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New Faculty — Year 2015-16

Annual Lists

Information on each faculty member is relevant to the year the faculty member joined the College of Engineering. Check the departments’ websites for more current information.

UNC/NC State Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering

Dr. Ashley C. Brown

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2011), Georgia Institute of Technology

Research Interests: Biomaterials for enhanced wound healing, development of platelet-like particles to staunch bleeding and materials for investigating and controlling cell mechanotransduction responses

Brown received her B.S. in biosystems engineering from Clemson University in 2006. She received a Ph.D. in bioengineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. She performed her postdoctoral studies at Georgia Institute of Technology in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering and was an American Heart Association Fellow. Prior to joining the NC State faculty, she was a research scientist in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Brown’s current research interests include developing novel microgel-based materials for a variety of biomedical applications including augmentation of hemostasis, enhanced wound healing, evaluation and modulation of cellular mechanotransduction and development of biosynthetic constructs for regenerative medicine.

  • Brown, A.C., Baker, S., Douglas, A., Keating, M., Alvarez, M., Botvinick, E., Guthold, M., Barker, T.H. Molecular interference of fibrin’s divalent polymerization mechanism enables modulation of multi-scale material properties. Biomaterials. 2015, 49, 27-36.
  • Brown, A.C., Stabenfeldt, S.E., Ahn, B., Hannan, R., Dhada, K., Herman, E., Stefanelli, V., Guzzetta, N., Alexeev, A., Lam, W.A., Lyon, L.A., Barker, T.H. Ultrasoft microgels displaying emergent platelet-like behaviours. Nature Materials. 2014, 13, 1108–1114.
  • Qui, Y., Brown, A.C., Myers, D.R., Sakurai, Y., Mannino, R., Tran, R., Ahn, B., Hardy, E., Kee, M., Kumar, S., Bao, G., Barker, T.H., Lam, W.A. Platelet mechanosensing of substrate stiffness during clot formation mediates adhesion, spreading and activation. PNAS. 2014, 111 (40), 14430-5.
  • Brown, A.C., Barker, T.H. Fibrin-based biomaterials: Modulation of macroscopic properties through rational design at the molecular level. Acta Biomater. 2013, 10, 1502-1514.
Dr. Michael Daniele

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2012), Clemson University

Research Interests: Materials at the biological/electronic interface, electrochemical biosensors, biosynthesized polymers and composites, tissue engineering microfluidics and additive manufacturing

Daniele received his B.S. in materials science and engineering from Rutgers University. He began his research in nanomaterials and biosensors at Clemson University, where he completed his graduate work in materials science and engineering (polymers). Daniele continued his research at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, sponsored by a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship. Prior to joining the faculty of NC State, he was a Jerome and Isabella Karle Distinguished Scholar at the Center for Bio/Molecular Science & Engineering (NRL), where he led a group studying composites for biosensors.

Daniele’s primary area of interest is the broad application of soft nanomaterials for the collective goal of understanding complex biological systems by engineering devices to monitor, mimic or augment biological function. He studies the synthesis, characterization and applications of biomaterials to integrate conventional electronics into biological systems to monitor or augment human performance. Alternatively, he explores the utilization of these same materials to regenerate native biological structures for potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

  • M.A. Daniele, Adrian Knight, Steven Roberts, Kathryn Radom and Jeffrey Erickson. Polysaccharide Nanocomposite for Conformal Electronic Decals.” Advanced Materials. 27, 1600-1606 (2015).
  • M.A. Daniele, Kathryn Radom, Frances S. Ligler and Andre A. Adams. Microfluidic Fabrication of Multiaxial Microvessels via Hydrodynamic Focusing. RSC Advances. 4, 23440-23446 (2014).
  • M.A. Daniele, Andre A. Adams, Jawad Naciri, Stella H. North and Frances S. Ligler. Interpenetrating Networks Based on Gelatin Methacrylamide and PEG Formed Using Concurrent Thiol Click Chemistries for Hydrogel Tissue Engineering Scaffolds. Biomaterials. 35, 1845-1856 (2014).
Dr. Jason R. Franz

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2012), University of Colorado, Boulder

Research Interests: Biomechanics, physiology and neural control of human movement, a primary focus on the musculoskeletal and sensorimotor adaptations underlying the loss of independent mobility and increased risk of falls in our aging population

Franz received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in engineering mechanics from Virginia Tech. He then served as a biomechanics engineer in the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia before earning his Ph.D. in integrative physiology from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Before joining the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering, Franz served as an NIH post-doctoral fellow in the Neuromuscular Biomechanics Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The overall goal of his research is to discover the age-related musculoskeletal and sensorimotor adaptations that underlie the loss of independent mobility in older adults and to introduce creative new approaches for preserving walking ability and preventing falls in our aging population. To accomplish this goal, Franz strategically integrates experimental and computational tools, including quantitative motion analysis, electromyography, biofeedback, virtual reality, tissue imaging and musculoskeletal modeling.

