CECS Welcomes 17 New Faculty Members for the Fall Semester

The UCF College of Engineering and Computer Science is making an impact in areas such as hypersonic technology, nanomedicine and biomedical engineering, and robotics and autonomous systems – and has hired a new group of faculty who will enhance its reputation in these fields.

Seventeen new faculty members will join four of the six departments for the fall semester. They bring an expertise in areas such as biomedicine, nanomaterials, optoelectronics, semiconductor devices and quantum computing. The addition of this group follows the hiring of more than 30 faculty members during the past academic year, reflecting the college’s goals of providing quality education and producing innovative research.

Department of Computer Science

Shubra Kanti Karmaker Santu
Assistant Professor

Karmaker previously served as an assistant professor of computer science and software engineering at Auburn University, where his research focused on big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing and information retrieval. He earned his doctoral degree in computer science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Kimia Zamiri Azar
Assistant Professor

Azar joins UCF as a postdoctoral scholar from the University of Florida. Her research focus is hardware security, particularly system-level and platform-level verification and validation. Her work has garnered funding from organizations such as the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Air Force Research Laboratory. She earned her doctoral degree from George Mason University.

Masoumeh Kalantari-Khandani
Lecturer

Kalantari is a graduate of the computer science doctoral program at UCF and earned her master’s degree at Simon Fraser University in Canada. As a visiting graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, she developed an algorithm for MRI brain image segmentation. Following her doctoral studies, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Society of Engineering Education, sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Her teaching interests including signal processing, machine learning and digital systems.

Truong Nghiem
Associate Professor

Nghiem was previously an associate professor at Northern Arizona University, where he established his research lab that focuses on developing the scientific and engineering foundations of cyber-physical systems. These include digital twins, smart building and energy systems, autonomous vehicles and robotics.
He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award and the NSF Engineering Research Initiation Award. He’s a member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). He earned his doctoral degree in electrical and systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Wayesh Qarony
Assistant Professor

Qarony comes to UCF from the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he completed a joint postdoctoral fellowship. At UCF, he will also have a joint appointment with the Department of Physics. His research focuses on photonic nanostructures, quantum materials and devices, solid-state quantum technologies and semiconductor nano-optical devices. He has already pioneered several breakthrough technologies including the first all-silicon quantum light source and the first single-mode semiconductor laser that can scale up in size and power. He earned his doctoral degree in applied physics from Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Arthur Weeks
Senior Lecturer

If Weeks’ name is familiar, it’s because he spent 35 years teaching within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He retired as a professor emeritus in 2022 and earned his tenure as an associate professor. His research ranges from image processing and biomedical systems to low-noise analog electronics and electro-optics. During his time at UCF, he earned more than $3.5 million in funding for his research. Weeks is also a three-time alumnus of UCF, having earned his doctoral, master’s and bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering. As a senior lecturer, Weeks will focus on Senior Design and teach students practical skills that will benefit their projects and their careers.

Tong Wu
Assistant Professor

Wu joins UCF from Cornell University, where he’s served as a postdoctoral scholar since 2021. His research interests include graph signal processing and graph neural networks in power systems. He earned his doctoral degree in information engineering from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He says he was drawn to UCF because of its growing reputation in energy research.

“I was eager to join UCF because of its renowned power and energy research, particularly through initiatives like the RISES faculty cluster,” Wu says. “I am eager to contribute to the research and teaching in intelligent and resilient energy systems using my knowledge in physics-aware AI.”

Qichen Yang
Assistant Professor

Yang brings an expertise in power electronics, insulation technology, high voltage engineering and renewable energy to UCF, where he will oversee the Power Electronics and Insulation Technology Lab. He previously worked as a research faculty member and a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for Advanced Power Systems at Florida State University. He earned his doctoral degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2018.

