Meet Our New Faculty

"I teach courses that focus on biomaterials and regenerative medicine; I am passionate about these because they are promising alternatives to traditional medicine in repairing or replacing damaged or diseased tissue. I believe that by teaching students to apply advanced research technologies, data analysis methods, and critical thinking skills to these topics, they can learn to combine fundamental knowledge and real-life problem solving skills."

“I conduct research in neural engineering, the application of engineering to the neurosciences. My translational research work in neurotechnology, motor rehabilitation, clinical neurophysiology and cerebrovascular medicine is focused on developing technologies to treat, cure and even prevent neurological disorders.”

“Seeing inside the body is of critical importance for diagnosing and treating diseases. My research focuses on an emerging technique called photoacoustic computed tomography that combines acoustic signals, basically ultrasound, with optical signals from lasers, to produce finer details and richer contrasts about the tissue than either method on its own.”

"Early detection of diseases and monitoring pollutants in the environment are critical in enhancing the quality of life, protecting the environment, and efficiently utilizing natural resources. My research is focused on developing innovative, networked sensors based on micro-electromechanical systems and powered by single wire electricity transmission technique for these applications."

"As a teaching faculty member, my goal is to provide the undergraduate students with an in-depth understanding of chemical engineering fundamentals and applications. I bring a perspective based upon twenty-four years of manufacturing experience, which will aid in bringing experiential learning opportunities and further incorporating industrial topics such as Process Safety Management into our curricula."

"Every day, our constant demand for energy means that power plants, refineries and other industries are running 24/7, producing tons of emissions with a huge impact in our environment. More than ever, engineers play a key role in developing sustainable energy systems. As educator, one of my goals is to teach students fundamental concepts and tools that they can implement towards a cleaner environment."

“My research focuses on important industrial targets for production of cutting-edge catalytic materials that meet the strict emission standards introduced by EPA by utilizing common pollutants from internal combustion engines.   My team is also developing innovative catalysts for enhancing the transformation of methane (greenhouse gas and dominant component of natural gas) directly into more useful chemicals.” 

“Regenerative medicine and human stem cell research, and advanced imaging technologies, are emerging technologies with great potential economic impact. I am investigating how to engineer organs from stem cells, how to model and image the disease processes with stem cells, and how to image stem cell functions inside the body. This research will lead to commercially viable, engineered products that will advance health and biomedicine.” 

“My research focuses on rational design, through large-scale computations, of the next generation of renewable energy materials. In particular, I investigate efficient and cost-effective inter-conversion of electricity and chemical energy. The research could lead to breakthroughs in the generation and utilization of alternate fuel sources.”

""Providing alternative sources of energy is one way new catalysts and advanced materials benefit society and the environment. My research combines quantum chemical modeling with modern concepts such as virtual high-throughput and “big data” techniques, materials informatics, and machine learning, to rationally design innovative materials, and accelerate the development process."

“My research focuses on developing innovative functional materials and catalysts for sustainable electrochemical energy and environmental uses. I use earth-abundant elements to replace expensive and supply-limited precious metals. This effort requires a fundamental understanding of relevant electrocatalysis mechanisms.” 

“My research focuses on developing innovative nanoscale materials to deliver safe drinking water by removing harmful pollutants and pathogens. I am also evaluating the environmental, health, and social implications of these novel nanomaterials and nano-enabled consumer products, including dental restorations and electronic wastes such as cellphones and computers.”

“I study the physical mechanisms involved in flow through soil and rock to develop a resilient and sustainable strategy for production and/or storage of water and energy from and into the earth. My goal is to develop tools and technologies to store seasonal energy and water for domestic use with minimal environmental impacts.”

"I am developing mitigation strategies and evaluating the response of the built environment under extreme loading and multi-hazard scenarios, especially fire as a primary or secondary event. My work investigates the behavior and design of buildings for fire scenarios considering uncertainties, and resilience of a community after an extreme event such as post-earthquake fires or wildfire."

“Polluted water poses serious risks to human and ecosystem health. I investigate the sources and fate of bacterial contaminants in coastal waters. This research has local and global implications for assessing risks posed by contaminated water and engineering systems to treat water. I use similar DNA-based techniques to track aquatic organisms such as invasive species to complement traditional biological monitoring.”