  • Franz JR and Thelen DG. Depth-dependent variations in Achilles tendon deformations with age are associated with reduced plantarflexor performance during walking. Journal of Applied Physiology (in press).
  • Franz JR, Francis, CA, Allen MS, O’Connor SM, Thelen DG (2015). Advanced age brings a greater reliance on visual feedback to maintain balance during walking. Human Movement Science. 40: 381-92.
  • Franz JR, Slane LC, Rasske K, Thelen DG (2015). Non-uniform in vivo deformations of the human Achilles tendon during walking. Gait & Posture. 41(1): 192-7.
  • Franz JR, Maletis M, Kram R (2014). Real-time feedback enhances forward propulsion during walking in old adults. Clinical Biomechanics. 29(1): 68-74.
  • Franz JR, Lyddon NE, Kram R (2012). Mechanical work performed by the individual legs during uphill and downhill walking. Journal of Biomechanics. 45(2):257-62.
Dr. Donald O. Freytes

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2008), University of Pittsburgh

Research Interests: Engineering cardiac tissues using pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes, design of culture systems to study host tissue and engineered tissue interactions in vitro and design of alternate forms of extracellular matrix based biomaterials for tissue replacement

Freytes received his B.S. in mechanical engineering and M.S. in biomedical engineering from Purdue University. He received his Ph.D. in bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh. After completing his graduate work, he received his postdoctoral training in the Laboratory for Stem Cell and Tissue Research at Columbia University. During his postdoctoral training, he received a Fellow-to-Faculty Award in Stem Cell Research from the New York State Department of Health (NYSTEM).

Prior to joining the NC State faculty, Freytes was a principal investigator at The New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute, where he led a research group focusing on the development of in vitro platforms that mimic the inflammatory environment. His research currently centers on mimicking the host tissue response following a heart attack to design better cardiac patches. In addition, his research group derives tissue specific extracellular matrix biomaterials to guide stem cell differentiation toward specific tissue lineages.

  • Pallotta I, Sun B, Wrona EA, and Freytes DO. BMP Protein Mediated Cross-Talk between Inflammatory Cells and Human Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Cardiomyocytes. J Tissue Eng and Regen Med. (in press) (April 2015).
  • Freytes DO, Kang JW, Marcos-Campos I, Vunjak-Novakovic G. Macrophage Modulate the Viability and Growth of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry. 2013 114(1):220-9.
  • Duan Y, Liu Z, O’Neill J, Wan LQ, Freytes DO, and Vunjak-Novakovic G. Hybrid Gel Composed of Native Heart Matrix and Collagen Induces Cardiac Differentiation of Human Embryonic Stem Cells without Supplemental Growth Factors. Journal of Cardiovascular Translational Research. 2011 4(5):605-615.
Dr. Xiaogang Hu

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2011), The Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Research Interests: Neurophysiology, biomechanics, motor control and learning, computational science, neural engineering, neurorehabilitation and motor disorder

Hu received his B.E. in mechanical engineering from Tsinghua University in China. He then received a Ph.D. degree in kinesiology with a focus on neural control of muscle force and a minor in computational science in the Department of Aerospace Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Prior to joining NC State, he was a research scientist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and research assistant professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Northwestern University.

His research interests focus on the control characteristics and neuromechanical properties of the upper extremity in individuals with neuromuscular injuries such as stroke or amputations. He also develops innovative techniques involving electrophysiological recordings, signal processing, tissue imaging and computational modeling in order to understand and improve the control and coordination patterns of the upper extremity, with the goal of maximizing research translation to clinical practice and functional recovery of disabled individuals.

  • Hu, X, Suresh, N. L., & Rymer, W. Z. (2015). Estimating the time course of population excitatory postsynaptic potentials in motoneurons of spastic stroke survivors. Journal of Neurophysiology. 113(6), 1952-1957.
  • Hu, X., Suresh, N. L., Chardon, M. K., & Rymer, W. Z. (2014). Contributions of motoneuron hyperexcitability to clinical spasticity in hemispheric stroke survivors. Clinical Neurophysiology. S1388-2457
  • Hu, X., Rymer, W. Z., & Suresh, N. L. (2014). Motor unit firing rate patterns during voluntary muscle force generation: a simulation study. Journal of Neural Engineering. 11(2), 026015.
  • Hu, X., Rymer, W. Z., & Suresh, N. L. (2013). Motor unit pool organization examined via spike triggered averaging of the surface electromyogram. Journal of Neurophysiology. 110(5), 1205-1220.
Dr. Shumin Wang

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2003), Ohio State University

Research Interests: Magnetic resonance imaging hardware development and applications, MRI compatibility of medical devices, brain stimulation devices and safety and electromagnetic simulation of medical devices

Wang received his B.S. in applied physics from Qingdao University, China. He received his M.S. in electrophysics from Beijing University, China and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Ohio State University. He was a staff scientist at the National Institutes of Health. Prior to joining NC State, he was an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Auburn University.

Presently, his studies mainly focus on hardware for magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy at ultra-high field strengths. Wang also studied the compatibility of medical devices and implants with MRI scanner. Another topic is advanced electromagnetic simulation techniques for either subject-specific or cross-subject MRI safety.

