New Faculty — Year 2019-20

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2018), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research Interests: Agricultural robotics and automation; computer vision for agricultural image data analysis; human-robot interaction for small unmanned aerial systems; advanced imaging techniques (e.g., NIR, hyperspectral) for high-throughput phenotyping applications.

Young received a B.S. in civil and environmental engineering in 2014 from Cornell University, and her M.S. in 2015 and Ph.D. in 2018 in civil engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a Department of Defense National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellow. Prior to joining the faculty at NC State, she was a visiting scholar in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University.

Currently, Young’s research focuses on the use of electronics, robotics and automation for sensing and sense-making in biological and agricultural systems. She has expertise in developing, building and deploying unmanned systems (including land, air and surface vehicles) for field robotics applications, including hydrologic and agricultural data collection. Young also studies the human-robot interaction (HRI) for the operation of small unmanned aerial systems performing telemanipulation tasks. Work in Young’s lab integrates principles of mechanical design, control theory, electronics, HRI and computer vision to develop new systems that are of value for biological and agricultural applications.

• S.N. Young, J. Peschel, E. Kayacan (2018). Design and Field Evaluation of a Ground Robot for High-Throughput Phenotyping of Energy Sorghum. Precision Agriculture. 20(4): 697-722.
• E. Kayacan, S.N. Young, J. Peschel, G. Chowdhary (2018). High Precision Control of Tracked Field Robots in the Presence of Unknown Traction Coefficients. J. Field Robotics. 35(7):1050-1062.
• S.N. Young, J.M. Peschel, G. Penny, S. Thompson, V. Srinivasan (2017). Robot-Assisted Measurement for Hydrologic Understanding in Data Sparse Regions. Water, 9(7): 494.

Associate Professor
Ph.D. (2010), University of Florida

Research Interests: Modeling muscle synergies; ultrasound imaging for human intent detection and fatigue modeling; human robot interaction; application motivated derivation of control techniques that may use robust nonlinear control, model predictive control, reinforcement learning, and neural networks-based adaptive control; control of microrobots.

Sharma received his B.E. degree in industrial engineering from Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, India in 2004, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida in 2008 and 2010, respectively. He was then an Alberta Innovates-Health Solutions Post-Doctoral Fellow with the Department of Physiology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. From 2012-17, he was an assistant professor with the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Pittsburgh and was promoted to an associate professor in 2018.

His research interests include the modeling, optimization and control of functional electrical stimulation (FES), hybrid exoskeletons that combine FES and a powered exoskeleton. His research group has started looking into using ultrasound imaging-derived sensing signals to address human-robot interaction problems in rehabilitation. He won the O. Hugo Schuck Award for the Best Application Paper from the 2008 American Control Conference. His research in hybrid exoskeletons is funded by three National Science Foundation (NSF) awards and one National Health Institute R03 Award. He won the NSF CAREER Award in 2018.

• Z. Sheng, N. Sharma, and K. Kim, “Quantitative Assessment of Changes in Muscle Contractility Due to Fatigue During NMES: An Ultrasound Imaging Approach,” IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering,” accepted.
• N. Alibeji, V. Molazadeh, F. Moore-Clingenpeel, and N. Sharma, “A Muscle Synergy Inspired Control Design to Coordinate Functional Electrical Stimulation and a Powered Exoskeleton,” IEEE Control Systems, 38 (6), pp. 35-60, 2018.
• N. Kirsch, X. Bao, Brad E. Dicianno, and N. Sharma, “Model-based Dynamic Control Allocation in a Hybrid Neuroprosthesis,” IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 224-232, 2018.
• N. Sharma, C.M. Gregory, and W.E. Dixon, “Predictor-based Compensation for Electromechanical Delay during Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation,” IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, vol.19, no.6, pp. 601-611, Dec. 2011.

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2012), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research Interests: Multi-scale analysis, modeling and optimization of next-generation traffic systems; advancement of the understanding of cooperative traffic control systems; development of future mobility systems such as connected and automated vehicles.

Hajbabaie received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in civil engineering in 2003 and 2006, respectively, from Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. He earned a second M.Sc. in industrial engineering in 2011 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Washington State University from October 2014 to August 2019. Prior to this position, he was a postdoctoral research scholar at the Institute for Transportation Research and Education at NC State University. Hajbabaie has served as the secretary of Work Zone Traffic Control Standing Committee of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine since 2014 and as the chair of the Asset Management Subcommittee of the Traffic Signal Systems Committee of the TRB. Hajbabaie’s activities contribute to the advancement of real-time optimization of large-scale complex engineering systems represented by models with a high degree of realism.

• Mohebifard R.*, S. Islam*, and A. Hajbabaie, 2019. Cooperative traffic signal and perimeter control in semi-connected urban-street networks. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, Vol. 104, pp 408-427.
• Mehrabipour M.*, L. Hajibabai, and A. Hajbabaie, 2019. A Decomposition Scheme for Parallelization of System Optimal Dynamic Traffic Assignment on Urban Networks with Multiple Origins and Destinations. Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, Accepted.
• Mohebifard R.* and A. Hajbabaie, 2019. Optimal Network-level Traffic Signal Control: A Benders Decomposition-Based Solution Algorithm. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Vol. 121, pp 252-274.
• Mirheli A., M. Tajalli*, L. Hajibabai, and A. Hajbabaie, 2019. A Consensus-based Distributed Trajectory Control in a Signal-free Intersection. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, Vol. 100, pp 161-176.
• Mohebifard R.* and A. Hajbabaie, 2019. Distributed Optimization and Coordination Algorithms for Dynamic Traffic Metering in Connected Urban Street Networks. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Vol. 20, No. 5, pp 1930-1941.

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2018), University of Toronto, Canada

Research Interests: Large-scale experimental testing of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures; the development of practical tools for the assessment of concrete structures; the development of design procedures and the development of new constitutive models and modeling techniques.

Before joining the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering at NC State, Proestos earned his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, Canada under a joint placement agreement with the Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori di Pavia, Italy. He also holds an M.A.Sc. and a B.A.Sc. in engineering science from the University of Toronto. Proestos has also been involved in several high-profile consulting activities providing expertise in specialized situations, as a part of litigation and dispute resolutions and in the forensic investigation of structures.

Proestos’ expertise is in the behavior, modeling and experimental investigation of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures, with particular emphasis on the shear and torsion response of members. His research has been applied in the design and analysis of high-rise buildings, bridges, hydroelectric facilities, nuclear containment structures, transit centers and other infrastructure.