“I am interested in understanding the dynamics of flow and transport processes in natural and engineered waterway systems, and how these dynamics relate to problems in urban storm water management. I use environmental fluid mechanics tools to investigate contaminated sediment in water, by developing and applying integrated hydrological, hydrodynamic, and water quality models. The main goal is to find innovative solutions to a more sustainable water environment.”

“I am developing sustainable and low-cost materials that will be used for air pollution control, improving indoor and outdoor air quality. My goal is to prevent the release of harmful air contaminants, which will improve human health and protect the environment.”

“I am exploring organic nitrogen chemistry in engineered and natural environmental systems to reduce risks to human health. I believe that an improved understanding of these systems will lead to creative and sustainable solutions to environmental problems that have occurred as a result of the release of nitrogen-containing organic compounds from industrial and domestic sources.”

“Maintenance and repair of infrastructure imposes economic and environmental burdens on our society. The underlying problem is the poor long-term performance of concrete, which is the most-widely used construction material.  I am developing innovative new materials that offer better mechanical performance and are more durable than concrete, resulting in significant cost savings over the long run."

“I am developing performance-based, sustainable design solutions for civil engineering infrastructure, with emphasis on geotechnical objects. My current research is focused on developing computational tools to simulate the behavior of geostructures and for subsequent analyses of risks, including economic and social consequences, during future extreme events such as earthquakes.” 

“My research addresses the effects of service and extreme winds on the built environment, with an emphasis on bridges. I am building basic knowledge of wind effects using computational fluid dynamics, predicting the impact of wind hazards on constructed facilities, and developing wind-response mitigation strategies to improve safety and serviceability.”

“My research, ambitiously, tries to teach a computer how to the real world is going on from massive real data, so that a computer can behavior like human. Technically and practically, I build models that can describe the data as well as possible, and design algorithms that learn model parameters from the data in a Bayesian way.” 

“My work focuses on the nexus of artificial intelligence and healthcare. I am interested in developing novel methods extracting essential information from massive scale, heterogeneous, distributed data sources to support evidence-based, patient-specific, and efficient diagnosis decisions and to help doctors and patients to understand the ubiquitous health data better.​​” 

“I am interested in the mechanisms to most effectively build the next generation of engineers, through techniques like experiential learning, gamification of educational material, and other innovative strategies to increase engagement and drive repeatable learning outcomes.   I am also interested in techniques to help make computer science a more diverse and inclusive field, and help generate interest in computing at early ages.” 

“I work at the intersection of computer science, applied mathematics and computational engineering, using parallel algorithms and high performance computing to solve complex engineering problems. I produce software (PETSc) that undergirds modern engineering design. My work has helped design aircraft for Boeing, model Formula 1 cars, and understand earthquake hazard.” 

“Friendships, likes, tweets in online social networks, websites in WWW, and even the protein interactions in our cells can be modeled as graph structures. I design and develop graph mining algorithms and systems that utilize the characteristics of the real-world networks to efficiently discover the insights that are hidden in the complex network structure.” 

“My research interests lie in information security, privacy, and applied cryptography. I work on secure computation and outsourcing, which allows computation to proceed on private data without revealing it. For example, hospitals can jointly analyze medical data without disclosing it or an entity can outsource its computational task to a cloud without revealing information about the data.” 

“My research focuses on developing methods and software tools to enable the collection and analysis of data without compromising the privacy of the data subjects. In addition, I develop methods and software tools that can be used to formally guarantee that programs execute correctly without bugs.” 

"My research involves storing fingerprint images in a way that prevents them from being stolen. Fingerprint scanners have been shown to accept fake fingerprints, which can be made if someone obtains your fingerprint image, for example from your gym's computer system. My job is to prevent this from happening to you."

"My research focuses on using "big data" to study and improve our social systems. For example, I am solving stochastic differential equations involving trillions of vehicle locations to better predict traffic jams, so that policymakers and individuals can make better transportation-related decisions.”

“Living things are able to work reliably in unstructured, changing environments and often do so with a baffling lack of direct information, planning, and communication. My research focuses on applying insights of how these natural systems function to engineering better, more robust artificial systems, e.g. robots that can build like termites or self-assemble like molecules.”

