2021 College of Engineering Outstanding Recent Faculty Hires

WELCOME NEW FACULTY HIRES Dean Gregory D. Abowd joins the College of Engineering and announces new faculty for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Innovating for

Global Impact The College of Engineering continues its growth and performance trajectory, adding interdisciplinary academic programs to meet evolving industry trends and expanding education and research across Northeastern University’s global network. To keep pace with this growth and support our students, we are pleased to announce 22 new faculty members, many of which have interdisciplinary appointments across engineering disciplines and with other Northeastern colleges. Over a third of our new faculty are women or historically underrepresented minorities supporting our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Since fall 2016, the College of Engineering has hired 81 tenured/tenure-track faculty. Together with our existing faculty, our new scholars expand our research strengths in cutting-edge areas from artificial intelligence, robotics, and cybersecurity to the internet of things and smart cities. They also bring incredible knowledge to our educational programs in preparation of the 21st century engineering workforce.

Our faculty push beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries working collaboratively with colleagues across the university—locally, regionally, internationally—and with industry, government, and other academic 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.

Gregory D. Abowd, PhD Dean, College of Engineering Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Northeastern University

College of Engineering

Quick Facts

5 200 104

ENGINEERING Departments

TENURED/ TENURE-TRACK Faculty

YOUNG INVESTIGATOR Awards

17

RESEARCH CENTERS AND INSTITUTES funding by eight federal agencies

$82M

FY 2021 EXTERNAL RESEARCH AWARDS Up 82% vs. FY 2015

Gregory D. Abowd

Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Dean of the College of Engineering D.Phil: University of Oxford, United Kingdom, 1991 Joined Northeastern: March 2021

Scholarship Focus: Mobile and ubiquitous computing, human-computer interaction Awards and Recent Projects: • ACM Eugene Lawler Humanitarian Award, 2009 • ACM Fellow, 2008 • ACM SIGCHI Academy, 2008

Srirupa Chakraborty Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering, jointly appointed in College of Science PhD: University of Buffalo, 2017 Postdoctoral Fellow: Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2018-21 Joining Northeastern: January 2022

Scholarship Focus: Theoretical biology and biophysics

Benyamin Davaji

Scholarship Focus: Integrated microsystems, data-guided design and nanofabrication, ultrasound microsystems for sensing and computation, and MEMS calorimetry for microbiology and biosensor development

Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD: Marquette University, 2016 Postdoctoral Research Associate: Cornell University, 2016-21 Joining Northeastern: January 2022

Kristen Dorsey

Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, jointly appointed in Bouve College of Health Sciences PhD: Carnegie Mellon University, 2013 Assistant Professor of Engineering: Smith College, 2015-21 Joined Northeastern: August 2021

Awards and Recent Projects: • Wiley Computers in Chemistry Outstanding Postdoctoral Award – American Chemical Society, Division of Computers in Chemistry, 2020 • Los Alamos National Laboratory Spot Award “in recognition of significant dedication and contribution to COVID-19 response,” 2020

Awards and Recent Projects: • Postdoctoral achievement award, Cornell University, 2019 • Best TA award, Marquette University, 2014

Scholarship Focus: Soft robotics, wearable devices, active and multifunctional materials, flexible electronics Awards and Recent Projects: • NSF CAREER Award, 2019

Canek Fuentes-Hernandez

Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD: University of Arizona, 2004 Principal Research Scientist: Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-21 Joined Northeastern: August 2021

Fatemeh Ghoreishi

Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, jointly appointed in Khoury College of Computer Sciences PhD: Texas A&M University, 2019 Postdoctoral Researcher: University of Maryland, 2019-21 Joined Northeastern: August 2021

Aileen Huang-Saad

Associate Professor, Bioengineering, and Director of Life Science and Engineering Programs, the Roux Institute PhD: John Hopkins School of Medicine, 1996 Associate Professor: Biomedical Engineering, Engineering Education, and Entrepreneurship, University of Michigan, 2021 Joined Northeastern: February 2021

Mahdi Imani

Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD: Texas A&M University, 2019 Assistant Professor: George Washington University, 2019-21 Joined Northeastern: August 2021

Scholarship Focus: Flexible and stretchable organic microelectronics and optoelectronics, device physics and engineering for sensing and energy generation, high throughput manufacturing and heterogeneous integration Awards and Recent Projects: • “Energy-efficient and Sustainable Sun-like Solid-state Lighting for Improved Human Health,” Georgia Tech (PI), 2020 • “Optically-gated Camera,” Georgia Research Alliance (PI), 2015

