2020 College of Engineering Outstanding Recent Faculty Hires

WELCOME NEW FACULTY HIRES Interim Dean Jacqueline Isaacs announces new tenured/tenure-track faculty and the appointment of two department chairs in the College of Engineering.

Boldly Innovating to

Impact Society We are delighted to welcome 13 new tenured/ tenure-track faculty to the College of Engineering at Northeastern University, as well as the appointment of two new department chairs. Several of these faculty are women, supporting our continued focus on offering a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment.

Together with our existing faculty, these new scholars expand our research strengths in cutting-edge areas, from artificial intelligence, robotics, and cybersecurity to the internet of things and smart cities in support of our newest university-wide Institutes across our network of regional campuses. Our new scholars bring incredible knowledge and innovation to our educational programs in preparation of the 21st century engineering workforce.

Our faculty are driving beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries to work collaboratively with colleagues in other disciplines across our university and at other institutions. Their research explores critical issues in materials, devices, processes, infrastructure, software and integrated systems—grounded with a spirit of innovation to impact pressing challenges and address societal needs.

Through their efforts, our faculty are creating new interdisciplinary research areas, and conceiving the next generation of technological advances to address global challenges in health, sustainability and security.

They are also developing the engineering leaders of the future who are prepared to make a difference in our complex and ever-evolving world.

Jacqueline Isaacs Interim Dean, College of Engineering Northeastern University

College of Engineering

Quick Facts

5 189 95

Engineering Departments

TENURED/ TENURE-TRACK Faculty

YOUNG INVESTIGATOR Awards

18

Research Centers And Institutes funding by eight federal agencies

$86M FY 2020 External Research Awards Up 139% vs.

FY 2014

Ruobing Bai

Scholarship Focus: Solid mechanics and large deformation, soft active materials: hydrogels, liquid crystal elastomers, and biomaterials, fracture and adhesion of materials, multi-physics of materials: mechanics, thermodynamics, chemistry, optics, and electromagnetism, instability of materials

Siddhartha Ghosh

Scholarship Focus: Acousto-optic and acoustoelectric signal processing devices, integrated photonics, piezoelectric MEMS, oscillator-based computing, nanofabrication techniques and heterogeneous material integration Awards and Recent Projects: • NSF IGERT Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania • Cornell Presidential Research Scholarship

Julia Hopkins

Scholarship and Focus: Coastal morphodynamics, including effects of extreme weather events on sediment transport in the surf zone; wavecurrent interactions in the nearshore; developing and implementing field-verified numerical models to study coastal processes, informing coastal management with processbased research Awards and Recent Projects: • “SBIR Phase I: The Emerald Tutu,” NSF (Co-PI), 2020 • MIT Climate Changed Design Competition – First Place

Dimitrios Koutsonikolas

Scholarship Focus: Experimental wireless networking and mobile computing, with a current focus on millimeter wave networking, high-bandwidth applications (VR, 360o video streaming) over wireless networks, LTE/WiFi coexistence, energy-aware protocol design for smartphones, and wireless sensing Awards and Recent Projects: • CAREER: “A Millimeter-Wave Multi-Layer WLAN Architecture for Multi-Gigabit, AlwaysOn Connectivity,” NSF (PI), 2016

Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering PhD: Harvard University, 2018 Postdoctoral Fellow: California Institute of Technology, 2018-2020 Joining Northeastern: January 2021

Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD: Carnegie Mellon University, 2015 Joining Northeastern: January 2021

Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering PhD: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017 Postdoctoral Associate: Delft University of Technology, 2017 Joined Northeastern: August 2020

Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD: Purdue University, 2010 Assistant/Associate Professor: University at Buffalo, SUNY, 2011-2020 Joining Northeastern: January 2021

Laurent Lessard

Scholarship Focus: Control theory, linear systems, optimization algorithms, machine learning Awards and Recent Projects: • CAREER: “Automated analysis and design of optimization algorithms,” NSF (PI), 2018 • “A Control-Theoretic Approach to Distributed Optimization,” NSF (PI), 2019

Elizabeth Libby

Scholarship Focus: Synthetic biology, microbiology, biosensor development Awards and Recent Projects: • “Rapid Tests For Signatures of Genetic Engineering In Biological Samples,” iARPA, 2018

Mingyang Lu

Scholarship Focus: Computational systems biology, an integration of mathematical modeling and bioinformatics for studying gene regulatory networks, single cell genomics, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, coarsegraining, reverse engineering, machine learning, stochasticity and heterogeneity in gene expression Awards and Recent Projects: • “New Computational Systems Biology Methods for Modeling Gene Regulatory Circuits”, NIH (PI), 2020 • Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Computational Cancer Biology Training Grant RP140113, 2014-2016

Marilyn Minus

Awards and Recent Projects: • Georgia Tech Outstanding Young Alumni Award • “Forming True Blend: Developing New Processing Routes for Polymer-Based NanoComposites”, Air Force Office of Scientific Research,” (PI), 2018 • “S-STEM: Student-Pathways Opening World Energy Resources (S-POWER),” NSF (co-PI), 2016 • CAREER: “Understanding Directionally Templated Interphase Processing-Structure Development and Relationships in Polymer Nano-Composite Materials,” NSF (PI), 2014