• Proestos, G.T., Bentz, E.C., and Collins, M.P., “Reinforced Concrete Containment Walls Subjected to Combined In-Plane and Out-of-Plane Shear Stresses: Experimental Investigation and Sectional Analysis,” Transactions, SMiRT-25 Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, 4-9 August 2019, Division V.
• Collins, M.P., Bentz, E.C., Quach, P.T., and Proestos, G.T., “The Challenge of Predicting the Shear Strength of Very Thick Slabs: Results Support Recommendation to Use at Least Minimum Shear Reinforcement,” Concrete International, V. 37, No. 11, November 2015, pp. 29-37 and cover.
• Proestos, G.T., Bentz, E.C., and Collins, M.P., “Maximum Shear Capacity of Reinforced Concrete Members,” ACI Structural Journal, V. 115, No. 5, September-October 2018, pp. 1463-1473.
• Calvi, P.M., Proestos, G.T. and Ruggiero, D.M., “Towards the Development of Direct Crack Based Assessment of Structures,” ACI Special Publication, Shear in Structural Concrete SP-328, September 2018, pp. 9.1-9.20.
• Proestos, G.T., Bae, G.-M., Cho, J.Y., Bentz, E.C., and Collins, M.P., “Influence of High-Strength Bars on Shear Response of Containment Walls,” ACI Structural Journal, V. 113, No. 5, September-October 2016, pp. 917-927.

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2016), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research Interests: Side-channel attacks; online privacy (tracking); privacy-preserving technologies; anonymity systems and machine learning for privacy.

Das received his B.S. and M.S. in computer science and engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was a recipient of a Fulbright Science and Technology Fellowship. Prior to joining the NC State faculty, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. He previously served as an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.

Das conducts research in different aspects of security and privacy with a special focus toward designing secure and privacy-preserving technologies. His current research direction focuses on exploring the security and privacy challenges in the era of Internet of Things, where he is focusing on designing frameworks that can help discover, inform and control what information is shared with different data analytics.

• A. Das, G. Acar, N. Borisov, and A. Pradeep, “The web’s sixth sense: A study of scripts accessing smartphone sensors.” In Proceedings of the 25th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), pages 1515–1532, 2018.
• A. Das, N. Borisov, and E. Chou, “Every move you make: Exploring practical issues in smartphone motion sensor fingerprinting and countermeasures.” In Proceedings of the 18th Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium (PoPETs), pages 88–108, 2018.
• A. Das, N. Borisov, and M. Caesar, “Tracking mobile web users through motion sensors: Attacks and defenses.” In Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), 2016.
• A. Das, N. Borisov, and M. Caesar, “Do you hear what I hear? Fingerprinting smart devices through embedded acoustic components.” In Proceedings of the 21st ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS), pages 441–452, 2014.
• A. Das, J. Bonneau, M. Caesar, N. Borisov, and X. Wang, “The tangled web of password reuse.” In Proceedings of the 21st Annual Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS), 2014.

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2019), University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Research Interests: Robotic software reliability; software testing for field robotic systems; aerial robotics; field robotics; formal methods for physical systems; code-aware robotic simulation; abstract type inference.

Ore received his B.A. in philosophy from the University of Chicago and has worked professionally in management consulting, electronic forensics and video production. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science and engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Presently, he focuses on applying program analysis techniques to software that controls robots and senses and acts in the physical world. These techniques include abstract type inference of physical unit types (like “meters-per-second”) with dataflow analysis, probabilistic methods for combining semantic information in identifiers (variable names) with code flow inference, empirical measurements of how developers make decisions about robotic software, and how to connect program analysis with robotic simulation. His interests include program analysis and software testing that helps make systems safer and more reliable while remaining practical and economically efficient.

• Ore, John-Paul, Sebastian G. Elbaum, Carrick Detweiler, and Lambros Karkazis. “Assessing the Type Annotation Burden.” In Proceedings of the 33rd ACM/IEEE International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, pp. 190-201. 2018.
• Ore, John-Paul, and Carrick Detweiler. “Sensing Water Properties at Precise Depths from the Air.” Journal of Field Robotics 35, no. 8 (2018): 1205-1221.
• Kate, Sayali, John-Paul Ore, Xiangyu Zhang, Sebastian Elbaum, and Zhaogui Xu. “Phys: Probabilistic Physical Unit Assignment and Inconsistency Detection.” In Proceedings of the 2018 26th ACM Joint Meeting on European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, pp. 563-573. ACM, 2018.
• Ore, John-Paul, Carrick Detweiler, and Sebastian Elbaum. “Lightweight Detection of Physical Unit Inconsistencies without Program Annotations.” In Proceedings of the 26th ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis, pp. 341-351. ACM, 2017.

Associate Professor
Ph.D. (2011), Carnegie Mellon University

Research Interests: Algorithms and data structures in computational geometry and topology.

Sheehy received his B.S.E. from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. He spent two years as a postdoc at Inria-Saclay in France. Prior to joining the NC State faculty, he was an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Connecticut. His research is in algorithms and data structures in computational geometry and topological data analysis. His 2017 NSF CAREER Award focuses on the challenges of storing, searching and summarizing complex data sets.

• Sheehy, D. “Frechet-Stable Signatures Using Persistent Homology” ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, 2018.
• Cavanna, N., Gardner, K., and Sheehy, D. “When and Why the Topological Coverage Criterion Works” ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, 2017.
• Sheehy, D. “The Persistent Homology of Distance Functions under Random Projection” Symposium on Computational Geometry, 2014.
• Sheehy, D. “Linear-Size Approximations to the Vietoris-Rips Filtration” Discrete Comput Geom, 49(4): 778-796, 2013.

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2019), Arizona State University

Research Interests: Internet of Things; edge computing; big data systems; cybersecurity and privacy; resource allocation, networking algorithms, protocol design, mechanism design, optimization; performance modeling, learning and estimation; risk management; robust design; privacy preservation; secure protocols; blockchain.

Yu received his Ph.D. in computer science from Arizona State University in 2019, and his B.S. in computer science from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications in 2013. He was a research intern at Tsinghua University from 2012-13. His dissertation was focused on smart resource allocation algorithms and protocols in the broader Internet of Things ecosystem.

