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Â鶹´«Ã½ Jacobs School of Engineering Hires 24 Faculty in Fall 2020

San Diego, Calif., September 9, 2020 --The University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering is proud to introduce the 24 new professors hired in Fall 2020. These professors are among the more than 130 faculty who have joined the Â鶹´«Ã½ Jacobs School of Engineering in the last seven years. 

2020 New Faculty brochure available here.

These new faculty, and the communities of scholarship and innovation they are creating and building on, point to an exciting future for everyone here at the Jacobs School of Engineering. 

"I'm honored to welcome all our new faculty to the Jacobs School. My job is to help empower each of our new faculty to have lasting positive impacts. Engineering and computer science for the public good is what we do at the Jacobs School," said Albert P. Pisano. "Given that we have hired more than 130 faculty in the last seven years, we will see an incredible jump in positive impact in the coming years as their labs and research groups further grow and strengthen." 

This is part of an overall upward trajectory for the School. In March 2020, Â鶹´«Ã½ Jacobs School of Engineering jumped to the #9 spot in the influential U.S. News and World Report Rankings of Best Engineering Schools. This is up from #11 last year and #17 four years ago. It’s the first time the Â鶹´«Ã½ Jacobs School of Engineering has broken into the top 10 of this closely watched ranking.

Jacobs School new faculty

 BIOENGINEERING

Brian Aguado, Assistant Professor

Aguado’s goal is to develop precision biomaterials that enable the evaluation of a patient's unique biology to diagnose and treat a variety of health disorders as a function of sex, age, and/or ancestry. Specifically, Aguado aims to develop sex-specific biomaterial technologies to treat cardiovascular diseases, including aortic valve disease and heart failure.

Previously: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Colorado at Boulder

Ph.D.: Northwestern University

 

Andrew Bartko, Professor of Practice

Bartko’s goal is to inspire, nurture, and sustain vibrant collaborations between Â鶹´«Ã½’s microbiome experts and industry partners in the life science, nutrition, energy, information technology, clinical and healthcare industries. Specifically, Bartko aims to focus on creating and commercializing innovative technologies to accelerate microbiome discoveries and healthcare breakthroughs across academic and industry collaborations.

Previously: Research Leader, Battelle 

Ph.D.: Georgia Institute of Technology

 

Benjamin Smarr, Assistant Professor

Smarr’s research focuses on time series analysis in biological systems, with an emphasis on practical information extraction for translational applications. His main project is TemPredict, which brings together wearable device data from 50K people with over 2 million daily symptom reports and is used to identify signs of COVID-19 onset, progression, and recovery.

Previously: Postdoctoral Fellow, UC Berkeley

Ph.D.: University of Washington

 

COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Carlos Jensen, Associate Vice Chancellor, Educational Innovation

Jensen’s research lies at the intersection between usability and software engineering, with an emphasis on studying how Open Source communities operate and organize, and the tools and processes needed to make them more efficient. His recent work uses automated testing techniques to help developers improve the reliability of large and complex open source software.

Previously: Associate Dean, Oregon State University

Ph.D.: Georgia Institute of Technology

 

Tzu-Mao Li, Assistant Professor

Li connects classical computer graphics and image processing algorithms with modern data-driven methods to facilitate physical exploration. His work added 3D understanding to computer vision models; used data to improve camera imaging pipeline quality; and made light transport simulation faster by using information implicitly defined by rendering programs.

Previously: Postdoctoral Researcher, UC Berkeley and MIT

Ph.D.: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 

Kristen Vaccaro, Assistant Professor

Vaccaro focuses on how to design machine learning systems to give users a sense of agency and control. She found that some existing ways of providing control for social media can function as placebos, increasing user satisfaction even when they do not work. She will help develop systems to give users control and oversight, and ethical guidelines and policies.

Previously: Research assistant, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Ph.D.: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

 

Rose Yu, Assistant Professor

The goal of Yu’s research is to advance machine learning and enable interpretable, efficient and robust large-scale spatiotemporal reasoning. Her work has been successfully applied to solve challenging domain problems in sustainability, health and physical sciences.

Previously: Assistant professor, Northeastern University

Ph.D.: University of Southern California

 

ELECTRICAL AND COMPUTER ENGINEERING

Nick Antipa, Assistant Professor

Antipa’s research aims to develop design frameworks that merge optical models with algorithms, allowing optimization of both components and enabling the development of cutting-edge imaging and display systems. By considering both the hardware and digital domains, new computational optical systems emerge that extend capability beyond what is available.

Previously: Ph.D. Candidate, UC Berkeley

Ph.D.: UC Berkeley

 

Mingu Kang, Assistant Professor

Kang researches vertically-integrated VLSI information processing for machine learning and signal processing algorithms. His research focuses on energy- and latency-efficient integrated circuits, architectures and systems by leveraging novel computing paradigms including in-memory, in-sensor and neuromorphic computing with both CMOS and emerging devices.

Previously: Research Scientist, IBM Research

Ph.D: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Florian Meyer, Assistant Professor

Meyer researches statistical signal processing for navigation, mapping and multiobject tracking in applications including maritime situational awareness, autonomous driving, and indoor localization. He investigates efficient and scalable high-dimensional nonlinear estimation using graphical models where the number of states to be estimated may also be unknown.

Previously: Postdoctoral Fellow and Associate, MIT

Ph.D.: Vienna University of Technology

 

Karcher Morris, Assistant Teaching Professor

Morris’s teaching aims to embed project-based learning throughout the undergraduate electrical and computer engineering curriculum, complementing theoretical foundations. By connecting students with application-oriented coursework and industry-relevant challenges, Morris promotes an early engagement between students and their research/industry goals.

