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Outstanding Faculty, Staff Awards Announced

The College of Engineering and Mineral Resources honored its outstanding faculty and staff for 2007-2008. Brief biographies of the winners are below the list of winners.

2007-2008 Outstanding Teachers:
Eung Cho, professor of chemical engineering
Keith Heasley, professor of mining engineering
Xin Li, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering
Afzel Noore, professor of computer science and electrical engineering
Arun Ross, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering
Hema Siriwardane, professor of civil and environmental engineering

2007-2008 Teacher of the Year: Hema Siriwardane, professor of civil and environmental engineering

2007-2008 Outstanding Researchers:
Nigel Clark, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering
Larry Hornak, professor of computer science and electrical engineering
Xingbo Liu, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering
Marcello Napolitano, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering
Afzel Noore, professor of computer science and electrical engineering.

2007-2008 Researcher of the Year: Afzel Noore, professor of computer science and electrical engineering

2007-2008 Outstanding New Researchers of the Year:
David Graham, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering

2007-2008 Outstanding Advisors:
Robin Hensel, coordinator of freshman engineering
Majid Jaraiedi, professor of industrial and management systems engineering
Cindy Tanner, program coordinator in the Lane Department of Computer Science and
Electrical Engineering.

2007-2008 Advisor of the Year: Majid Jaraiedi, professor of industrial and management systems engineering

2007-2008 Outstanding Staff Members:
Candy Cordwell, program manager for the NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium
Linda Cox, records officer in the Student Services Office
Karen Grimm, accounting assistant in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
Linda Rogers, office administrator in the Department of Chemical Engineering.

Outstanding Teachers:

Eung Cho is a longtime faculty member who started out in the Department of Mineral Processing and moved to Chemical Engineering 15 years ago. His approach to teaching involves using the basic knowledge that students already possess and building on that to teach more advanced subjects. Students appreciate his ability to focus on the fundamentals and to ensure that they thoroughly understand each subject. He earned his PhD in metallurgical engineering from the University of Utah in 1978.

Keith Heasley joined the faculty of the Department of Mining Engineering in 2001. His students consistently rate him as an excellent teacher. Heasley recently assumed responsibility for the Senior Design Project capstone course; in addition, he has developed eleven new graduate and undergraduate courses in the department. He is active with the student chapter of the Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration and helps to organize trips and mine tours. He earned his PhD from the Colorado School of Mines in 1998.

Xin Li joined the faculty of the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in 2003. Since then, he has devoted a great deal of his time to curriculum development in the area of multimedia signal processing. In order to strengthen his department’s PhD program, he is developing a new graduate-level course in wavelets and filter banks. His students appreciate his enthusiasm for his subject matter. He earned his PhD in electrical engineering from Princeton University in 2000.

Afzel Noore served as associate dean for the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources from 1996 to 2003. He is both a prolific researcher (see below) and an outstanding mentor to students. A remarkable number of his students have been honored in recent years with conference “best papers” for papers that they co-authored with him. He earned his PhD in electrical engineering from WVU in 1987.

Arun Ross is appreciated by his students for the clarity of his teaching and his high level of expertise in biometrics. He shows concern for his students’ success and has been involved consistently with the Lane Department Senior Design sequence as a sponsor and project evaluator. He earned his PhD in computer science and engineering from Michigan State University in 2003 and joined the WVU faculty in the same year.

Hema Siriwardane is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Students in his undergraduate and graduate classes in civil and environmental engineering rate him highly for his knowledge and enthusiasm for his subject matter, effective teaching, and concern for student success in academics. He earned his PhD from Virginia Tech in 1980.

Outstanding Researchers:

Nigel Clark is one of WVU’s most productive researchers and the director of the University’s Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions, a leader in finding new ways to respond to global energy challenges and concerns over climate change. Clark’s research is focused on improving engine and vehicle operation and reducing exhaust emissions, especially from heavy-duty vehicles such as trucks, buses, locomotives, and marine vessels. He earned his PhD from the University of Natal in South Africa in 1985.