Yu’s research spans across multiple domains including computer networking, distributed systems and cybersecurity. His primary focus is on resolving performance and security issues in Internet of Things and edge computing, using techniques including system modeling, resource allocation, robustness and risk management, learning and estimation, optimization, game theory and the blockchain. He also works on the anonymity, scalability and applicability of blockchain-based systems, such as layer-2 channel networks, smart contracts and others. Additionally, Yu has worked on various topics including mechanism design, crowdsourcing and crowdsensing, cloud data centers, software-defined networking and wireless networks.

• R. Yu, V. T. Kilari, G. Xue, and J. Tang, “Load Balancing for Interdependent IoT Microservices,” in IEEE INFOCOM, 2019.
• R. Yu, G. Xue, and X. Zhang, “Application Provisioning in Fog Computing-enabled Internet-ofThings: A Network Perspective,” in IEEE INFOCOM, 2018.
• R. Yu, G. Xue, V. T. Kilari, and X. Zhang, “Deploying Robust Security in Internet of Things,” in IEEE CNS, 2018.
• R. Yu, G. Xue, V. T. Kilari, D. Yang, and J. Tang, “CoinExpress: A Fast Payment Routing Mechanism in Blockchain-based Payment Channel Networks,” in IEEE ICCCN, 2018.
• R. Yu, G. Xue, M. Bennis, X. Chen, and Z. Han, “HSDRAN: Hierarchical Software-Defined Radio Access Network for Distributed Optimization,” IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol., vol. 67, no. 9, pp. 8623-8636, Sep. 2018.

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2019), Georgia Institute of Technology

Research Interests: Analog/digital/mixed-mode integrated circuit (IC) design; system-on-a-chip (SoC) design; implantable microelectronic devices; wireless power/data transmission; embedded hardware/firmware design for neural interfacing/neuroprostheses, assistive technologies and rehabilitation engineering.

Jia received her B.S. in electronic information science and technology from the Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, China in 2011 and her M.S. in microelectronics and solid-state electronics from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China in 2014. She received her Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2019.

The focus of Jia’s research is the development of novel and complete biomedical systems for long-term behavioral neuroscience studies on small freely moving animals. She has built bi-directional neural interface devices, which are capable of neural recording, electrical stimulation and/or optical stimulation for closed-loop neuromodulation, and distributed mm-sized opto-electro stimulation implants, which can efficiently stimulate large-scale neuronal ensembles over large brain regions with negligible footprint. For untethered and battery-free operation of the devices, she also developed inductive power transmission systems for omnidirectional wireless power delivery and smart data acquisition systems for enabling large wireless coverage and eliminating RF blind spots.

• Y. Jia, S.A. Mirbozorgi, P. Zhang, O.T. Inan, W. Li, and M. Ghovanloo, “A dual-band wireless power transmission system for evaluating mm-sized implants,” IEEE Trans. Biomed. Circuits Syst., 2019.
• Y. Jia, S.A. Mirbozorgi, B. Lee, W. Khan, O.T. Inan, F. Madi, A. Weber, W. Li, and M. Ghovanloo, “A mm-sized free-floating wirelessly-powered implantable optical stimulation device,” IEEE Trans. Biomed. Circuits Syst., 2019.
• Y. Jia, W. Khan, B. Lee, B. Fan, F. Madi, A. Weber, W. Li, and M. Ghovanloo, “Wireless opto-electro neural interface for experiments with small freely moving animals”, J. Neural Eng., vol. 15, no. 4, p. 046032, June 2018.
• Y. Jia, S.A. Mirbozorgi, B. Lee, W. Khan, B. Fan, F. Madi, A.J. Weber, W. Li, and M. Ghovanloo, “A mm-sized free-floating wirelessly-powered optical stimulating system-on-a-chip”, International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), San Francisco, U.S., Feb. 2018.

M.C. Dean Term Professor, NC State Nanofabrication Facility Director
Ph.D. (1992), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research Interests: Photonic integrated circuits; light-emitting diodes; Al-bearing III-V native-oxide technology.

Kish received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1988, 1989, and 1992, respectively. His Ph.D. research work is part of the core Al-bearing III-V native-oxide technology that has enabled the development of the highest performance vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) and has been licensed to VCSEL manufacturers throughout the world.

Prior to joining NC State, he was at Hewlett-Packard from 1992-99, where he co-invented and led the commercialization of the highest performance (efficiency) red-orange-yellow visible LEDs produced at the time (wafer-bonded transparent-substrate AlGaInP LEDs). From 1999-01, he was with Agilent Technologies as the III-V department manager. In 2001, Kish joined Infinera Corporation where he co-invented and led the effort to research, develop, and commercialize the first practical (commercially deployed) fully integrated system-on-chip (SOC) photonic ICs (PICs) for optical communications. Additionally, he served as senior vice president of the Optical Integrated Circuit Group at Infinera. Kish is a Fellow of the OSA and IEEE and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

• F.A. Kish, et al. “Foundry Development of System-On-Chip InP-Based Photonic Integrated Circuits,” IEEE J. of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 25, no. 5, pp. 1-17, (April 2019).
• F.A. Kish, F.M. Steranka, D.C. DeFevere, V.M. Robbins, and J. Uebbing, “Wafer Bonding of Light-Emitting Diode Layers”, U.S. Patent No. 5,376,580, December 27, 1994 (Filed March 19, 1993).
• N. Holonyak, Jr., F.A. Kish, and S.J. Caracci, “Method of Making Semiconductor Devices and Techniques for Controlled Optical Confinement”, U.S. Patent No. 5,403,775, April 4, 1995 (Filed June 15, 1994).
• F.A. Kish, S.J. Caracci, N. Holonyak, Jr., J.M. Dallesasse, K.C. Hsieh, M.J. Ries, S.C. Smith and R.D. Burnham, “Planar native-oxide index-guided AlxGa1-xAs-GaAs quantum well heterostructure lasers,” Appl. Phys. Lett., 59, 1755-1757, (30 September 1991).

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

Research Interests: Electrified transportation; personal mobility; charging systems for electric vehicles; power converters design and control; systems for wireless inductive and capacitive power transfer; magnetic circuit design; electromagnetic energy conversion principles as applied in transportation electrification and charging systems.

