Fulton Schools build on excellence with new faculty members

The Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering are expanding its teaching and research enterprise in new and emerging areas and broadening educational programs to meet the needs of a diverse and growing student body. This year the Fulton Schools welcome some of the best and brightest teachers and researchers from around the world. Twenty-four new Sun Devils, dedicated to student achievement and leading-edge research, have joined the faculty. The tenure-track or tenured faculty members are:

Daniel Aukes Assistant Professor, The Polytechnic School Ph.D. Stanford University Aukes focuses on the design and manufacturing of robots as it relates to new fabrication techniques, and creates design tools to broaden the community of robot designers. His research topics include design, manufacturing, kinematics, dynamics and simulation of robotic and mechatronic devices. He has industrial experience in manufacturing system automation.

Heni Ben Amor Assistant Professor, School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering Ph.D. Technical University Freiberg (Germany) Amor’s research focuses on developing robot learning algorithms, which enable intelligent interactive agents, such as robots and virtual characters, to autonomously acquire and improve motor skills through supervised and unsupervised methods. This includes the abilities to act and manipulate objects, recognize and predict human behavior, and interact with human partners.  

Otakuye Conroy-Ben Assistant Professor, School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment Ph.D. University of Arizona Conroy-Ben is the first Lakota to earn a doctorate in environmental engineering. Her research interests include water/wastewater treatment and reuse, endocrine disruption, analytical and environmental chemistry, and metal resistance systems in bacteria. She plans to work with Native American and female students to build their presence in engineering.

Shuguang Deng Professor, School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy Ph.D. University of Cincinnati Deng is a chemical engineer who develops new adsorbents, catalysts and membranes for sustainable energy and clean water applications. Deng’s group is also actively involved in conversion of algae to biofuels and bioproducts. Deng holds 12 years industrial experience and received the Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Energy Conservation in 2012.  

Mo Ebrahimkhani Assistant Professor, School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering M.D. Tehran University of Medical Sciences (Iran) Ebrahimkhani joins ASU from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His interdisciplinary research focuses on systematically understanding the principles of tissue repair and organ regeneration in vitro and in vivo. He combines synthetic biology and human stem cells to engineer novel multicellular systems and personalized human tissue models.  

Emma Frow Assistant Professor, School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering Ph.D. University of Cambridge (England) Frow holds a joint appointment in the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes. She has graduate training in both natural and social sciences. Her research focuses on standards development and governance in contemporary life sciences, with a particular focus on biological engineering and synthetic biology.   Julianne Holloway Assistant Professor, School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy Ph.D. Drexel University Holloway is an assistant professor of chemical engineering in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy. Holloway’s research interests are in the field of tissue engineering, with a focus on designing materials to mimic the native biochemical and biophysical cues of orthopedic tissues and developing a better understanding of the role dynamic biomechanics plays in cellular behavior.  

Feng Ju Assistant Professor, School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison Ju’s research interests include stochastic modeling and control with applications in manufacturing systems, battery management systems, and healthcare delivery systems. He has received many awards, including the best paper award at the International Federation of Automatic Control Conference on Manufacturing Modeling, Management and Control (MIM), and the Most Popular Article in TASE, 2013.  

Samira Kiani Assistant Professor, School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering M.D. Tehran University of Medical Sciences (Iran) Kiani completed her postdoctoral training at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research spans foundational and applied mammalian synthetic biology. She develops and applies new CRISPR-based technologies and genetic engineering tools to engineer synthetic genetic circuits with therapeutic applications in vitro and in vivo.  

Richard King Professor, School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering Ph.D. Stanford University King is research director for ASU’s Quantum Energy and Sustainable Solar Technologies center. Over the last 30 years, his research on photovoltaics has explored materials, sublattice ordering, high transparency tunnel junctions and high-efficiency multijunction solar cells. In 2006, this work led to the first solar cell of any type to reach 40 percent efficiency.  

Hyunglae Lee Assistant Professor, School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lee uses robotic technologies to better understand underlying neuromuscular mechanism in human movement. His goals are to innovate physical human-robot interaction by incorporating key principles in human motor control into robotics, and to advance robot-aided neurorehabilitation for patients with sensory-motor impairment.  

Qin Lei Assistant Professor, School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering Ph.D. Michigan State University Lei’s expertise focuses on high power converters for high/medium voltage direct current (HVDC/MVDC) transmission, medium voltage drive, grid-integration of renewable energy sources, electric vehicle/hybrid electric vehicle, smart-grid/micro-grid, wide-band gap device application (SiC, GaN) and energy storage.  

