Faculty/Staff Spotlight

 

Engineering International Students Programs wants to highlight the work of Xiaolin Wu (ECE ’20), Miao (Jimmy) He (ECE ’20), and Dr. Christopher Schmitz (UIUC Alumnus and ECE Chief Advisor) whose work on WaggleNet deserves the spotlight!

Xiaolin Wu (left) and Jimmy He suit up to install WaggleNet at Schmitz's own beehive.

Xiolin Wu (left) and Jimmy He (right) are in gear to install WaggleNet at Schmitz’s own beehive

WaggleNet is a “wireless monitoring system which collects data on the temperature and humidity inside beehives.” This is especially useful for monitoring the health of honeybee colonies without directly opening a hive during extreme temperatures. The WaggleNet project is currently partners with the Bee Research Facility where research on how WaggleNet can be used for different applications in these colonies.

Read more on this amazing innovation here!


 

Prof Nadya Mason, Professor, Physics

Research Areas: Electronic behavior of materials such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, topological insulators, nanostructured superconductors, and other novel 1D or 2D systems

Education:
Ph.D. in Physics, Stanford University, 2001
S.B. in Physics, Harvard University, 1995

Teaching Honors:
University Scholar (2019)
List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students, (Spring 2015, Spring 2011)

Research Honors:
Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), 2018
John Bardeen Faculty Scholar in Physics at the U of I, 2014
U. of I. College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research, 2012
Maria Goeppert Mayer Award, APS, 2012


Prof Liang Y Liu (Emeritus), Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering; Associate Dean of Facilities and Capital Planning, College of Engineering

Research Areas: Construction Engineering and Management

Education:
Ph.D. in Civil Engineering (Construction Engr. & Management), Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1991
M.S. in Construction Engineering & Management, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1987
B.S. in Civil Engineering (Structures), National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan, 1982

Select Honors:
Keynote Speaker, EDIFICA Conference, Monterrey, Mexico (2010)
Best Paper Award, ASCE Construction Congress, Bahamas (2007)
Keynote speaker, Korean Institute of Construction Engineering and Management Conference, Seoul (2007)
Stanley H. Pierce Faculty Award, College of Engineering (2006)
W.E. O’Neil Faculty Research Fellow (2001-2004)

 


Prof Rashid Bashir, Grainger Distinguished Chair in Engineering; Dean, College of Engineering; Professor, Bioengineering

Research Areas: Bio-Micro and Nanotechnology

Education:
PhD, 1992, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.
MSEE, 1989, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.
BSEE, 1987, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX.

Research Honors:
2012 IEEE EMBS Technical Achievement Award
Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2012.
Fellow of American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), 2010.
Fellow of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2009
NSF Faculty Early Career Award, 2000-2004

 


 

Prof Kimani C. Toussaint, Associate Professor, Mechanical Science and Engineering

Research Areas: Biomedical imaging, Coherent optics/imaging, Electromagnetics and Optics, Microcavity lasers and nanophotonics, Nano-materials, Nano-photonics, Nanotechnology

Education:
Ph.D. Electrical Engineering Boston University 2004
M.S. Electrical Engineering Boston University 1999

Teaching Honors:
MechSE Two-Year Effective Teaching Award, 2019
Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence (UIUC), Spring 2017

Research Honors:
National Academies Keck Futures Initiative Beyond Boundaries Conference, 2017
National Academies’ 3rd Arab-American Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine [Selected as one of 30 participants from America], 2015
Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research, 2015

 


Timothy Bretl, Associate Professor, Aerospace Engineering; Associate Head, Aerospace Engineering

Research Areas: Controls, Dynamical Systems and Estimation;  Space Systems; Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Education:
Ph.D., Stanford University, 2005
M.S., Stanford University, 2000
B.S., Swarthmore College, 1999

Teaching Honors:
William L. Everett Award for Teaching Excellence (2016)
List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students (Spring 2011)
List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students (Spring 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012)

 


Pinshane Huang, Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering

Research Areas: Electronic Materials

Education:
Ph.D., Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University
M.S., Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University
B.S., Department of Physics (with Distinction), Carleton College