  • Yu Shao, Shuo Shang and Shumin Wang. On Local SAR Simulated by Using Simplified Human Models. Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Vol. 33, Issue 6, p779–786, 2015.
  • Shizhe Li, Li An, Shao Yu, Maria Ferraris Araneta, Christopher S. Johnson, Shumin Wang and Jun Shen. 13C MRS of Human Brain at 7 Tesla Using [2-13C] Glucose Infusion and Low Power Stochastic Proton Decoupling. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. DOI: 10.1002/mrm.25721, 2015.
  • Yu Shao, Peng Zeng and Shumin Wang. Statistical simulation of SAR variability with geometric and tissue property changes by using the unscented transform. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Vol. 73, issue 6, pp. 2357-2362, 2015.
  • Hai Lu, Shuo Shang and Shumin Wang. Parallel-Plate Waveguide for Volume Radio Frequency Transmission in Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. DOI: 10.1002/mrm.25517, 2014.
  • Shumin Wang, Yu Shao and Shizhe Li. Rapid Local Specific Absorption Rate Estimation for Magnetic Resonance Imaging. IEEE Transaction on Electromagnetic Compatibility. Vol. 56, issue 4, pp. 771-779, 2014.

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Dr. Albert Keung

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2012), University of California, Berkeley

Research Interests: Synthetic and systems biology of eukaryotic regulatory systems, stem cell engineering and regenerative medicine, epigenome engineering for biotechnology and biomedical research

Keung received his B.S. in chemical engineering from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He was a postdoctoral researcher in the Institute for Medical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering Department at MIT and Boston University, respectively.

Presently, the Keung lab develops synthetic biology systems for bioproduction applications in yeast and regenerative medicine applications in human cells. In particular, the lab uses synthetic biology approaches to understand and harness the dynamic biophysical and biochemical structure of chromatin to better control the expression of genes and sets of genes. The Keung lab also studies the molecular mechanisms by which cells sense, respond to and store mechanical information from the microenvironment. The lab uses a mixture of experimental and computational techniques from molecular biology, biochemistry, biophysics and engineering.

  • Keung, A. J., Joung, J. K., Khalil, A. S., Collins, J. J. (2015). Chromatin regulation at the frontier of eukaryotic synthetic biology. Nature Reviews Genetics. 16, 159-171.
  • Keung, A. J., Bashor, C. B., Kiriakov, S., Collins, J. J., Khalil, A. S. (2014). Using Targeted Chromatin Regulators to Engineer Combinatorial and Spatial Transcriptional Regulation. Cell. 158, 110-120.
  • Keung, A. J., Asuri, P., Kumar, S., Schaffer, D. V. (2012). Soft Substrates Promote the Early Neurogenic Differentiation but not Self-Renewal of Human Pluripotent Stem Cells. Integrative Biology. 4, 1049-1058.
  • Keung, A. J., de Juan Pardo, E., Kumar, S., Schaffer, D. V. (2011). Rho GTPases Mediate the Mechanosensitive Lineage Commitment of Neural Stem Cells. Stem Cells. 29, 1886-1897.
  • Keung, A. J., Kumar, S., Schaffer, D. V. (2010). Presentation Counts: Microenvironmental Regulation of Stem Cells by Biophysical and Material Cues. Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology. 26, 533-556.
Dr. Stefano Menegatti

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2013), North Carolina State University

Research Interests: Stimuli-responsive (pH, temperature, electromagnetic) ligands for purification of protein therapeutics and stem cells; drug delivery through the “difficult” body barriers (skin, eye sclera, blood brain barrier, synovial membranes) hydrogels and micro-/nano-particles for light-controlled release of small drugs

Menegatti earned his Ph.D. at NC State University in chemical and biomolecular engineering with a minor in biotechnology. His doctoral work was focused on the development of peptide-based affinity ligands for the purification of biotherapeutics and the design of novel and inexpensive in vivo and in vitro diagnostics. His dissertation set forth novel methods for the design and selection of cyclic and polycyclic peptide ligands.

As a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Menegatti worked on developing novel strategies for targeted drug delivery. His research projects included nanoparticle platelet mimetics, targeted delivery of multi-drug combinations with synergistic anticancer activity and transdermal delivery with skin-penetrating peptides.

  • Stefano Menegatti, Kevin L. Ward, Amith D. Naik, William S. Kish, Robert K. Blackburn, and Ruben G. Carbonell. Reversible cyclic peptide libraries for the discovery of affinity ligands. Anal. Chem. 2013, 85(19), 9229-9237.
  • Stefano Menegatti, Mahmud Hussain, Amith D. Naik, Balaji M. Rao, and Ruben G. Carbonell. mRNA display selection and solid-phase synthesis of Fc-binding cyclic peptide affinity ligands. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2012, 110(3), 857-870.
  • Stefano Menegatti, Amith D. Naik, and Ruben G. Carbonell. The hidden potential of small synthetic molecules and peptides as affinity ligands for bioseparation. Pharm. Bioprocessing 2013, 1(5), 467-485.
  • Stefano Menegatti, Nino Ruocco, Sunny Kumar, Michael Zakrewsky, Joshua Sanchez De Oliveira, M. E. Helgeson, L. Gary Leal and Samir Mitragotri. Synthesis and characterization of a self-fluorescent hyaluronic acid-based gel for subcutaneous applications. Paper accepted by Advanced Functional Materials (2015).
Dr. Adriana San-Miguel

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2011), Georgia Institute of Technology

Research Interests: Systems biology, high-throughput biological data acquisition, microfluidics, unsupervised image analysis, neuroscience and aging

San-Miguel received a B.S. in chemical engineering from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) in 2005. After spending two years working in industry, she moved to the United States to pursue a graduate degree. She obtained a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2011. As a member of the Behrens Research Group, she worked on the development of microcapsules and stimulus-responsive systems. Motivated by a growing interest in biology, she turned her research efforts to engineering solutions for biological studies. Prior to joining NC State, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Hang Lu’s group at Georgia Tech. She also held an appointment as a research fellow with Professor Marc Vidal at the Center for Cancer Systems Biology (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School). In 2013, she was awarded an NIH K99 Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institute of Aging to study the mechanisms regulating synaptic plasticity and aging in the nematode C. elegans.

