June 2022 Five10 Report

Tim Healy (Electrical and Computer Engineering), who joined the School of Engineering as a professor of electrical engineering nearly six decades ago, is retiring this summer. Tim founded three major electrical engineering labs since joining SCU. He not only co-founded the SCU's Latimer Energy Lab, but also helped launch the Latimer Engineering Scholars Program to support teaching and research in sustainable energy, thanks to an anonymous $1.3 million gift from a former student and his wife. Read more about Tim's time at SCU here. From all at the School of Engineering, we wish you all of the best, Tim!

Senior Design: for the first time in over two years, over 400 guests came out to the 52nd Annual Senior Design Conference for the School of Engineering. This year we had 212 senior Broncos present their capstone projects spread over 16 sessions throughout campus, including the new Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation. In total, the senior design conference showcased seventy unique projects across showroom floors. For a full list of session winners, read the article here. 

BioInnovation and Design Lab partnered with Saint Francis High School to pilot a 5-week virtual project. The team included seven multidisciplinary students from Saint Francis High school and three engineering research students from SCU. The SCU team included Andres Calle '21 (M.S. student), Michael Castillo '24, George Kouretas '22, Navid Shaghaghi (Project Lead), and Prashanth Asuri (Director, BioInnovation and Design Lab). "The project focused on predicting future trends in infectious diseases by looking at data models and utilizing publicly available data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), and Google Trends." Read the full Saint Francis article here.

Aria Amirbahman (Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering) has been appointed as the inagural recipient of the Sukhmander Singh Endowed Professorship. The Sukhmander Singh Endowed Professorship is awarded to a Santa Clara educator "who—like Singh—has distinguished themselves academically and exemplifies the highest ideals and values of a Jesuit education." Congratulations, Aria!

Shoba Krishnan (Electrical and Computer Engineering) has been appointed as the Thomas J. Bannan Professor at Santa Clara through 2027. The Bannan Professorship is awarded to those individuals who have distinguished themselves as teaching scholars who foster the highest ideals of a Catholic Jesuit education and embody the qualities: creative scholarship with teaching, collegiality, collaboration with faculty and students, and incorporation of intellectual foundations for ethics and justice. Congratulations, Shoba!

Hohyun Lee (Mechanical Engineering) has been promoted to the rank of professor. Congratulations, Hohyun!

Behnam Dezfouli (Computer Science and Engineering) has been awarded tenure and promotion to the rank of associate professor. Congratulations, Behnam!

Engineering Faculty Awards: Every year the School of Engineering honors the top faculty for both teaching and research. This year's award recipients include Emre Araci (Bioengineering) for the Researcher of the Year award, Steve Chiappari (Applied Mathematics) for the Gerald E. Markle Award, Laura Doyle (Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering) for the Award for Teaching Excellence, and Nicholas Pera (Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering) for the Adjunct Lecturer of the Year award. Congratulations, to all! Read more about the award winners here. 

Solar Saviors: A team of undergraduate, master's, and Ph.D. students were among the finalist at the US Department of Energy Solar District Cup Collegiate Design Competition. The Solar Saviors Team presented a proposal for The Ohio State University (OSU) District Use Case challenge during the Solar Cup Competition organized by NREL. Their project comprised a set of studies and analyses performed to identify the best techno-economic proposal committed to the OSU sustainability goals and to offering the highest IRR and ROI to the investors possible. The team consisted of Saleh Dinkhah (Ph.D. student in Electrical and Computer Engineering), Chris Pitterle (Computer Science undergraduate student), Ahmed Saad (Ph.D. student in Electrical and Computer Engineering), Johana Salazar (M.S. student in Power Systems and Sustainable Energy), Chengcheng Zhang (M.S. student in Power Systems and Sustainable Energy), and their advisor Maryam Khanbaghi (Electrical and Computer Engineering and Power Systems and Sustainable Energy).

Angelus McNally '22 (Computer Science and Engineering) received the St. Clare Medal at this year's Senior Awards and Toast. The St. Clare Medal is awarded to graduates who are judged outstanding in academic performance, personal character, school activities, and overall contribution to the University. It was established in 1968 in honor of Saint Clare of Assisi. Congratulations, Angelus!

Frank Lee '88 (M.S. Computer Science) has provided an endowment to fund scholarship support for graduate students in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, with a preference for international students. He is also providing financial support for the hiring of graduate research associates. Frank has a deep interest in providing financial aid to international graduate students because it significantly impacted completing his graduate degree. He recently presented a talk, "Horizon - Rise from Here," to Computer Science and Engineering graduate students and faculty.

Maria Bualat '92 has been named the 2022 Distinguished Engineering Alumni. Maria is being honored for her significant career achievements and important work in mobile planetary robotics. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University and received a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering with an emphasis on controls from Santa Clara University. Maria joined NASA Ames in 1987 and began working in the mobile planetary robotics field in 1995. She is currently the Group Lead for the Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames Research Center. Congratulations, Maria!