New Faculty: College of Engineering
The College of Engineering is committed to pushing boundaries and breaking barriers.
This fall, six new professors will join the college, adding to the list of great minds working in departments ranging from aerospace to electrical and computer engineering. They are among 53 new faculty members joining the SDSU family this semester.
Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering
Sahar Ghanipoor Machiani, Ph.D. (Virginia Tech 2014)
Machiani specializes in transportation engineering. Her areas of interest include traffic safety and signal operation, human behavior modeling, agent based modeling, large-scale network modeling, evacuation modeling, network reliability and infrastructure-based safety systems. Her research investigates driver behavior modeling using human cognitive architecture and agent-based modeling techniques to capture the human learning process. She has researched driver decision prediction models at the onset of yellow at signalized intersections, and developed a novel safety surrogate histogram measure applying intelligent transportation systems (ITS) technologies. She is presently working on a human factor study researching the impacts of innovative curve delineation systems on driver behavior.
Xianfeng Yang, Ph.D. (University of Maryland 2015)
Yang specializes in the field of transportation engineering. His areas of interest include both online and offline traffic signal optimization, the integration of freeway traffic control and local arterial signal control, transit signal priority control, intelligent transportation system, unconventional intersection design, large-scale traffic simulation, and public transportation network design. During the past four years, he has authored and coauthored more than 40 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers. His research works, such as performance evaluation of unconventional intersections, integrated corridor traffic control, and multi-path signal progression design, have been implemented in several projects sponsored by Maryland State Highway Administration and Federal Highway Administration.
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Chris Mi, Ph.D. (University of Toronto 2001)
Mi is the incoming chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. His research interests are in power electronics, electric drives, electric vehicles and renewable energy systems. His current research is focused on battery management systems, battery safety, wireless power transfer (WPT) technology, and application of wideband gap power devices in large electric machines. The recently developed WPT systems have reached very high efficiency and are suitable for electric vehicle charging. Other potential applications of WPT include consumer electronics, robotics, underwater sensors and robots, space applications and human body implants.
Department of Mechanical Engineering
John Abraham, Ph.D. (Princeton University 1986)
Abraham was a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University before joining SDSU as professor and chair of mechanical engineering. His research interests fall into the broad area of reacting multiphase fluid flows of interest to power, propulsion and energy applications. His work has led to more than 115 journal papers, over 160 conference papers, three book chapters, and 3 patents. He is a Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers and associate editor of Combustion Science and Technology and ASME Journal of Fluids Engineering. He has been recognized with several awards for research and teaching accomplishments including the Lloyd L. Withrow award from the SAE and the Harry Solberg Best Teacher in Mechanical Engineering award from Purdue University.
Parag Katira, Ph.D. (University of Florida 2009)
Katira is a materials scientist working at the interface of biology, physics and mechanical engineering. His research interests lie in using mathematical modeling techniques to study the dynamics of active matter such as cells, tissues, bacterial biofilms and synthetic molecular-motor assemblies. A key topic of research in Dr. Katira’s lab is force generation and sensing by cells and how this shapes our tissues and organs. Specific applications of this research are in understanding and predicting cancer progression, tissue regeneration and wound healing mechanisms. Another area he works on is the design of synthetic materials that can mimic the self-regulating and self-organizing properties of cells and tissues.
George Youssef, Ph.D. (University of California, Los Angeles 2010)
Before joining SDSU George Youseff, he was a faculty member at California State University Northridge. His research is in the area of experimental mechanics of nontraditional materials, which include polymers, composites and smart materials. He is currently leading research projects on the applications of composite materials in bioengineering, integration of smart materials in roughness control, and effect of environmental conditions on mechanical performance of protective polymeric coatings.
