NSF CAREER AWARDS ARE GRANTED TO HIGHLY PROMISING JUNIOR FACULTY MEMBERS WHO EXEMPLIFY THE ROLE OF TEACHER-SCHOLARS THROUGH “outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research.”
Stereochemical Biomimicry for Sustainability Research
By Stephen Greenwell
Konrad Krakowiak, assistant professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Houston's Cullen College of Engineering, is quick to defer when he's offered praise for his research. For him, any success he might have is due to the students he has working with him, and the foundation of the critical thought process he got from his academic mentors.
His latest “great achievement,” as he calls it, is earning a National Science Foundation CAREER award for his proposal, “Stereochemical Biomimicry for Sustainability.” The $698,187 in funding is the second significant NSF grant for Krakowiak, after earning $203,151 for similar research in 2018.
“I achieved this goal because of the hard work of my students,” he said. “If I didn't work with my students and if my students didn't do this quality of work, I would be missing certain pieces of the puzzle. It's so rewarding, not only for my hard work, but most importantly for my students for the work that they did. This achievement wouldn't be possible without the support and hard work and intellect of my students.”
The main focus of Krakowiak's research group is implementing practical modifications for construction materials by examining and improving them on the molecular scale. Globally, estimates on the amount of concrete used each year vary from 4 billion tons on the low end, to as high as 30 billion tons.
Enhancing the State of Health and Performance of Electronics
By Rashda Khan
Harish Krishnamoorthy, assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering, received a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation earlier this year.
The CAREER awards will provide Krishnamoorthy $500,015 to continue his research on high-density power conversion for grid interface of energy systems, machine learning-based methods for improving the quality and reliability of power electronics, advanced electronics and control for mission-critical applications.
One of the critical challenges facing existing converter installations is the difficulty in assessing their health, predicting system behavior, and adapting their performance in real-time without disrupting operations. To address this, Krishnamoorthy and his research team will be working on what is referred to as 'Edge Intelligence,' a seamless integration of data-driven prognostic health management with power converters onboard.
The need for additional computing resources has also been a significant barrier, making it seemingly impractical in applications with a large number of power converters, such as data centers and solar PV farms.
However, the introduction of the SHaPE-MaP framework will enable edge intelligence, revolutionizing power converter hardware and control systems.
“The SHaPE-MaP framework holds vast implications for large-scale converter applications, potentially saving hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars,” Krishnamoorthy said. “System operators will benefit from improved decision-making regarding maintenance or repairs, while the supply chain team will gain better logistics estimation and inventory management.”
Centering the Engineering Identity of Black Men to Enhance Representation and Degree Completion
By Stephen Greenwell
Jerrod Henderson, an assistant professor in the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, is the Cullen College of Engineering's latest recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award.
Henderson seeks to strengthen the future of the U.S. engineering workforce by enabling and encouraging the participation of all citizens in the engineering enterprise, particularly Black men. According to the American Society for Engineering Education Engineering & Engineering Technology by the Numbers 2020 Report, Black men represented only 2.8 percent of those who earned engineering bachelor's degrees.
“I'm happy to share that I've been awarded the NSF CAREER Award,” Henderson said. “Thank you to all Henderson Research Group members past and present, my collaborators and my mentors for all of your support. I'm especially grateful to my undergraduate research student Jared Davis and postdoc Le Shorn Benjamin, who helped collect and analyze the preliminary data for this project.
The research is funded for $563,407 through 2028. Henderson joined UH in 2016 as an instructional associate professor, and became the director of PROMES in 2017, a position he held until 2022. Henderson is also the co-founder of the St. Elmo Brady Academy. He was hired as a tenure-track assistant professor in 2021.
NSF CAREER AWARDS
Jiming Bao ( ECE)
Jacinta Conrad (ChBE)
Jeffrey Rimer (ChBE)
Debora Rodrigues (CEE)
Lars Grabow (ChBE)
Wei-Chuan Shih (ECE)
Gila Stein (ChBE)
Haleh Ardebili (ME)
Stanko Brankovic (ECE)
Bora Gencturk (CEE)
Cunjiang Yu (ME)
Aaron Becker (ECE)
Zheng Chen (ME)
Jeremy Palmer (ChBE)
Sheereen Majd (BME)
Rose Faghih (ECE)
Mehmet Orman (ChBE)
Kyung Jae Lee (PE)
Shailendra Joshi (ME)
Devin Shaffer (CEE)
Jinsook Roh (BME)
Harish Krishnamoorthy (ECE)
Konrad Krakowiak (CEE)
Jerrod Henderson (ChBE)