By Stephen Greenwell
The Cullen College of Engineering is happy to announce the hiring and promotion of 31 faculty members for the upcoming academic year.
Biomedical Engineering

Yuncheng Du, associate professor, starting Sept. 2023. Du earned his doctorate from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, in 2016. The same year, he was hired as an assistant professor at Clarkson University in New York. He earned an NSF CAREER Award in 2022.

Lu Wang, assistant professor, starting Sept. 2023. Wang earned her doctorate degrees in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto in 2023 and Computer Science from Wayne State University in 2019, respectively.
Civil & Environmental Engineering

Mahdi Safa, instructional assistant professor, starting Jan. 2023. Safa was promoted from his role as senior lecturer, which he has held since 2021. He earned his doctorate in 2013 from the University of Waterloo in Ontario.

Krishna Rishi Vijay Saladi, lecturer, starting June 2023. Saladi earned his doctorate in Environmental Engineering from UH in 2018, followed by a M.S. in Statistics and Data Science in 2022.

Yuntian Wu, senior lecturer, starting Sept. 2023. Wu earned his doctorate in Civil Engineering from the University of Southern California in 2008.

Siavash Zamiran, senior lecturer, starting July 2023. Zamiran earned his doctorate in Civil Engineering-Geotechnical from Southern Illinois in 2017. For the past four years, he has worked as an adjunct professor at Missouri University.
William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

Omar A. Abdelrahman, associate professor, starting Jan. 2024. Abdelrahman earned his doctorate from Syracuse University in 2016. He has been an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts since 2018. He earned an NSF CAREER award in 2021.
Construction Management

Dwight Beadle, professor of practice, starting Sept. 2023. Beadle has been an adjunct professor at the University of Houston for 6 years and earned his M.S. in Construction Management from UH in 2018.

Eva Lyon, professor of practice, starting Sept. 2023. Lyon has been a lecturer and adjunct professor at the University of Houston for 13 years, and earned her M.S. in Construction Management from UH in 2012.
Electrical & Computer Engineering

Pieremanuele Canepa, assistant professor, starting Sept. 2023. Canepa earned his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Kent in the United Kingdom. Since 2018, he has been an assistant professor at the National University of Singapore.

Chu Meh Chu, senior lecturer, starting Sept. 2023. Chu earned his doctorate from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2015. Chu is a machine learning expert with research, teaching and work experience in data visualization using data compression tools.

Sebastian Csutak, lecturer, starting June 2023. Csutak earned his doctorate in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Deepa Ramachandran, instructional assistant professor, starting Sept. 2023. Ramachandran was promoted from her role as senior lecturer for the computer engineering and analytics program at UH at Katy, which she was hired for in July 2021.

Jianfeng Zheng, assistant professor, starting Sept. 2023. Zheng has been working at UH since 2012, first as a postdoctoral fellow and then as a research assistant professor. Along with Ji Chen, he has landed four grants for their work on electrical devices.
Engineering Technology

Samia Afrin, instructional assistant professor, starting Sept. 2023. Afrin earned her doctorate in Environmental Science and Engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso in 2015.

Adnan Al-Ibadi, professor of practice, starting July 2023. Al-Ibadi earned his doctorate in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 2014. The past four years, he has been employed as a lecturer and labs coordinator at the University of Central Oklahoma.

Eman Ibrahim, professor of practice, starting April 2023. Ibrahim earned her doctorate in Microbiology from Al-Azhar University in Egypt, in association with Texas A&M, in 2017.

Gowtham Mohan, assistant professor, starting Sept. 2023. Mohan earned his doctorate from the Australian National University in 2018. Since 2019, he has been an assistant professor at the University of New Mexico.
Human Development and Consumer Sciences

Ebony Robinson, assistant professor, starting Sept. 2023. Robinson earned her doctorate in Consumer and Design Sciences from Auburn University this year, where she also served as a teaching assistant and lecturer for three years.
Industrial Engineering

Matthew Hu, lecturer, starting Sept. 2023. Hu earned his doctorate in Industrial Engineering from Wayne State University in Michigan. He has more than 20 years experience as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston, Wayne State University, Walsh College and Tianjin University in China.

Neil Diaz Martinez, lecturer, starting Sept. 2023. Diaz earned his doctorate in Industrial Engineering this year from Texas A&M, where he has also served as an instructor for the past two years.

Nathanial Wiggins, instructional assistant professor, starting Feb. 2023. Wiggins was promoted from his role as senior lecturer, which he was hired for in Aug. 2021.

Na Zou, assistant professor, starting Jan. 2024. Zou earned her doctorate from Arizona State University in 2015. She has earned an NSF CAREER award, and more than $840,000 in external funding.
Information Science Technology

Maria Burns, assistant professor, starting Sept. 2023. Burns has been with the university since 2014, serving as a program coordinator, faculty member and researcher at the Technology Leadership and Innovation Management program.

Yueqin Huang, assistant professor, starting Sept. 2023. Huang has been with the university since 2019, as a research assistant professor. She has also served as the founder and chief scientist for Cyentech Consulting, LLC., since 2017.

Seo Yoon Lee, assistant professor, starting Sept. 2023. Lee earned her doctorate from the University of Illinois this year.

Jovita Nsoh, assistant professor, starting Sept. 2023. Nsoh earned his doctorate from Colorado Technical University in 2021. For the past year, he has served as a professor of practice at the University of Houston.
Mechanical Engineering

Kelly Huang, assistant professor, starting Jan. 2024. Huang earned her doctorate from Princeton University in 2021. For the past two years, she has been employed as a postdoctoral researcher at Notre Dame.

MyoungKyu Lee, assistant professor, starting Sept. 2023. Lee earned his doctorate from the University of Texas in 2015. He was previously an assistant professor at the University of Alabama, and a postdoctoral researcher at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Texas.

Rasiah Raja Loganantharaj, lecturer, starting Sept. 2023. Loganantharaj earned his doctorate from Colorado State University. For the past three years, he has served as chief technology officer for RasBro Technology, LLC.

Lucy Nwosu, lecturer, starting Sept. 2023. Nwosu earned her doctorate in 2023 from Prairie View A&M University. Since 2019, she has been a data engineer for both the Department of Homeland Security and the Center for Computational Systems Biology at Prairie View A&M.