Previously: Ph.D. Candidate, Â鶹´«Ã½

Ph.D.: Â鶹´«Ã½

 

Yuanyuan Shi, Assistant Professor

Shi's research interests are in the area of energy systems and cyber-physical systems, spanning from machine learning to optimization and control. She works on data-driven control for complex networked systems and market mechanism design under multi-agent learning dynamics.

Previously: Postdoctoral Researcher, Caltech

Ph.D: University of Washington

 

Yatish Turakhia, Assistant Professor

Turakhia develops algorithms and hardware accelerators to enable faster and cheaper progress in biology and medicine. He also develops computational methods that enable biological discoveries, such as new genotype-phenotype relationships.

Previously: Postdoctoral Researcher, UC Santa Cruz

Ph.D.: Stanford University

 

Yang Zheng, Assistant Professor

Zheng develops methods and frameworks for the optimization and control of network systems and their applications to cyber-physical systems, especially autonomous vehicles and traffic systems. His goal is to develop computationally efficient and distributed solutions for large-scale network systems by exploring and exploiting real-world system structures.

Previously: Postdoctoral Researcher, Harvard

Ph.D.: University of Oxford

 

MECHANICAL AND AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

Sylvia Herbert, Assistant Professor

Herbert focuses on developing new techniques for safety and efficiency in autonomous systems. She has developed methods for scalable safety and real-time decision making that draw from control theory, cognitive science and reinforcement learning, which are backed by both rigorous theory and physical testing on robotic platforms.

Previously: Graduate Researcher, UC Berkeley

Ph.D.: UC Berkeley

 

Patricia Hidalgo-Gonzalez, Assistant Professor

Hidalgo-Gonzalez focuses on high penetration of renewable energy using optimization, control theory and ML. She co-developed a power system expansion model for Western North America’s grid under climate change uncertainty.  She is interested in power dynamics, energy policy, electricity market redesign, and learning for dynamical systems with safety guarantees.

Previously: Ph.D. Candidate, UC Berkeley

Ph.D: UC Berkeley

 

Stephanie Lindsey, Assistant Professor

Lindsey’s work lies at the interface of fluid mechanics, numerical analysis and cardiovascular developmental biology. She seeks to determine causal-effect relationships for the creation of cardiac malformations and address important challenges in clinical treatment of congenital heart defects through a combined computational-experimental approach.

Previously: Postdoctoral Researcher, Stanford University

Ph.D.: Cornell University

 

Marko Lubarda, Assistant Teaching Professor

Lubarda is dedicated to engineering pedagogy and enriching students' learning experiences through curriculum design, teaching innovations and support of undergraduate student research. He works in the areas of computational analysis, engineering mathematics, materials science, solid mechanics, device physics, and magnetic nanotechnologies.

Previously: Assistant Professor, University of Donja Gorica, Montenegro

Ph.D.: Â鶹´«Ã½

 

Lonnie Petersen, Assistant Professor

Dr. Petersen is a physician scientist specializing in space and aviation physiology and development of countermeasure devices for use in space. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she co-lead a team that developed a low-cost, easy-to-use ventilator and other ways to support critically ill COVID19 patients and mitigate the spread of disease.

Previously: Postdoctoral Researcher, Â鶹´«Ã½ School of Medicine

Ph.D.: University of Copenhagen

 

Lisa Poulikakos, Assistant Professor

Poulikakos harnesses nanophotonics, the study and manipulation of light on the nanoscale, to bridge engineering and biomedicine. The resulting in-vivo and ex-vivo nanophotonic probes aim to elucidate the origin and propagation of a range of diseases, leading to low-cost medical diagnostics; rapid, on-chip biochemical drug testing; or in-situ biomedical imaging.

Previously: Postdoctoral Researcher, Stanford University
Ph.D.: ETH Zurich

 

Aaron Rosengren, Assistant Professor

Rosengren conducts fundamental and applied research in astrodynamics, space situational awareness and space traffic management to define perennial, ad-hoc practices and policies to make space a sustainable resource. His contributions are in the fields of celestial mechanics and nonlinear dynamics, with a strong focus on space debris and small Solar-System bodies.

Previously: Assistant Professor, University of Arizona

Ph.D.: University of Colorado, Boulder

 

Jon Wade, Professor of Practice

Wade’s objective is to ensure that the research conducted and the curriculum developed in systems engineering has the greatest impact on addressing the critical challenges that face our global society and nation. He leads research in the area of complex, evolving systems engineering methods, processes, tools, and education.

Previously: Research Professor, Stevens Institute of Technology

Ph.D: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 

NANOENGINEERING

Zeinab Jahed, Assistant Professor

Jahed designs electronics that integrate intelligently with biological systems at the nanoscale. She designs non-invasive and high-throughput bio-electronic tools to record and manipulate biological activities and uses AI and ML techniques to interpret the large data sets from these nano-bio-electronic tools to answer important biological questions.

Previously: Postdoctoral Researcher, Stanford University

Ph.D.: UC Berkeley

 

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING

Georgios Tsampras, Assistant Professor

Tsampras’ research goal is to improve the seismic response and simplify the lifetime management of structures and civil infrastructures. He conducts integrated experimental and analytical research on components, connections, and systems that enhance the safety and reliability of structures and civil infrastructures against earthquakes.

Previously: Falcon Vehicle Structures Engineer, SpaceX

Ph.D.: Lehigh University

Media Contacts

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Ioana Patringenaru
Jacobs School of Engineering
858-822-0899
ipatrin@ucsd.edu

Liezel Labios
Jacobs School of Engineering
858-246-1124
llabios@ucsd.edu

Katherine Connor
Jacobs School of Engineering
858-534-8374
khconnor@ucsd.edu