How nationally recognized UAlbany junior researchers are helping us to better understand ourselves, the world, and to making it more accessible
UAlbany’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) is one of the youngest and most vibrant engineering and computer science schools in the United States.
As part of a comprehensive, engaged, public R1 research university, the College was established in July 2015 by building upon legacy programs in computer science. In five short years, CEAS has launched six new engineering programs, with two more currently undergoing the New York State approval process.
The College’s programmatic development has occurred simultaneously with robust growth in research, with expenditures rising nearly 300% between 2018 to 2019 and dramatically increasing every year since its inception.
Leading the way is a group of brilliant junior faculty who have been recognized with prestigious, highly competitive national awards. For the third year in a row, one of our faculty members received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award, while another faculty member was honored with a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Early Career Faculty Award, amassing more than $2 million in funding between them.
Aksoy’s research could potentially advance NASA’s next era of exploration – the Artemis program – which is charged with advancing technologies, developing new systems, and testing capabilities that will be critical for crewed missions to Mars.
Aksoy is an assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Microwave Remote Sensing Lab. Read more.
These three projects highlight how UAlbany junior researchers are leading the way to a better understanding of our world through space technologies, ourselves through advancements in cyber-physical-human systems, and making it all accessible through innovative ways that improve next generation wireless technologies.
Each project also includes strong components for fostering actively engaged student research and learning opportunities as well as real-world service to the public, which is consistent with the CEAS mission of providing “Science in Service to Society.”
Zheleva’s students visit the field with her and assist her in the development and testing of apps. She also delivers lectures at local public libraries for middle school students and their families and hosts an annual summer school in which she introduces undergraduates to various mobile technologies and trains them to build and measure networks. Zois plans to provide opportunities for underrepresented K-12 students in the City of Albany to explore STEM fields from the lens of CPHS by taking part in project-based school visits and hands-on workshops. She is also introducing CPHS concepts and activities into existing UAlbany courses. Aksoy’s students are building a CubeSat that will eventually be launched into space, thanks to the generosity of a UAlbany alumnus.
Previous NSF CAREER Award recipients from UAlbany include Won Namgoong (2002), professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Siwei Lyu (2010), professor of Computer Science; and Jeong-Hyon Hwang (2012) and Feng Chen (2018), associate professors of Computer Science.
Namgoong, who serves as associate dean for research at CEAS, received his award for the study of high-performance ultra-wideband radio design.
Lyu’s CAREER Award to develop new methods to detect altered or faked digital images has led to additional funding through the National Science Foundation.
Hwang’s NSF CAREER award was used in the development of G*, a system capable of compressing dynamic graph data based on commonalities among the graphs in the series for “deduplicated” storage on multiple servers.
Chen’s project is entitled “SPARK: A Theoretical Framework for Discovering Complex Patterns in Big Attributed Networks.”
More about the projects highlighted in this article can be found at:
- Dr. Mariya Zheleva’s 2019 NSF CAREER Award
- Dr. Daphney-Stavroula Zois’ 2020 NSF CAREER Award
- Dr. Mustafa Aksoy’s 2019 NASA Career Faculty Award
Banner photo provided by NASA on Unsplash. Used with permission.