Larry Hornak is the co-director of both WVNano, WVU’s cross-disciplinary initiative in nanoscience and research, and the Center for Identification Technology Research, a premier research program in biometrics and identification technologies. Hornak has been a member of the WVU faculty since 1991, maintaining strong research productivity in terms of external funding, student support and scholarly publication. He received his PhD in electrical engineering from Rutgers University in 1991.

Xingbo Liu joined the faculty of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in 2005 and has established a strong research program in advanced materials. His areas of expertise include corrosion, coatings and high-temperature alloys. He earned his PhD in materials science from the University of Science and Technology in Beijing in 1999.

Marcello Napolitano leads a nationally recognized research program in unmanned aerial vehicles in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. In 2007, he was involved in more than $1 million in research projects, funded by organizations including NASA, Augusta Systems and the U.S. Army. He is one of the directors of the WVU Center for Advanced Research in Autonomous Technology. He earned his PhD from Oklahoma State University in 1989.

Afzel Noore is a professor in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. His interests include software reliability modeling, consumer electronics, fuzzy and neural systems, fault-tolerant computing, microelectronics and biometrics. His research has been funded by Westinghouse, GE, NSF, Electric Power Research Institute, the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Justice. In 2007, he published nine journal papers, two book chapters, and two conference papers.

New Researcher of the Year:

David Graham, assistant professor of computer science and electrical engineering, was named the 2007 New Researcher of the Year, an award given to a faculty member with fewer than three years experience at WVU who has received a Ph.D. in the past six years. Graham’s research focuses on the application of programmable analog electronic circuitry in biologically-inspired audio signal processing and computation.

Outstanding Advisors

Robin Hensel has been the coordinator of freshman engineering at WVU since 2004. She coordinates the instruction for all of the freshman engineering classes, coordinates academic advising of freshmen and advises approximately 200 students per year. She has been a leader in developing the College’s freshman program into a model for student success, and is personally committed to helping her students in any way she can, with an open-door policy. She holds B.S. and M.A. degrees in math and an EdD in curriculum and instruction.

Majd Jaraiedi is a professor in the Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering and the director of the NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium. The students he advises rely on him to be calm, understanding, helpful and available. He takes personal interest in the academic, social and personal lives of his advisees, making sure that they know where they stand and what it will take for them to succeed. He earned his PhD from the University of Michigan in 1983.

Cindy Tanner is the undergraduate coordinator for the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Tanner was instrumental in the recent ABET accreditation process because of her thorough knowledge of the curriculum and her extensive experience with advising undergraduate students. As a dedicated advisor, she goes beyond the typical once-per-semester meetings with students and often helps her advisees find summer jobs and research positions with the University. She earned a B.S. from Northwestern University and a M.S. in Computer Science from WVU.

Outstanding Staff Members

Candy Cordwell has been a member of the WVU staff for the past 12 years and an integral part of the NASA West Virginia Space Grant Consortium for the past seven. She earned two degrees from the University, a bachelor’s in business administration and a master’s in safety engineering. As program manager with the Consortium, she is busy coordinating a wide array of programs and interacting extensively with faculty and students from around the College and University, as well as with other Consortium members.

Linda Cox has been a dedicated member of the staff at WVU for the past 16 years, starting out in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and moving to the College’s Student Services office in 1995. A married mother of three and grandmother of three from Kingwood, W.Va., Linda is a records officer in the Student Services Office of the College, auditing student degrees for all master’s and doctoral students.

Karen Grimm has been a valued member of the WVU staff since 1974 and of the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering since 1975. As an accounting assistant, she is in charge of procurement for all funds in the department, including research, state and foundation, in addition to other responsibilities. A native of Core, W.Va., Grimm earned a bachelor’s degree in family resources from WVU in 1988.

Linda Rogers has been a devoted member of WVU’s staff since 1978 and has worked in the Department of Chemical Engineering since 1982. As office administrator there, she manages the operations of a busy academic department, assisting faculty, staff and students in all manner of projects. A native of Ritchie County, W.Va., Rogers earned a degree in human resources and education from WVU in 1976.

Congratulations and many thanks to all!

04/16/2008