Pantic received his B.S. and M.S. from the University of Belgrade in Serbia and his Ph.D. from NC State University, all in electrical engineering. After graduation in 2013, he joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at Utah State University (USU) in Logan, Utah, as an assistant professor, where he also served as the associate director of the Electric Vehicle and Roadway Research Facility. He was the program chair for the Conference on Electric Roads and Vehicles in 2015-16 and a reviewer for more than 20 transactions, journals and grant panels. Pantic serves as an associate editor for the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Transactions on Transportation Electrification. He is the recipient of the Best Teacher Award in the ECE Department at USU in 2016, and the second prize winner for the paper published in IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics in 2019. Pantic has been a PI/co-PI on multiple federal, state and industry-sponsored grants, and has multiple patents and patent applications.

• A. Azad, R. Tavakoli, U. Pratik, B. Varghese, C. Coopmans, and Z. Pantic, “A Smart Autonomous WPT System for Electric Wheelchair Applications with Free-Positioning Charging Feature,” in IEEE Journal of Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics.
• A. Azad, A. Echols, V. Kulyukin, R. Zane, and Z. Pantic, “Analysis, Optimization, and Demonstration of a Vehicular Detection System Intended for Dynamic Wireless Charging Applications,” in IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, 2018.
• R. Tavakoli, Z. Pantic. “Analysis, Design, and Demonstration of a 25-kW Dynamic Wireless Charging System for Roadway Electric Vehicles,” in Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, IEEE Journal, vol. PP, no. 99, pp. 1-1., 2017.
• Z. Pantic, K. Lee, S.M. Lukic, “Receivers for Multifrequency Wireless Power Transfer: Design for Minimum Interference,” in Emerging and Selected Topics in Power Electronics, IEEE Journal of, vol.3, no.1, pp.234-241, March 2015.

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2014), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research Interests: Applications of operations research to resilient and economic services concerning emerging technologies and human-made decisions; dynamic resource management; automation in transportation networks; supply chain logistics; asset management and long-term replacement planning.

Hajibabai received her B.S. in civil engineering in 2004 from K.N. Toosi University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. She earned her first M.Sc. in civil engineering in 2006 from Tehran University in Tehran, Iran and her second M.Sc. degree in industrial engineering in 2013 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has been an assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the State University of New York at Stony Brook since January 2017. Prior to this position, she was a clinical assistant professor at Washington State University starting in January 2015.

She is a member of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). She has actively participated in various professional activities of the Transportation Network Modeling Standing Committee of Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine and Transportation Science and Logistics of INFORMS. Hajibabai is a member of the TRB’s Emerging Technologies in Network Modeling subcommittee, the Standing Committee on Maintenance Equipment and the Section on Maintenance and Preservation. She is a co-chair of the Operations and Preservation Group of the TRB Young Members Council.

• Mirheli, A. and L. Hajibabai, 2019. Utilization Management and Pricing of Parking Facilities under Uncertain Demand and User Decisions. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems.
• Mirheli, A., M. Tajalli, L. Hajibabai, and A. Hajbabaie, 2019. A Consensus-based Distributed Trajectory Control in a Signal-free Intersection. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 100: 161-176.
• Hajibabai, L. and D. Saha, 2019. Patrol Route Planning for Incident Response Vehicles under Dispatching Station Scenarios. Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, 34: 58-70.
• Mirheli, A. and L. Hajibabai, and A. Hajbabaie, 2018. Development of a Signal-head-free Intersection Control Logic in a Fully Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Environment. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 92: 412-425.

Associate Professor
Ph.D. (2004), Northwestern University

Research Interests: Blockchain simulation, data analysis, and mechanism design; design and analysis of computer simulation experiments; complex system simulation; learning-based statistical methods for simulation, quality management, and healthcare system engineering.

Wan received her Ph.D. in industrial engineering and management sciences from Northwestern University in 2004. She earned a B.S. in chemistry from Peking University in 1998, a M.S. in materials sciences in 2001 and a M.S. in industrial engineering and management sciences in 2002, both from Northwestern University. Before joining the NC State faculty, she was an associate professor in the School of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University. She also directed the Purdue Blockchain Lab, co-directed the Smart Design Lab, and is part of the SEED Center for Data Farming at the Naval Postgraduate School.

Wan’s research focuses on the areas of data, simulation, and blockchain. On the data side, she concentrates on simulated data and internet data trying to find the algorithm by first analyzing them. For simulation, she wants to focus on the sampling strategy and data analysis. She is the director of the ISE department’s blockchain lab that focuses on studying blockchain as a complex system using simulation, feature selection, game theory, optimization and other operations research and statistical methods.

• Arnob Ghosh, Vaneet Aggarwal, and Hong Wan, “Strategic Prosumers: How to set the prices Dynamically in a Tiered Market?,” IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, vol. 15, no. 8, pp. 4469-4480, Aug. 2019
• A Mechanism Design Approach to Blockchain Protocols , A. Ray, M. Ventresca and H. Wan, “A Mechanism Design Approach to Blockchain Protocols,” 2018 IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things (iThings) and IEEE Green Computing and Communications (GreenCom) and IEEE Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom) and IEEE Smart Data (SmartData), Halifax, NS, Canada, 2018, pp. 1603-1608.
• Wen-Hsin Feng, Zhouyang Lou, Nan Kong, and Hong Wan, “Multiobjective Stochastic Genetic Algorithm for the Pareto-Optimal Prioritization Scheme Design of Real-time Healthcare Resource Allocation”, Operations Research for Health Care, In press, Available online 21 September 2017.

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2015), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research Interests: Correlative in-situ and ex-situ electron microscopy study of the growth, corrosion and phase transformation of materials in liquid and solid phase, and in gas environment; four-dimensional electron microscopy; low-dose cryo and in-situ imaging.

Gao received his B.S. in physics from Peking University in China and his Ph.D. in materials science engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Irvine and a visiting scholar at Oak Ridge National Laboratory prior to joining the NC State faculty.

Presently, his research focuses on developing correlative in situ imaging techniques in state-of-the-art advanced scanning/transmission electron microscopy to study the dynamics of nanostructured catalyst, which bridges the atomic scale mechanisms with reaction and transformation in chemistry. Gao’s expertise also includes advancing and applying four-dimensional electron microscopy at heterogeneous interfaces in functional oxide materials.

