October 2025

Welcome to the new academic year. As we navigate university-wide changes, Maseeh College remains focused on our mission of providing a world-class, hands-on education. Please join me in welcoming our new leadership: Martin Siderius is the new Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Bob Bass is the interim ECE Department Chair. Elliott Gall will serve as Special Assistant to the Dean, focusing on the first-year experience. We also congratulate Ameeta Agrawal and John Lipor on their appointments as Wedge Vision Professors. As you know, PSU is implementing the PIVOT plan to address the budget deficit. More details on program self-studies will come from Academic Affairs this month. I am confident this process will strengthen our college. In support of campus vibrancy, the new standard of four on-campus days for staff begins November 17. I encourage faculty to increase their campus presence to support our staff and students. Maseeh already leads PSU in in-person courses, which is vital to our mission, and I thank you for your commitment. Please feel free to reach out to the Dean’s Office team if you have questions. I value your input, and each of you is vital to our success. Thank you again for the valuable work you do.

We kicked off the school year with the New Student Welcome. Students picked up swag, including the 2025 Maseeh College t-shirt, met faculty and staff, explored resources on campus, joined Maseeh student groups and clubs, took photobooth pictures, rubbed elbows with Viktor the Viking, and met King, the llama. (Any staff or faculty who would like a shirt, pick one up at the State of the College event on Friday or email our outreach staff.) Big shout out to Tong Zhang (Assistant Dean for Inclusive Innovation), Emily Hahn (DO), Rosemary Fama Academics (DO), and a host of others who made the event such a success!

Orientation “Welcome Home” tours introduced new first-year and transfer Maseeh students to department staff, study spaces, student groups, and other insider tips from current Student Ambassadors. Thank you to all who helped make those run smoothly and for helping our new students feel at home in the Maseeh College.
The Maseeh College hosted the Portland Public Schools team of College and Career Readiness Coordinators on September 11th. The relationship we are building with this critical team of dedicated staff at PPS is already paying off in dividends for further connection and outreach this academic year, including the upcoming Career Technical Education Day we are hosting in early December.
New Maseeh Student Ambassadors and front desk student staff from the Dean’s Office and Student Services attended a retreat that included discussions on interfacing with various audiences in their roles, best practices for representing the college, as well as an insider’s tour of our building’s heating and cooling infrastructure.

The Fall Maseeh Community Mixer recently brought interested students together to explore our groups and clubs and to take advantage of networking with fellow students. These mixers will take place on the second Wednesday of each term, so encourage students to attend the next one and explore options for fostering connection and community. Organizations or groups interested in tabling at an upcoming mixer should contact our outreach team..

Thanks to a generous in-kind donation from the Vatheuer Family Foundation, Maseeh College will be the subject of an upcoming mini-documentary. Our newly-minted Wedge Vision Professor, Ameeta Agrawal (CS), as well as Daimler Professor Raúl Bayoán Cal (MME), Dean Joseph Bull, and MME graduate student Rocky Compton were interviewed for the project, which focuses on indigeneity in STEM. See the premiere at our upcoming Maseeh Exchange event on November 12th (details below).

Maseeh College hosted this year's FIRSTfare, held every fall to support FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST Tech Challenge teams in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Led by students and mentors from local teams, FIRSTfare featured a variety of presentations, including sessions on game strategy, machine vision, programming, shop skills, and more.
Thank you to everyone--from Dean Joseph Bull to PSU's VP of Marketing and Communications to our indispensable student workers--who participated in our ongoing community mural painting. We hope to see even more Maseeh folks with paint brushes in hand throughout October (12:40-1:30 pm, not including Fridays). Don't miss a chance to channel your inner artist and make your mark on our public art project that will be unveiled at the upcoming and much-anticipated Maseeh Exchange event (information below).

The new Maseeh Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (MSURE) brings together students from three competitive research internship programs: the Undergraduate Research & Mentoring Program (URMP), the Frank and Ken Summer Undergraduate Research program, and the EAGLES Scholarship program. MSURE Symposium Ice Cream Mixer recently offered undergraduate students an opportunity to present their summer research results to the community while enjoying some well-deserved ice cream.

Maseeh College's presence at the Portland National College Fair was invaluable in demonstrating PSU's status as Oregon's official urban research institution. Staff and faculty from our undergraduate departments answered questions and met with potential students at the huge recruitment event, held every year at hte Oregon Convention Center.
Get an insider's look at what it's like working in the CAT by watching their Year in Review video.

