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Happenings
Allan David
David named acting associate dean for research
Allan David has been named as the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering’s acting associate dean for research.
David, the John W. Brown associate professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, assumed the position in June. David will serve in this capacity until a new dean is named. Steve Taylor, the former associate dean for research, is currently serving as interim dean following former dean Chris Roberts’ move to become Auburn’s 21st president.
“Dr. David brings a fresh perspective to the role, along with a breadth of knowledge across many disciplines,” Taylor said. “As a talented researcher, teacher, entrepreneur and scholar, he has a wealth of experience and will build on our research enterprise and creative partnerships with academia, industry and government sponsors.”
As acting associate dean for research, David assists with the college’s strategic planning, budget development, facilities oversight and administration. In collaboration with Interim Dean Taylor, David promotes a vibrant research culture by working with department chairs, institute directors and center directors to improve each of their teams’ contribution to the mission of research and scholarship.
Peter Abraham
Chemical engineering student named a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar
Auburn University junior Peter Abraham is a Barry M. Goldwater Scholar, an honor bestowed on only 496 students nationwide. The scholarship is widely considered the most prestigious award in the United States for undergraduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Abraham, from Auburn, is majoring in chemical engineering and minoring in computer science in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering and was chosen in April from a field of nearly 5,000 college students.
Currently, Abraham is involved in two areas of research: developing more effective cancer drug testing models and understanding the link between colorectal cancer and obesity.
According to Abraham, when developing cancer drugs, companies start by finding a suitable drug, testing it on mice and other models and then eventually testing it on humans as well. Yet, most cancer drugs that enter human clinical trials are not approved for use, resulting in very large drug development costs. His research goal is to develop a better model for testing and screening drug safety and efficacy prior to clinical trials.
Listen to our podcasts with Allan David and Peter Abraham at eng.auburn.edu/ginning
NASA Artemis mission has a distinctive Auburn Engineering flavor
Auburn is going to the moon.
That’s right. When Artemis I — the most ambitious space mission since the shuttle — rocketed into the heavens to begin a series of missions, the cumulative work of Auburn University alumni, scientists, engineers and researchers rode along.
Standing 322 feet, the 5.75-millionpound unmanned Artemis I, powered by a central Space Launch System (SLS) orange core rocket with twin solid rocket boosters, carried spacecraft Orion up to 280,000 miles in an exploratory mission NASA considers, “The first in a series of increasingly complex missions… that will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration and demonstrate our commitment and capability to extend human existence to the moon and beyond.”
“We’re excited to have the opportunity to play a variety of roles in the future of space exploration,” said Steve Taylor, interim dean of engineering. “Auburn’s history with NASA is among the richest in the nation, from men and women in space, to engineers who helped design Gemini, Saturn V, the Space Shuttle and now the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft on the Artemis I mission, to our researchers who keep finding means to make space travel more efficient and innovative. Auburn is proud to play a role in this new, ambitious mission and looks forward to being a leader in space engineering and exploration for years to come.”
Former NSA, U.S. Cyber Command leader visits engineering students, faculty
Students and faculty in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering filled the Brown-Kopel Center Grand Hall on Oct. 28, as Auburn graduate and former commander of the U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) and director of the National Security Agency (NSA) Adm. Michael Rogers (USN Ret.) answered questions during an hour-long event.
Highlighting Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the event “Grand Challenges in Cybersecurity: A Discussion with Admiral Rogers” featured topics such as the future of cyber workforce development, personal cybersecurity, autonomous weaponry, how USCYBERCOM and the NSA were structured under his command and even his perspective on if cyberattacks on the homeland warranted a response compared to physical attacks.
“Cybersecurity Awareness Month is designed to remind us that even though we’re very busy, we need to step back and ask ourselves, ‘What are the implications of cybersecurity in our day-to-day lives?’” said Rogers, who serves on the McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security advisory board. “These amazing handheld digital devices we call phones… there’s so much more than a phone here. Think about all these cyber systems we use that we take for granted like when we order something online. The way we’re building business models for the economies of today and tomorrow, collecting large amounts of data, we need to make sure that data is appropriately protected, secured and stored.
“We must remind ourselves that there is not only an organizational responsibility, but there’s a personal responsibility where we, as individuals, must become smarter about cyber, be aware of it daily and make smart decisions,” he added.
The event was moderated by Frank Cilluffo, director of Auburn’s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security, and Daniel Tauritz, interim director and chief cyber strategist for the Auburn Cyber Research Center.
Frank Cilluffo and Adm. Michael Rogers
Listen to our podcast with Frank Cilluffo and at eng.auburn.edu/ginning
First launched more than four decades ago, Auburn’s Minority Introduction to Engineering program, or MITE, was reinstituted the first week of July 2022.
This was the first time in more than two decades that this program was offered on Auburn’s campus. MITE is an adjunct program of the university’s Center for Inclusive Engineering Excellence. It is open to any eighth-grade through 12th-grade students.
Students in the program have the opportunity to stay on campus in one of the residence halls and engage with students in various activities, as well as meet current undergraduate students, faculty and administration. Participants learn about engineering majors and the vast array of potential engineering careers available to them.
HAPPENINGS ONLINE
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Clint Lovelace
CSSE manager of academic programs named Auburn Employee of the Year
What’s a good day at work for Clint Lovelace? When he makes a positive impact on the lives of students.
“What courses should I take next semester?” “I’m struggling in school. Help me.” “I’m struggling with a family issue. Can we talk?” “What classes best prepare me for a career beyond Auburn?”
