Texas Engineering’s Newest Faculty Members, 2020-21
Our newest Cockrell School of Engineering faculty members span a wide range of engineering expertise — from machine learning to health robotics to infrastructure and agricultural systems. Learn more about their research areas:
Matthew Bartos
Assistant Professor, Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering (Start date: January 2021)
Ph.D. University of Michigan
Research interests include: developing the next generation of smart urban water systems, including real-time flood monitoring and stormwater control; algorithms for data assimilation, event detection and sensor/controller placement
Brian Belardi
Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering (Start date: January 2021)
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley
Research interests include: molecular engineering, biotechnology, therapeutics and drug delivery, epithelial biology and extracellular matrix, post-translational modifications, synthetic cells and tissue, biophysics and biointerfaces
Raghu Bollapragada
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Ph.D. Northwestern University
Research interests include: non-linear optimization, stochastic optimization, derivative-free optimization, distributed optimization, machine learning
Sergio Castellanos
Assistant Professor, Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering (Start date: January 2021)
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research interests include: environmental and energy justice, sustainable transportation, renewable energy technology manufacturing and deployment, and energy systems modeling
Shwetadwip Chowdhury
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering (Start date: February 2021)
Ph.D. Duke University
Research interests include: Optical microscopy, computational reconstruction, wave propagation through optical scatter, multi-dimensional imaging, large-scale data analysis, and scientific and medical translation
John-Paul Clarke
Professor, Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics (Start date: January 2021)
Ernest Cockrell, Jr. Memorial Chair in Engineering
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research interests include: urban air mobility (UAM) and the development of autonomous aircraft, including air traffic management and control for these systems
Anca-Cristina Ferche
Assistant Professor, Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering (Start date: January 2021)
Ph.D. University of Toronto, Canada
Research interests include: analysis and performance assessment of deteriorated concrete infrastructure, nonlinear finite element analysis of reinforced concrete structures, advanced constitutive modeling and alkali-silica reaction effects on the behavior of reinforced concrete structures
Ann Majewicz Fey
Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Ph.D. Stanford University
Research interests include: robotics, dynamic systems and control, medical and surgical robots, teleoperation and haptics
Nick Fey
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin
Research interests include: neuromuscular biomechanics, rehabilitation robotics, and prosthetics and orthotics
Hyeji Kim
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ph.D. Stanford University
Research interests include: information theory, machine learning and wireless communications
Ruochen Lu
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering (Start date: January 2021)
Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Research interests include: communications, control theory, data science, information theory, machine learning, networking, optimization, signal processing and system theory
Yingda Lu
Assistant Professor, Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering
Ph.D. University of Michigan
Research interests include: paraffin gelation and deposition in multiphase flow; asphaltene precipitation and deposition; rheological and flow behaviors of non-Newtonian petroleum fluids; and applications of molecular simulation in oil and gas production
Lori Magruder
Associate Professor, Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics
Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin
Research interests include: remote sensing and 3D geospatial data exploitation for earth science
Dev Niyogi
Professor, Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Ph.D. North Carolina State University
Research interests include: understanding of the Earth system, particularly the urban and agricultural landscapes, and the dynamic role of coupled land surface processes on regional hydroclimatic and environmental extremes; translating the scientific work undertaken into decision tools and portals with a particular focus on sustainable climate-ready/resilient coastal, cities and agricultural systems
Tyrone Porter
Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Myron L. Begeman Fellowship in Engineering
Ph.D. University of Washington
Research interests include: image-guided drug delivery, ultrasound and acoustics
Joaquin Resasco
Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering (Start date: January 2021)
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley
Research interests include: understanding the structure and properties of catalysts to enable next-generation sustainable technologies
Gabriel Sanoja
Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley
Research interests include: engineering mechanical properties and lifetime of soft polymeric materials
August Shi
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Research interests include: software testing and regression testing
Thomas Underwood
Assistant Professor, Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics (Start date: January 2021)
Ph.D. Stanford University
Research interests include: understanding how the chemistry and dynamics of reactive flows can be leveraged to address challenges in energy, transportation, the environment and security
Evan Wang
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering (Start date: January 2021)
Ph.D. Stanford University
Research interests include: development of new tools to modulate and record neural activity from targeted neuronal populations using minimally invasive methods
Atlas Wang
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Research interests include: automated machine learning (AutoML), learning-based optimization, machine learning robustness and efficient deep learning
Bo Zhao
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Research interests include: developing advanced mathematical models, computational algorithms and data acquisition schemes to push the limits of magnetic resonance imaging systems
Lei Zhou
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research interests include: electromagnetic design, actuators and sensors, precision machines, control and estimation, magnetic levitation and manufacturing systems