Currently, she works with the well-studied nematode C. elegans, a simple multicellular model organism useful for studies ranging from development to neuroscience and aging. Her expertise is focused on developing experimental platforms that enable high-throughput automated extraction of biological data, mainly from images of subcellular biological features in a live organism. These platforms are made possible by combining microfluidics, automation, custom designed external hardware and image processing. In this way, it is possible to obtain large multivariate data sets in an unbiased manner, enabling experimentation and understanding of biological phenomena from a systems perspective.

  • C. Maeder, A. San-Miguel, E. Wu, H. Lu, K. Shen. In vivo neuron-wide microscopy reveals differential regulation of synaptic vesicle precursor trafficking. Traffic. 2014, 15(3), 273-91.

Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering

Dr. Fernando Garcia Menendez

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2013), Georgia Institute of Technology

Research Interests: Air quality, environmental modeling, climate-chemistry interactions, numerical methods and high performance computing

Menendez received a B.S. in chemical engineering from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and a M.S. in civil and environmental engineering from Stanford University. He completed his Ph.D. in environmental engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to joining NC State, he was a postdoctoral associate in the Center for Global Change Science and Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Menendez has also spent time working in industry and environmental advocacy.

Menendez uses computational models to explore the connections between air pollution, climate change, energy use and public health. His research is based on numerical and computational methods, uncertainty analysis and integrated assessment modeling to explore interdisciplinary questions related to atmospheric chemistry. Current research interests include the impact of climate uncertainty on air quality projections and simulating the effect of forest fires on atmospheric pollution. As a faculty member, he will develop a modeling laboratory that can bridge the large range of spatial and temporal scales at which interactions between air pollution and environmental and human systems occur.

  • Garcia-Menendez, F., Saari, R. K., Monier, E., and Selin, N. E. (2015). US air quality and health benefits from avoided climate change under greenhouse gas mitigation. Environmental Science & Technology. 49 (13), 7580-7588.
  • Garcia-Menendez, F., Yano, A., Hu, Y., and Odman, M. T. (2014). Simulating smoke transport from wildland fires with a regional-scale air quality model: Sensitivity to spatiotemporal allocation of fire emissions. Science of the Total Environment. 493, 544-553.
  • Garcia-Menendez, F., Yano, A., Hu, Y., and Odman, M. T. (2013). Simulating smoke transport from wildland fires with a regional-scale air quality model: Sensitivity to uncertain wind fields. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. 118 (12), 6493-6504.

Department of Computer Science

Dr. Alexandros Kapravelos

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2015), University of California, Santa Barbara

Research Interests: Span the areas of systems and software security, in particular: protecting the browser at all levels, from designing a secure browser architecture to measuring and understanding large-scale Internet attacks and understanding how the web works and evolves over time and how it can be made more secure for the users

Kapravelos received his B.S. and M.S. in computer science from University of Crete. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from University of California, Santa Barbara in 2015. He is the lead developer of Wepawet, a publicly available system that detects drive-by downloads with the use of an emulated browser, and Revolver, a system that detects evasive drive-by download attempts. Currently, he studies how the web changes on the client side via browser extensions and how we can protect the browser from malicious client-side attacks. He is also interested in Internet privacy and browser fingerprinting specifically, where he is working on making Internet users less distinctive while they browse the web.

  • Kurt Thomas, Elie Bursztein, Chris Grier, Grant Ho, Nav Jagpal, Alexandros Kapravelos, Damon McCoy, Antonio Nappa, Vern Paxson, Paul Pearce, Niels Provos, Moheeb Abu Rajab. Ad Injection at Scale: Assessing Deceptive Advertisement Modifications. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. 2015.
  • Alexandros Kapravelos, Chris Grier, Neha Chachra, Chris Kruegel, Giovanni Vigna, and Vern Paxson. Hulk: Eliciting Malicious Behavior in Browser Extensions. USENIX Security. 2014.
  • Alexandros Kapravelos, Yan Shoshitaishvili, Marco Cova, Christopher Kruegel, and Giovanni Vigna. Revolver: An Automated Approach to the Detection of Evasive Web-based Malware. USENIX Security. 2013.
  • Nick Nikiforakis, Alexandros Kapravelos, Wouter Joosen, Christopher Kruegel, Frank Piessens, and Giovanni Vigna. Cookieless Monster: Exploring the Ecosystem of Web-based Device Fingerprinting. IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P). 2013.
  • Alexandros Kapravelos, Marco Cova, Christopher Kruegel, and Giovanni Vigna. Escape from Monkey Island: Evading High-Interaction Honeyclients. 8th Conference on Detection of Intrusions and Malware & Vulnerability Assessment (DIMVA). 2011.
Dr. Muhammad Shahzad

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2015), Michigan State University

Research Interests: Probabilistic network measurements of wired and wireless networks by modeling, design and analysis of probabilistic and measurement protocols; new sensing modalities for human activity and gesture recognition

Shahzad received his Ph.D. in computer science from Michigan State University in May 2015. During his Ph.D., Shahzad did two internships at Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA, and one at Technicolor Research, Paris, France.

