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