Professor Jennifer C. Hou passed away peacefully on Sunday December 2nd, 2007 with her son, Andrew, at her side after a long and brave fight against cancer. We appreciate it if you could leave a few words in memory of Prof. Jennifer Hou.
Champaign -- Dr. Jennifer Hou, passed away on December 2, 2007 in Houston, Texas at the age of 43.
Hou was born on September 26, 1964 in Taipei, Taiwan, the daughter of I-Chen and So-Chiu Hou.
Hou received her B.S.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from National Taiwan University, Taiwan, ROC in 1987, M.S.E degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and in Industrial and Operations Engineering (I&OE) from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI in 1989 and in 1991, and Ph.D. degree in EECS also from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI in 1993.
She was an assistant professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI from 1993-1996, and an assistant/associate professor in Electrical Engineering at Ohio State University, Columbus, OH from 1996-2001.
She joined the University of Illinois Computer Science faculty in 2001. She was a principal researcher in networked systems and served as the director of the Illinois Network Design and Experimentation (INDEX) research group.
Her research interests in networked systems ranged from issues of Quality of Service in wireless networks to enabling software infrastructure for assisted living. She pursued topics in both the theoretical protocol design and deployment aspects of wireless sensor networks.
Hou was elected as an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow and an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Distinguished Scientist in 2007. She was a recipient of an ACM Recognition of Service Award in 2004 and 2007, a Cisco University Research Award from Cisco, Inc., 2002, a Lumley Research Award from Ohio State University in 2001, a NSF CAREER award from the Network and Communications Research Infrastructure, National Science Foundation in 1996-2000, and a Women in Science Initiative Award from The University of Wisconsin -- Madison in 1993-1995.
She is survived by her son, Andrew, her parents, I-Chen and So-Chiu Hou, and her sister, Grace Hou.
A memorial service will be held on Friday, January 18, 2008 at 3:30 p.m. in Room1404, Siebel Center for Computer Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 201 North Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, Illinois.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the ''Hou Family Memorial Fund'', and mailed to P.O. Box 6872, Champaign, IL 61826. Contributions may also be made to the Jennifer Hou Memorial Fund, with checks made payable to the ''University of Illinois'' and mailed to University of Illinois, Department of Computer Science, 201 N. Goodwin Ave., Room 2210, Urbana, IL 61801.
This fund was originally set up for memorial contributions, in lieu of flowers, that friends of Jennifer want to send. It will pay for the memorial service expenses. The remaining funds will go to Jennifer's scholarship at UI. Contribution to this fund can also be used for Andrew's education. Please specify the purpose with a memo. Checks should be made payable to "Hou Family Memorial Fund", and mailed to:
P.O. Box 6872
Champaign, IL 61826
Note that contributions to this fund are not tax deductible.
This is to support a scholarship set up by the University of Illinois (UI) in memory of Jennifer. The scholarship will be for qualifying UI students. Checks should be made payable to "University of Illinois", with a memo stating that it is for Jennifer Hou Memorial Fund. Please mail the check to:
University of Illinois
Dept. of Computer Science
Room 2210
201 N. Goodwin Ave.
Urbana, IL 61801
Note that contributions to this fund are tax deductible.