"I am developing information-effective and resource-efficient cyber-physical systems. These systems can intelligently collect, transmit, integrate, and eventually transform the deluge of sensory data generated by the ubiquitous human and physical sensors into high quality information that can enable us to better understand the social and physical world."

"My research efforts are primarily focused in advancing practical microwave circuits using novel design techniques, including the use of periodic structures and metamaterials (also known as composite right/left-handed structures). A portion of my research interest also includes exploring unique microwave systems including retrodirective array (RDA) that has the ability to transmit a received signal back toward the interrogator without a prior knowledge of the interrogators location.”

"Graphene, a single layer of carbon atoms in honeycomb lattice, has led the world to a new 2D era. My research explores the untapped potential of graphene and other 2D materials, and develops their advanced applications in nano-scale electronic and optoelectronic devices, such as transistors, memories, photodetectors and solar cells etc.”

"My research interests are in the broad areas of resource management and performance evaluation in wireless communication networks, particularly in providing quality of service in different types of networks, such as 4G/5G mobile cellular systems. Seamless connectivity for everyone and everything has become a 'must' in our society, and my work contributes to guaranteeing fast and reliable communications in the connected world.”

"My research focuses on developing compact and high-performance photonic devices for the terahertz to mid-infrared spectral range, such as light sources and detectors, and using these devices to build sensors that “see” individual molecules. Such sensors are usually built as table-top instruments. My goal is to make them small enough for integration in our mobile phones or watches.”

“My primary research area is low power data conversion from the analog to the digital domain by using time-based signal processing. This is particularly relevant for the Internet of Things. I am also working on extending data conversion techniques to biomedical sensor design for low-cost medical diagnosis and patient monitoring.”

“We live in an era of data deluge. How can we leverage all that information to learn only its most informative part? To this end, I am developing theory and algorithms that lie at the interplay of signal processing and machine learning, with applications spanning from communication systems to brain networks.”

“My research focuses on the control and protection of DC micro grid and high voltage DC transmission, as well as power electronics applications in other high voltage and high power systems. It can be applied to renewable energy integration, utility power grids, and a variety of electric vehicles including automobiles, aircraft and ships.”

“Safety critical domains (e.g., transportation, health care) are increasingly dependent on automation, but how are we fitting the human users to their new roles? My research examines how people adapt to technology, and how technology can in turn be leveraged to promote positive behaviors (e.g., safer driving).”

“My research focuses on data analytics for advanced manufacturing and energy systems and networks quality, reliability and efficiency improvements. Different types of measurement data, domain knowledge, engineering models are integrated for the 1) quality modeling, monitoring, prognostic, and control; and 2) knowledge transfer among different manufacturing and energy units.”

“Elevated carbon emission levels and traffic congestion are among the challenges facing cities. My research focuses on supporting the logistical needs of cities without contributing to their existing problems through designing unconventional logistics systems. This includes designing maritime and flying distribution centers, as well as underground delivery of packages and via drones.”

“My research focuses on the design and analysis of safety-critical systems that depend on human-automation interaction. Specifically, I develop novel methods and tools for using human behavior models, theories of erroneous behavior, and model checking (an automated means of performing exhaustive, mathematical proofs) to design systems with guaranteed safety performance.”

“Critical infrastructure systems are fundamental for the economic development and growth of any nation. My research focuses on designing mathematical programming models to identify vulnerabilities in these systems. These models can be used to understand negative effects caused by catastrophic events on infrastructure systems and components, thus leading to the development of strategies to improve resiliency and reliability.”

“Using computer programs and algorithms, I am teaching computers how to do materials science: from helping a robot plan experiments, to reasoning about complex simulation data, and even developing scientific theories from experimental results. My hope is to accelerate scientific inquiry and engineering processes, leading to higher quality and cheaper materials.”

“I work in interdisciplinary research on fundamental properties of low-dimensional materials (graphene and ultrathin transition metal dichalcogenide crystals, etc) using nanofabrication and theoretical modeling, that bridges areas of thermal transport, bio-sensing, electronics, photonics at a nanoscale. I am aiming to solve critical problems in energy, healthcare using novel nano-electronic devices.”

“Integrating data science techniques with materials databases is an important way to accelerate the design of new multi-functional materials for applications across multiple disciplines.  By extracting physics-based correlations from large computational and experimental data spaces, I develop high-throughput models that significantly expand the material knowledge base.”