• Wenpei Gao, Christopher Addiego, Hui Wang, Xingxu Yan, Yusheng Hou, Dianxiang Ji, Colin Heikes, Yi Zhang, Linze Li, Huaixun Huyan, Thomas Blum, Toshihiro Aoki, Yuefeng Nie, Darrell Schlom, Ruqian Wu, Xiaoqing Pan, Nature, 2019, accepted.
• Wenpei Gao, Peter Tieu, Christopher Addiego, Yanling Ma, Jianbo Wu, Xiaoqing Pan, “Probing the dynamics of nanoparticle formation from a precursor at atomic resolution.” Science Advances, 5 (1) (2019): eaau9590.
• Wenpei Gao*, Yusheng Hou, Zach Hood, Xue Wang, Karren More, Ruqian Wu, Younan Xia, Xiaoqing Pan*, Miaofang Chi*, “Direct in Situ Observation and Analysis of the Formation of Palladium Nanocrystals with High-Index Facets.” Nano Letters, 18 (11) (2018): 7004-7013, DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.8b02953, Editor’s Choice in ACS.

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2014), North Carolina State University

Research Interests: Development of new alloys for Additive Manufacturing technologies; process monitoring; in-situ control.

Horn received his Ph.D. in industrial engineering from NC State. In addition to his role as an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, he is the director of research for the Center for Additive Manufacturing and Logistics and the director of the Consortium on the Properties of Additively Manufactured Copper Powder (CPAC).

His research has focused on developing new alloys and parameters for Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies, process monitoring and in-situ control. He is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading experts in designing operating parameters, machines and materials for powder-bed electron beam and laser melting AM processes. Leveraging the unique structure-property relationships feasible with AM is revolutionizing the design and production of numerous critical products, from patient specific implants and rocketry to jet engine and weapon system components. He has led several new material development efforts on behalf of a number of consortia, companies and government agencies and has organized numerous symposia. Horn is currently the chairman of the local Raleigh-Durham Chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

• Horn, T*. & Gamzina, D. “Additive Manufacturing of Copper Alloys” (article 24A-5I) to ASM Handbook Volume 24A: Additive Manufacturing Processes. SUBMITTED *As Corresponding Author.
• Mahbooba, Z., West, H., Harrysson, O., Wojcieszynski, A., Dehoff, R., Nandwana, P., & Horn, T.* (2017). Effect of hypoeutectic boron additions on the grain size and mechanical properties of Ti-6Al-4V manufactured with powder bed electron beam additive manufacturing. Jom, 69(3), 472-478. *As Corresponding Author.
• Frigola, P., Harrysson, O., Horn, T.*, West, H., Aman, R., & Rigsbee, J. (2014). Fabricating copper components with electron beam melting. Advanced Materials and Processes, 172(7), 20-24. *As Corresponding Author.
• Horn, T. J., Harrysson*, O. L., Marcellin-Little, D. J., West, H. A., Lascelles, B. D. X., & Aman, R. (2014). Flexural properties of Ti6Al4V rhombic dodecahedron open cellular structures fabricated with electron beam melting. Additive Manufacturing, 1, 2-11.*As Corresponding Author.

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2008), University of Maryland, College Park

Research Interests: Solid-liquid interactions; bio-inspired surfaces; super-repellent surfaces; stimuli-responsive surfaces; anti-thrombotic surfaces; droplet fluid mechanics.

Kota received his B.S. in chemical engineering from Andhra University in India. He received his M.S. in chemical engineering from Clarkson University and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park. He was a postdoctoral researcher in materials science and engineering at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the NC State faculty, Kota was an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Colorado State University.

His core expertise lies in the area of surface and interfacial science, particularly in tailoring the chemical composition and structure of functional materials at the molecular, nano- and micro- length scales to achieve the desired surface and interfacial properties. Leveraging this expertise, his research group conducts both fundamental and applied research in the areas of super-repellent surfaces, stimuli- responsive surfaces, anti-thrombotic surfaces and droplet fluid mechanics. His research is highly interdisciplinary, and it addresses some of the key issues in the areas of membrane separations, phase change heat transfer, icephobicity, soft robotics and hemocompatibility.

• H. Vahabi, W. Wang, J.M. Mabry, A.K. Kota, “Coalescence-induced jumping of droplets on superomniphobic surfaces with macrotexture,” Science Advances, 4: eaau3488, p. 1 (2018).
• W. Wang, J. Salazar, H. Vahabi, A. Joshi-Imre, W.E. Voit, A.K. Kota, “Metamorphic superomniphobic surfaces,” Advanced Materials, 27, p. 1700295 (2017).
• S. Movafaghi, V. Leszczak, W. Wang, J.A. Sorkin, L.P. Dasi, K.C. Popat, A.K. Kota, “Hemocompatibility of superhemophobic titania surfaces,” Advanced Healthcare Materials, 6, p. 1600717 (2017).
• D. Beemer, W. Wang, A.K. Kota, “Durable gels with ultra-low adhesion to ice,” 4, p. 18253, Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 4, p. 18253 (2016).
• S. Movafaghi, W. Wang, A. Metzger, D.D. Williams, J.D. Williams, A.K. Kota, “Tunable superomniphobic surfaces for sorting droplets by surface tension,” Lab on a Chip, 16, p. 3204 (2016).

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2010), Columbia University

Research Interests: Mechanics of materials and structures; mechanical metamaterial; soft robotics; mechanical instability; multifunctional materials.

Yin received his B.S. in marine engineering from Wuhan University of Technology. He received his M.S. in solid mechanics from Tsinghua University and a Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from Columbia University. He was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. Prior to joining the NC State faculty, he was an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Temple University. Yin is the recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and Extreme Mechanics Letter Young Investigator Award.

Presently, he studies mechanics and design of reconfigurable mechanical metamaterials for achieving unprecedented mechanical properties. Yin also studies the mechanics guided design of high-performance soft robotics in both manipulation and locomotion for achieving high force, high speed and high strength. Another topic he researches is the mechanics and multifunctionality of active interfacial materials through controllable surface instability in wetting, optics and adhesion. All of these topics are investigated through combining theoretical modeling, numerical simulation and experimental techniques.

• Q. Zhang and J. Yin, “Spontaneous buckling-driven periodic delamination of thin films on soft substrates under large compression”, J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 118, 40-57 (2018).
• Y. Tang, Q. Zhang, G. Lin, and J. Yin, “Switchable adhesion actuator for amphibious climbing soft robot,” Soft Robotics, 5(5), 592-600 (2018).
• G. Lin, Q. Zhang, D. Dikin, and J. Yin, “Constrained droplet base in condensed water on carbon nanoparticle coating for delayed freezing,” Extreme Mechanics Letters, 24, 38-46 (2018).
• G. Lin, P. Chandrasekaran, C. Lv, Q. Zhang, Y. Tang, L. Han, and J. Yin, “Self-similar hierarchical wrinkles as a potential multifunctional smart window with simultaneously tunable transparency, structural color, and droplet transport,” ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 9(31), 26510-26517 (2017).
• Y. Tang, G. Lin, L. Han, S. Qiu, S. Yang, and J. Yin, “Design of hierarchically cut hinges for highly stretchable and reconfigurable metamaterials with enhanced strength,” Adv. Mater. 27, 7181-7190 (2015).

