Charles V. Schaefer Jr. School of Engineering & Science Welcomes 10 New Faculty for the 2020-2021 Academic Year

The Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science at Stevens Institute of Technology has recruited ten new faculty members for the 2020-21 academic year. The latest group of hires brings the total number of new hires to 46 over the last three years—a record expansion for the school of engineering and science.

The ten new faculty represent leading researchers and exceptional instructors, who promise to enhance both the school’s research profile and teaching excellency.

A full 50% of this year’s faculty hires are female, underscoring the school’s commitment to diversity, representation, and gender equality. The school, already above-average among STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) institutions in its female faculty representation, is well on its way to achieving Dean Jean Zu’s goal of raising the female faculty representation to 30 percent by 2023.

Zu welcomes each new faculty member to the Schaefer School and promises opportunity for growth, both in terms of individual career development, as well as new opportunities for their contributions to the school of engineering and science. “We are excited to have our new faculty on campus, and have great confidence that they will be extraordinary assets to our school,” said Zu. “They join our existing faculty of world-renowned experts and leaders in their fields, highlighting Stevens’ commitment to both cutting-edge research and supporting our growing student body, with a student-centric philosophy and the highest teaching standards. We will continue to support our faculty, and students, in every way we can.”

“Furthermore,” she continued, “our new hires will improve the student-to-faculty ratio, allowing for more individualized time for students to interact with instructors and have personalized time in the lab. Students will have increased research and learning opportunities—and, importantly, with our diversity efforts, they will have additional role models who look like them, allowing them to better relate to their teams, and to feel represented and valued as we strive toward inclusivity and teaching excellency.”

The new faculty hail from storied research institutions such as John Hopkins University, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, UC-Los Angeles, and Texas A&M University.

They are as follows:

Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering

Marouane Temimi, Associate Professor, Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering
Ph.D.: University of Quebec, Canada
Recent Affiliation: Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi
Specialization: Hydrology, Hydraulics, Remote sensing, GIS

Department of Computer Science

Tegan Brennan, Assistant Professor, Computer Science
Ph.D.: University of California, Santa Barbara
Recent Affiliation: University of California, Santa Barbara
Specialization: Software engineering, Computer security, Formal methods

Jason Corso, Professor / SIAI Director / Viola Ward Brinning and Elbert Calhoun Brinning Endowed Chair, Computer Science
Ph.D.: The Johns Hopkins University
Recent Affiliation: University of Michigan
Specialization: Cognitive Systems: Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Robotics

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Yanghyo Rod Kim, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ph.D.: University of California, Los Angeles
Recent Affiliation: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
Specialization: Integrated Circuits for RF, Millimeter-wave Applications

Junjian Qi, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ph.D.: Tsinghua University, China
Recent Affiliation: University of Central Florida
Specialization: Electric Power Systems, Resilience, Stability and Control, Synchrophasors, Cyber-physical System Security

Department of Mathematical Sciences

Kathrin Smetana, Assistant Professor, Mathematical Sciences
Ph.D.: University of Muenster, Germany
Recent Affiliation: University of Twente, Netherlands
Specialization: Model Order Reduction, Randomized Methods, Domain Decomposition and Multiscale Methods

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Shima Hajimirza, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Ph.D.: University of Texas at Austin
Recent Affiliation: Texas A&M University, College Station
Specialization: Thermal Fluid Sciences, Radiation Heat Transfer, Solar Energy, Energy and Sustainability

Jason Rabinovitch, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Ph.D.: California Institute of Technology
Recent Affiliation: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California
Specialization: Computational and Experimental Fluid Dynamics, Hypersonics, Reacting Flows, Re-entry Heat Shields

Gizem Acar, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Ph.D.: Michigan State University
Recent Affiliation: University of Maryland
Specialization: Linear and Nonlinear Dynamics and Vibrations with Applications to Noise Influenced Systems

Department of Physics

Ting Lu, Teaching Assistant Professor, Physics
Ph.D.: University of Waterloo, Canada
Recent Affiliation: Stevens Institute of Technology (Lecturer in PHY)