Jeremi London Assistant Professor, The Polytechnic School Ph.D. Purdue University London employs mixed methods research designs and computational tools to address complex problems. Her research interests include: science policy issues surrounding STEM learning in cyberlearning environments; characterizing and measuring the impact of STEM education research and development; and applications of simulation and modeling tools to understand and conduct accreditation assessment processes in undergraduate engineering education.  

Hamid Marvi Assistant Professor, School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy Ph.D. Georgia Institute of Technology Marvi studies the fundamental physics behind interactions of biological systems with their surrounding solid, granular and fluidic environments. Utilizing biological insights derived from these studies, he would like to develop bio-inspired robotic systems and programmable interfacial structures for search and rescue, exploratory and medical applications.  

Brent Nannenga Assistant Professor, School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy Ph.D. University of Washington Nannenga’s research focuses on protein engineering and studying the structure-function relationships of designed proteins. Additionally, he is interested in developing and improving new techniques for structural biology, specifically cryo-electron microscopy.  

Paolo Papotti Assistant Professor, School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering Ph.D. Università Roma Tre (Italy) Papotti’s research focuses on databases, with an emphasis on data integration and data cleaning at large scale. Prior to joining ASU, he served as a senior scientist in the Data Analytics center at the Qatar Computing Research Institute and as an assistant professor at Università Roma Tre.  

Ted Pavlic Assistant Professor, School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering Ph.D. The Ohio State University Pavlic holds a joint appointment in the School of Sustainability. He studies complex adaptive systems using a combination of theoretical and empirical methods. His research seeks out unifying theoretical frameworks of rational behavior that cut across biology, economics and engineering.  

François Perreault Assistant Professor, School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment Ph.D. University of Quebec (Canada) After completing his doctoral degree in environmental sciences, Perreault moved to Yale University as an a National Sciences and Research Council postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering. His research explores the interface between biological and engineered systems, with an emphasis on environmental nanotechnology, nanotoxicology, environmental microbiology and water quality.  

Panagiotis Polygerinos Assistant Professor, The Polytechnic School Ph.D. King’s College (England) Polygerinos is a mechanical engineer. His research interests focus on the realization of tasks that are essential to the design, implementation and integration of novel, affordable, robotic systems and mechatronic devices that have significant potential to improve patient care and human activity.  

Jiangchao Qin Assistant Professor, School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering Ph.D. Purdue University Qin focuses on the investigation and development of highly efficient, modular, reliable, fault-tolerant power electronic converters and their utility applications including integration of renewable and distributed energy resources, power quality solutions, transmission, distribution and power electronic loads.  

Jorge Sefair Assistant Professor, School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering Ph.D. University of Florida Sefair’s research focuses on the use of optimization techniques for decision-making under uncertainty. In particular, he develops models for optimal design of resilient systems that will maintain a critical level of operation even under adverse and uncertain circumstances. In particular, he is motivated by applications of operations research in environment, public policy and urban planning.  

Giorgios Trichopoulos Assistant Professor, School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering Ph.D. The Ohio State University Trichopoulos has expertise in electromagnetic and antenna design. His research focuses on millimeter wave (mmW) and terahertz (THz) technology for biomedical sensing, imaging and high data-rate wireless communication applications. He comes to ASU from a senior researcher position with the ElectroScience Lab at The Ohio State University.  

Wenlong Zhang Assistant Professor, The Polytechnic School Ph.D. University of California-Berkeley Zhang’s academic specialty lies in dynamic system analysis, modeling and control. His research focuses on the design and control of large-scale and/or human-involved cyber-physical systems, with applications in gait analysis and rehabilitation, collaborative robotics and advanced manufacturing.  

Ming Zhao Associate Professor, School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering Ph.D. University of Florida Zhao’s research focus is in the areas of experimental computer systems, including distributed/cloud, big-data, and high-performance computing systems. He is also interested in the interdisciplinary studies that bridge computer systems research with other domains. In 2013, he was recognized with an National Science Foundation CAREER Award.  

 Professors of Practice:

Thomas Roberts Professor of Practice, School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment Abdel Rahman Shuaib Professor of Practice, School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy Additionally, the Fulton Schools are welcoming the following lecturers: Ruben Acuna School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering Steve Cho The Polytechnic School Michael Clough Academic and Student Affairs Damien Doheny The Polytechnic School Gregory Files The Polytechnic School Usha Jagannathan The Polytechnic School Cheryl Jennings School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering Chad Kennedy The Polytechnic School Joshua Loughman Academic and Student Affairs McDermand Joanne The Polytechnic School Shankar Ramakrishnan Academic and Student Affairs Justin Selgrad School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering Michael Van Auker School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering Katherine Wallmueller Academic and Student Affairs Daniel B White School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy Marnie Wong Academic and Student Affairs

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Written by Gary Campbell