May 1, 2012 | Jessica Tommaselli

Faculty News

Our engineering faculty members are respected leaders in research, instruction and professional societies who regularly receive honors and awards. Read about some recent honors here.

Dr. Reda Ammar, Head of the Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) Department, was presented the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Award for Professional Excellence in Advising. Dr. Ammar was co-nominated by CSE students Aislinn Walters and Marissa Rocks.  In lauding Dr. Ammar, Aislinn recounted multiple instances in which he demonstrated not only his extensive knowledge of the University’s academic opportunities but also his commitment to helping students. “Though not my assigned advisor, for the past three years Dr. Ammar has been the faculty member I go to when I need advice regarding my academics…When I considered studying abroad in Japan and had some trouble getting specific information from the Study Abroad Office, I stopped by Dr. Ammar’s office on a whim. When I mentioned the name of the university, he knew of it immediately and dug out a business card from a faculty member at the school. After this experience, I realized that Dr. Ammar was someone who could be relied on to make my undergraduate academic experience more possible he was not only able, but willing and excited, to advise the students in our department,” she notes. Aislinn’s nomination concludes “It takes a great advisor like Dr. Ammar to find a way to help students in any situation they may encounter in their academic lives.”

Dr. Amvrossios “Ross” Bagtzoglou, Head of the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the nation’s oldest national engineering society.  ASCE has an active membership of 142,000, of whom fewer than 5% are Fellows.  He was elected a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) just last month.

Nine faculty members were chosen to receive the School of Engineering’s inaugural Outstanding Faculty Advisor Awards. The awards are intended to recognize the contributions of faculty members whose commitment to, and excellence in, advising and mentoring graduate students have been exceptional as judged by their current and former graduate students. In announcing the award recipients, Assistant Dean for Graduate Education and Diversity Jun-Hong Cui noted that the selection committee received 60 nominations from current and former graduate students for 29 faculty members. The 2012 Outstanding Faculty Advisor Awards were presented to Drs.: 

  • Emmanouil Anagnostou (Civil & Environmental Engineering – CEE)
  • John Chandy (Electrical & Computer Engineering – ECE)
  • Swapna Gokhale (Computer Science & Engineering – CSE)
  • Rainer Hebert (Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering – CMBE)
  • Hanchen Huang (Mechanical Engineering – ME)
  • Baikun Li (CEE)
  • Nicholas Lownes (CEE)
  • Sanguthevar Rajasekaran (CSE)
  • Mohammad Tehranipoor (ECE)