Scholarship Focus: Design and decision-making under uncertainty, machine learning and data analysis, multidisciplinary design optimization, autonomous and cyber-physical systems Awards and Recent Projects: • Rising Stars in Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 2020 • Postdoctoral Fellowship, Institute for Systems Research (ISR) at the University of Maryland, 2019-2021 • Rising Stars in Computational and Data Sciences, Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, 2019

Scholarship Focus: Entrepreneurship education microenvironments and their impact on the engagement of diverse populations, the influence of I-Corps on university ecosystems, and transforming BME education through instructional design Awards and Recent Projects: • Fulbright Award, 2020 • “Design and Development: Fostering Graduate Student Professional Development Through an Instructional Incubator and Teaching Apprenticeship Model,” NSF (PI), 2018

Scholarship Focus: Machine learning and data analytics, control theory and reinforcement learning, bayesian optimization and statistical learning, statistical signal processing and integrated sensing Awards and Recent Projects: • “Scalable and Reliable Optimization of Expensive Multi-Modal Functions: A Bayesian Perspective,” ARMY (PI), 2021 • “Informative Bayesian Learning and Data Gathering Through Expert-Acquired Data,” NSF (PI), 2020

Jack Lesko

Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, and Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Director of Engineering Research at the Roux Institute PhD: Virginia Tech, 1994 Professor: Virginia Tech, 1995-2021 Joined Northeastern: July 2021

Scholarship Focus: Emerging interdisciplinary design involving lightweight polymeric multifunctional materials, structural design and reliability, with additional experience in distributed energy systems (storage, power transfer, packaging, and manufacturing), polymeric separation membranes, building energy efficiency design and construction, technology transfer Awards and Recent Projects: • “Engineering Research Center for the Global Environmental Nitrogen Network – GEN2 Planning Grant,” NSF (Co-PI), 2019 • “Manufacturing Education for Electromagnetic Functional Composites,” ONR (Co-PI), 2019

Francisco Loth

Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, and Bioengineering PhD: Georgia Institute of Technology, 1993 Professor and F.T. Harrington Chair: Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Departments at the University of Akron and the Executive Director of the Conquer Chiari Research Center Joining Northeastern: January 2022

Sunil Mittal

Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD: University of Maryland, 2014 Postdoctoral Researcher: University of Maryland, 2015-21 Joined Northeastern: August 2021

Beth Noveck

Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, primary joint appointment in the School of Law and Director of the Burnes Family Center for Social Change and Innovation PhD: Yale, 1997 Professor: New York University, 2012-21 Joined Northeastern: July 2021

Scholarship Focus: Biological flows, experimental fluid mechanics, computational fluid mechanics, blood flow simulation, cerebrospinal fluid simulation, Chiari malformation, syringomyelia, medical image processing, magnetic resonance imaging Awards and Recent Projects: • “Examination of the Importance of the Clivus Bone in Chiari I Malformation,”Conquer Chiari (PI), 2020 • “Novel MR Image Processing as an Objective Diagnostic Test for Chiari Malformation,” NIH (PI), 2019

Scholarship Focus: Topological phenomena, nonHermitian physics, quantum photonics, nonlinear photonics, two-dimensional materials Awards and Recent Projects: • “Entangled Walkers in Time-multiplexed Topological Synthetic Space,” Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland (Co-PI), 2020

Scholarship Focus: Industrial and software engineering; solving public problems Awards and Recent Projects: • Founding Director, Burnes Family Center for Social Change and Innovation • Core faculty, Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern • Chief Innovation Officer, State of New Jersey • Chair, New Jersey Future of Work Task Force • Member Scholars Council of the Library of Congress; member EPSRC Centre for Mathematics and Precision Healthcare; member, Chancellor Merkel Digital Council

Ozan Özdemir

Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering PhD: South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, 2017 Research Assistant Professor: Northeastern University, 2017-21 Joined Northeastern: August 2021

David Rosen

Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, jointly appointed in College of Science PhD: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2016 Postdoctoral Associate: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2018-21 Joined Northeastern: August 2021

Scholarship Focus: Advanced metal additive manufacturing, compressible flows, multiphase flows, heat and mass transfer, thermodynamics, and failure analysis Awards and Recent Projects: • “Multi-mode Sensor Technologies and Physicaldata-informed Computational Tools to Enable the Next Generation Cold Spray Additive Manufacturing,” National Institute of Standards and Technology (Co-PI), 2020 • “Through Process Investigation of Cold Spray Additive Manufacturing Systems via Modeling and Experimentation,” Herrick Foundation (PI), 2019

