Faculty Mentors

Dr. Francisco Cubas-Suazo:  Watershed, lake and reservoir management; nutrients and pollutants in water; water quality management

Dr. George Fu:  Safe and sustainable water; water quality management of storm water; water re-use; innovation and cost-effective processes for water treatment; biofilters for removing water contaminants

Dr. Saman Hedjazi:  Structural engineering; bridge engineering;  rehabilitation and repair of existing structures; maintenance of infrastructure and transportation structures

Dr. Gustavo Maldonado:  Structural analysis; earthquake/wind-resistant engineering; civil engineering materials; applications of terrestrial LiDAR; plane surveying

Dr. Soonkie Nam:  Unsaturated soils; slope stability; soil improvement and engineered materials; transportation geotechnics

Dr. Shahnam Navaee:  Static and dynamic analysis of structural components; solid continuum analysis, including contact of solid bodies

Dr. Roger Purcell:  Geospatial analysis; applications in precise positioning; preservation of pavement; transportation infrastructure

Dr. Junan Shen:  Pavement structures; civil engineering materials; geotechnical engineering; highway design / transportation engineering; soil mechanics and foundations

Dr. Xiaoming Yang:  Geotechnical education; pavement design with MEPDG; numerical modeling of granular and continuum materials; ground improvement; foundation design

Dr. Andrew Allen:  Software engineering, model-driven engineering, software testing, distributed systems, autonomic computing

Dr. Felix Hamza-Lup:  Human-computer interaction; high performance computing; data science; computer networks

Dr. Lixin Li:  Geospatial Big Data, GIS, databases, spatiotemporal interpolation methods, medical imaging

Dr. Murali Medidi:  Sensor networking, pervasive computing, parallel and distributed computing

Dr. Weitian Tong:  Combinatorial optimization; data science; operations research; algorithm design in bioinformatics; algorithm design in networks

Dr. Ray Tyler-Hashemi:  Data mining; bioinformatics; image processing; intelligent systems; steganography

Dr. Kai Wang:  Graph theory, algorithms, computational complexity, cryptography, data analysis

Dr. Hong Zhang:  Machine learning; image processing; bioinformatics

Dr. Wen-Ran Zhang:  Information conservational computing, equilibrium-based business intelligence, mind-matter unification

Dr. Myung “Mike” Jeong:  Asphalt pavement materials characterization and design; quality assurance in asphalt pavement construction; asphalt pavement performance prediction and modeling

Dr. Seonghoon Kim:  Construction productivity measurements and analysis; construction project management for productivity improvements; piezoelectric energy harvesting

Dr. Marcel Maghiar:  Construction process modeling/productivity; cognitive processes in construction trades; BIM applications/Lean construction; building energy modeling and optimization

Dr. Celine Manoosingh:  Quantifying environmental and cost impacts in products and processes; modeling real-time energy consumption; curtailing municipal waste stream

Mr. Clint Martin:  Feasibility and conceptual estimating; Lean project delivery; sustainable construction practices; construction education outcome improvement

Dr. Mohammad Ahad:  Bioinstrumentation; biosensors design; biosignal and system modeling

Dr. Rocio Alba-Flores:  Control systems; embedded systems; digital and analog circuit design; mobile robots; signal and image processing

Dr. Masoud Davari:  Cybersecurity of modern DC grids; operation, protection, control & automation of smart microgrids; simulation of power electronic devices & power systems; application of power electronic converters; integration of renewable energy resources in power systems and smart grids

Dr. Rami Haddad:  Optical fiber communication systems and networks; renewable energy and smart grid applications; autonomous ad hoc aerial communications networks; cyber-physical systems/cybersecurity; brain-computer interface applications

Dr. Youakim Kalaani:  Power generation and distribution; renewable energy integration; smart grids; system optimization

Dr. Seungmo Kim:  Cellular communications (human health compatible) networks; vehicular communications for safety; wireless communications for medical applications

Dr. Sungkyun Lim:  Analysis and design of antennas for wireless communications; propagation modeling; wireless power transfer; RFID and wireless sensors; metamaterials

Dr. Hadi Moazzam:  System identification; analog and digital electronics; wireless sensor networks; network security; central control room

Dr. Thomas Murphy:  Digital systems; applications of signal processing and embedded systems for biomechanics/ rehabilitation

Dr. Fernando Rios:  Robotics and control systems design; embedded systems design; biomedical applications of robotic systems; mobile robots – navigation control, intelligent vehicles; AI for robotic control

Dr. Ashraf Saad:  Cyber-physical systems – embedded systems programming; multi-robot systems – multi-agent systems; computational intelligence – classifiers, hybrid soft computing

Dr. Salman Siddiqui:  Robotics; communication systems; signal and imaging processing; embedded systems; educational research

Dr. Hongjun Su:  Internet of Things (IoT) and applications; computer networking – architecture, protocols, design; image processing; smart algorithm and system development; software engineering

