Meet our newest faculty cohort
Meet the researchers and thought leaders who have joined the College of Engineering’s world-class faculty for the 2020-21 academic year.
Biomedical Engineering
Rachel Childers, Assistant Professor of Practice
Prior institution: Assistant professor and chair of undergraduate studies, Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oklahoma.
Research interests: Engineering education research, specifically increasing diversity and retention of BME students and improving BME lab curriculum.
Courses taught this year: BME 3701, an upper-level biomedical engineering laboratory course focusing on experimental design, data analysis, and some socially distanced laboratory skills.
Hobbies: Cycling, gardening and gaming are her favorite quarantine pastimes, with traveling and visiting new restaurants as favorite non-quarantine pastimes, which are currently on hold.
Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering
Daniel B. Gingerich, Assistant Professor
Prior institution: Before joining Ohio State in January 2020, he was an Oak Ridge Institute for Science Education post-doctoral research fellow with the National Energy Technology Laboratory and a visiting post-doctoral associate at Stanford University in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Research interests: His research interests are in decision making for sustainability and resiliency, especially for energy and water infrastructure, and environmental policy analysis.
Course taught this year: CIVILEN 3080 Engineering Economics and Optimization
Interesting fact: He has deep family connections to Ohio State. His grandfather got his DDS from Ohio State and Gingerich lives a few blocks from where he grew up in Columbus. When his grandmother passed away, he inherited her cat, Scarlet (the Grey). His mom was born at Ohio State’s hospital and after she played the Michigan fight song on the piano (the first song she learned as a kid), her parents abruptly ended her piano lessons.
Computer Science and Engineering
Tanya Berger-Wolf, Professor
Prior institution: University of Illinois at Chicago
Research interests: As a computational ecologist, her research is at the unique intersection of computer science, wildlife biology, and social sciences. She also serves as director of the Translational Data Analytics Institute and professor in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology.
Favorite hobby: She is a salsa dancer. She taught salsa dancing in graduate school and still does on occasion to friends and various non-profit organizations.
Interesting fact: She has changed continents for every degree: born and grew up in Vilnius, Lithuania; attended high school in St. Petersburg, Russia; received her dual major (math and computer science) from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel; and earned her PhD in computer science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Shaileshh Bojja Venkatakrishnan, Assistant Professor
Prior institution: Postdoctoral scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research interests: He is interested in fundamental algorithmic questions in the broad area of networking systems. Specifically, he is interested in blockchain networks and using machine learning for algorithm design in networking systems.
Courses taught this year: In spring 2021 he will be teaching CSE 3461: Computer Networking, and CSE 5469: Data-driven Algorithms for Networking Systems.
Hobbies: He enjoys pencil sketching, swimming and photography. He can also ice skate.
Yu Su, Assistant Professor
Prior organization: Senior Researcher at Microsoft
Research interests: His research involves natural language processing and data mining, with a focus on conversational AI and knowledge bases.
Courses taught this year: Introduction to Data Mining (SP20), Cutting-Edge Topics in Natural Language Processing (AU20)
Interesting fact: He has a twin brother who also majored in computer science.
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Jia (Kevin) Liu, Assistant Professor
Prior institution: Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Iowa State University
Research interests: His research areas include theoretical machine learning, control and optimization for stochastic networks, and optimization for data analytics infrastructure and cyber-physical systems.
Courses taught this year: ECE 3561: Advanced Digital Design (spring 2021)
Interesting fact: In 2020, he earned the NSF CAREER Award and the Google Faculty Research Award.
Aylin Yener, Professor and Roy and Lois Chope Chair in Engineering
Prior institution: Professor at Pennsylvania State University
Research interests: As director of the INSPIRE research group, their core research disciplines and tools include information theory, optimization, machine learning, communication theory and signal processing. The focus is on system level design insights drawn from characterization of fundamental performance limits of such systems. The team is also interested in developing algorithms approaching or achieving optimal design criteria.
Interesting fact: She also serves as president of the IEEE Information Theory Society.
Engineering Education
Julie Aldridge, Research Assistant Professor
Prior role at Ohio State: Post-doctoral scholar in the Department of Engineering Education.
Research interests: Organizational innovation driven by research-based design.
Favorite hobbies: She is a musician and gardener.
Interesting fact: She was previously a magician’s assistant. Additionally, she earned both her master’s and PhD from Ohio State.
Integrated Systems Engineering
Tracy Owens, Associate Professor – Clinical
Prior institution: MBA Instructor at Capital University
Courses taught this year: ISE 5810, Lean Six Sigma Foundations; ISE 5811 and 5812, two-semester Six Sigma capstone project. He also teaches in the MBA and MBOE programs in the Fisher College of Business.
Research interests: His research involves the application of process improvement toolkits (Lean, Six Sigma, and others) in a variety of settings. Owens says they are always looking for partner organizations to sponsor capstone projects.
