Lung-Wen Tsai, 57, educator, researcher
PROFESSOR: The holder of eight patents taught at the Riverside campus of the University of California.
12/07/2002
By GAIL WESSON
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
RIVERSIDE - By profession, UCR mechanical engineering Professor Lung-Wen Tsai was an expert in robotics and machine kinematics, and an inventor with eight patents in automotive- and machine-mechanism design to his credit.
But in his spare time he returned to his earthly roots by spending hours tending his garden of vegetables, fruit trees, flowers and shrubs at his Riverside home.
Growing up as the youngest of 10 children in a poor Taiwanese family, he was often up at 4 a.m. to take his farm family's vegetables to market. Then he walked an hour barefoot to school and slipped on his shoes at the classroom door because those shoes had to last a year, according to his family.
The professor died Nov. 29 of a brain aneurysm at his Riverside home. He was 57.
Dr. Tsai was known for using his experience in industry to keep students motivated. He had a knack for explaining complicated technical material and advanced theoretical concepts in simple terms.
His specialty was machine kinematics and what is known in the industry as multiple degrees of freedom. He looked at machines, how they move and the forces that affect movement to help design better machines, said Satish Tripathi, dean of UCR's College of Engineering. Tripathi called the senior professor's death a "great loss" to the expanding mechanical engineering department.
"I think what we will miss is his leadership to mentor junior faculty about the importance of research," Shankar Mahalingam, chairman of the department, said.
He previously was a research engineer with General Motors Corp. in Warren, Mich., where he worked on innovative engine and transmission mechanism designs, and Hewlett-Packard Co. in San Diego, where his work included instrumentation tape recorders.
He was a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and editor-in-chief of the society's "Journal of Mechanical Design" since 1998. He also was a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers.
Dr. Tsai earned a bachelor's degree at National Taiwan University, a master's from State University of New York at Buffalo and his doctorate from Stanford University in 1973, all in mechanical engineering.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, he was the only child in his family to study in the United States. While in college in Taiwan, he continued working on the family farm.
"If he wasn't in front of the computer working on his research, editing other's journal articles, or reading students' papers, he would be outdoors walking or working in the yard with his wife," his children wrote in a tribute to their father.
He is survived by his wife, Lung-Chu; a daughter, Jule Ann of New York; a son, David of San Francisco; and four sisters and a brother, all of Taiwan.
Services will be at 9 a.m. Dec. 14 at Rose Hills Mortuary in Whittier. Friends may call at the mortuary from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday and from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Friday.
Dr. Tsai's family plans to establish a memorial fund in his honor at Stanford University's department of mechanical engineering. He received a full fellowship to the university and credited the institution for much of his success, according to his family.
LATEST NEWS:
