August 29, 2022
This year’s new Hajim School faculty members are, from left to right, top to bottom, Anushika Athauda, Tony Geng, Hangfeng He, Anson Kahng, Christopher Kanan, Joseph Loporcaro, Marisol Herrera Perez, Andrew Read-McFarland, Sobhit Singh, and Eustrat Zhupa.
Dear members of the Hajim School community,
With the start of a new academic year, I would like to recognize 10 outstanding faculty members who are new to our University or in new roles. Six are tenure track or tenured faculty; four are instructional track faculty, reflecting our commitment to excellence in both research and teaching.
The Department of Biomedical Engineering welcomes:
Marisol Herrera Perez, who joins us as a tenure-track assistant professor after serving as a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University. Marisol specializes in generating tissue models and genetic tools to understand how cells communicate and organize to create multicellular structures. Her research could lead to a better understanding of what goes wrong during certain disease processes and enable scientists to generate tissues that better resemble human tissues for medical applications.
The Department of Computer Science welcomes:
Hangfeng He, who joins us as a tenure track assistant professor with a joint appointment in the Goergen Institute for Data Science after completing a PhD in computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania. Hangfeng aims to create intelligent agents to assist humans, so that people and computers can communicate better. Hangfeng will use machine learning and natural language processing to further understand and analyze the structure of real-world data while simplifying modeling without the need for large-scale data.
Anson Kahng, who joins us as a tenure track assistant professor with a joint appointment in the Goergen Institute for Data Science after serving as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto. Anson examines theoretical problems in computational social choice, specifically the aggregation of individual preferences to make collective political or economic decisions. Recent projects include studies of liquid democracy, virtual democracy, and participatory budgeting—all forms of collective decision-making that leverage tools from computer science in order to achieve fairness, representation, and efficiency.
Christopher Kanan, who joins us an associate professor after serving as an associate professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, is an expert on Artificial Intelligence (AI). His research aims to develop machine learning that can mimic the human brain in its ability to continually acquire, fine-tune, and transfer knowledge and skills. Christopher’s work spans subfields including deep learning, bias mitigation and measurement, and computer vision. Beyond machine learning, Christopher also has a strong background in eye tracking, primate vision, and theoretical neuroscience.
Joseph Loporcaro, who becomes an assistant professor of instruction in computer science and digital media studies after serving as a lecturer since 2018 and an adjunct professor before that. Video game studies are a focus of many of the classes he teaches, including the Video Games as Interactive Storytelling and Video Game Design courses he will teach this fall, along with Social Implications of Computing.
Andrew Read-McFarland who joins us an assistant professor of instruction after completing a PhD in the Department of Computer Science. Andrew is a 2019 recipient of the University’s Edward Curtis Peck Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Graduate Student. This fall, he will teach Introduction to Programming, which he designed for nonmajors or students with less extensive backgrounds in math and science. He will also teach Introduction to Web Development.
Eustrat Zhupa, who becomes an assistant professor of instruction after serving as a lecturer. Since joining the department in 2018, Eustrat has taught six different courses. This fall he is teaching Introduction to Cryptography, which investigates techniques for “facilitating interactions between distrustful entities.” He is also teaching a course on fundamental concepts of database design and use.
The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering welcomes:
Tong (Tony) Geng, who joins us as a tenure-track assistant professor after serving as a postdoctoral research associate at the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). Tony’s Intelligent Architecture (IntelliArch) research group will pursue new computer systems and architecture for emerging artificial intelligence methods through algorithm-architecture codesign. This work has potential applications for drug discovery, social media, smart traffic, and recommendation systems.
The Department of Mechanical Engineering welcomes:
Anushika Athauda, who joins us as an assistant professor of instruction after serving as an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Virginia Military Institute. Anushika is an experimentalist in condensed matter physics, with a particular interest in novel materials with the potential for superconducting properties. This fall, she will teach Engineering Mechanics II: Dynamics and co-teach Engineering Computation and a new lab course, Fundamentals of Instrumentation and Measurements.
Sobhit Singh, who joins us as a tenure-track assistant professor after serving as a postdoctoral research associate at Rutgers University. Sobhit uses the laws of quantum mechanics and advanced high-performance supercomputers to better understand the movements of electrons and atoms in solid-state crystals and other materials. His goal is to discover and design quantum materials with interesting properties for applications in data storage, quantum computing, energy harvesting and energy storage, and sensors.
Learn more here about all of our new AS&E faculty members.
OUTSTANDING STUDENT
Nikola Raitsevits ’23 is working this summer with a Baxter robot in the lab of Thomas Howard, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.
If you speak a simple command like “pick up the apple” to the Baxter robot in the lab of associate professor Thomas Howard, the robot can readily comply. The challenge is training robots like the Baxter to understand more complicated commands that require them to reason about spatial and temporal references, such as “pick up the apple that I put on the table five minutes ago.”
These are the kinds of challenges Nikola Raitsevits ’23, a mechanical engineering major from Serbia and Greece, would like to solve as he pursues his newfound passion for robotics. “Robotics is a relatively new field, with a broad range of applications, and I believe it is going to transform the way things are operated,” Nikola says.
He is a recipient of a Tau Beta Pi Scholarship and the Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Kuichling Prize for academic excellence by a junior. In addition to working in the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, he is also doing research in the Mixing Lab of associate professor Douglas Kelley, which he joined last year.
Nikola would like to pursue a PhD in robotics and is excited about continuing to do research, “working on something that nobody has worked on before, and discovering something that, if only briefly, nobody else in the world knows.”
In doing so, he hopes to follow in the footsteps of his namesake, Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American inventor, electrical and mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his contributions to the modern alternating current electricity supply system. “The first thing I did coming with my mom and sister to Rochester was to visit Niagara Falls and see the statue of Nikola Tesla,” he says. Like Tesla, Nikola wants to “make a meaningful change in this world.”
Learn more here about the path that brought Nikola to Rochester.
CMAP VIDEO GOES ‘UNDER THE HOOD’
Another in a series of fascinating VOX videos, produced in partnership with the Center for Matter at Atomic Pressures, provides colorful, easy to understand explanations of how high energy density physics researchers look “under the hood” to understand the secret inner lives of planets. CMAP scientists Mercedes Vasquez, Rick Kraus, and Tanja Kovacevic describe in simple terms how they use computer simulations, diamond anvil cells, gas guns, and the high-powered OMEGA and National Ignition Facility lasers at our own Laboratory for Laser Energetics and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. They are shedding new light on the remarkable phase changes that matter undergoes during planetary formation. Their findings are helping us answer questions like: “How do we find an inhabitable planet?” “How did Earth go from a molten ball to something we can all now survive on?” Please share widely, especially with young people who might be inspired to join the ranks of these pioneering scientists!
STUDENTS: WITNESS SUSTAINABILITY EXPERIMENT
First-year and sophomore students interested in sustainability—and anyone else for that matter—are invited to witness a classroom experiment to determine the efficiency of heating water with solar energy. The experiment will be conducted from 9-10:15 a.m., Friday, September 9 in Wegmans 1400 as part of CHE 150: Introduction to Sustainable Energy, taught by Marc Porosoff, assistant professor of chemical engineering. A battery charged by a photovoltaic array will be used to heat water, while calculating the associated efficiencies. Are there more efficient methods of heating water? Can you design something better?
POSTDOC COMPETITION SEEKS APPLICANTS
What do car engines and human brains have in common?
Using that intriguing question as a starting point, Aditya Raghunandan of mechanical engineering won first place and $1,000 at last year’s competition for the Steadman Family Postdoctoral Associate Prize in Interdisciplinary Research.
University postdoctoral associates and postdoctoral fellows are encouraged to register by this Friday, September 2 for this year’s competition, which recognizes high impact research that exemplifies the importance of a cross-discipline approach. Participants should be engaged in a field of study that bridges at least two areas of these five disciplines: humanities, science, mathematics, engineering, and medicine. A Steadman Prize ($2,000), an Award for Interdisciplinary Research ($750), and an Award for Innovative Research ($750) will be given this year.
Applicants should submit a current curriculum vitae and a two-page, single-spaced summary of how their research crosses disciplinary boundaries including implications for science and future objectives. This summary should be written for a general audience. Submit to asegepa@rochester.edu.
Finalists will be selected to give 3-minute oral presentations to a faculty panel from 3:30 to 6 p.m. Friday, September 23 at the Sloan Auditorium and Munnerlyn Atrium in Goergen Hall. Winners will be announced at a reception immediately following.
Questions? Contact kristina.lantzky-eaton@rochester.edu.
TRANSLATING YOUR DISCOVERIES
Teams of Hajim School faculty, postdocs, and students with biomedical innovations or ideas are invited to participate this fall in a free I-Corps@NCATS Regional Short Course hosted by the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI). This five-week course, offered virtually by zoom, is specifically designed for biomedical scientists, clinician scientists, and engineers to provide them with a new approach to accelerate the translation of their discoveries from the lab to clinical practice.
The program kicks off with orientation the week of October 17. Applications must be submitted online by October 3 at https://redcap.link/UR_NCATS_I-Corps_2022. Questions can be directed to Karen Grabowski. Additional information about the program can be found here.
ENTREPRENEURS SHARE INSIGHTS
Yuting Yang ’16 of mechanical engineering and Anna Gaines ’15 of biomedical engineering will be part of a diverse panel of University alumni who will discuss how they mapped their entrepreneurial journeys, celebrated their successes, dealt with their challenges, as well as their takeaway tips and strategies. Yuting and Anna, partners in The Sugar House, have put their engineering skills to use in creating their colorful macarons to “help people re-focus on the sweeter things in life and sweeten their surrounding communities.” Register here for the virtual discussion, to be held from noon to 1:30 p.m. ET Friday, September 9. The event is part of the Career Conversations Series hosted by Real Conversations and the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Have a great Labor Day weekend! Due to the holiday, the next issue of Hajim Highlights will be Tuesday, September 6.
Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman
