SEAS welcomes 34 new faculty members
By Elizabeth Egan
Published October 28, 2024
This year, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) welcomes 34 new faculty members. The scholars bring expertise and interest ranging from software security and electrochemical separations to digital storytelling.
The new faculty members contribute to the University at Buffalo’s largest faculty-hiring initiative since the university joined the SUNY system in the 1960’s. They will support UB’s Top 25 Ambition and help to bring the benefits of SEAS research and educational excellence to global and local communities in ways that will impact the world for the better.
Learn more about each of SEAS’s newest faculty members, including their prior education, summarized research interests and what they are looking forward to in their new position.
NEW FACULTY BY DEPARTMENT
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Mary Canty, assistant professor of teaching, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests: Prevention of orthopedic implant infections.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am eager to work closely with students and provide career guidance, drawing on my experience in both industry and academia.
Education: PhD, University at Buffalo
Hometown: Buffalo, New York
Filip Stefanovic, assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests: Computational neurorehabilitation; computer-assisted health care.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I’m excited about working with cross-disciplinary teams of researchers from a variety of disciplines, such as rehabilitation, sports science, engineering, and medicine.
Education: PhD, McGill University
Hometown: Toronto, Canada
Jungeun (Jenny) Won, assistant professor of research, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests: Developing biomedical optical imaging technologies.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am excited to be a part of the collaborative and interdisciplinary research environment at UB.
Education: PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Hometown: Geoje, South Korea
Lin Zhang, assistant professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Research Interests: Smart electronics for biomedical engineering.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am excited about starting my professional journey here at UB, where I will have the opportunity to work with great faculty, supportive staff, and diverse students.
Education: PhD, Auburn University
Hometown: Xi’an, China
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Aurora del Carmen Munguía-López, assistant professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Research Interests: Optimization; process design; life cycle assessment.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I'm most excited about joining the diverse and collaborative UB community, and I look forward to working with UB students, faculty, and staff while contributing to the mission of the university and my department.
Education: PhD, University of Michoacan
Hometown: Salamanca, Mexico
Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
Jonathan Boualavong, assistant professor, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Electrochemical separations for just climate interventions.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I'm excited to work with UB students on wicked sustainability problems and help them fall in love with doing science and engineering along the way.
Education: PhD, Pennsylvania State University
Hometown: Columbia, Maryland
Xudong (Andrew) Fan, assistant professor, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Intelligent urban water systems.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am excited about the Empire AI consortium, which will create and launch a state-of-the-art artificial intelligence computing center on UB’s campus.
Education: PhD, Case Western Reserve University
Hometown: Linyi, China
Samantha Mehltretter, assistant professor of teaching, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Engineering within natural aquatic systems.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I’m excited to teach UB’s students and think through complex environmental engineering challenges with them.
Education: PhD, University of Guelph
Hometown: Oakville, Canada
Mark Voisinet, associate professor of practice, Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
Research Interests: Computer-aided design.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am looking forward to working with students to prepare them for rewarding careers in either the private sector or in research while working in a collaborative and inclusive campus environment.
Education: MSIT, Buffalo State University
Hometown: Tonawanda, New York
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Adekunle Afolabi, assistant professor of teaching, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Research Interests: AI-enabled robust software for health care.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: The diversity of students, faculty and staff.
Education: PhD, University of Eastern Finland
Hometown: Erin-Osun, Nigeria
Bakr Albahri, associate professor of teaching, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Research Interests: Machine learning and computer architecture.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: UB is like a small international city with high education and research quality.
Education: PhD, University of Illinois at Chicago
Yorah Bosse, assistant professor of teaching, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Research Interests: Programming; education; misconceptions; patterns; difficulties.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: The most exciting part of starting a new job at UB is stepping out of my comfort zone, as everything is new to me: a new country, colleagues, language, a new university, new systems, challenges, rules, and more.
Education: PhD, University of São Paulo
Hometown: Presidente Getúlio, Brazil
Haipeng Cai, associate professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Research Interests: Software/systems security; software engineering.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: The collaborative and collegial environment as well as exciting and impactful research scholarship.
Education: PhD, University of Notre Dame
Hometown: Huanggang, China
Xiangyu Guo, assistant professor of teaching, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Research Interests: Algorithm design for combinatorial optimization.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am most excited about being able to return to UB and work with many old friends.
Education: PhD, University at Buffalo
Hometown: Ji’an, China.
Asif Imran, assistant professor of teaching, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Research Interests: Improving energy consumption and carbon footprint.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: Sharing knowledge with the students and the opportunity to contribute to their success.
Education: PhD, University at Buffalo
Hometown: Dhaka, Bangladesh
Vishnu Lokhande, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Research Interests: Machine learning; vision-language models.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I'm most excited about interacting with and mentoring students, applying machine learning and computer vision techniques across various disciplines, and making impactful research contributions grounded in fundamental optimization and statistics.
Education: PhD, University of Wisconsin–Madison
Hometown: Hyderabad, India
Xi Lu, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Research Interests: Human-computer interaction.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I look forward to meeting and collaborating with people from various disciplines who share an interest in HCI and exploring and designing technologies that enhance health and wellness in people's everyday lives!
Education: PhD, University of California, Irvine
Hometown: Xi’an, China
Naeem Maroof, associate professor of teaching, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Research Interests: Low-power memory and compute circuits.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: UB is a great place to work at and Buffalo is great place to live.
Education: PhD, Hanyang University
Hometown: Abbottabad, Pakistan
Mostafa Mohammed, assistant professor of teaching, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Research Interests: Computer science education.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: UB is an R1 university, and it is an honor to be a member of it.
Education: PhD, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
Hometown: Asyut, Egypt
Maria Rodriguez, principal research scientist, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Research Interests: Equity optimized algorithmic decision making.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I’m grateful for the opportunity to be part of a team at SEAS.
Education: PhD, University of Washington
Hometown: New York, New York
Qianchuan Ye, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Research Interests: Interactive proof assistants; programming languages.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am most excited about being part of this welcoming community, collaborating with the wonderful researchers here, and sharing the cool stuff in my research fields with the students.
Education: PhD, Purdue University
Hometown: Guangzhou, China
Department of Electrical Engineering
Adedoyin Inaolaji, assistant professor, Department of Electrical Engineering
Research Interests: Optimization of renewable-rich power systems.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am most excited about mentoring and influencing emerging engineers to do groundbreaking research in clean energy.
Education: PhD, Florida International University
Hometown: Lagos, Nigeria
Barnard Onyenucheya, assistant professor of teaching, Department of Electrical Engineering
Research Interests: Pulsed power; non-thermal plasma.
Education: PhD, University at Buffalo
Ming Shi, assistant professor, Department of Electrical Engineering
Research Interests: Machine learning theory; network optimization.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am most excited about the outstanding collaboration opportunities to make greater research contributions and the opportunities to support students in building their career paths.
Education: PhD, Purdue University
Hometown: China
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Yu (Chelsea) Jin, assistant professor, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Research Interests: Analytics for advanced and smart manufacturing.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: A great environment and great people to work with at UB.
Education: PhD, University of Arkansas
Hometown: Zhejiang, China
Aanuoluwapo Ojelade, distinguished research fellow, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Research Interests: Occupational ergonomics and biomechanics.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am thrilled to join a community that fosters collaboration, mutual growth, and innovation.
Education: PhD, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
Hometown: Okinni, Nigeria
Department of Materials Design and Innovation
Soohyun Im, assistant professor, Department of Materials Design and Innovation
Research Interests: Structure-property relationships in materials.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am most excited about the opportunity to explore materials science from a multidisciplinary point of view, especially in the materials, design and innovation department, and contribute to the development of the next generations.
Education: PhD, Ohio State University
Hometown: Seoul, South Korea
Hui Cao, assistant professor of research, Department of Materials Design and Innovation
Research Interests: Thin film synthesis and characterization.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am most excited about the opportunity to collaborate with leading researchers and passionate students at UB.
Education: PhD, University of Science and Technology of China
Hometown: Yingxian, China
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Hyeongyun Cha, assistant professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Research Interests: Addressing energy and water challenges.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am most excited about this great opportunity to tackle global energy and water challenges with excellent faculties, staff, and students at UB.
Education: PhD, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Hometown: Mokpo, South Korea
Chaozhe He, assistant professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Research Interests: Build trustworthy robot companions.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: Cutting-edge research in AI and robotics, inclusive and collaborative environments, and a group of talented colleagues and students.
Education: PhD, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Hometown: Guangzhou, China
Katharine Hunter, assistant professor of teaching, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Research Interests: Thermal and energy sciences; engineering education.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am most excited to be working with engineering undergrads who are eager to learn and want to make an impact on our immediate energy challenges.
Education: PhD, University of Minnesota
Hometown: Rochester, New York
Xin Yong, associate professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Research Interests: Synthetic and biological soft matter.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am most excited about UB’s vibrant research atmosphere, its culture of multidisciplinary collaboration, and the opportunity to work with internationally renowned faculty and talented students.
Education: PhD, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Hometown: Chongqing, China
School of Engineerng and Applied Sciences
Yulong Huang, process engineer, Shared Instrumentation Laboratories
Research Interests: Materials science and engineering.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am most excited about a broader engagement with UB faculties, students, researchers, other institutions and industries, and to help people succeed in their scientific careers via guidance and collaborations.
Education: PhD, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Hometown: JiangXi Province, China
Adithya Lakshmi Narayanan, assistant professor of teaching, Computational and Data-Enabled Sciences
Research Interests: Data for/in social good.
What are you most excited about as you start at UB: I am excited to partake in the construction of a truly world-class data-enabled sciences curriculum, a vital cog in the era that humankind is entering.
Education: PhD, University at Buffalo
Hometown: Chennai, India