His research interests lie in the probabilistic network measurements of both wired as well as wireless networks. For wired networks, his work focuses on the modeling, design and analysis of probabilistic protocols to measure fundamental network performance metrics such as latency, jitter, throughput and packet loss. For wireless networks, his work focuses on modeling, design and analysis of probabilistic measurement protocols for radio frequency identification (RFID) systems, which arguably are the key enablers of communication in the emerging infrastructures of Internet-of-Things. Shahzad is interested in exploring new sensing modalities for human activity and gesture recognition.

He is the recipient of the 2015 Fitch Beach Graduate Research Award, 2015 Outstanding Graduate Student Award and 2012 Outstanding Student Leader Award at Michigan State University. Shahzad has served on the program committees of IEEE ICNP 2014, ICCCN 2014, and ACM MobiCom S3 Workshop 2014. He has also served as EDAS chair for IEEE ICNP 2014 and proceedings chair for IEEE MASCOTS 2015.

  • Muhammad Shahzad and Alex X. Liu. Expecting the Unexpected: Fast and Reliable Detection of Missing RFID Tags in the Wild. Proceedings of the 34rd Annual IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM). Hong Kong, China, April, 2015.
  • Muhammad Shahzad and Alex X. Liu. Noise Can Help: Accurate and Efficient Per-flow Latency Measurement without Packet Probing and Time Stamping. Proceedings of the ACM International Conference on Measurement and Modeling of Computer Systems (SIGMETRICS). Pages 207-219. Austin, Texas, June 2014.
Dr. Jessica Staddon

Associate Professor and Director of Privacy
Ph.D. (1997), University of California, Berkeley

Research Interests: Privacy, user experience, data mining, security and policy

Staddon holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from U. C. Berkeley. She is joining the Department of Computer Science as an associate professor and director of privacy. Previously she was a research scientist and manager at Google, an area manager at Xerox PARC and a research scientist at Bell Labs and RSA Labs.

Her interests include usable security and privacy tools, trends in privacy-related attitudes and methods for measuring and predicting privacy-related behaviors, attitudes and risks. She serves regularly on the program committees of ACM and IEEE sponsored security/privacy conferences and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Computer Security and the International Journal of Information and Computer Security and the advisory board of the Association for Women in Mathematics.

  • J. Staddon, D. Huffaker, L. Brown and A. Sedley. Are privacy concerns a turn-off? Engagement and privacy in social networks. SOUPS. 2012.
  • J. Staddon, A. Acquisti and K. LeFevre. Self-reported social network behavior: Accuracy predictors and implications for the privacy paradox. SocialCom. 2013.
  • E. Bier, R. Chow, P. Golle , T. King and J. Staddon. The rules of redaction: identify, protect, review (and repeat). IEEE Security & Privacy. 2009.
  • R. Johnson and J. Staddon. Deflation-secure Web metering. International Journal of Information and Computer Security. Volume 1, 2007.

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Bobby Compton

Director
MBA (2003), Duke University

Research Interests: Intuitive analysis and modeling techniques for analog electronics design, novel electronics design and systems engineering for biomedical devices and industrial applications

Compton received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech. He obtained an MBA from Duke University, where he graduated as a Fuqua Scholar in the top 10 percent of the class. He has more than 20 years of industry experience in electronics design and embedded software design during his careers at GE Energy, GE Healthcare and Eaton Corporation. He has product design experience in diagnostic imaging equipment, biomedical sensors, industrial controls, motor drives and uninterruptible power supplies. He has been a design engineer, systems engineer, program manager, six sigma quality leader, global technology center manager and engineering general manager. He has led varied corporate research efforts involving: machine learning algorithms, biomedical devices, low noise analog design and renewable grid interface solutions. He has also led cross-functional business initiatives to resolve problems involving marketing, supply chain and manufacturing. At NC State he has been the chair of FREEDM’s Industry Advisory Board and a dissertation committee member for power electronics research. At Duke he has been a member of dissertation committees for electronic design automation research involving biomedical applications.

Currently, he is the director of NC State’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Design Center, which involves 200 senior undergraduate students doing 50 electronics design projects for industry sponsors and NC State faculty. He is also an adjunct instructor for a graduate level business consulting practicum course in the Masters of Engineering Management Program at Duke University.

  • McBryde,J., Kadavelugu, A.; Compton, B.; Bhattacharya, S.; Das, M.; Agarwal, A. Performance Comparison of 1200V Silicon and SiC devices for UPS Application – IECON 2010 – 36th Annual Conference on IEEE Industrial Electronics Society.
Dr. Michael Daniele

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2012), Clemson University

Research Interests: Materials at the biological/electronic interface, electrochemical biosensors, biosynthesized polymers and composites, tissue engineering microfluidics and additive manufacturing

Daniele received his B.S. in materials science and engineering from Rutgers University. He began his research in nanomaterials and biosensors at Clemson University, where he completed his graduate work in materials science and engineering (polymers). Daniele continued his research at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, sponsored by a National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship. Prior to joining the faculty of NC State, he was a Jerome and Isabella Karle Distinguished Scholar at the Center for Bio/Molecular Science & Engineering (NRL), where he led a group studying composites for biosensors.

