NEWSLETTER | MAY-JUNE 2024

DEAN'S OFFICE

Congratulations to the following faculty on their promotions and tenure, effective September 1, 2024:
- Brendan Englot, ME Associate Professor – promoted to Professor
- Samantha Kleinberg, CS Associate Professor – promoted to Professor
- Nick Parziale, ME Associate Professor – promoted to Professor
- Marouane Temimi, CEOE Associate Professor – awarded tenure
- Yi Bao, CEOE Assistant Professor – promoted to Associate Professor with tenure
- Shima Hajimirza, ME Assistant Professor – promoted to Associate Professor with tenure
- Weina Meng, CEOE Assistant Professor – promoted to Associate Professor with tenure
- Raviraj Nataraj, BME Assistant Professor – promoted to Associate Professor with tenure

Kishore Pochiraju, ME Professor, is appointed as chair of the new Department of Systems & Enterprises (SE) for a five-year term beginning September 1, 2024.
Henry Du, CEMS Professor, is reappointed as SES Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development from September 1, 2024 to August 31, 2027.

Congratulations to the following Stevens Faculty Awards recipients:
- Master of Engineering (honoris causa)
  - Hongbin Li, ECE
- Early Career Award for Research Excellence
  - Rod Kim, ECE
- Award for Research Excellence
  - Muhammad Hajj, CEOE
- Harvey N. Davis Distinguished Teaching Assistant Professor Award
  - Shima Hajimirza, ME

SES Committee on Evaluating Teaching Effectiveness is formed with the following members:

- Muhammad Hajj (Chair), CEOE
- Jennifer Kang-Mieler, BME
- Patricia Muisener, CCB
- Sarah Goodman, CEMS
- Ping Wang, CS

- Joseph Helsing, ECE
- Souran Manoochehri, ME
- Jan Cannizzo, MS
- Rainer Martini, PHY
- Teresa Zigh, SSE

A Stevens trustee, 3 faculty members, 2 alumni and almost 170 engineering graduates were among the inductees honored at the Order of the Engineer on May 21. View the program.
SES Master’s/Doctoral Student Advisory Councils were established in the Spring 2024 semester to improve the overall graduate student experience.
Brent Johnson joined CEMS as Academic Advisor as of June 3, 2024.

Departmental Events
- Groups, Logic, Computation: Interactions Between Geometric Group Theory, Model Theory and Computer Science Conference will be held on campus Wednesday, June 12 through Friday, June 14. Learn more and register to attend. (MS)
- 2024 Community-Based Collaborative PFAS Summit will be held on campus on Friday, June 14, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The event will focus on the critical issues associated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and their impact on public and ecological health. (SCS)
- Inaugural Stevens Physics Olympiad will be held on Saturday, June 15, from 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at the Babbio Center. Learn more about the competition. (PHY)

Congratulations to the Class of 2024!

Wishing everyone a wonderful summer!

RECENT HIGHLIGHTS

Cheng Chen Awarded $1.52 Million from the Department of Energy to Harness Geothermal Energy

Stevens professor of civil, environmental and ocean engineering is advancing human-made energy reservoirs with an eye toward net-zero carbon emissions in the future

Shima Hajimirza Granted $519K NSF CAREER Award to Impact Energy Efficiency

The assistant professor of mechanical engineering, along with her students, aims to advance radiation heat transfer modeling, with real-life applications that include green energy and electronics

$A hot, orange light shines from above down into a porous cube, and the light is refracted out of the cube on the right side. The background is dark.$

Schaefer School of Engineering and Science Faculty Honored During Third Annual SES Faculty Awards

Awardees exemplify a steadfast commitment to academic excellence, flourishing research and transformative teaching

Jean Zu and Robert Gilman standing in front of a Stevens-branded backdrop at the SES Faculty Awards Ceremony.

Student Q&A: Master’s Student Helps Rehabilitate Older Adults Through Musical Biofeedback

Advised by Assistant Professor Antonia Zaferiou, music-loving biomedical engineering student and Stevens DJ delivers personalized music in the lab to improve coordination among older adults

An abstract illustration of headphones emanating sound waves in blue, against a black background.

FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS

Yi Bao, PI and CEOE Assistant Professor, received an SES award of $20K for his project “Bridging Hardware Gap for Developing Carbon-Negative Lightweight Meta-Concrete with Superior Mechanical and Thermal Performance.”

Chang-Hwan Choi, PI and ME Professor, received an NSF award of $261K for his project “Collaborative Research: Capillary-Controlled Thermal Diode Using Heterogeneous Nanostructures.”

Raviraj Nataraj, PI and BME Assistant Professor, received an NSF award of $20K for his project “Conference: The 50th Northeast Bioengineering Conference.”