Congratulations to Ameeta Agrawal (CS) and John Lipor (ECE), Maseeh College's most recent Wedge Vision Award Professors. These professorships acknowledge mid-career faculty making significant efforts toward advancing our strategic vision, from teaching to research and promotion of Maseeh College core values. Recipients receive discretionary funds for two years to continue their efforts.
ETM Professor, Tugrul Daim, will be serving as the keynote speaker at the 7th International Engineering and Technology Management Summit in October at Abdullah Gül University in Kayseri, Türkiye.
Bob Bass (ECE) was awarded $39,866 from the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, Inc. for “Water Heater CTA-2045 Implementation Guide Development”
Elliott Gall (MME) has been awarded $300,000 from the American Lung Association for “Portable Induction Cooktops As An Indoor Air Quality Intervention In Low-Income Housing: Evaluation Of Indoor Air Quality Impacts And User Perceptions”
Peter Dusicka (CEE) has been awarded $199,778 from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality Community of Practice for “DEQ's Fuel Tank Seismic Stability Program”
Joshua Mendez (ECE) has been awarded $33,000 from AscendArc, Inc/ DOD US Air Force Research Laboratory for “Rapid, Scalable Narrowband Satellite Communications”
Elliott Gall (MME) has been awarded $418,746 from the National Science Foundation for “Towards Fundamental Understanding of the Accumulation, Chemistry, and Human Exposure to Indoor Surface-Associated Wildfire Smoke Constituents”
Primal Pappachan (CS) has been awarded $174,991 from the National Science Foundation for “CRII: SaTC: Preventing Inferences in Databases Through Dependency-Aware Access Control”
Jason Anderson (CEE) has been awarded $295,000 from ODOT for “Impact Study on Increasing Truck Permit Weight Limits”
Tanmoy Bhowmik (CEE) has been awarded $64,970 from Texas State University/NAS for “BTSCRP BTS-39: Toolkit for Reducing Substance-Impaired”
Yi Xia (MME) has been awarded $201,741 from the National Science Foundation for “Collaborative Research: Predictive Framework for Harnessing Order-Disorder Phenomena in Mixed-Chalcogen Solids”
George McDonald (ECE) has been awarded $73,943 from NASA for “A Global Investigation of Subsurface Melting Favorability on”
Raúl Bayoán Cal (MME) has been awarded $180,000 from TotalEnergies for “Wind Incidence Angle Effects in Infinite Solar Farms”

(Grant information available as of October 9th.)

PSU Research Awards: Nominations are now live! Celebrate an outstanding colleague in PSU’s research community. Visit Research & Graduate Studies’ home page to start your nomination by Monday, October 27th and complete it by Monday, November 17th.

We have a new landing page focused on STEM opportunities, the highlight of which is STEM Bytes, a lunch and learn workshop series that connects students with the resources, skills, and people needed to advance in their studies and careers. RSVP required.
Our new LinkedIn group Maseeh College Career Connect shares job postings and other career insights and is already proving popular. Feel free to share with students who may soon be job hunting.
Ehsan Aryafar (CS) and his team in the NeWS Lab (Networks and Wireless Systems Laboratory) recently published new research into high-performance wireless edge computing and adaptive AI-driven caching architectures. Building on this research, Aryafar’s lead doctoral student, Suresh Srinivasan, co-founded CacheWave AI to protect and market PSU–owned intellectual property developed at NeWS Lab that enables intelligent data caching and low-latency inference for next-generation AI, wireless, and edge systems—with promising applications in satellite communications and immersive virtual reality (VR).

Some exciting curriculum changes are afoot. Starting next academic year, Maseeh will be offering a minor in Cybersecurity and a BS in AI (as well as a minor). Our college is the first in the PNW to offer an undergraduate AI degree program.
We recently updated the list of PSU and Maseeh College Marketing and Communications resources. Information on everything from submitting stories to PR to logos to faculty expert lists is available; let us know if there are any additions you would recommend.
Please follow the college and share our posts on any social media platform you use. We have a presence on virtually every available channel: our handle is @maseehcollege. Following our LinkedIn channel would be especially helpful. LinkedIn isn’t just for job seekers — it’s a powerful platform for engineers, computer scientists, and researchers to share innovations, celebrate student success, and connect with industry partners. We are able to make more meaningful connections with alumni if there is a strong faculty connection through LinkedIn. By posting updates or engaging with your network a few times a month, you help elevate the visibility of our college and showcase the important work happening across our programs. Whether you share an article, celebrate a student win, or comment on a PSU colleague’s post – your voice adds to our collective impact and builds our academic community.
The Computer Action Team (CAT) has been busy this summer, making some substantial changes to the college's computer infrastructure that may affect both onsite and remote users:
- Use of Autodesk products (Autocad, Autocad Electrical, Civil 3D, etc) now needs a special Autodesk account.
- Multifactor Authentication (MFA) is now available to protect your MCECS computer account.
- Access to Microsoft software via Azure Devtools for Education has changed.
- For people who access Linux systems graphically, the default desktop has changed (to Xfce).
- The default behavior of our addpkg system for Linux users has changed.
- Two new servers (phobos/deimos) running Rocky 9 Linux are being tested for ECE classwork. The old Centos7 ECE servers (mo/auto) are now blocked from accessing the Internet.
- Standalone Adobe Acrobat Pro is no longer available in our computer labs.