Daniele’s primary area of interest is the broad application of soft nanomaterials for the collective goal of understanding complex biological systems by engineering devices to monitor, mimic or augment biological function. He studies the synthesis, characterization and applications of biomaterials to integrate conventional electronics into biological systems to monitor or augment human performance. Alternatively, he explores the utilization of these same materials to regenerate native biological structures for potential diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

  • M.A. Daniele, Adrian Knight, Steven Roberts, Kathryn Radom and Jeffrey Erickson. Polysaccharide Nanocomposite for Conformal Electronic Decals.” Advanced Materials. 27, 1600-1606 (2015).
  • M.A. Daniele, Kathryn Radom, Frances S. Ligler and Andre A. Adams. Microfluidic Fabrication of Multiaxial Microvessels via Hydrodynamic Focusing. RSC Advances. 4, 23440-23446 (2014).
  • M.A. Daniele, Andre A. Adams, Jawad Naciri, Stella H. North and Frances S. Ligler. Interpenetrating Networks Based on Gelatin Methacrylamide and PEG Formed Using Concurrent Thiol Click Chemistries for Hydrogel Tissue Engineering Scaffolds. Biomaterials. 35, 1845-1856 (2014).

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Dr. Veronica Augustyn

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2013), University of California, Los Angeles

Research Interests: Electrochemical energy storage and conversion, nanomaterials, solid state ionics and functional materials

Augustyn received her B.S. in materials science and engineering from the University of Arizona. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from University of California, Los Angeles working with Bruce Dunn. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Texas Materials Institute at the University of Texas at Austin working with Arumugam Manthiram.

Her current research involves understanding materials at electrochemical interfaces during energy storage and conversion. In particular, she is interested in how materials store charge via intercalation reactions and the mechanisms by which these materials degrade during long term operation. This research is motivated by the need for low-cost, long-lasting and safe energy storage for sustainable power grids. In addition, she is interested in how material architecture affects electrocatalytic activity, particularly for the oxygen evolution reaction that is necessary for electrochemical hydrogen production for fuel cells and rechargeable metal/air batteries. She also leads SciBridge, a multi-university project aiming to increase renewable energy research collaborations between Africa and the U.S.

  • Augustyn, V.; Come, J.; Lowe, M. A.; Kim, J. W.; Taberna, P.-L.; Tolbert, S. H.; Abruña, H. D.; Simon, P.; Dunn, B. High-Rate Electrochemical Energy Storage through Li+ Intercalation Pseudocapacitance. Nat. Mater. 2013, 12, 518–522.
  • Colligan, N.; Augustyn, V.; Manthiram, A. Evidence of Localized Lithium Removal in Layered and Lithiated Spinel Li1-xCoO2 (0 < x < 0.9) under Oxygen Evolution Reaction Conditions. J. Phys. Chem. C 2015, 119, 2335–2340.
  • Augustyn, V.; White, E. R.; Ko, J.; Grüner, G.; Regan, B. C.; Dunn, B. Lithium-Ion Storage Properties of Titanium Oxide Nanosheets. Mater. Horizons. 2014, 1, 219–223.
  • Augustyn, V.; Simon, P.; Dunn, B. Pseudocapacitive Oxide Materials for High-Rate Electrochemical Energy Storage. Energy Environ. Sci. 2014, 7, 1597–1614.
Dr. Franky So

Walter and Ida Freeman Distinguished Professor
Ph.D. (1991), University of Southern California

Research Interests: Organic and molecular electronic materials and devices, small molecular organic materials, conjugated polymers and organic-inorganic hybrid perovskite materials, quantum dots, carrier transport, photophysics and optoelectronic devices such as light emitting devices, solar cells, novel transistors and optical sensors

So received his B.A. degree in physics from Hamilton College, his M.S. degree in materials science from MIT and his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California. He started his career as a research scientist at Hoechst Celanese and Motorola Corporate Research Laboratories. While at Motorola, he was instrumental to commercialization of the world’s first organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays used in mobile phones in 2000. He later became the head of OLED Research at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors. In 2005, he joined the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida and later became the Rolf E. Hummel Professor of Electronic Materials. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE), Optical Society of America (OSA) and International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE).

His research interest is in the area of organic and nanocrystal materials for optoelectronic device applications. He is currently studying the morphological, dielectric and interfacial effects on the properties of polymeric solar cells. So is also investigating the use of corrugated substrates to enhance the light extraction efficiency of OLEDs.

  • Dewei Zhao, M. Sexton, Hye-yun Park, Do Young Kim, George Braue, Juan C. Nino, and Franky So. High efficiency solution processed planar perovskite solar cells with a polymer hole transport layer. Adv. Energy Mater. 5, 1401855 (2015).
  • Song Chen, Sai-Wing Tsang, Tzung-Han Lai, John R. Reynolds, and Franky So. Dielectric effect on the photovoltage loss in organic photovoltage cells. Adv. Mater. 26, 6125 (2014).
  • Do Young Kim, Tzung-Han Lai, Jae Woong Lee, Franky So. Multi-spectral imaging with infrared sensitive OLEDs. Scientific Reports 5, 5946 (2014).

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Dr. Kenneth Granlund

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2003), Virginia Tech

Research Interests: Experimental fluid mechanics and vortex dynamics of unsteady motions leading to reduced-order models

Granlund received his M.S. in vehicle engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from Virginia Tech. Prior to joining the NC State faculty, he was a research engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio.