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2014), University of California, Los Angeles

Research Interests: Developing ultrafast spectroscopic tools to measure the dynamic properties of plasmas, triboelectrification, nuclear materials, and molten salts for next-generation nuclear reactors.

Bataller received his B.S. in engineering-physics from the University of Arizona in 2007, followed by his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2014. Following his graduate studies, Bataller was the laboratory director of the Putterman research group at UCLA from 2014-15. Prior to his joining the NC State faculty, Bataller was a postdoctoral fellow at NC State in the Department of Physics from 2015-17 and a research assistant professor from 2017-19.

Bataller’s research is focused on utilizing ultrafast nonlinear spectroscopy for materials characterization with a particular emphasis on dense plasma. His current research interest is to develop ultrafast spectroscopic tools to measure the dynamic properties of plasmas, triboelectrification, nuclear materials, and molten salts for next-generation nuclear reactors. He was an award recipient of the Julian Schwinger Foundation in 2019 for the proposal “Investigating Contact Electrification via Operando Ultrafast Non-Resonant Spectroscopy” and was selected as a DARPA Rising emerging leader in science and technology in 2015.

• Bataller, A., Younts, R., Rustagi, A., Yu, Ardekani, H., Y., Cao, L., Kemper, A., Gundogdu, K. “Dense Electron-Hole Plasma Formation and UltraLong Charge Lifetime in Monolayer MoS2 via Material Tuning.” Nano Letters, (2019).
• Bataller, A., Putterman, S., Pree, S., and Koulakis, J. “Observation of Shell Structure, Electronic Screening, and Energetic Limiting in Sparks.”  Physical Review Letters, 117, 085001 (2016).
• Bataller, A., Koulakis, J., Pree, S. and Putterman S. “Nanosecond High-Power Dense Microplasma Switch for Visible Light.”  Applied Physics Letters, 105, 223501 (2014).
• Bataller, A., Plateau, G. R., Kappus, B., and Putterman, S.  “Blackbody Emission from Laser Breakdown in High-Pressure Gases.”  Physical Review Letters, 113(7), 075001 (2014).
• Bataller, A., Kappus, B., Camara, C., and Putterman, S.  “Collision Time Measurements in a Sonoluminescence Plasma with a Large Plasma Parameter.”  Physical Review Letters, 113(2), 024301 (2014).

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

Research Interests: Atomistic simulations, including molecular dynamics and density functional theory, interatomic potential development, multiscale modeling, and applied microscale modeling of nuclear materials.

Beeler received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in nuclear and radiological engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He was a post-doctoral researcher jointly at the University of California, Davis and the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining the NC State faculty, he was a computational scientist in the Computational Microstructure Science group in the Fuels Modeling and Simulation Department at Idaho National Laboratory. He is the current lead of the Microstructure Fuel Performance Modeling working group for the United States High Performance Research Reactor program.

His professional interests are atomistic description and evolution of nuclear fuel and structural materials. He has extensive experience on interatomic potential development, particularly related to uranium and uranium-alloys. He has studied a number of phenomena in nuclear materials including radiation damage, effects of strain on point defects, diffusion, free surface and grain boundary properties, fission gas bubbles, thermal transport and optical properties. His research has primarily utilized density functional theory, molecular dynamics and phase-field methods.

• B. Beeler, S. Rashkeev, C. Deo, M. Baskes and M. Okuniewksi, “First principles calculations of the structure and elastic constants of a, B and y uranium,” J. Nucl. Mater. 433 (2013) 143.
• B. Beeler, M. Asta, P. Hosemann and N. Grønbech-Jensen, “Effects of applied strain on radiation damage generation in body-centered cubic iron,” J. Nucl. Mater. 459 (2015) 159.
• B. Beeler, M. Baskes, D. Andersson, M.W.D. Cooper, Y. Zhang, “A modified Embedded-Atom Method interatomic potential for uranium-silicide,” J. Nucl. Mater. 495 (2017) 267.
• B. Beeler, Y. Zhang, M. Okuniewski, D. Deo, “Calculation of the displacement energy of alpha and gamma uranium,” J. Nucl. Mater. 508 (2018) 181.
• B. Beeler, Y. Zhang, Y. Gao, “An atomistic study of grain boundaries and surfaces in gamma U-Mo,” J. Nucl. Mater. 507 (2018) 248.

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2017), University of California, Los Angeles

Research Interests: Theories, applications and simulation-based techniques in risk sciences such as traditional and dynamic probabilistic risk assessment, reliability analysis, resilient systems design, probabilistic physics of failure modeling and Bayesian inference.

Diaconeasa obtained his B.S. degree from University College Utrecht, the international undergraduate honors college of Utrecht University, the Netherlands; his M.S. in nuclear science and engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Post graduation, he held the postdoctoral research scholar position at the B. John Garrick Institute for the Risk Sciences from the School of Engineering at UCLA.

Currently, he leads the development of ADS-IDAC, a dynamic probabilistic risk assessment methodology and software platform for nuclear power plants; the Hybrid Causal Logic Analyzer system risk and reliability software used to enhance the design process and assess the commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) parts usage in space systems for extended deep space missions at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL); and the Phoenix human reliability analysis methodology and software for Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (JNRA).

• Diaconeasa, M.A. and Mosleh, A. The ADS-IDAC Dynamic PSA Platform with Dynamically Linked System Fault Trees. American Nuclear Society Probabilistic Safety Assessment, Pittsburgh, USA. 2017.
• Diaconeasa, M.A. and A. Mosleh. HYPRA: A hybrid static and dynamic PRA software platform. Proceedings of the European Society for Reliability Annual Meeting (ESREL), Trondheim, Norway. 2018.
• Diaconeasa, M.A. and A. Mosleh. Performing an accident sequence precursor analysis with the ADS-IDAC dynamic PSA software platform. Proceedings of the International Conference on Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management (PSAM 14), Los Angeles, USA. 2018.
• Diaconeasa, M.A. and A. Mosleh. Discrete dynamic event tree uncertainty quantification in the ADS-IDAC dynamic PSA software platform. Proceedings of the International Conference on Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management (PSAM 14), Los Angeles, USA. 2018.