Interesting fact: He released a new book last month, F-Notes: Facilitation for Quality.
Shawn Allen Pruchnicki, Assistant Professor of Practice
Prior role at Ohio State: Lecturer in the Center for Aviation Studies. An aviation safety expert and former pilot, he also spent 10 years as a captain with Comair Airlines and was extensively involved with both local and national safety work for the Air Line Pilots Association International (ALPA).
Research interests: He is focused in the area of safety/just culture, accountability and how these are operationalized in safety sensitive domains. Understanding socio-technical failure and using such understanding proactively is one goal.
Interesting fact: He was an assistant producer and on-screen participant in CNN Films’ documentary "Sole Survivor,” which examines stories of plane crash survival.
Materials Science and Engineering
Desmond Bourgeois, Assistant Professor
Prior company: Materials Specialist – Welding Engineer at ExxonMobil, where he served as a subject matter expert for large domestic and international projects, including Africa and South America.
Research interests: His background and interests are in non-destructive evaluation and fracture mechanics as applied to conventionally processed and additively manufactured materials.
Interesting fact: A true Buckeye, he completed his master’s and PhD in welding engineering at Ohio State.
Jonathan R. Brown, Assistant Professor of Practice
Prior role at Ohio State: Lecturer in the Department of Engineering Education
Research interests: His background is in modeling and simulation of polymer materials. He is also interested in how computational tools and potentially virtual reality can help students better understand STEM concepts.
Courses taught this year: Introduction to Engineering Materials (MATSCEN 2010) and Modeling and Simulation Lab II (MATSCEN 3321)
Hobbies: He likes to 3D print figures for board games and other interesting objects for his children.
David Dean, Professor
Prior role at Ohio State: Faculty in the Department of Plastic Surgery since 2013
Research interests: His research has led to the development of computer-aided design software for the additive manufacture (3D printing) of patient-specific inert and tissue engineered bone implants and surgical instrumentation. His research program currently includes custom polymeric, tissue engineered, bone implants as well as stiffness-matched (NiTi) and resorbable (Mg alloy) skeletal fixation.
Interesting fact: He directs the Osteo Engineering Laboratory, which focuses on providing tools for the surgical reconstruction or regeneration of skeletal structures.
Aeriel Leonard, Assistant Professor
Prior institution: NRC Postdoctoral Fellow, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C.
Research interests: Her research interest is in integrating advanced characterization techniques such as high energy X-ray diffraction microscopy and tomography with in-situ processing or deformation to build interesting fundamental relationships between processing, micro and macro structures and mechanical behavior in structural materials.
Courses taught this year: Mechanical Behavior of Materials (spring 2021)
Hobbies: Traveling – she has been to every continent besides Antarctica – and running her professional blog, AerielViews, which is aimed at professional students.
Knowlton School – Landscape Architecture
Michelle A. Franco, Assistant Professor
Prior institution: Program Director at The Richard Avedon Foundation in New York
Research interests: Her research commits interdisciplinary design practice to the project of justice. Drawing upon the traces of erasure embedded in the landscape and expanding the notion of ‘process-based’ endeavors, her research connects the institutional, ecological, and legal transformation of landscapes to the power of ritual, duration, and narrative.
Courses taught this year: Media 1 and The Hart Island National Monument Studio
Interesting fact: She is the founder of The Bureau of Contingent Lands and Waters, which seeks to research and reshape fringe landscapes in the borderland watersheds of North America.
Parker Sutton, Assistant Professor of Practice
Prior institution: He co-founded Present Practice, where he was Lead Instructor and Artist in Residence at the Overlook Field School in 2017 and 2018, and Artist in Residence at the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) in 2015.
Research interests: His research and teaching investigate how landscape aesthetics structure our relationship to the environment.
Interesting fact: His work has been published in numerous journals and magazines, including Bracket, LA+, Pidgin, and The Site Magazine, among others.
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Christopher Atkinson, Professor
Prior institution: Program director of Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) in the U.S. Department of Energy.
Research interests: As director of the Smart Mobility Program, he will work to enhance Ohio State’s existing research centers and institutes in the mobility sciences, including the Center for Automotive Research and Transportation Research Center, the Center for Urban and Regional Analysis, the Campus Transit Lab and other mobility-related initiatives, and will collaborate with industry partners to increase corporate, foundation, state and federal partnerships.
Interesting fact: Founder of Atkinson LLC, a company specializing in engine control and calibration, fuel efficiency optimization and emissions reduction.
Jim Free, Professor of Practice
Prior institution: NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., as the deputy associate administrator in its Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.
Role at Ohio State: As director of the Center for Aviation Studies, Free will pilot Ohio State’s aviation education activities, which encompass students in the Colleges of Engineering, Arts & Sciences and Business.
Interesting fact: A native of northeast Ohio, he earned his bachelor’s degree in aeronautics from Miami University in Ohio, and his master’s in space systems engineering from Delft University in the Netherlands.