Students enter his office on the third floor of Shelby Center and leave with direction. It’s no wonder the manager of academic programs in computer science and software engineering (CSSE) was named as one of four Auburn University Employees of the Year for 2021-22.
“Every day is different,” said the Valley, Alabama, native who is pursuing a doctorate in higher education administration. “There are days where everything is great. There are days when a student is in crisis, and we find a way to fix it. It’s not always academics. I tell students when they first visit, we offer holistic advising — from orientation all the way through graduation. We will talk about their academics, but also their physical, mental and emotional needs. Typically, students come to their advisors first when there is a problem. Even if you can’t fix it, they develop a trust in you.”
Chris Kieslich
CHEN professor earns $1.87M NIH award to further vaccine research
The future of vaccine development is going to be faster, cheaper and more geared toward the needs of the developing world. The technology behind the vaccines of the future will be impacted by the work of Chris Kieslich, assistant professor of chemical engineering.
Kieslich is the Department of Chemical Engineering’s latest recipient of the Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a branch of the National Institutes of Health.
Kieslich’s five-year, $1.87 million award for his work titled “Development of Computational Tools for Accounting for Host Variability in Predicting T-cell Epitopes” marks the department’s third MIRA in two years, alongside assistant professors Panagiotis Mistriotis and Robert Pantazes.
“What we’re working on through computation is making tools that would be useful for designing new vaccines with a variety of applications that could be developed faster or cheaper because they’re easier to produce and store,” Kieslich said. “In very basic terms, we are developing tools that understand the interactions between a pathogen, such as a virus or bacteria, and the receptors in the immune system.”
Michael Howard
CHEN professor explores colloidal supraparticles with NSF grant
Assistant professor of chemical engineering Michael Howard received a threeyear grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate new strategies for making colloidal supraparticles, a soft material useful for applications ranging from catalyzing chemical reactions to creating brilliant structural coloration. The grant, entitled “NSF-DFG Confine: Drying-induced Assembly of Colloidal Supraparticles from Anisotropic Nanoparticles,” was awarded more than $270,000.
This is a collaborative grant with Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany, where Howard’s collaborator, Arash Nikoubashman, will additionally receive approximately €180,000 from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, or DFG, German Research Foundation.
A supraparticle is a micrometer-sized sphere consisting of many much smaller nanoparticles. According to Howard, the supraparticle packages and enhances the functionality of the nanoparticles into larger materials that are easier to handle.
“My research uses computer simulations and statistical mechanics to understand and design soft materials such as nanoparticles, polymers and composites,” Howard said. “An important focus for me is on ‘out of equilibrium’ problems where thermodynamic and transport effects compete to determine the material’s properties after processing.”
Listen to our podcast with Michael Howard at eng.auburn.edu/ginning
CHEN professor earns $1.87M NIH grant to expand cellular process research
At the intersection of biology and engineering, Panagiotis Mistriotis, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, is making a name for himself.
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), a branch of the National Institutes of Health, recently awarded his laboratory a $1.87 million Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA).
This will allow Mistriotis and his research group to further examine fundamental cellular processes to develop novel therapeutic interventions against the initiation and progression of pathophysiological phenomena, including cardiovascular disease, aging and cancer.
“Over the next five years, we will develop new bioengineering tools to study how pressure forces affect cell movement and survival,” Mistriotis said. “The funds of the NIGMS MIRA provide a stable research environment that enables early-stage investigators like me to pursue ambitious and high-impact projects. This generous early-career grant will jumpstart my research career and allow me to make significant scientific discoveries in the field of mechanobiology.”
As a field of study, mechanobiology is concerned with the mechanisms by which cells sense and respond to mechanical signals. He noted cells in the human body are constantly subjected to these signals, but researchers aim to learn more about how these signals impact cell behavior.
“The widely held view is that cells can sense and respond to these cues but our understanding of the underlying mechanisms remains very limited,” he said. “Our lab explores how physical forces convert into biochemical signals to influence cell behavior.”
ECE professor earns $500,000 NSF CAREER Award
Xiaowen Gong, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, recently earned a five-year, $500,000 National Science Foundation Early Faculty Career Development (CAREER) Award.
His projectis titled “Towards Efficient and Fast Hierarchical Federated Learning in Heterogeneous Wireless Edge Networks.” The CAREER Award is the NSF’s most prestigious prize in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their respective organizations.
“I’m so humbled to receive this honor,” said Gong, who specializes in wireless engineering.
“I’m very fortunate. There are so many other researchers who do excellent work but have not received this award. I view this award more as inspiration and encouragement for my future work,” he added.
Gong is the third Auburn Engineering professor to win the NSF CAREER award in the past year.
Professor in ECE earns $175K NSF grant to optimize device performance
Even today’s gazillion-gig cell phones and high-speed computer GPUs can be stretched beyond performance capacities.
Deep learning (DL) and artificial intelligence (AI) programs, such as image and facial recognition, speech and language processing, personalized recommendations and many others now require large data sets that can inhibit desired levels of speed and accuracy. The unfortunate result is a memory bottleneck… your high-speed computer becomes all bark and no byte.
Mehdi Sadi, assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering, has a proposed solution he believes will optimize performance and decrease power usage without increasing device size.
Sadi will utilize emerging magnetic random-access memory and chiplet-based packaging technologies to optimally design on-chip and off-chip memory systems for AI/DL hardware. His proposal, “Design and System Technology Co-optimization Towards Addressing the Memory Bottleneck Problem of Deep Learning Hardware,” was recognized by the National Science Foundation (NSF), earning a twoyear, $174,923 grant.
Xiaowen Gong Panagiotis Mistriotis
Mehdi Sadi