“My research focuses on cancer metastasis regulation and termination, with a unique focus on cell signaling.  Cell culture models and physiological tissue samples are analyzed, primarily through mass spectroscopy, for form and function changes in proteins, sugars, lipids and metabolites.”

“My research includes designing, synthesizing, characterizing, and fabricating multifunctional nanomaterials and devices as well as developing new techniques to create materials with properties optimized for specific functions. My research and innovations to date have had great impact on information and communication technologies, national security, and energy conversion, transmission, and storage.”

“My research focuses on 3D chemical imaging of materials at an atomic level to understand and correlate their structure with its properties. This core research helps to understand the world of semiconductors, energy materials, heterostructures and alloys thereby unveiling unique characteristics to expand the ever growing world of material science.”

“Surfaces and interfaces play a pivotal role in the design and development of new engineering materials in the fields of tribology and bio-medical industry. My research focuses in measuring surface forces and interactions to understand the complex interplay between surface structure and its material property, at fundamental length scales.”

“All conventional electronic devices are flat and rigid due to the intrinsic nature of inorganic semiconductors. The human body or our environment is, by contrast, soft and curvilinear. My research aims to fill the gap between these mismatches in properties by developing highly flexible, low-dimensional single crystalline semiconductor nanosheets and realizing high-performance flexible electronic devices using these materials.”

“My interests advance research in energy, whether it is related to utilizing fuels or developing new fuels. I also work in the building energy sector to improve thermal comfort and air quality in buildings. The overall goals are to provide solutions that support energy sustainability and ensure society efficiently utilizes and manages energy resources.”

“My research involves a broad range of activities aimed at space exploration and advancing the state of art in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics. Together with my CRASH Lab team, we are also leading authorities in the areas of Unmanned Aerospace Systems (UAS) crashworthiness and damage forensics, having contributed uniquely contributed to safer aviation and skies.”

“I help students identify where their natural interests can flourish within mechanical and aerospace engineering. I teach them skills to design and control aircraft, road vehicles, and robots—then give them a nudge. Outside of class, my students are building an adaptive treadmill to allow people to walk and run in virtual reality.”

“Advanced manufacturing is the critical driving force for long-term economic prosperity and sustainable growth of our society. My research focuses on developing laser-based advanced manufacturing techniques at multiple scales. This effort requires a fundamental understanding of light-matter interactions, transport phenomena and physical properties of materials at multi-scales during laser processing.”

“Whenever a human operates in a mundane or a dangerous environment it is time to consider a robot. My interests lie in creating and commercializing unique robotic solutions that consistently improve quality of life.”

“My research centers around mechanical design and optimization using biomechanics based applications to rehabilitative and assistive devices.  I aim to explore completely new designs of lower limb prostheses in order to make them more comfortable thereby increasing compliance.”

“My teaching focuses on helping students gain effective communication skills to take control of and become active participants in their own learning practices. My research interests include technical and professional communication, international technical communication, rhetorics of health and medicine, usability studies, and social justice.”

“I work to help my students develop concrete skills in writing collaboratively and for a variety of audiences. My interests revolve around writing pedagogy and writing centers, as well as rhetoric, and I have a particular interest in the visual elements of technical writing​.”

“My focus is on helping students improve their verbal, visual and written communication skills. My research interests are in the areas of data visualization, design and public communication of science​​.”

“I focus on teaching introduction to engineering and fundamental engineering courses required in the first and second years. My goal is to provide a strong foundation for students in critical thinking and problem solving skills to set them to succeed in future courses and, ultimately, as engineers in practice. My research interests focus on medical imaging acquisition and image processing for early detection of solid tumors and characterization of disease.”

“I strive to broaden the students’ vision of the engineering profession through connecting industrial practice and technology development across multiple engineering disciplines.  I aim to instill and nurture an appreciation for the impact of engineering and the applied sciences on society with a positive outlook towards the future in a diverse environment.”

"I aim to combine my experience in research, manufacturing, and education to form real-world connections while teaching, to help students build upon their knowledge in a way that is relevant and prepares them for future practice. I am particularly interested in engineering education, and the topic of leadership preparation for engineers."