Presently, he studies the influence of streamwise velocity fluctuations on airfoils undergoing unsteady pitching and plunging. This is a natural extension of the “dynamic stall” problem and it applies mainly to helicopters and wind energy. Another topic is the theoretical concept of apparent mass and under what conditions it can be treated as a separate entity from circulatory force and off-body vortices.

  • Granlund, K., Monnier, B. Ol, M. and Williams, D. Airfoil longitudinal gust response in separated vs. attached flows. Physics of Fluids 26(2), 027103, 2014.
  • Granlund, K., Ol, M. and Bernal, L. Free-to-Pivot Flat Plates in Hover for Reynolds Numbers 14 to 21,200. AIAA Journal, 2014.
  • Ramesh, K., Gopalarathnam, A., Edwards, J., Ol, M. and Granlund, K. An unsteady airfoil theory applied to pitching motions validated against experiment and computation. Journal of Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics. pp. 1-22, 2013.
  • Granlund, K., Ol, M. and Bernal, L. Unsteady Pitching Flat Plates. Journal of Fluid Mechanics. 733 R5, 2013.
  • Granlund, K., Ol, M. and Bernal, L. Experiments on free-to-pivot hover motions of flat plates. Journal of Fluids and Structures. 40, pp. 337-355, 2013.
Dr. Jun Liu

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2013), University of Colorado, Boulder

Research Interests: Nanoscale heat transfer, energy conversion and management, thermal transport in soft matters and hybrid materials, ultrafast-laser based characterization of materials and bioheat transfer

Liu received his B.S. in energy and power engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. He received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from University of Colorado at Boulder. He was a postdoctoral research associate in materials science and engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Liu’s specialty focuses on both experimental and theoretical/numerical investigations of thermal properties of micro/nano-structured materials for applications in energy harvesting and conversion. In working toward solutions for the global energy challenge, his future research will consist of two parts: (1) developing numerical/theoretical and experimental tools/platforms for understanding nanoscale thermal transport and probing new thermal transport phenomena in micro/nanoscale structures; (2) establishing novel functional thermal materials as elementary building blocks for thermal management and energy conversion/storage devices and systems with enhanced performance.

  • Jun Liu, Xiaojia Wang, Dongyao Li, Nelson E. Coates, Rachel A. Segalman, and David G. Cahill, Thermal Conductivity and Elastic Constants of PEDOT:PSS with High Electrical Conductivity. Macromolecules. 48, 585 (2015).
  • Jun Liu, Gyung-Min Choi, and David G. Cahill, Measurement of the Anisotropic Thermal Conductivity of Molybdenum Disulfide Single Crystal by the Time-resolved Magneto-optical Kerr Effect. Journal of Applied Physics. 116, 233107(2014).
  • Jun Liu, Byunghoon Yoon, Eli Kuhlmann, Miao Tian, Jie Zhu, Steven M. George, Yung-Cheng Lee, and Ronggui Yang, Ultralow Thermal Conductivity of Atomic/Molecular Layer Deposited Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Zincone Thin Films. Nano Letters. 13,5594 (2013).
  • Jun Liu and Ronggui Yang, Length-dependent Thermal Conductivity of Single Extended Polymer Chains. Physical Review B. 86, 104307 (2012).
  • Jun Liu and Ronggui Yang, Tuning the Thermal Conductivity of Polymers with Mechanical Strains. Physical Review B. 81, 174122 (2010).
Dr. Pramod Subbareddy

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2007), University of Minnesota

Research Interests: Fluid mechanics, computational fluid dynamics, turbulence, transition and numerical methods

Subbareddy received a BTech in aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from the University of Minnesota. Prior to joining NC State, he was a research associate at the University of Minnesota.

His interests are in the simulation and analysis of transitional and turbulent high speed flows. Currently, he is involved in projects that involve the construction of high-fidelity tools for the efficient solution of these problems and in work that uses these tools to study a wide range of flowfields.

  • Subbareddy, P.K., Bartkowicz, M. D., & Candler, G. V. (2014). Direct numerical simulation of high-speed transition due to an isolated roughness element. Journal of Fluid Mechanics. Vol. 748.
  • Candler, G. V., Subbareddy, P. K., & Nompelis, I. 2015, CFD Methods for Hypersonic Flows and Aerothermodynamics. Hypersonic Nonequilibrium Flows: Fundamentals and Recent Advances (Book Chapter).
  • Brock, J., Subbareddy, P. K., & Candler, G. V. (2015). Detached-Eddy simulations of hypersonic capsule wake flow. AIAA Journal. Vol. 53.
  • Candler, G. V., Subbareddy, P. K., & Nompelis, I. (2013). A decoupled implicit method for aerothermodynamics and reacting flows. AIAA Journal. Vol. 51.
  • Subbareddy, P. K., & Candler, G. V. (2009). A fully discrete, kinetic energy consistent finite-volume scheme for compressible flows. Journal of Computational Physics. Vol. 228.