Make sure to subscribe to and add your events to the shared Maseeh Events Google calendar. (Events in this calendar are also manually added to the PSU events calendar.)
If you know of students curious about a career in semiconductors, let them know about an upcoming seminar organized by SEMI Pacific Northwest. More deatils and a registration link are available here.
Dean Joseph Bull's annual State of the College will be held at the Native American Student and Community Center (NASCC) on October 17th at noon, as part of our 2nd Inclusive Teaching & Mentoring Symposium for the Maseeh College on Friday, October 17th. We will be focusing on supporting undergraduate and graduate student success in an ever evolving local and national climate. Please RSVP so we can get an accurate count for seating and food. (You also have the chance to get the new college t-shirt, if you haven't already.)

Students interested in a graduate degree at PSU are invited to attend the upcoming Maseeh College Graduate Programs Information Session on November 4th. Details and a registration link are here.

Save the date for our first Maseeh Exchange on November 12th from 5-7 pm. Our focus for the Fall term will be highlighting our work around Power & Energy . Faculty Ignite talks, open labs, and the unveiling of our new mural, and much more are planned. We will be sharing more details soon, but it's not too early to RSVP and mark your calendars.

The PSU Career Center is launching Career Week, a quarterly series of events designed to connect students, faculty, staff and employers, and strengthen career readiness across campus. Featuring career fairs, networking events, employer panels, resume reviews to help students share their skills, connect coursework to careers and build professional networks, it's starting next week, and ending with the Fall Career Fair on Monday, October 27th. Please encourage students to learn more and participate.

Electrical & Computer Engineering is excited to announce an ongoing series of industry visits to PSU held in Fourth Avenue Building 60-19 at 12:45 pm.

The inimitable Helen Frey (DO) is retiring from her Research Coordinator position as of October 17. To honor her request, "there is to be no party."After 15 years of dedicated service, Helen Frey (DO) is retiring from her role supporting Research Administration. Known for her thorough investigative skills, thoughtful questions, and skill in solving complex problems, Helen will be missed. While she does not want a party, we do want to acknowledge her contributions and assistance to faculty, staff, and students alike over the years. We celebrated her in a way that is meaningful to her--by sharing flowers. Thank you, Helen, for your exceptional attention to detail, which kept many folks out of hot water. (In terms of coverage, Helen will move to a part-time wage agreement from 10/18 - 12/31, as a means to continue supporting work in her portfolio, until a replacement can be hired. Caden Nguyen-Diamond (ECE) is graciously offering his time to ensure research purchasing needs are met. Both parties can be reached via MCECSTS@pdx.edu.)
Much-loved Senior Instructor Evan Kristof (CEE) is departing Maseeh College to return to his practice as a structural engineer. Since joining Portland State in 2012, Kistof has consistently been lauded by students and colleagues alike for his well-organized courses and empathetic approach to teaching, and he was frequently cited by students as the teacher with the greatest impact on their engineering journeys. Serving as his department's Upper Division Advisor as well as advisor for PSU's chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers, he nurtured students' confidence to become leaders in their communities and professions. Recently awarded the Wedge Excellence Through An Extraordinary Action Award, Kristof was also the recipient of the Wedge Excellence in Teaching Award in 2019. Join us in wishing him the very best in this next chapter.

Wu-chi Feng (CS) has stepped into the role of department chair following Mark Jones' sabbatical departure.
Bob Bass (ECE) is serving as his department's chair after the promotion of Martin Siderius to Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
Recent dispatches from our former Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Jim Hook (CS), offer evidence that his sabbatical is off to a great start in Argentina

Our T-Rex, mobile field shaker that simulates earthquakes, caught the attention of KATU news, and they reported the soil liquefaction work of Diane Moug (CEE) and Arash Khosravifar (CEE).
Oegon Public Broadcasting (OPB) interviewed Arash Khosravifar (CEE) and Diane Moug (CEE) about these staged earthquakes that test the potential of soil-strengthening treatments.
KGW also reported on this pioneering research work and the soil liquefaction research that our CEE department is undertaking. Diane Moug (CEE) offered a compelling on-camera explanation of the importance of this kind of work in ensuring hte resilience of infrastructure along hte Cascadia fault line.
Oegon Public Broadcasting (OPB) had a conversation with Arash Khosravifar (CEE) and Diane Moug (CEE) about simulating earthquakes to test soil-strengthening treatment.

Yumei Wang (Senior Advisor on Infrastructure Resilience and Risk/CEE) discusses the seismic safety of local schools in a four-part series of OregonLive articles focusing on the aging infrastructure of public schools in the Portland area.

If you have any faculty or staff news for the next Faculty Staff Bulletin or suggestions, add them to this document.

If you have any news or content for the next @MaseehCollege student newsletter, please fill out this submission form.

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