Six new faculty members have joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University this semester.
The new faculty members include an associate professor, a professor of practice and four assistant professors with research specializations in areas such as data storage systems, analog and mixed signal integrated circuit design, power systems security, intelligent transportation systems, biomedical systems and cybersecurity.
Dr. Chao Tian, associate professor, studies data storage systems, information theory, data communication and networks, and signal processing. He was an associate professor at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville before joining Texas A&M.
He received his bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University in 2000, and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Cornell University in 2003 and 2005, respectively.
Dr. Katherine Davis joined Texas A&M as an assistant professor and was previously at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
“Texas A&M is a world-class institution in power systems engineering research and education, and we are continuing to build strength,” said Davis. “The electrical and computer engineering department is a great place for me based on my background, interests and expertise – broadly on data-enhanced and security-oriented power system modeling and analysis.”
Davis received her bachelor’s degree from The University of Texas at Austin in 2007, and her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2009 and 2011, respectively.
She is teaching ECEN 214 Circuit Theory this semester. She is also the new faculty advisor for Texas A&M’s joint the Power Electronics Society, Power and Energy Society and Industry Applications Society student chapter.
Her research is interdisciplinary. She studies power systems security and cyber-physical analysis research that has applications to military, requires expertise in cybersecurity, communications, networking, control, and involves large-scale extreme event preparation and response.
“Leading interdisciplinary projects and teams of researchers has been a large part of my life prior to joining Texas A&M, and I will be continuing that here as well,” said Davis. “In the department I hope to demonstrate and strengthen our ability to form good long-term interdisciplinary collaborations that are needed to solve specific problems.”
Dr. Dileep Kalathil joined the electrical and computer engineering department as an assistant professor after completing his post-doctoral research at the University of California-Berkeley.
His research area is at the intersection of statistical learning, stochastic control and game theory, with a focus on problems in cyberphysical systems, intelligent transportation systems and renewable energy systems. Kalathil said the nature of his research, being primarily interdisciplinary, would address many important problems of the next generation engineering systems, while focusing on the fundamental theory.
“There is an active and energetic interaction among different research groups in the electrical and computer engineering department,” said Kalathil. “I am excited to be here and looking forward to becoming a part of it.”
Kalathil received his bachelor’s degree from the National Institute of Technology, India, in 2006, his master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India, in 2008 and his doctoral degree from the University of Southern California in 2014. This semester he is teaching ECEN 303 Random Signals and Systems, an introductory course for probability theory. He is also interested in high school outreach programs to promote engineering, mathematics and programming.
Kalathil believes a research advisor’s role is much more than just providing technical feedback about research to his or her students. He plans to develop a mentoring style where his students can actively interact and gain confidence to challenge themselves and explore new ideas.
“And in the process, I hope to learn from my students as well,” said Kalathil. “I also plan to teach some ‘special topics’ classes, introducing some cutting-edge research ideas to graduate students. My plan is to make this a project based course and I am really excited to see those amazing projects the students come up with.”
Dr. Hangue Park is an assistant professor doing research in neuro-prosthesis, intraoral device, rehabilitation,? and overall biomedical system and integrated circuit design.
“The electrical and computer engineering department at Texas A&M has respectable faculty and an environment to collaborate with other departments for interdisciplinary research,” said Park.
Park is an electrical engineer and a neuroscientist. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Seoul National University in 2006 and 2008, respectively. He received his doctoral degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2017. He is teaching ECEN 689 Assistive Neuroelectronics Systems this semester.
“In my special topic class, I teach how we can use electrical engineering to help the operation of the human body,” said Park. “My specific interest lies in the neuroprosthesis, which communicates with the human body and assists its operation.”
Dr. Jeyavijayan “JV” Rajendran, assistant professor, was intrigued by the strong computer engineering research area within the electrical and computer engineering department and the Texas A&M Cybersecurity Center. He studies hardware security, nanoelectronic computing architectures and very-large-scale integration design.He is teaching ECEN 474/714 Digital Integrated Circuit Design class this semester.
Before joining Texas A&M, Rajendran was an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Dallas. He received his bachelor’s degree from Anna University in India in 2008, his master’s degree from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University in 2010 and his doctoral degree from New York University in 2015.
Rajendran looks forward to developing his students’ interest in attacks on cyberinfrastructure that are happening around the world, making security an important issue to tackle as a computer engineer.
Dr. Oscar Moreira is the second professor of practice to join the department after Dr. Stavros Kalafatis. He is teaching courses such as ECEN 325 Electronics and ECEN 215 Principles of Electrical Engineering this semester. Moreira, an Aggie, plans to use his experience working in analog design engineering to give an industry perspective to his students.
He graduated from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in 1990 with a bachelor’s degree, California State University in 1992 with a master’s degree and Texas A&M with a doctoral degree in 1996. His research interests include analog circuit design, power management, analog to digital conversion and digital signal processing.
“In my years of experience in industry, I found that Texas A&M graduates are well qualified and highly competitive, particularly in the area of analog and mixed signal integrated circuit design,” said Moreira. “I look forward to helping strengthen the undergraduate program in areas such as recruitment, research, retention and placement after graduation.”