Teaching Honors:
Illinois Student Government Teaching Excellence Award (2019)
List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students for MSE 182: Introduction to Materials Science (2016, 2017, 2018)
List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students for MSE 481: Introduction to Transmission Electron Microscopy (2017, 2018)

Research Honors:
Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2019)
Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences (2019)
NSF CAREER Award (2019)

 


Ulyssia Dennis, Assistant Director of Employer Engagement at ECS

Bio:
“I began my career in Human Resources as a University Relations Manager at Texas Instruments. After several years of working in a variety of HR-related roles in a variety of industries, my career came full circle when I joined ECS as a Career Advisor last January. I’m now serving as the Assistant Director of Employer Engagement for ECS.”                   – Ulyssia Dennis

 

Her work at the International Student Career Connections Committee, whose focus is to help international employment opportunities, has helped the university earn the GUCDC China Career Development Program – University Career Service Best Practice.  We are proud to spotlight Ulyssia Dennis in the EISP faculty and staff spotlight.

Education:
B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.S. in Human Resources and Industrial Relations from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Honors:
2018 GUCDC China Career Development Program – University Career Service Best Practice (Awarded to the entire University career service community)

 


Prof Zhi-Pei Liang, Franklin W. Woeltge Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Primary Research Area: Signal Processing

Education:
Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, 1989
M.S., Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, 1985
B.S., Electrical Engineering, South-China Institute of Technology, 1982

Select Honors:
Center for Advanced Study Associate, UIUC, 2016
Lauterbur Lecturer, 24th ISMRM Annual Meeting, 2016
Distinguished Service Award, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2015

 


Prof Yanfeng Ouyang, Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
George Krambles Endowed Professor in Rail and Public Transit

Research Areas: Energy-Water-Environment Sustainability, Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure Systems, Transportation Engineering

Education:
Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, 2005
M.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, University of California at Berkeley, 2005
M.S. in Civil Engineering, University of Washington, 2001
B.Eng. in Civil Engineering (summa cum laude), Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, 2000

Teaching Honors:
List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students (three times), CEE418 (Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018)
List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students (two times), CEE498-PT (Spring 2013, Spring 2014)

Research Honors:
2017 Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) Scholar Award, Ministry of Education, China (2018)
Merit Award for Outstanding Technical Plan or Study, Federal Planning Division, the American Planning Association (2017)
George Krambles Endowed Professor in Rail and Public Transit (2017)

 


Prof Sarita V Adve, Richard T. Cheng Professor, Computer Science

Primary Research Area: Architecture, Compilers, and Parallel Computing

Education:
Ph.D., Computer Science, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 1993
M.S., Computer Science, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 1989
B.Tech., Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay, 1987

Select Honors:
ACM/IEEE-CS Ken Kennedy Award, Association for Computing Machinery and IEEE Computer Society, 2018
Woman of Vision,  Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology, 2012

 


Prof Roy Dar, Assistant Professor, Bioengineering

Primary Research Area: Bioimaging at Multi-Scale; Molecular, Cellular and Tissue Engineering

Education: 
Ph.D. Physics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2011)
B.Sc. Physics and Mathematics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (2004)

Related news:
Dar and team receive funding to study bacterial communities’ dynamics
Illinois researchers gain insights on challenges of HIV cure strategies

 


Prof Ying Diao, Assistant Professor, Dow Chemical Company Faculty Scholar, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

Primary Research Area: Understanding and Control of Multiscale Molecular Assembly Processes

Education:
Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford University & SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2011-2014
Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2011
M.S., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008
B.S.E., Tsinghua University, 2006

Select Honors:
Center for Advanced Study Fellow, 2019-2020
NSF CAREER Award, 2o18
3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, 2018


Prof Rizwan Uddin, Professor and Department Head, Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering

Primary Research Area: Nuclear Power

Education:
Ph.D., University of Illinois,  Nuclear Engineering, 1987
M.S., University of Illinois, Nuclear Engineering, 1983
B.S., Middle East Technical University, Mechanical Engineering, 1980

Select Honors:
Fellow of the American Nuclear Society (2014)
Partial list of Excellent Teachers (1996-2016)
Ph.D. advisor to the recipient of ANS’ Mark Mills Award (Prashant Jain) for Best Ph.D. Dissertation (2010)
Engineering Council Award for Excellence in Advising (2009)

 

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