The University of Utah College of Engineering is pleased to welcome 13 new tenure-track faculty members for 2021, renowned not only as top educators but also as world-class researchers. Don’t forget to say hi as you pass them in the halls.

 

Emily Marron, Assistant Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering

  • Ph.D. – Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 2020
  • M.S. – Environmental Chemistry, ETH Zurich, 2014
  • B.S. – Civil & Environmental Engineering, The Ohio State University, 2012

Research interests: Understanding impacts of chemicals on human health and environment.

 

Kami Mohammadi, Assistant Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering

  • Ph.D. – Civil & Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2015
  • M.S. – Civil Engineering, University of Tehran, 2006
  • B.S. –Civil Engineering, Chamran University of Ahvaz, 2003

Research interests: Interface of computational geomechanics and dynamics, engineering seismology and geo-data analytics.

 

Shahrzad Roshankhah, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

  • Ph.D. – Civil & Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2015
  • M.S. – Civil Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, 2007
  • B.S. – Civil Engineering, University of Semnan, 2003

Research interests: Understand and quantify the evolution in the physical properties of natural and engineered porous materials upon heat and mass exchange, particularly under extreme conditions.

 

Dan Scott Drew, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Ph.D. – Electrical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 2018
  • B.S. – Materials Science & Engineering, Virginia Tech, 2013

Research interests: Designing insect-scale robots, blending work on novel microactuators, meso-scale fabrication and assembly, human-swarm interaction.

 

Jacob George, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Ph.D. – Biomedical Engineering, University of Utah, 2020
  • M.S. – Biomedical Engineering, University of Utah, 2018
  • B.S. – Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, 2016

Research interests: Augment biological neural networks with artificial neural networks and bionic devices to treat neurological disorders and further our understanding of neural processing.

 

Eliya Cohen, Assistant Professor, Entertainment Arts and Engineering

  • Ph.D. – Philosophy, Princeton University, expected 2021
  • B.A. – Philosophy, Princeton University, 2019
  • M.A. – Philosophy, Reed College, 2015

Research interests: Issues in higher order modal logic and metaphysics, Epicurean physics and applied ethics of video games.

 

Zlatan Aksamija, Associate Professor Materials Science and Engineering

  • Ph.D. – Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009
  • M.S. – Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005
  • B.S. – Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2003

Research interests: Electro-thermal properties of materials. How materials, particularly semiconductors used in nanoelectronics and integrated circuits (chips) and how they conduct electricity and dissipate heat.

 

Chen Wang, Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

  • Ph.D. – Chemical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, 2016
  • M.S. – Polymer Chemistry, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, 2012
  • B.S. – Polymer Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, 2009

Research interests: Recyclable-by-design polymer materials that enable a circular economy of plastics, composites, 3D printed materials, etc.

 

Edoardo Battaglia, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering

  • Ph.D. – Information Engineering, University of Pisa, 2018
  • M.S. – Robotics and Automation Engineering, University of Pisa, 2014
  • B.S. – Mechanical Engineering, University of Pisa, 2010

Research interests: Wearable haptic interfaces and sensing, focus on applications in medicine, training and virtual reality.

 

Tianli Feng, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering

  • Ph.D. – Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, 2017
  • M.S. – Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University, 2013
  • B.S. – Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, 2011

Research interests: Thermal energy transport, conversion and storage by multi-scale multi-physics simulation and experiment.

 

Ashwin Renganathan, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering

  • Ph.D. – Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018
  • M.S. – Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010
  • B.S. – Chemical Engineering, Anna University, India, 2008

Research interests: Developing scalable computational methods for the design of next-generation complex engineered systems, e.g., aircraft, spacecraft, rotocraft.

 

Haohan Zhang, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering

  • Ph.D. – Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University, 2019
  • M.S. – Mechanical Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2014
  • B.S. – Mechanical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, China, 2011

Research interests: Design and control of wearable robots, assistive technology and rehabilitation, physical human-robot-interaction and biomechanics.

 

Sameer Patil, Associate Professor, School of Computing

  • Ph.D. – Information & Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, 2008
  • M.S. – Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 2001
  • M.S.E. – Computer Science & Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 2001
  • B.E. – Electronics Engineering, University of Bombay, 1998

Research interests: Human-centered investigations of privacy and security aspects of technology.