Faculty News
COLLEGE NEWS - SPRING, 2022
- Over 750 middle school girls were hosted for the 4th time in our award-winning Introduce a Girl to Engineering days held on campus in
the spring. Women engineers and engineering students led hands-on activities to encourage
the visitors’ interest in math and science.
- Engie Hall, Director of The Office of Accessibility and Disability Resources, provided
a college-wide online training session “Reframing Disability” aimed at advancing culture
change and accessibility and providing information on the disability experience as
an identity rather than a deficit.
- 61 teams, made up of 235 students, took part in our bi-annual Senior Design Expo on
April 29, 2022. Dozens of project clients and employers participated in the event
to celebrate the students’ capstone accomplishments, which received local media coverage.
Two Senior design teams developed adaptive walkers for a 6 year-old girl with Wolf-Hirschhorn
syndrome. The teams designed and fabricated both an outdoor walker and an indoor walker
that allow her to easily move about and to play with her siblings. Media coverage
at https://youtu.be/mTKbv9i8Q1o
- Jon Pawlecki, Director of Student Services and Transfer Partnerships received his
PhD from the College of Education in May.
- Angie Gorny, Director of the Shah Center for Engineering Career Development won the
Cooperative and Experiential Education Division (CEED) of the American Society of
Engineering Education (ASEE) 2022 Alvah K. Borman Award
BIOENGINEERING –
- Brent Cameron (Bioengineering Chair) and Dr. Scott Pappada (Bioengineering & Anesthesiology)
received a $644,944 grant from the State of Ohio’s Third Frontier Research Initiative
for their proposal entitled “Prediction of Relapse in Opioid Addiction via a Novel
Wearable Technology (PreLAPSE).”
- The UToledo Bioengineering department (Dr. Vijay Goel; co-director) co-hosted the bi-annual Center for Disruptive Musculoskeletal Innovations (CDMI) Spring 2022 virtual symposium in conjunction with the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and Ohio State University (OSU) on May 19-20. The CDMI is an NSF supported Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC).
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING –
- Chemical engineering alum Jim Burtnett-Grigsby was named Toledo Area Outstanding Young
Engineer for 2022.
- Glenn Lipscomb received the title of Distinguished University Professor.
- Dong Shik Kim received a $250k grant as principal investigator from NSF. “A hand-held device for rapid and accurate determination of cancerous tumor margins during surgical resections”.
- Dong Shik Kim’s selection as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar for 2022-2023
- Matthew Liberatore is a Gary Leach Award Recipient from the Education Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AICHE). This award “recognizes and publicizes the activities of a group in the organization whose performance showed significant accomplishments toward the Institute's mission and objectives.”
- Matthew Liberatore received a $368k grant from NSF for his proposal titled: Shear thickening under high shear using bimodal dispersions
- Sridhar Viamajala received a $265k grant from US Dept. of Energy for his proposal
titled: High pH/high alkalinity cultivation for Direct Atmospheric Air Capture and
Algae Bioproducts
- Thihal Ponnaiyan won the 2022 College of Engineering Excellence in Teaching Award.
Civil & Environmental Engineering –
- Dr. Daewook Kang was recognized by the university as one of a select group of faculty
members having recorded exceptional success in scholarly and creative activity contributions
over the 2019-2021 period, having had publications or creative works that have received
national recognition and acclaim during this period
- Dr. Eddie Chou’s proposal to ODOT on Investigation of Pavement Performance in Historically
Under-Performing Regions has been selected for funding. This proposal has an external
sponsor budget of ~$400k (with a total project budget ~700k). As PI of this project,
Dr. Chou will be collaborating with colleagues from UT’s Math and Environmental Science
departments as well as external partners. Data Mining and Machine Learning will be
used to identify the root cause(s) of recurring regional pavement poor-performance
followed by field investigation and forensic laboratory testing.
- The Civil and Environmental Engineering Department received the Rocket Health Healthy Department Award for recognizing the department’s dedication to supporting employee well-being.
- Civil and Environmental Engineering faculty and staff received their certificate on Crucial Conversations. This training focused on tools for talking when stakes are high. The group learned how to better resolve disagreements, build acceptance rather than resistance, talk respectfully, not abrasively and foster teamwork.
EECS –
- Raghav Khanna has been appointed as the inaugural holder of the Leidich Family Professorship
in Power Systems. Gary and Marla Leidich have generously created this endowed professorship,
only the second in the College of Engineering, to further the studies of energy engineering.
- Raghav Khanna and Daniel Georgiev’s research was highlighted by colleagues at the
Naval Research Lab at the Workshop of Compound Semiconductor Materials and Devices.
- Kevin Xu received a $206K grant as co-PI from the National Institute of Mental Health
“A large sample machine learning network analysis of vertex cortical thickness measures
for high-resolution definition of PTSD related cortical structure abnormalities”
- Abbas Semnani received the 2022 Faculty Fellowship Award from NASA Glenn Research
Center, which seeks to engage faculty in cutting-edge research at Glenn Research Center
to stimulate exchanging ideas among faculty and NASA researchers.
- Mohammed Niamat is again hosting a free microelectronics security summer workshop for high school students, funded by the Air Force Research Lab. Media coverage at https://nbc24.com/news/local/high-school-students-learn-about-cybersecurity-microelectronics-at-weeklong-utoledo-camp
- Kevin Xu was awarded the College’s Excellence in Supervision of Undergraduate Research award
- Raghav Khanna was awarded the College’s Excellence in Research award.
ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY –
- Sandrine Mubenga received the Edith Rathbun Outreach and Engagement Excellence Award.
- Zhao earned robotics certification offered by Fanuc America, the certifications establish UToledo as an educational certified training institution for the Fanuc Robotics certification program.
- Dr. Jared Oluoch has been elevated to the grade of IEEE Senior member
- Carmen Cioc was selected as College’s nominee for the KEEN Rising Star award. The award recognizes individuals at KEEN partner institutions who have gone above and beyond to equip undergraduate engineers to create personal, economic, and societal value through the entrepreneurial mindset.
- Ted Evans won the Educator of the Year award from OSPE.
- Dr. Carmen Cioc received the North Central Section 2022 Outstanding Campus Representative Award.
- Dr. Carmen Cioc was elected as the ASEE NCS Board Director.
MECHANICAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING –
- Vince DiPofi, mechanical engineering alum, and CEO of SSOE Group was named Toledo Area Engineer of the Year for 2022
- Hossein Sojoudi – received the 2022 President’s award for excellence in creative and scholarly activity.
- Hongyan Zhang was issued a Patent RE: D2018-49 - Zhang - "Connectors with Distributed Projections for Joining Aluminum Plates/Sheets" - Issued Patent [60206-US-NP]
- Lesley Berhan received a $64k grant from the Ohio Department of Higher Education titled: Choose Ohio First
- Ted Keith recently achieved the 50 year of service mark at The University of Toledo!