Summer 2023 McMaster Engineering Faculty Appointments – Faculty of Engineering

Summer 2023 McMaster Engineering Faculty Appointments

The Faculty of Engineering is pleased to welcome new faculty and post-doctoral fellows, and congratulate those with new leadership appointments.

Summer 2023 McMaster Engineering Faculty Appointments

On behalf of Dean Heather Sheardown, we are very pleased to announce the following appointments in the Faculty of Engineering. Please join us in welcoming our new faculty and post-doctoral fellows, and congratulating those with new leadership appointments.

Academic leadership appointments

Cam Churchill

Cam Churchill, associate professor in the department of civil engineering has been appointed as acting director, Experiential Learning Office (ELO) for a six-month term, commencing July 1, 2023. Churchill has developed and enhanced experiential learning initiatives in various leadership appointments he has held, including chair of the Civil Engineering Infrastructure Technology Program, director of the Engineering & Society Program, director of the Engineering & Management Program, and his informal roles leading the Innovation Minor, MacChangers, McMaster Grand Challenges Scholars Program and as the university lead for the Global Engineering Design Studio. These academic leadership roles have allowed Churchill to develop a deep understanding of the principles and best practices that underpin effective experiential learning programs.

Moataz Mohamed

Moataz Mohamed, associate professor in the department of civil engineering, will serve as acting director of the McMaster Institute for Transportation and Logistics (MITL) for a period of seven months, effective June 1, 2023. MITL is currently transitioning from a research institute reporting into the VPR to a research centre reporting into the Faculty of Engineering. A search for a director will take place this fall to become effective January 1, 2024. This appointment will enable the facilitation of the above and will allow centre-related activities to continue throughout the transition. Mohamed has been involved with MITL since 2014.

Andy Knights

Andy Knights, professor in engineering physics, has appointed as Acting Vice-President (Research) for a one-year term, commencing July 1, 2023. Leveraging cutting-edge facilities in Engineering Physics at the CEMD, Knight explores novel device systems and microscopic phenomena that limit current processing strategies, with a focus on silicon. His research investigates the interaction of light with silicon, aiming to develop chips combining optical and electrical functionalities, despite challenges posed by silicon’s use in optoelectronics. The ultimate goal is the monolithic integration of various functions on a single silicon chip.

New Faculty Appointments

Department of Chemical Engineering

Stuart Linley

Stuart Linley’s appointment as an assistant professor, tenure-track in the department of chemical engineering began on July 1, 2023. Linley completed his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering at the University of Waterloo where he developed methods of synthesizing and applying magnetically recoverable photocatalysts. In 2013, he began investigating photocatalytic treatment of tailings pond wastewater leading to co-founding of H2nanO Inc. in 2015 – a start-up company out of the University of Waterloo’s Velocity program seeking to develop low-cost water treatment solutions for Canada’s oil sands industry. He is also a recipient of the Vanier Canada graduate scholarship. Following his PhD, Linley pursued a postdoc and was awarded an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship to pursue the development of reusable, floating photoreforming catalysts with Erwin Reisner at the University of Cambridge, UK in 2020. Linley’s research will focus on developing robust, reusable photocatalyst materials for photoreforming and water treatment and investigate their application to real wastewaters in optimized processes. These research pathways will support the development of sustainable, clean energy and approach a circular economy where waste products are recycled and upcycled into valuable commodities.

Department of Civil Engineering

Sonia Hassini

Sonia Hassini returned on July 1, 2023 to civil engineering as a tenure-track assistant professor. She earned a non-specialized scientific and technical studies degree from Monastir University, Tunisia and received her BSc from Elmanar University in Tunisia, along with an MEng from University of Waterloo and her PhD from McMaster University, all in civil engineering. She worked at the department of civil engineering at McMaster University on a contractually limited appointment between 2018 and 2021 and as a sessional lecturer since that time.