Associate Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering PhD: Stanford University, 2011 Assistant Professor: University of WisconsinMadison, 2015-2020 Joined Northeastern: August 2020

Assistant Professor, Bioengineering PhD: University of Pennsylvania, 2011 Departmental Fellow: Harvard Medical School, 2016-2020 Joining Northeastern: January 2021

Assistant Professor, Bioengineering PhD: Baylor University, 2010 Postdoctoral Research Fellow: Rice University, 2012-2016 Assistant Professor: Assistant Professor, The Jackson Laboratory for Mammalian Genetics, 2016-2020 Joined Northeastern: August 2020

Professor and Chair, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering PhD: Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008 Scholarship Focus: Process-structureproperties relationships in polymer-based nano-composites fibers; polymer/nanocarbon interfacial interactions and interphase formations; lightweight composite materials; carbon-carbon composites

Francesco Restuccia

Scholarship Focus: Next-generation wireless communications, artificial intelligence, embedded systems, wireless security Awards and Recent Projects: • “Deep Reinforcement Learning for Polymorphic IoT Platforms,” Raytheon Company (Co-PI), 2018 • “Toward Secure-by-design Polymorphic IoT Platforms,” Office of Naval Research (Co-PI), 2018

Lili Su

Scholarship Focus: Distributed machine learning, security and fault-tolerance, neural computation, bio-inspired distributed algorithms, blockchains, autonomous cars, algorithm design Awards and Recent Projects: • “Distributed Machine Learning Security,” NSF (PI), 2016

Hongwei Sun

Scholarship Focus: Multiphase thermal transport phenomena, acoustic wave bio and chemical sensors and actuators, thermal management of fibers and films, thermal energy storage materials and processing, microchannel cooling systems, nanoimprinting process and applications, MEMS/NEMS fabrication, microfluidics and bioMEMS; nanoscale magnetic assembly and applications Awards and Recent Projects: • “A Low-Cost, “Digital” Biosensing Platform with Single Protein Biomarker Sensitivity,” NSF (PI), 2019 • “Nanoscale Metal Network Enhanced Phase Change Materials,” NSF (PI), 2016

Xiaoyu Tang

Scholarship Focus: Fluid mechanics, soft matter, microfluidics, active colloidal systems, electrokinetic flow, interfacial phenomena, complex fluids, reactive flow, biological flow; additive manufacturing, material synthesis and processing in flow, oil/gas recovery and remediation

Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD: Missouri University of Science and Technology, 2016 Postdoctoral Research Associate: Northeastern University 2017-2020 Joined Northeastern: August 2020

Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD: University of Illinois, 2017 Postdoctoral Research Associate: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2017 Joined Northeastern: August 2020

Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering PhD: Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1998 Professor: University of Massachusetts Lowell, 2018-2020 Joined Northeastern: August 2020

Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering PhD: Princeton University, 2018 Postdoctoral Associate: University of California, Santa Barbara, 2018-2020 Joining Northeastern: January 2021

Rebecca Willits

Scholarship Focus: Neural regenerative strategies, neural mechanosensing, diversity and inclusion in engineering Awards and Recent Projects: • Fellow, BMES, 2020 • Fellow, AIMBE, 2017 • “Toward a Mechanotransduction Mimic of the Neural Stem Cell Niche,” NSF (PI), 2019 • “Collaborative Research: Professional Preparation of Underrepresented Minority PhD’s and Post-Docs for a Career in Engineering Academia,” NSF (Co-PI), 2017

Xiaolin Xu

Scholarship Focus: Hardware security and trust, high-performance VLSI, computer architecture, and embedded systems Awards and Recent Projects: • “Bolstering UAV Cybersecurity Education through Curriculum Development with Hands-on Laboratory Framework” NSF (PI), 2020

Professor and Chairperson, Chemical Engineering PhD: Cornell University, 1999 Joined Northeastern: July 2020

Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD: University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2016 Assistant Professor: University of Illinois at Chicago, 2018-2020 Joined Northeastern: August 2020

About the College of Engineering With 289 full-time faculty, including 189 tenured/tenure-track, as well as 18 multidisciplinary research centers and institutes with funding by eight federal agencies, the College of Engineering is a leader in experiential education and interdisciplinary research, with a focus on discovering solutions to global challenges to benefit society.

About Northeastern University Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university and the recognized leader in experience-powered lifelong learning. Our world-renowned experiential approach empowers our students, faculty, alumni, and partners to create impact far beyond the confines of discipline, degree, and campus.

Our locations—in Boston; the Massachusetts communities of Burlington and Nahant; Charlotte, North Carolina; London; Portland, Maine; San Francisco; Seattle; Silicon Valley; Toronto; and Vancouver—are nodes in our growing global university system. Through this network, we expand opportunities for flexible, student-centered learning and collaborative, solutions-focused research.

Northeastern’s comprehensive array of undergraduate and graduate programs—in on-campus, online, and hybrid formats—lead to degrees through the doctorate in nine colleges and schools. Among these, we offer more than 140 multidisciplinary majors and degrees designed to prepare students for purposeful lives and careers.