CECS Faculty Receive Promotion and Tenure

UCF faculty members across the university, including several from the College of Engineering and Computer Science, achieved significant career milestones in earning promotions and tenure for the 2023-24 cycle.
The 104 approved faculty — 63 for promotion, 40 for promotion and tenure and one for tenure — underwent a rigorous performance evaluation by peers, college and university leaders that took nearly an academic year.

The president and provost make final decisions on promotions following reviews and recommendations from individual colleges and units. The UCF Board of Trustees must approve tenure, which is a key factor in fulfilling UCF’s strategic plan of becoming a preeminent state university, a national top 25 public institution and the world’s leading public metropolitan research university. Aside from helping UCF recruit and retain exceptional faculty, tenure helps protect academic freedom and encourages faculty to focus on challenging and important problems to benefit society.

“These faculty members who earned promotion and tenure met a lofty and demanding bar in demonstrating excellence and high productivity over several years in teaching, research, and service,” says Michael D. Johnson, UCF’s provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “I am confident this group will make a significant contribution to UCF’s future success.”

The approvals take effect Aug. 8. Congratulations to the following faculty.

Promoted to Associate Professor With Tenure

Shaurya Agarwal
Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering

Zhaomiao Guo
Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering

Paul Gazzillo
Department of Computer Science

Chen Chen
Department of Computer Science

Kenle Chen
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Fan Yao
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Dazhong Wu
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Kaitlyn Crawford
Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Lorraine Leon
Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Promoted to Professor

Damian Dechev
Department of Computer Science

Annie Wu
Department of Computer Science

George Atia
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Qipeng Zhen
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems

Yuanli Bai
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Parag Banerjee
Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Promoted to Associate Lecturer

Celina Dozier
Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering

Karin Markle
Department of Computer Science

Sagnik Mazumdar
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Promoted to Senior Lecturer

Tian Tian
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Promoted to Senior Instructor

Thomas Nedorost
Department of Computer Science