News briefs

CS professor elected to National Academy of Inventors

The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has named Professor Lijun Yin to its 2021 class of senior members.

Yin, a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science, has been a pioneer in the field of three- and four-dimensional modeling, specifically of the human face. He has created and released a series of facial-scan databases that have been used by Hollywood filmmakers, video-game creators and more. “It is my honor to be elected as a senior member of NAI,” Yin says. “I hope our work will increase the visibility of Binghamton University, as well as aid the research community and society as a whole.” Three faculty members from Watson College are NAI fellows: Distinguished Professors Bahgat Sammakia (also Binghamton University’s vice president for research), Kanad Ghose and Jessica Fridrich.

Yin

Named professorship honors SSIE pioneer

In fall 2021, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, Binghamton University will inaugurate the George Klir Professor in Systems Science.

The professorship, in honor of Klir’s groundbreaking work in the field of complex systems, is the first named professorship at Watson College, and will be part of the Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering. The first to fill the role will be former Klir student Luis Rocha, PhD ’97. “I am particularly excited by opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration with such areas as health, biology, psychology and others, leveraging strengths in the department and Watson College,” Rocha says. After leaving Binghamton, Rocha served as a permanent staff scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1998 to 2004. He spent 16 years at Indiana University, most recently as a professor of informatics and the director of the NSF-NRT Interdisciplinary Training Program in Complex Networks and Systems.

Klir

Five grads say farewell at virtual Commencements

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, graduation looked quite different for the classes of 2020 and 2021, but grads still had their say.

At the 2020 Commencement, held in December, Emma Pawliczak said following her “gut feeling” about Binghamton and earning her BS in mechanical engineering was “one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.” She returned in fall 2020 to pursue her master’s degree. Erika Solano Diaz, who earned her MS in biomedical engineering, praised Watson College’s diversity as “culturally dissimilar, perceptive minds with different barriers to overcome, reaching out to each other to achieve a common goal.” For the 2021 Commencement, three students offered remarks in the program. Marleen Moise, who received her BS in industrial and systems engineering and minored in theatre (dance), urged graduates to be bold: “You can only learn from your mistakes, not from perfection.” Imaane Carolina, a BS grad in ISE, said adapting to the pandemic made students similar to chameleons, because “we change our colors along the way to adjust to new environments.” Byron Stewart-Drysdale talked about how friends helped him earn his MS in mechanical engineering: “Just knowing you have amazing people in your corner … makes a world of difference.”

Pawliczak Moise

Carolina

• New York Small Business Development Center named electrical engineering alumnus Matthew Gill ’18, MS ’19, the 2020 Technology Entrepreneur of the

Year. He develops virtual-reality simulators for education experiences. • The 2020 State University of New York (SUNY) Chancellor Awards for Excellence (which recognize consistently superior professional achievement) included several for Watson College: Excellence in Faculty Service for Bruce Murray (chair of mechanical engineering); Excellence in Scholarship and Creative

Activities for Seokheun Choi (electrical and computer engineering); Excellence in Adjunct Teaching for Jason Gilbert (mechanical engineering); and Excellence in Professional Service for April St. John (computer science). Weiyi Meng (CS chair) also won the University Award for Excellence in International Education. • Mark Pallay ’14, MS ’16, PhD ’20, won a Bearcats of the Last Decade (BOLD) 10 Under 10 Award as part of 2020’s Homecoming celebrations. The mechanical engineering alumnus is a senior research and development engineer at

Seagate Technology. • The Binghamton University Alumni Association honored four Watson graduates in September and March.

Satyanarayan S. Iyer, MS ’03, PhD ’08, received the Medal of Distinguished

Service for his research support, student mentorship and job assistance. He is general manager of Specialty Memory Products at SMART Modular Technologies Inc.

Guru Madhavan, MBA ’07, PhD ’09, the Norman R. Augustine Senior Scholar and senior director of programs of the National Academy of Engineering, received the Edward Weisband Distinguished Alumni Award for Public Service or Contribution to Public Affairs.

Hadassah Mativetsky ’07, MS ’12, a quality engineer at Universal Instruments

Corp., received the 2021 Lois B. DeFleur Distinguished Young Alumni Award.

It recognizes graduates from the last 10 years for service to the University or

Alumni Association as well as leadership and a commitment to service.

Kaustubh Nagarkar, MS ’02, PhD ’06, vice president of licensing at GE, received the 2021 Alumni Achievement Award. It recognizes a distinguished graduate with significant professional achievement over a decade. • As part of National Engineers Week in February, the New York State Society of

Professional Engineers Broome Area Chapter named Victoria Kramer ’15 the 2021 Young Engineer of the Year. She works as a facility mechanical engineer at Corning Inc. • Computer engineering alumnus Eric Rice ’18 appeared on Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30 list for cofounding Powerspike. The company connects brands with digital influencers.

Matthew Gill

Professors promoted to distinguished ranks

This spring, SUNY promoted two professors from Watson College’s Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering to distinguished ranks.

Mark Poliks, director of the Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing, was named a distinguished professor for his contributions to the fields of electronics packaging, flexible and hybrid electronics. Daryl Santos was named a distinguished service professor for his many leadership roles at Binghamton University over his career as well as his current work as vice provost for diversity and inclusiveness.

Poliks

Santos

Seven faculty members earn CAREER grants

During the 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic years, the National Science Foundation recognized seven assistant professors at Watson College with CAREER Awards, which provide funding to researchers early in their academic careers.

Six of these winners are in the Department of Computer Science: Jeremy Blackburn received $517,484 to explore new methods for understanding and modeling online sentiment. Yao Liu was awarded a $486,169 grant for her immersive media work on area-of-focus projections. Aravind Prakash received $499,893 to improve binary analysis and code-reuse attack detection. Mo Sha was awarded $500,000 to explore ways to improve and streamline wireless sensor-actuator networks for industrial applications. Guanhua Yan received $498,879 to develop proactive defenses for the next-generation mobile communication infrastructures. Yifan Zhang received $485,244 to fund research into edge computing and unikernel-based lightweight virtualization. Also, Emrah Akyol from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering received $596,295 for his research about using game theory to improve communications between machines with different objectives.