Department of Nuclear Engineering

Dr. Maria Avramova

Associate Professor
Ph.D. (2007), Pennsylvania State University

Avramova earned her Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from Pennsylvania State University (PSU) in 2007. Prior to joining NC State, she held assistant and associate professor positions at Pennsylvania State University (2009 – August 2015) and a research scientist position at the Institute of Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy, Bulgarian Academy of Science, in Sofia, Bulgaria (1994 – 2001). While at PSU, Avramova led the Reactor Dynamics and Fuel Management Group. Her expertise and experience are in the area of developing methods and computer codes for multi-dimensional reactor analysis. Her background includes development, verification and validation of thermal-hydraulics subchannel; porous media; and computational fluid dynamics models and codes for reactor design, transient and safety computational analysis. She has led high visibility international projects such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD-NEA) / United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (U.S. NRC) BWR Full-size Fine-mesh Bundle Test (BFBT) benchmark and the OECD-NEA/U.S.NRC PWR Subchannel and Bundle Tests (PSBT) benchmark. She is also one of the coordinators of the OECD LWR Uncertainty Analysis in Modeling (UAM) Benchmark.

Avramova is leading a team participating in the Department of Energy (DOE) Consortium for Advanced Simulations of Light Water Reactors (CASL) project by maintaining, developing, coupling, verifying and validating the advanced subchannel code CTF as part of the CASL VERA (Virtual Environment for Reactor Application) system.

Research Interests

High-fidelity multi-physics simulations involving coupling of reactor physics, thermal-hydraulics and fuel performance models, as well as on uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of reactor design and safety calculations

Selected Publications
  • M. Avramova, et al., “Multi-physics and Multi-Scale Benchmarking and Uncertainty Quantification within NEA/OECD Framework”, Annals of Nuclear Energy, Special Issue on Multi-Physics Modelling of LWR Static and Transient Behavior, Invited paper, (2015).
Dr. Robert Bruce Hayes

Associate Professor
Ph.D. (1999), University of Utah, Salt Lake City

Research Interests: Nuclear security and nonproliferation

Hayes received a B.S. in mathematics and physics in 1994 and an M.S. in physics in 1997 from the University of Utah. In 1999, he received his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of Utah. He is a Certified Health Physicist (CHP) by the American Board of Health Physics and a Licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in nuclear engineering in both the state of New Mexico and the state of Nevada. His major honors and awards include: Fellow of the American Physical Society (2011) through the Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics, Hoover-Newton award (2010) from the Health Physics Society’s Air Monitoring Users Group and National Service Recognition Award (2012) from the American Nuclear Society’s Radiation Protection and Shielding Division.

Additionally, he is a member of the Professional Engineering Exam Writing Group for NCEES in Nuclear Engineering, research affiliate in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Physics Department’s Laboratory for Nuclear Science, chair of the ANSI Standard Writing Committee for ANSI 42.54 on Radiological Air monitoring and experienced user of MCNP for both radiation shielding and nuclear criticality safety calculations.

  • Hayes R. B. (2013). Nuclear criticality as a contributor to gamma ray burst events. Astrophys. Space Sci. 345, 147-154.
  • Hayes R. B. Nuclear science and technology made so simple, it belongs in your newspaper – popular science topics for the layman. ASIN: B00CC2KB5S [Kindle Edition]. April 7, 2013.
  • Hayes R. B Akbarzadeh M. (2014). Using isotopic ratios for discrimination of environmental anthropogenic radioactivity. Health Phys. 107, 277-291.
  • Hayes R. B. (2009). Preliminary Benchmarking Efforts and MCNP Simulation Results for Homeland Security. Nuclear Technology. 168, 852-857.
  • Hayes R. B. (2009). Continuous Air Monitor Algorithm Development. Nuclear Technology. 168, 35-40.
  • Hayes R. B. (2008). High burn-up capability possibilities for a new beryllium moderated water cooled natural uranium reactor. Annals of Nuclear Energy. 35, 1584-1586.
Dr. Kostadin Ivanov

Professor and Head
Ph.D. (1990), Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria

Research Interests: Nuclear reactor physics and multi-physics, nuclear core design and safety analysis, nuclear plant simulations, validation and verification of multi-physics calculations, uncertainty quantification and propagation in modeling

Ivanov received a B.S. in nuclear engineering from the Moscow Institute of Power Engineering, Russia. He received his Ph.D. in reactor physics from the Institute of Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy (INRNE), Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. He was senior research scientist at INRNE and assistant professor at the Technical University of Sofia, Bulgaria. Later, he was a visiting Fulbright scholar at the Nuclear Engineering Department, Pennsylvania State University (PSU) and visiting scientist at the Research Center Rossendorf Inc., Germany. Prior to joining the NC State faculty, he was a distinguished professor of nuclear engineering and graduate coordinator of nuclear engineering program at PSU.

Presently he studies the next generation stochastic and deterministic methods in reactor physics analysis and also nuclear cross-section generation and modeling. Ivanov also develops advanced methods for multi-physics coupling for design and safety applications. Another topic is the study of verification and validation methods as well as uncertainty quantification and propagation in modeling and simulations.

  • Avramova, M. and Ivanov, K. & et al. Multi-Physics and Multi-Scale Benchmarking and Uncertainty Quantification within NEA/OECD Framework. Annals of Nuclear Energy. 2015, 84, 178-196.
  • Ivanov, A., Sanchez, V., Stieglitz, R., & Ivanov, K. Large-scale Monte Carlo Neutron Transport Calculations with Thermal-Hydraulic Feedback. Annals of Nuclear Energy. 2015, 84, 204-219.
  • Bratton, R., Avramova, M., Ivanov, K. Benchmark for Uncertainty Analysis in Modeling (UAM) for LWRs – Summary and Discussion of Neutronics Cases (Phase I). Nuclear Engineering and Technology (NET). 2014, Vol. 46 No.3, 313-349.