Scholarship Focus: Robotics, optimization, geometry and topology, probability and statistics, machine learning Awards and Recent Projects: • RSS Pioneer, 2019 • Best Paper Award, International Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics (WAFR), 2016

Hannah Sayre

Scholarship Focus: Design photocatalysts to improve efficiency and reactivity. Understand light-activated chemical reactions with timeresolved spectroscopy

Shahin Shahrampour

Scholarship Focus: Machine learning, optimization and control, distributed and sequential learning, with a focus on developing computationally efficient methods for data analytics

Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering, jointly appointed in College of Science PhD: The Ohio State University, 2018 Postdoctoral Fellow: Princeton University, 2018-21 Joined Northeastern: August 2021

Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering PhD: University of Pennsylvania, 2015 Postdoctoral Scholar: Harvard University 2015-18 Assistant Professor: Texas A&M University 2018-21 Joined Northeastern: July 2021

Awards and Recent Projects: • “Collaborative Online Optimization for Efficient Model-based Learning,” NSF (PI), 2019 • “Real-time Learning and Control of Stochastic Nanostructure Growth Processes Through in Situ Dynamic Imaging,” NSF (Co-PI), 2020

Max Shepherd

Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, jointly appointed in Bouve College of Health Sciences PhD: Northwestern University, 2019 Postdoctoral Researcher: Georgia Institute of Technology, 2020-21 Joining Northeastern: January 2022

Seungmoon Song

Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering PhD: Carnegie Mellon University, 2017 Postdoctoral Fellow: Stanford University, 2018-21 Joining Northeastern: January 2022

Julia Varshavsky

Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering, jointly appointed in Bouve College of Health Sciences PhD: University of California, Berkeley, 2017 Research Scientist: California Environmental Protection Agency, 2020-21 Joined Northeastern: July 2021

Raimond Winslow

Professor, Bioengineering, and Director of Life Science and Medicine Research, the Roux Institute PhD: John Hopkins School of Medicine, 1985 Founding Director: The Institute for Computational Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University Joined Northeastern: May 2021

Scholarship Focus: Prosthetics and wearable robotics design and control, gait rehabilitation, preference optimization, and machine learning Awards and Recent Projects: • “Deep Learning for Biological Torque Estimation for Enhancing Control of Wearable Exoskeletons,” Google X (Co-PI), 2021 • Northwestern Presidential Fellowship, 2018

Scholarship Focus: Modeling the neuromechanics of human movement and applying it to assistive devices and rehabilitation treatment Awards and Recent Projects: • “Simulation Framework to Develop Ankle Exoskeleton Gait Assistance for Older Adults,” NIH (PI), 2020

Scholarship Focus: Environmental exposures and maternal-child health outcomes and will continue to work on biomonitoring studies and advancing risk assessment in vulnerable communities Awards and Recent Projects: • National Science Foundation Systems Approach to Green Energy (SAGE) Fellowship Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT), 2015-17 • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Fellowship, 2012-15

Scholarship Focus: Computational modeling of the cardiac myocyte to understand the molecular basis of arrhythmias; machine learning in critical care medicine to identify those patients who require urgent care Awards and Recent Projects: • “Calcium Signaling at a Cisternal Synapse,” (NIH) PI, 2021 • “Data-Driven Models to Optimize Ventilator Therapy in ICE COVID Patients,” NSF (Co-PI), 2020

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Xufeng Zhang

Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering PhD: Yale University, 2016 Assistant Scientist: Argonne National Laboratory, 2018-21 Joining Northeastern: January 2022

Qing Zhao

Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering PhD: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019 Postdoctoral Fellow: Princeton University, 2018-21 Joining Northeastern: January 2022

Scholarship Focus: Spin wave dynamics; magnonbased coherent information processing; quantum hybrid magnonics; integrated microwave, photonic, magnonic, and mechanical devices Awards and Recent Projects: • “Amplification of Exchange Magnons in Nanometer-Thick YIG Films by Spin-Orbit Torque,” DARPA (PI), 2021 • “Photonic Sensor Platform for Point of Interest Soil Sensing,” NSF (Co-PI), 2019

Scholarship Focus: Computational catalyst and material design for sustainable energy applications Awards and Recent Projects: • ACS Chemical Computing Group Excellence Award in Computational Chemistry, 2020 • Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation ACS Editors’ Choice, 2018

About the College of Engineering With over 195 tenured/tenure-track faculty and 17 multidisciplinary research centers and institutes with funding by eight federal agencies, the College of Engineering is a leader in experiential education and interdiciplinary 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.