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2013), Pennsylvania State University

Research Interests: Multi-physics reactor simulation, advanced reactor and system design, core loading and fuel cycle optimization, sensitivity and uncertainty (S/U) analysis in modeling of various reactor systems, high-fidelity reactor core simulator, hybrid Monte Carlo (MC) and deterministic method, and homogenization-free time-dependent neutron transport benchmark.

Hou received his B.S. degree in Engineering Physics from Tsinghua University, China. He holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Nuclear Engineering from University of Michigan and Pennsylvania State University, respectively. Prior to joining the NC State faculty, he was a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at University of California, Berkeley. He held a position of Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering at NC State University.

Hou is an advocate of nuclear energy and the mission of his research is to promote nuclear energy by investigating advanced reactor designs and developing efficient and effective reactor modeling and simulation methods. In particular, he develops accurate yet efficient numerical models to improve the reactor design in various aspects, including the economics, safety, proliferation resistance and sustainability. Presently he also performs studies on the uncertainty and sensitivity analysis in the nuclear system modeling.

• Zeng, K., Hou, J., Ivanov, K., & Jessee, M. A. 2019, “Uncertainty Quantification and Propagation of Multiphysics Simulation of the Pressurized Water Reactor Core.” Nuclear Technology 1-20.
• Hou, J, Ivanov, K. N., Boyarinov, V. F., & Fomichenko, P. A. 2017, “OECD/NEA benchmark for time-dependent neutron transport calculations without spatial homogenization.” Nuclear Engineering and Design 317, 177-189.
• Hou, J., Qvist, S., Kellogg, R., & Greenspan, E. 2016, “3D in-core fuel management optimization for breed-and-burn reactors.” Progress in Nuclear Energy 88, 58-74.
• Hou, J., Choi, H., & Ivanov, K. N. 2015, “Development of an iterative diffusion-transport method based on MICROX-2 cross section libraries.” Annals of Nuclear Energy 77, 335-342.
• Hou, J., Choi, H., & Ivanov, K. 2014, “Assessment of MICROX-2 Code with New ENDF/B-VII Release 0 Master Libraries.” Nuclear Technology 186(3), 305-316.

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2017), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research Interests: Calibration, validation, data assimilation, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis; computational statistics, reduced order modeling, Bayesian inference and model inversion; physics-informed machine learning, deep learning; system thermal-hydraulics, nuclear fuel performance modeling, multi-physics coupled simulation.

Wu received his B.S. degree in nuclear engineering from the Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China in 2011. He obtained his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in nuclear engineering in 2013 and 2017 respectively, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining NC State, he was a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Wu’s research has revolved around uncertainty/sensitivity analysis, calibration, validation and reduced order modeling. The goal is to build a comprehensive framework that combines data analytics, experimentation and modeling and simulation (M&S) into a unified approach to improve the predictive capabilities of computer models and enable reduced reliance on expensive measurement data. This framework accounts for all major sources of quantifiable uncertainties in M&S. The application of such research will be focused on risk and economics evaluations of advanced nuclear reactors, such as Accident Tolerant Plants, Small Modular Reactors and Gen-IV reactors.

• Wu, X., Shirvan, K., & Kozlowski, T. (2019). Demonstration of the Relationship between Sensitivity and Identifiability for Inverse Uncertainty Quantification. Journal of Computational Physics, 396, 12-30.
• Wu, X., Kozlowski, T., Meidani, H., & Shirvan, K. (2018). Inverse uncertainty quantification using the modular Bayesian approach based on Gaussian Process, Part 2: Application to TRACE. Nuclear Engineering and Design, 335, 417-431.
• Wu, X., Kozlowski, T., Meidani, H., & Shirvan, K. (2018). Inverse uncertainty quantification using the modular Bayesian approach based on Gaussian process, Part 1: Theory. Nuclear Engineering and Design, 335, 339-355.
• Wu, X., Kozlowski, T., & Meidani, H. (2018). Kriging-based inverse uncertainty quantification of nuclear fuel performance code BISON fission gas release model using time series measurement data. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 169, 422-436.

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2017), North Carolina State University

Research Interests: Rational polymer design and synthesis; nanotechnology and nanomedicine; bio-sensors development and applications; smart biomedical textiles.

Budhathoki-Uprety received her B.S. degree in chemistry and biology and M.S. degree in organic chemistry from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. She also received her M.S in chemistry from Western Carolina University and a Ph.D. in chemistry from NC State University. She was a postdoctoral research fellow in the pharmacology program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Her current research focuses on polymer chemistry and engineering functional nanomaterials.

Polymers and nanomaterials offer a wide range of capabilities in modern technologies in everyday life such as in healthcare, safety and comfort. Research in the Budhathoki-Uprety lab encompasses at the interface between chemistry, biology and material science utilizing the principles of organic and polymer synthesis, chemical biology and nanotechnology. Her research team focuses on developing novel polymers, macromolecules and nanomaterials, and their applications in the biomedical field and environment, with a collaborative approach.

• Budhathoki-Uprety, J. et al.; “Synthetic Molecular Recognition Nanosensor Paint for Microalbuminuria”, Nature Communications. 2019, accepted.
• Budhathoki-Uprety, J.; Langenbacher, R. E.; Jena, P. V.; Roxbury, D.; Heller, D.A.; “A Carbon Nanotube Optical Sensor Reports Nuclear Entry via a Noncanonical Pathway”, ACS. Nano. 2017, 11, 3875–3882.
• Budhathoki-Uprety, J.; Harvey, J.D.; Isaac, E.; Williams, R.M.; Galassi, T.V.; Langenbacher, R. E.; Jena, P. V.; Heller, D.A.; “Polymer Cloaking Modulates the Carbon Nanotube Protein Corona and Delivery into Cancer Cells”, J. Mater. Chem. B., 2017, 5, 6637–6644.
• Budhathoki-Uprety, J.; Jena, P. V.; Roxbury, D.; Heller, D.A.; “Helical Polycarbodiimide Cloaking of Carbon Nanotubes Enables Inter-Nanotube Exciton Energy Transfer Modulation”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2014, 136, 15545–15550.
• Budhathoki-Uprety, J.; Novak, B. M.; “Synthesis of Alkyne-Functionalized Helical Polycarbodiimides and their Ligation to Small Molecules using ‘Click’ and Sonogashira Reactions”, Macromolecules, 2011, 44, 5947–5954.