Lei Wu, PI, ECE Professor and Anson Wood Burchard Chair Professor, received an NSF award of $160K for his project “Collaborative Research: AMPS: Uncertainty Quantification of State Estimation and Topology Identification in Smart Electricity Distribution Systems.”

Xiaodong Yu, PI and CS Assistant Professor, received a DOE award of $29K for his project “Scalable and Resilient Modeling for Federated-Learning-Based Complex Workflows,” with Argonne National Lab as prime.

Antonia Zaferiou, PI and BME Assistant Professor, received an NSF award of $16K for supplemental REU support for her project “CAREER: Adaptive Sonification to Improve Balance during Everyday Mobility.”

Maxine Fontaine, ME Teaching Associate Professor, received the ASEE 2024 Campus Representative Member Recruitment Award for recruiting the most professional members during ASEE’s 2023-2024 "Spread the Word" member recruitment campaign.

Yu Gan, BME Assistant Professor, received the 2024 Scialog Collaborative Innovation Award for his project "Closed-Loop Hypothesis Generation for Automated Chemical Synthesis."

Jennifer Kang-Mieler, BME Chair and Professor, was elected as President-elect of the Northeast Biomedical Engineering League Executive Committee for a three-year commitment beginning July 2024.

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS

The following undergraduate students are winners of the 2024 Ansary Entrepreneurship Competition:

Knee-sy Does It — Jalen Bailey, Grace Fukazawa, Maggie Gibson and Brandon Sems, BME, won the 1st prize of $10K.
TinnX — Nicholas DiMeglio, SSE; Rohit Jayas, ME; and Shady Kamel, ECE, won the 2nd prize of $5K.
Pulse PairIt — Nina Burden, Alicia Cardoso, Stephanie Deren, Arianna Gehan and Julia Zatyko, BME, won the 3rd prize of $2.5K.

Students are pictured with Stevens President Nariman Farvardin.

Knee-sy Does It team members with Nariman Favardin

TinnX team members with Nariman Favardin

Pulse Pair-It team members with Nariman Favardin

The following undergraduate students are winners of the 2024 Gallois Autonomous Robot Competition:

Paul Choi, ME; Christian Osowski, ME; and Kaitlyn Pettit, BME, won the 1st place prize of $1K.
Gabriella Fama, BME; Molly McCann, CEOE; Antonia Panagopoulou, CEOE; and Xiangxi Wang, ECE, won the 2nd place prize of $500.
Yann Gorski, CEOE; Rylee Hussey, CEOE; and Lenny Yanza, ECE, won the 3rd place prize of $250.

Students are pictured with Director of Undergraduate Studies Sandra Clavijo and Assistant Director of Core Engineering and Science Education Dakota Van Deursen.

Sandra Clavijo, Dakota Van Deursen, Christian Osowski and Kaitlyn Pettit

Sandra Clavijo, Dakota Van Deursen, Xiangxi Wang, Antonia Panagopoulou, Molly McCann and Gabriella Fama

Sandra Clavijo, Dakota Van Deursen, Lenny Yanza and Rylee Hussey

Maurice Chevalier, Paul Garipov and Sophia Schaefer, CEOE, won the David and GG Farber Societal Impact Award for their project titled Mycoremediation of Heavy Metal.

Students are pictured with their advisor, Prof. Tsan-Liang Su.

Tsan-Liang Su, Paul Garipov, Maurice Chevalier and Sophia Schaefer standing in front of their poster presentation

Sebastian Almonte, ME; Emanuel Diaz, ME; Richard He, ME; Paul Leible, ME; Hasumi Tanemori, CS; and Kimberly Tsang, CS, received the John Barnes Senior Design Award for their project titled Haptic Hero. The team has also been selected as finalists for the RESNA 2024 Student Design Challenge (SDC).

Students are pictured with SES Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies Frank Fisher.

Sebastian Almonte, Kimberly Tsang, Frank Fisher, Hasumi Tanemori, Richard He and Emmanuel Diaz

Mohamed Abdelkader, CEOE doctoral student, won 1st place in the Joint Conference Student Competition poster presentation category at the 2024 American Meteorological Society (AMS) 104th Annual Meeting — Baltimore Hybrid.

Mohamed Abdelkader presenting his research

Adam Cohen, CEOE undergraduate student, received the 2024 Department of Defense Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transportation (SMART) Scholarship.

Ayodeji Omoniyi, CEMS doctoral student (advised by Prof. Alyssa Hensley), received the Frontera Computational Science Ph.D. Fellowship. The fellowship will contribute $34K towards his salary and $12K toward his tuition from June 2024-May 2025.