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Needa Brown
Assistant Professor

Brown comes to UCF from Northeastern University, where she served as an assistant professor of physics, the assistant director of the Cancer Nanomedicine Co-ops for Undergraduate Research Experience (CaNCURE), and the founder and director of the master’s degree in nanomedicine. Her research focuses on the development of nanomaterials to provide solutions for cancer and infectious diseases.

At UCF, Brown will join the Infectious Disease and Travel Health Initiative. Her goal is to further the understanding of nanomaterial-biological interactions to create biomedical solutions that will expand the treatment options available to patients.

“I chose UCF due to its highly collaborative environment with multidisciplinary faculty and excellent core facilities that will allow me to drive disease-motivated nanomaterials research forward,” Brown says.

She obtained her doctoral degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Oklahoma and a bachelor’s degree in biomedicine from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Sidong Lei
Assistant Professor

Lei joins UCF from Georgia State University, where he taught physics. His research lab, known as the Functional Materials Studio, develops new electronic, optoelectronic and quantum devices for applications in biomedicine, microelectronics and sensing systems. Lei earned his doctoral degree from Rice University and completed a postdoctoral research position at the University of California, Los Angeles.

David Mitchell
Associate Professor

Mitchell joins UCF from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he worked as a senior research and development materials scientist. During his tenure at ORNL, he built new research laboratories, advanced manufacturing capabilities and assembled a team to create the next generation of composite materials used in aerospace, hypersonic, nuclear and advanced energy applications. He holds more than 50 patents and has also worked for companies such as Siemens Energy, Boeing and General Electric. He earned his doctoral degree in materials science and engineering from the University of Florida, and completed his research at ORNL.

“I have enjoyed mentoring young scientists and interns for many years,” Mitchell says. “It made it very clear to me that a career as a professor was where I needed to be. I am thrilled to be able to teach, mentor and coach the next generation of amazing scientists at UCF.”

At UCF, Mitchell will have a joint appointment with the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and will be affiliated with the Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research. His research will focus on the development of novel materials for advanced manufacturing and hypersonic vehicles.

Aleksandra Petelski
Assistant Professor

Petelski is the co-founder of Parallel Squared Technology Institute, a nonprofit research organization dedicated to scaling up proteomics, or the study of proteins, for biological research. At UCF, she aims to exploit the heterogeneity of single cell proteomes towards building better materials for biomedical applications. She earned her doctoral degree in bioengineering from Northeastern and her master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the Stevens Institute of Technology.

Rachna Rachna
Lecturer

Rachna’s research focuses on the innovative green synthesis of nanomaterials and their applications in the degradation of organic contaminants. She earned her doctoral degree in 2021 from the National Institute of Technology in India.

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Abdraouf Abusoua
Assistant Lecturer

Abusoua comes to UCF from the University of Texas at Arlington, where he worked as a postdoctoral scholar. His research focuses on nonlinear dynamics, vibrations and controls. He earned his doctoral and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Clemson University and his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Tripoli University-Libya.

Zhipeng Deng
Assistant Professor

Deng brings to UCF an expertise in big data and quantum computing, which he’ll use to optimize energy systems and advance understanding of the built environment. The assistant professor joins UCF from Syracuse University, where he recently worked as a postdoctoral researcher. He earned his doctoral degree from Purdue University and a bachelor’s degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Shadi Abdel-Gawad
Associate Lecturer

Abdel-Gawad rejoins UCF as an associate lecturer after serving as an associate professor at the University of Alberta. He previously worked at UCF as an assistant lecturer and a principal instructor and has degrees in mechanical engineering and industrial engineering from this university. He earned his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Alberta. Abdel-Gawad brings both research and industry experience as the CEO of an engineering company in Canada. His research interests include robotics and inverse dynamics.

Paula do Vale Periera
Assistant Professor

Periera earned her doctoral degree in space systems engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2022. Upon graduation, she joined the Florida Institute of Technology as an assistant professor. Her research focuses on small satellites and CubeSats, probes for ocean exploration and hardware development for space exploration.