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2017), North Carolina State University

Research Interests: Textile electronics, electroactive polymers and devices; textile protection and comfort; textile manufacturing technologies; fiber and polymer science; textile product development, design and analysis of textile structural composites.

Fang received both her B.S. degree in textile science and engineering and M.S. degree in textile material science and product development from Donghua University. She completed her Ph.D. in fiber and polymer science at NC State University in 2017. Post graduation, she stayed in the Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science as a lecturer. Prior to joining the faculty, she was a postdoctoral researcher in the Textile Protection and Comfort Center at NC State.

As a textile technologist, Fang is fascinated by the art and precision of assembling tiny little fibers into the variety of products that we use every day and everywhere. Her research focuses on the development of advanced flexible/fiber-based electronics. Additionally, she also investigated textile protection and comfort, novel textile air-filters and textile reinforced composites. Her overarching research interest is the application of fibers and textiles to solve many life quality issues, including health and well-being.

• X. Fang, A. Li, O. Yildiz, H. Shao, P.D. Bradford, T.K. Ghosh, Enhanced anisotropic response of dielectric elastomer actuators with microcombed and etched carbon nanotube sheet electrodes, Carbon. 120 (2017) 366–373.
• X. Fang, K. Chatterjee, A. Kapoor, T. Ghosh, Fibers as Sensors and Actuators, in: Handbook of Fibrous Materials, Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH, 2019.
• E. Cakmak, X. Fang, O. Yildiz, P.D. Bradford, T.K. Ghosh, Carbon nanotube sheet electrodes for anisotropic actuation of dielectric elastomers, Carbon. 89 (2015) 113–120.
• Y. Caydamli, E. Yildirim, J. Shen, X. Fang, M.A. Pasquinelli, R.J. Spontak, A.E. Tonelli, Nanoscale considerations responsible for diverse macroscopic phase behavior in monosubstituted isobutyl-POSS/poly(ethylene oxide) blends, Soft Matter. 13 (2017) 8672–8677.
• Q. Zhang, X. Fang, X. Sun, B. Sun, Y. Qiu, Comparison of the Mechanical Properties between 2D and 3D Orthogonal Woven Ramie Fiber Reinforced Polypropylene Composites, Polymers and Polymer Composites. 22 (2014) 187–192.

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

Research Interests: Cardiac tissue engineering; stem cell biology; corneal tissue engineering; biomaterials; scaffold fabrication.

Gluck received her B.S. in textile technology in 2005 and M.S. in biomedical textiles in 2007 from NC State University. She received her M.S. in biomedical engineering in 2008 and Ph.D. in molecular, cellular and integrative physiology in 2013 from UCLA. She was a postdoctoral fellow for three years at the University of California, Davis in the Cardiovascular Medicine division of the Internal Medicine Department working on developing a biopacemaker using biomaterials and stem cells. Following her postdoctoral work, she worked on a short-term grant-funded contract position with Discovery Place Science, a science center in Charlotte, NC, to develop content and curriculum for their new human health-focused exhibit and teaching classroom. Prior to joining the NC State faculty, she was a research scientist at Precise Bio, a tissue engineering start up focusing on 3D bioprinting corneal tissue in Winston Salem, NC.

Currently, her research focuses on how the microenvironment influences cellular differentiation and function. She is continuing her research into cardiac tissue engineering using electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds and human induced pluripotent stem cells. She is also investigating tissue engineering strategies to combat limbal stem cell deficiency to treat vision loss.

• Gluck JM, Herren AW, Yechikov S, Kao HKJ, Khan A, Phinney BS, Chiamvimonvat N, Chan J, Lieu DK. Biochemical and biomechanical properties of the pacemaking sinoatrial node extracellular matrix are distinct from contractile left ventricle matrix. PLoS ONE, 2017; 12(9).
• Yechikov S, Copaciu R, Gluck JM, Deng W, Chiamvimonvat N, Chan JW, Lieu DK. Same-single-cell analysis of pacemaker-specific markers in human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte subtypes classified by electrophysiology. Stem Cells, 2016; 11(11): 2670-2680.
• Gluck JM, Delman C, Chyu J, MacLellan WR, Shemin RJ, Heydarkhan-Hagvall S. Microenvironment influences vascular differentiation of murine cardiovascular progenitor cells. Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, Part B, 2014; 102B: 1730-1739.
• Gluck JM, Chyu J, Delman C, Heydarkhan-Hagvall S, MacLellan WR, Shemin RJ. Hyaluronan-based three-dimensional microenvironment potently induces cardiovascular progenitor cell populations. ISRN Tissue Engineering, 2013.

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2018), Rutgers University

Research Interests: System reliability engineering; software and network reliability and security; applied operations research; prognostics and health management of complex engineering systems; computational data analytics; statistical inference.

Zhu received her B.S. in industrial engineering from Nanjing University of Technology, China. She received her M.S. in industrial and systems engineering and statistics and her Ph.D. in industrial and systems engineering, both from Rutgers University. She also has more than six years of experience in the industries of manufacturing, warehousing and distribution centers.

Zhu received the Best Paper Award at the 24th International Society of Science and Applied Technologies (ISSAT) International Conference on Reliability and Quality in Design in 2018, as well as the Best Student Paper Award at the 23rd ISSAT International Conference on Reliability and Quality in Design the year prior. She is also the recipient of the 2017 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-Financed Students Abroad.

• Zhu, M., & Pham, H. (2018). A software reliability model incorporating martingale process with gamma-distributed environmental factors. Annals of Operations Research.
• Zhu, M., & Pham, H. (2018). A two-phase software reliability modeling involving with software fault dependency and imperfect fault removal. Computer Languages, Systems & Structures, 53, 27-42.
• Zhu, M., & Pham, H. (2017). A multi-release software reliability modeling for open source software incorporating dependent fault detection process. Annals of Operations Research, 269(1-2), 773-790.
• Zhu, M., & Pham, H. (2017). Environmental factors analysis and comparison affecting software reliability in development of multi-release software. Journal of Systems and Software, 132, 72-84.
• Zhu, M., Zhang, X., & Pham, H. (2015). A comparison analysis of environmental factors affecting software reliability. Journal of Systems and Software, 109, 150-160.