Dr. Mark W. Spong
The Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science recently recognized faculty and staff for their contributions and achievements that improve the student experience and create a healthy work environment for other employees.
“Our annual appreciation and excellence awards banquet is a fun way to say thank you to those who go the extra mile,” said Dr. Mark W. Spong, dean of the Jonsson School and holder of the Lars Magnus Ericsson Chair in Electrical Engineering and the Excellence in Education Chair. “I am proud of not only the individuals recognized at the banquet, but all of the Jonsson School employees who are a catalyst in pushing UT Dallas to Tier One status.”
The awards are categorized by staff, students and faculty teaching and research. The research awards recognized faculty at the assistant, associate and full professor levels.
“We received 16 research award nominations, including eight for assistant professor, five for associate and three for full. In some cases, we received multiple nominations for the same candidates,” Spong said. “This year, the review process for the assistant professor category was so close that we called it a tie.”
The Assistant Professor Research Awards went to Dr. Majid Minary of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Dr. Robert Gregg of the departments of bioengineering and mechanical engineering.
Minary joined the Jonsson School in the fall of 2012 and has proved to be a productive scholar. His research interests include nanobiomechanics, bioinspired nanomaterials, nanomechanics of living cells and biological systems, nanomanufacturing and microfabrication. He has received two highly competitive Young Investigator Awards and two National Science Foundation (NSF) grants, among others. He has published 30 journal papers, 11 of which were published since he joined UTD.
Gregg joined UT Dallas in 2013, and has established a productive research program focused on developing high-performance wearable control systems to restore mobility after amputation or stroke. He has published six journal papers and 10 conference papers since 2013. He has been awarded nearly $3 million in extramural research funds, including the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and the Burroughs Welcome Fund’s Career Award at the Scientific Interface.
Dr. Carlos Busso, associate professor of electrical engineering, received the Associate Professor Research Award.
Busso’s research focuses on digital signal processing, speech and video processing, and multimodal interfaces; audiovisual emotion recognition, analysis of emotional modulation in gestures and speech; and designing realistic humanlike virtual characters. He directs the Multimodal Signal Processing Lab, whose work has implications in many practical domains, including national security, health care, entertainment, transportation systems and education. He has produced 90 publications, including 27 journal papers, 53 conference papers and six book chapters. He received an NSF CAREER Award in 2015.
Busso joined the University as an assistant professor in 2009 and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2015. He has supervised two PhDs and one master’s thesis, and currently mentors nine students.
The Full Professor Research Award went to Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham, professor of computer science.
Thuraisingham is executive director of the Cyber Security Research and Education Institute and holds the Louis Beecherl Jr. Distinguished Professor Chair. She has made extensive research contributions in cybersecurity. Her research has focused on data and applications security, digital forensics, data mining for malware detection and secure cloud computing. She has more than 300 journal and conference papers, six patents, and has received funding from such agencies as NSF and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, as well as through industry.
She received the 1997 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society Technical Achievement award, a 2010 IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society Leadership Award, and she won the 2011 Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association Medal. She also received the 2013 IBM Faculty Award in Cyber Security.
Annual ECS Awards
Full Professor Research Award
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Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham professor of computer science |
Associate Professor Research Award
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Dr. Carlos Busso assistant professor of electrical engineering |
Assistant Professor Research Awards
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Dr. Majid Minary assistant professor of mechanical engineering |
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Dr. Robert Gregg assistant professor of bioengineering and mechanical engineering |
Outstanding Faculty Teaching Awards
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Dr. Ryan McMahan assistant professor of computer science |
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Dr. Vibhav Gogate assistant professor of computer science |
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Dr. James Florence senior lecturer of electrical engineering |
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Dr. Stephan Thamban senior lecturer of mechanical engineering |
Outstanding Teaching Assistant Teaching Awards
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Chandra Varma Ponnurangam mechanical engineering |
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Partha De computer science |
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Shreyas Gokhale computer science |
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Anshuman Ganguly electrical engineering |
Outstanding A&P Staff Awards
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Dr. Jean-Francois Veyan research scientist, material science and engineering |
Staff Awards
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Emebet Sahle administrative assistant, computer science |
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Emily Lenart-Donaldson degree plan evaluator in the Jonsson School |
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Jennifer Klunk administrative assistant, mechanical engineering |
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Julieta Terry administrative services officer, material science and engineering |