Department of Computing and Software

Matthew Giamou

Matthew Giamou’s appointment as computing and software assistant professor, tenure-track began on July 1, 2023. Giamou is currently a postdoctoral researcher with Northeastern University’s Robust Autonomy Laboratory (NEURAL), where he is working on efficient global polynomial optimization for challenging state estimation problems in robotics. Giamou holds the degrees of BASc in engineering science from the University of Toronto (2015), MSc in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2017), and PhD from the University of Toronto’s Institute for Aerospace Studies (2022). His research interests include the application of methods from convex optimization to robot perception with safety guarantees, multi-agent localization and mapping, kinematics for redundant manipulators, and interpretable machine learning for robotics. His multi-disciplinary approach uses applied mathematics to bring structure and performance guarantees to messy, real-world robotics problems. As a founding organizer of the IEEE ICRA Debates on the Future of Robotics Research workshop, he is an advocate for a self-reflective culture in academia, especially with regard to its relationship with the real world.

Irene Ye Yuan

Irene Ye Yuan joined the department of computing and software as a tenure-track assistant professor on July 1, 2023. Prior to joining McMaster, Irene was a postdoctoral fellow with Connections Lab at Simon Fraser University in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology. She received her PhD in computer science from the University of Minnesota and her Master in Human-Computer Interaction and Design from the University of Washington. Her research falls primarily in the area of Human-Computer Interaction, with a focus on Social Computing and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. Her papers have received three CHI Honorable Mention awards, an IMWUT Distinguished Paper award, and an IDC Best Paper award. Her work involves designing technological interventions that address real-world needs and evaluating them using a balance of qualitative and quantitative methods. Some of her recent work focuses on supporting technology-facilitated collaborative reading and play for social connections.

Swati Mishra

Swati Mishra joined the department of computing and software as a tenure-track assistant professor on July 1, 2023. Her research lies at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). She designs, builds, and deploys interactive Machine Teaching (MT) systems that enable AI non-experts like healthcare professionals, journalists, and data analysts to teach domain-specific concepts to AI and enable them to integrate AI effectively within their complex workflows. She employs a broad range of methods, including statistical modeling, crowdsourcing, qualitative analysis and cognitive modeling to build AI systems that are usable, sustainable and reliable. Her systems empower people to achieve more and extend the boundaries of their capabilities and imagination.

Istvan David

Istvan David joined the department of computing and software as a tenure-track assistant professor on July 1, 2023. His work focuses on the engineering of digital twins for cyber-biophysical systems and the automated inference of simulation models of digital twins by reinforcement learning. David earned his PhD from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, and spent two and a half years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research (DIRO) of the University of Montréal, Canada. In 2021, he received the prestigious IVADO Postdoctoral Research Grant. David maintains an active research line in collaborative and multi-level/multi-paradigm modeling, with a special focus on real-time collaboration. He is an active member of the modeling and simulation communities.

Sivan Sabato

Sivan Sabato will begin her appointment as an associate professor, tenure in the department of computing and software on August 1, 2023. Sabato received a PhD in computer science from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2013 and was subsequently a post-doctoral researcher at Microsoft Research. She joined Ben-Gurion University in 2014.

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Kanwarpal Singh

Kanwarpal Singh began his appointment as an assistant professor, tenure-track in the department of electrical and computer engineering on July 1, 2023. Kanwarpal received his PhD degree from INRS, Canada, in 2013. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School until 2018, where he worked on the development of high-resolution optical coherence tomography systems. He led an independent research group, Microendoscopy, at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Germany prior to joining McMaster Engineering. His research interests include the development of miniaturized flexible endoscopic devices for imaging inside the body.

Moshe Schwartz

Moshe Schwartz began his appointment as an associate professor, tenure in the department of electrical and computer engineering on August 1, 2023. Moshe received a BA (summa cum laude), MSc and PhD from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel, in 1997, 1998 and 2004 respectively, all from the computer science department. He was a Fulbright post-doctoral researcher in the department of electrical and computer engineering, University of California San Diego, and a post-doctoral researcher in the department of electrical engineering, Caltech. In 2007 he joined the department of electrical and computer engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. While on sabbatical 2012-2014, he was a visiting scientist at MIT.

