Academics

College of Engineering welcomes 11 new faculty

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Eleven faculty members have joined the College of Engineering for the 2014-15 academic year.

Amr Elnashai, Harold and Inge Marcus Dean of Engineering, said although some of those 11 were hired to fill vacant positions he is committed to adding more faculty to the college. "With the expansion of the body of knowledge that engineering programs deliver, with the increased demand for the Penn State engineering degree and with the global interest in interdisciplinary topics, expansion of engineering faculty is a pressing priority."

He noted that the number of professors in the college will increase by more than 10 percent over the next two to three years. "Such an expansion will not only broaden the curricular offerings to our students, but will also increase the technical footprint in research and response to societal challenges."

Joining the faculty this fall are:

-- Monty Alger, professor of chemical engineering and director of the Institute for Natural Gas Research. He is the former senior vice president of research and development at Myriant Corp. in Woburn, Massachusetts. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, Alger received his bachelor's and master's degrees in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

-- Somayeh Asadi, assistant professor of architectural engineering. Her work focuses on energy efficient building design, self-healing concrete, integration of advanced-sustainable materials and nanomaterials in construction, life cycle assessment and construction safety. Asadi holds a bachelor's degree in construction management from Semnan University, Iran; a master's in industrial management from Shiraz University, Iran; and her master's and doctoral degrees in engineering science from Louisiana State University.

-- Viveck Cadambe, assistant professor of electrical engineering. His research centers on information and coding theory, distributed data storage systems, data centers, wireless communications and networks, distributed computing systems, and theory and computational forensics. Cadambe earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, India, and his doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Irvine.

-- Bo Cheng, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. His research interests include principles of animal locomotion, biologically inspired robotics, experimental fluid dynamics and control. He received his bachelor's degree in control science and engineering from Zhejiang University in China; his master's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Delaware; and his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue University.

-- Mehdi Kiani, assistant professor of electrical engineering. His research focuses on low-power analog/mixed-mode circuit design for wireless, biomedical and sensor applications; system integration and interface design for bio-systems; and implantable devices, neural interfaces and assistive technologies. Kiani received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Shiraz University, Iran; a master's in electrical engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran; and a master's degree and doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from Georgia Tech.

-- Donghyun Rim, assistant professor of architectural engineering. His work centers on measurement and computational fluid dynamics modeling of airflow and pollutant dynamics within buildings, heating, ventilation and air conditioning system design for high performance buildings and occupancy sensing, and energy efficient ventilation. Rim received his bachelor's degree in civil and environmental engineering from Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea, and his doctorate in environmental engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

-- Aly Said, associate professor of architectural engineering. His work focuses on seismic behavior and design of reinforced concrete (RC) structures, use of composite materials (FRP) in rehabilitation of RC structures, finite element modeling of RC structures, use of FRP as reinforcement, knowledge-based systems applications in civil engineering, structural behavior of self-consolidating concrete, nano-particles use in concrete materials and materials recycling in concrete. Said received his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Ain Shams University, Egypt; a master of applied sciences degree in structural engineering from the Université de Moncton, Canada; a master of engineering degree in structural engineering from McMaster University, Canada; and doctoral degree in structural engineering from The University of Western Ontario, Canada.

-- Phillip Savage, chemical engineering department head and Walter L. Robb Family Endowed Chair Professor of Chemical Engineering. His research specializes in kinetics, catalysis and reaction pathways, hydrothermal chemistry, supercritical fluids and environmental sustainability. He earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Penn State, and master's degree and doctoral degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware.

-- Parisa Shokouhi, assistant professor of civil engineering. Her research interests include nondestructive testing of highway infrastructure, surface seismic and ultrasonic testing, ground penetrating radar, numerical modeling, signal and image processing, pavement smoothness evaluation, site response analysis and soil dynamics. Shokouhi received her bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Iran, and her master's and doctoral degrees in civil engineering from Rutgers University.

-- Yuan Xuan, assistant professor of mechanical engineering. His research focuses on combustion, computational fluid dynamics, soot formation and turbulence modeling. Xuan earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in mechanical engineering from Ecole Polytechnique, France, and a master's degree in aeronautics and fluid mechanics and doctorate in aeronautical engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

-- Namiko Yamamoto, assistant professor of aerospace engineering. Her research interests are in nano- and micro-engineered materials for aerospace applications, multi-functional composites, microfabrication and scalable manufacturing. Yamamoto received her bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Last Updated August 25, 2014