Dr. Lei Chen:  Cybersecurity; information security and privacy; Big Data and the Cloud; multimedia networking

Dr. Chris Kadlec:  Technology-mediated learning; end-user and IS professional training; network security/disaster recovery; collaboration technology; telecommunications

Dr. Hayden Wimmer:  Artificial intelligence; data science and mining; health IT; digital forensics; cybersecurity

Dr. Mahmoud Baniasadi:  Micro- and nano-manufacturing; multiscale materials characterization; bio-inspired materials and composites; energy harvesting for piezoelectric nanofibers; mechanical characterization of live cells

Dr. Daniel Cox:  Robot manipulation, robotic manufacturing applications, manufacturing automation, manufacturing execution systems, design for automation

Dr. Haijun Gong:  Additive manufacturing, 3D printing, material characterization, mechanical testing, solid modeling

Dr. Vladimir Gurau:  Fuel cells, robotics, electrochemical micro- and nano-machining, mechatronics, flexible manufacturing systems

Dr. Kamran Kardel:  Advanced manufacturing, additive manufacturing, biomaterial engineering, surface engineering, manufacturing systems design

Dr. Russell Krenek:  Advanced quality engineering; Lean Six Sigma; Deterministic and stochastic operations research; mathematical and computational statistics

Dr. Jingjing Qing:  Materials characterization; metallography; metal casting; metal solidification

Dr. Drew Snelling: Metal additive manufacturing, metal-ceramic cellular materials, wireless structural health monitoring

Dr. Hossein Taheri:  Materials characterization; non-destructive testing and evaluation; prognostic and health management, structural health monitoring, acoustics and vibrations; signal, image processing, data analysis, machine learning

Dr. Lianjun Wu:  Soft robotics; soft multi-material manufacturing; soft exoskeletons for rehab applications; smart materials and actuators; flexible manufacturing systems

Dr. Yue “Jack” Zhang:  Nanomanufacturing; energy storage and conversion; tissue engineering; multifunctional polymer nanocomposites

Dr. Prakash Bhoi:  Advanced biofuels and biopower; hydrocarbon and jet fuels; renewable fuels-based IC engines and burners; combustion characteristics of biofuels; biomass gasification and catalytic fast pyrolysis

Dr. Junghun Choi:  Bioelectrical impedance analysis; body composition analysis; electrosurgical device control; mechanism design and application of medical devices; robotics and mechatronics

Dr. Anoop Desai:  Six Sigma and Lean engineering; ergonomics and new product planning, development and design; product life cycle management; manufacturing processes and facilities design, quality control and engineering economy

Dr. Marcel Ilie:  Combustion modeling; fluid dynamics and biofluids; turbomachinery; renewable energy; propulsion and turbulence

Dr. Wayne Johnson:  Biomechanics; additive manufacturing

Dr. Mujibur Khan:  Hybrid polymer-nanoparticle fibers, electrospinning and solution spinning, polymeric fibers, nanoscale advanced materials, bionanotechnology

Dr. Jinki Kim:  Next generation sensing methodologies; energy harvesting; advanced manufacturing process monitoring and sensing; structural health monitoring; theoretical and experimental non-linear dynamics and vibrations

Dr. Ermias Koricho: Vehicle design and testing

Dr. Aniruddha Mitra:  Airborne nano-particles; structural integrity; engineering education

Dr. Gustavo Molina:  Tribology of nanofluid coolants; tribology of biodiesels; triboemission of charged particles; mechanical design education

Dr. Mosfequr Rahman: Wind turbines (Savonius and vertical axis), nanofluids and tribology, photostrictive optical actuators, laminar natural convection

Dr. Sirajus Salekeen:  Composite and nano-composite materials; processing, testing and performance evaluation of advanced composites and nano-composites; fatigue, ballistic properties and non-destructive evaluations of composites; statistical evaluation of experimental data; design and FEA

Dr. Biswanath Samanta:  Mechatronics; control systems; swarm robotics; advanced signal processing; computational intelligence in engineering and biomedicine

Dr. Bishal Silwal:  Welding and joining; arc-based additive manufacturing; numerical simulation of transport phenomenon in material processing; microstructure characterization

Dr. Valentin Soloiu:  Advanced engine combustion with renewable fuels; combustion noise and vibration in aerospace engines; intelligent vehicles

Dr. Brian Vlcek: Tribology – fatigue testing, probabilistic modeling and Weibull analysis; life and failure of jet engine turbine hubs and blades; impact of surface coatings on fatigue failure; aluminum fatigue lifting; Monte Carlo simulations of fatigue life

Dr. Mingzhi Xu:  Metal casting; steel making; metallurgy; materials science; materials characterization

Dr. Shaowen Xu:  modeling and simulation for design and optimization of engineering systems; molecular static/dynamic simulation of advanced nano-materials; impact, transient dynamics and structural response to extreme load, fluid-structure interaction; material behavior characterization; fabrication of high-strength, low-weight biomaterials and composites