he is collaborating with other researchers on this work, including David Blaauw, Dennis Sylvester, and David Wentzloff. It is my understanding that smart dust is networks of very small (cubic-mm) integrated, autonomous, energy-harvesting nodes that can sense the environment and deliver their data over a wireless mesh network.

If successful, this line of research could have a tremendous impact on the future of computer networking. I have included a couple of slides that detail the work that Prabal Dutta and his colleagues are doing.

– Bob

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Although I have not yet seen the complete film, I am looking forward to it. I believe it will go a long way in helping us achieve our goal of advancing the ideals of employee ownership to a larger audience. You can view the trailer below:

For more information or to pre-order, please visit the We the Owners website.

* * *

I was happy to see that the newly named Bob and Betty Beyster Building at the University of Michigan is getting some use by the engineering students. I learned that about 50 students in the Machine Learning class (EECS 545) participated in a project poster session in Tishman Hall, which is the large open area on the first floor.

Some of the proects and student presenters included A Real-time Hand Gesture Recognition System (Arun Ganesan), Prediction of Patient’s Length of Stay Using Health-care Claims Data (Jiwei Cao, Juchuan Ma, Wan Huang), and Improving Image Feature Correspondence for Hovering Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (Paul Ozog, Patrick O’Keefe). I have included a photo of the proceedings below:

– Bob

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Our trip began with an airplane ride from Palomar Airport in Carlsbad to Willow Run, a small airport outside of Detroit that was once the home of a manufacturing plant in World War II for the B-24 bombers built by the Ford Motor Company. The dedication ceremony at the University of Michigan was scheduled for Wednesday, April 11th, and before the event we toured the Engineering School, where we met with students, researchers, and faculty and were given briefings on their various research projects, some of which Betty and I have supported through our previous donations to the school. I was especially pleased to see their continued progress in the areas of nanotechnology, molecular physics, and laser spectroscopy. We visited the Ford Nuclear Reactor building and were able to see the now empty reactor pool and many of the remaining facilities. The reactor has been decommissioned for a long time, so the school is converting it to a laser lab, and we’ll be paying for part of that. We had dinners with different professors every night, sometimes in university buildings such as the Michigan Union and sometimes at restaurants in Ann Arbor.

The school made a big event of the dedication ceremony. The event was hosted by the Dean of Engineering, David Munson, and there were many speakers representing U-M, including Mary Sue Coleman, the President of the University, Marios Papaefthymiou, Professor and Chair of Computer Science and Engineering, and Shamik Ganguly, graduate student research assistant in CSE. The highlight of the day for me was when we first entered the lobby of the building and were greeted with a long line of students shaking blue and gold pom-poms and cheering our arrival. There were a lot of congratulations and everyone was shaking hands and so forth. I also won’t forget when they brought out part of the University of Michigan marching band to play the school fight song, Hail to the Victors, for us. That was really something. I was pleased that a number of my SAIC friends were able to join us at the ceremony as well.

I gave a short speech and my daughter Mary Ann also said a few words for the occasion. All in all, it was quite a day.

We visited my boyhood home in Grosse Ile, and this time we had the good fortune to be able to tour the inside of the house. It felt good to be inside my old house again after so many years and it brought back many good memories of my family and growing up. We also visited the Henry Ford Museum in Greenfield Village, and we dropped in on my old SAE fraternity house at the University of Michigan.

Summing up my visit, I feel good about the contributions that Betty and I have made to Michigan over the years. I owe a lot to the University — it’s the only place I went to college.

I have included some photos from the event that I hope you will enjoy.

– Bob

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I am hoping that this time we will have the opportunity to take a look inside the house and see how it has changed in the more than 60 years since I lived there. I will post a detailed trip report when I return, hopefully with some photos.

* * *
I was interested to read in the Washington Post that the al-Qaeda Internet forums are back online after they were blacked out for more than a week. Apparently the websites were the target of a cyberattack, although it is not clear who might have initiated this attack.

It’s amazing to me that al-Qaeda and its operatives are sophisticated enough to have a fully developed website to communicate their message of darkness to their fellow conspirators. I suspect that the U.S. has fully infiltrated their network, though I don’t have first-hand knowledge if this is the case or not.

* * *
On Wednesday we went on a field trip to Newport Beach, where we had lunch on a beautiful lagoon on Balboa Island. We had to take a ferry to get there, which was an enjoyable adventure.

– Bob

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While some have argued that commanders on the battlefield should have this authority, the commander of the U.S. Cyber Command — General Keith Alexander — has come down on the side of requiring presidential authority to launch cyberattacks. I personally believe that the authority should be scaled depending on the origin and nature of the threat. Battlefield commanders should have the authority to defend their troops from cyberattack without having to go too far up the chain of command, especially in time-critical situations.

– Bob

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– Bob

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The prank was a fully functioning jacuzzi hot tub, installed on a 4th floor balcony of the Computer Science Engineering building. The icing on the cake was a plaque mounted on the hot tub that dubbed it “The Bob and Betty Beyster Bubbler.”

Although the hot tub has been removed, I understand that some of the engineering students were able to enjoy it. I thank the students for thinking of Betty and me, and I congratulate them on their ability to carry out this difficult engineering feat. I have included a photo of the plaque below.

– Bob

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Although I have never met him, I think Jumper is a good man, and I hope he will be successful in his new position. I am going to send him a copy of my book The SAIC Solution so that he’ll have a good background on the company and its unique culture.

* * *

From what I read in the newspapers, next Tuesday’s Republican primary in Michigan is up for grabs. It surprises me that Romney is in a virtual dead heat with Santorum, especially given the fact that Romney is a Michigan native son.

It would be a shame if Romney lost in his home state. I think he is a pretty good guy, and I for one hope he wins the primary there.

* * *

On Wednesday we went to the San Diego Botanic Garden. The Garden is quite impressive, and many flowers are now in bloom. It is located on 37 acres in Encinitas, north of San Diego, and we wandered the trails for some time — enjoying the warm Santa Ana breeze.

Last Wednesday we went to Bates Nut Farm in Valley Center. We saw some ostriches and bought some cashews, which are my favorite.

I am still getting out on the boat every Friday, though we have stayed in San Diego Bay the past few times. I enjoy having lunch at Sally’s next to the Manchester Hyatt. Their sushi is very good and the hotel has a dock where we can tie up while we eat.

– Bob

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Anyway, I recently decided to make a $15 million gift to the University of Michigan College of Engineering. Of this total, $9 million will be dedicated to endowing a fellowship program designed to fund up to 10 engineering doctoral students each year, $5 million will go towards the renovation of the Ford Nuclear Reactor Building on the University of Michigan Campus, and $1 million will be allocated to the Center for Entrepreneurship and the development of a curriculum to teach students about employee ownership.

I personally give the University of Michigan and my professors there a great deal of credit for giving me the preparation I needed to become a successful scientist and researcher, and ultimately, the founder of SAIC. In return, I would like to help the University that is responsible for doing all these fine things for me. In addition, it is my sincere hope that the research my gift will support in the areas of bioinformatics, nuclear reactor safety, computer and network security, autonomous systems, and more will help to keep the United States globally competitive long into the future.

Of course, I could not have made this gift without the hard work of my many talented friends and colleagues at SAIC. Together we built this great company, and in the process we created significant and lasting value for our employee-owners, and for our nation. For that I thank you all.

I have included a couple of photos of me in my home office reviewing and signing the University of Michigan gift paperwork.

– Bob

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