June 29, 2020

From left to right: Mark Bocko, Marvin Doyley, Sandhya Dwarkadas, and Michael Scott.

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Two remarkably productive department chairs will be stepping down July 1; it is our good fortune that we have two outstanding faculty members who will be stepping in to succeed them.

Sandhya Dwarkadas, the Albert Arendt Hopeman Professor, has guided the Department of Computer Science through dramatic changes since becoming chair in 2014. During that time, undergraduate enrollments more than doubled. The department relocated into new offices and labs in Wegmans Hall. It launched a master’s degree program, and a training program for teaching assistants to assist with increased class sizes. Eight new faculty members were hired, included two women. Sandhya was instrumental in enrolling the department in the BRAID (Building, Recruiting, and Inclusion for Diversity) Initiative, which has helped the department attract and retain women undergraduates. The percentage of women undergraduates this spring was 29.4 percent, well above the national average. “This has obviously been a group effort,” Sandhya says. Nonetheless, she has done an exemplary job in leading the department!

Michael Scott, the Arthur Gould Yates Professor, who will succeed Sandhya, has already demonstrated he is up to the task of leading the department – multiple times. He chaired the department from 1996 to 1999, and was interim chair for six months in 2007, and again in 2017. In addition to his outstanding teaching and research credentials (Goergen and Riker teaching awards; fellow of ACM and IEEE), Michael has been actively engaged in University governance. He has served on the senate executive committee and on multiple search committees, including those that resulted in hiring Mary Ann Mavrinac as Dean of Libraries, Denise Yarbrough as Director of Religious and Spiritual Life, Wendi Heinzelman as Dean of Engineering, Donald Hall as Dean of the Faculty of AS&E, Rob Clark as Senior VP for Research, and Sara Mangelsdorf as President. We will benefit immensely from Michael’s leadership as we navigate the challenges that confront us as a school and University.

For 14 years, deans of engineering have benefited from Mark Bocko‘s leadership as chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, from 2004-2010 and again since 2013. Mark, the Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was the driving force behind one of our most popular undergraduate programs – audio and music engineering – which was launched in 2013 and gives students the skills they need to enter the rapidly changing field of audio and sound engineering. The University’s $3 million investment in a state-of-the-art recording studio, control room, mixing rooms, and sound design lab was a major milestone for the program. Mark will continue to direct that program, as well as the Center for Emerging and Innovative Sciences (CEIS), enabling him to continue to forge links between academic researchers and local companies, and advocate for developing the Rochester region as a center for light- and sound-based technologies. Mark has been an outstanding leader and we are glad that we will continue to benefit from his vision and ideas moving forward.

Marvin Doyley, who will succeed Mark, has already been serving as associate chair, and last year was one of 20 faculty members nationwide who were selected as the first cohort of the IAspire Leadership Academy, a program aimed at helping STEM faculty from underrepresented backgrounds ascend to leadership roles at colleges and universities. His project for the program involved growing a pipeline to help diversify graduate students and faculty in the department. Marvin, recently elected a fellow of AIMBE (American Institute for Medical and Biomedical Engineering), “is a great faculty colleague and over the years he has contributed tremendously to ECE’s research profile and teaching mission,” Mark says. “He clearly already possesses the skills and energy to be a wonderful leader for our department and the University.” We will certainly benefit from Marvin’s leadership moving forward!

Here’s a great opportunity for Hajim students to help address the COVID-19 pandemic, receive a certificate in community engagement,  and fulfill the entrepreneurship and service competencies for some of the challenges students tackle in our Grand Challenges Scholars Program. The Rochester COVID19 Challenge, co-hosted by iZone, Ain Center for Entrepreneurship, Rochester Center for Community Leadership, and the Hajim Grand Challenges Scholars Program, will engage teams of students in a 10-day challenge July 15-24 working with a Rochester community partner to solve a problem resulting from the pandemic. All events will be held on Zoom, including skill building workshops and check ins to help students along the way. There also will be cash prizes for the first- and second-place teams. Open to any University of Rochester undergraduate or graduate student. You have until July 10 to register.

Congratulations to:

Fernando Zvietcovich, recent optics PhD student, who received the 2020 Outstanding Dissertation Award from AS&E for “Dynamic Optical Coherence Elastography.” Fernando, who was advised by faculty members Kevin Parker and Jannick Rolland, is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Houston. It would be hard to imagine a more deserving recipient. Fernando took on a relatively new topic in imaging, published seven major journal papers, added a new solution to a complicated integral formula, and created some of the highest resolution elastography images ever made. “We are still, and for many months to come, finishing up grant proposals and new manuscripts all based on the core work done by Fernando and outlined in his PhD thesis,” Kevin says.

Caroline Cardinale ’21 of mechanical engineering, who has received an Astronaut Scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. Caroline is one of 56 recipients from 41 universities nationwide to receive this award, which recognizes juniors and seniors who are studying science, technology, engineering, or mathematics; show initiative, creativity, and excellence; and intend to pursue research or advance their field upon completion of their final degree. Caroline has been a research assistant in the lab of Jessica Shang, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, since the summer of 2018. She has excelled academically, and thrives in the lab. Well done, Caroline!

Have a great July 4 weekend. And please help keep the holiday a safe one by continuing to wear masks and respecting social distancing in public places!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman