White House honors Alexandre Bayen with early career award

The White House has honored University of California, Berkeley’s Alexandre Bayen, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, with the prestigious 2010 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).

Alexandre Bayen stands atop a car involved in one of his mobile transportation-system research projects. (Coralie Claudel photo)

The award, announced earlier this month, is the nation’s highest honor for scientists at the early stages of their careers.

Bayen, 36, is one of 85 honorees — including six UC scientists and engineers – around the country to receive the award, established in 1996 to recognize early career scientists and engineers who show outstanding promise and leadership in their fields.

Bayen’s research focuses on designing and implementing algorithms for use in mobile Internet applications. His algorithms have been used to model air and highway traffic, as well as to measure air and water quality. One of his most recent projects includes Mobile Millennium, a system that uses GPS-enabled mobile devices to monitor real-time traffic conditions. Another of his projects includes the Floating Sensor Network, which uses cellular technology to enable floating robotics platforms to transmit water quality information about the San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento Delta to computers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

PECASE awardees are chosen among candidates nominated by any of 10 federal departments and agencies. The nominees are scientists and engineers whose early accomplishments exemplify the promise of America’s work in science and engineering. Bayen was nominated by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The full list of award recipients is available online.