New Adjunct Appointments

Amitava Sarkar was appointed as an adjunct assistant professor in the department of chemical engineering effective January 1, 2023 until December 31, 2025. 

Tom Adams was appointed as an adjunct professor in the department of chemical engineering effective July 1, 2023 until June 30, 2026. 

Georgios Balomenos was appointed as an adjunct assistant professor in the department of civil engineering effective May 1, 2023 until June 30, 2026. 

Wei Jiang was appointed as an adjunct assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering effective February 1, 2023 until June 30, 2027.

Jungsook Clara Wren was appointed as an adjunct professor in the department of engineering physics effective August 1, 2022 until June 30, 2025.

Nes Dogan was appointed as an adjunct associate professor in the department of materials science and engineering effective June 1, 2023 until June 30, 2026.

Paria Karimi has been appointed as an adjunct assistant professor in the department of materials science and engineering effective June 1, 2023 until June 30, 2026.

Esmaeil Sadeghi has been appointed as an adjunct assistant professor in the department of materials science and engineering effective June 1, 2023 until June 30, 2026.

Seyedvahid Khodaei has been appointed as an adjunct assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering effective July 1, 2023 until June 30, 2026.

Renaud Jacquemart has been appointed as an adjunct professor in the Walter G Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology effective January 1, 2023 until December 31, 2027.

Tom Lee has been appointed as an adjunct associate professor in the Walter G Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology effective July 1, 2023 until June 30, 2028.

New Associate Member Appointments

Gitanjali Kolhatkar has been appointed as an associate member in the department of materials science and engineering effective July 1, 2023 for a two-year term.

Zhen Gao has been appointed as an associate member in the School of Biomedical Engineering effective July 1, 2023 for a five-year term.

New Visiting Faculty Appointments

Yasser Khalifa has been appointed as a visiting assistant professor in the department of civil engineering effective June 1, 2023 for a six-month term.

Amir Hoshang Akhaveissy has been appointed as a visiting associate professor in the department of civil Engineering effective July 2, 2023 for a two-month term.

Lili Du appointed as a visiting associate professor in the department of civil engineering has been extended effective September 1, 2023 for two months.

Vladimir Dubrovski has been appointed as a visiting professor in the department of engineering physics effective June 1, 2023 for a three-month term.

Samuel Siedel has been appointed as a visiting assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering effective July 1, 2023 for a six-month term.

Post-doctoral Fellow Appointments

Charles de Lannoy welcomed Bassel Abdelkader to the department of chemical engineering on April 1, 2023

Drew Higgins welcomed Amirhossein Foroozan Ebrahimy to the department of chemical engineering on May 1, 2023

Michael Thompson welcomed Varsha Singh to the department of chemical engineering on May 1, 2023

Todd Hoare/Bob Pelton welcomed Gaoyin He to the department of chemical engineering on July 4, 2023

Drew Higgins welcomed Ahmed Abdellah to the department of chemical engineering on July 17, 2023

Samir Chidiac welcomed Mouna Reda to the department of civil engineering on May 1, 2023

Paulin Coulibaly welcomed Farshad Pirani to the department of civil engineering on June 19, 2023

Susan Tighe welcomed Jessica Achebe to the department of civil engineering on July 1, 2023

Rong Zheng welcomed Yadong Xie to the department of computing and software on March 1, 2023

Steve Hranilovic welcomed Charlus Zhang to the department electrical and computer engineering on February 6, 2023

Ali Emadi welcomed Mohamed Elsayed Abdallah Abdalmagid to the department of electrical and computer engineering on April 3, 2023

Shinya Nagasaki welcomed Zhiwei Zheng to the department of engineering physics on February 7, 2023

Leyla Soleymani welcomed Sakib Sadman to the department of engineering physics on February 20, 2023

Leyla Soleymani also welcomed Roderick Maclachlan to the department of engineering physics on May 23, 2023

Andrew Gadsden welcomed Zhe Xu to the Department of Mechanical Engineering on July 17, 2023