College of Engineering

Faculty of Engineering Research

Faculty of College of Engineering have experiences and expertise ranging from working at National Labs, research labs, industry and other universities. The faculty in engineering, computer science and engineering technology are continuously working to engage other researchers and industry for new discoveries, innovations and providing the best opportunities for our graduate and undergraduate students. Tennessee Tech Centers of Excellence and our research laboratories provide in-depth and hands on research opportunities for students and industry partners.

College of Engineering faculty expertise by department:

Chemical Engineering

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Computer Science

Electrical and Computer Engineering

General and Industrial Engineering

Manufacturing and Engineering Technology

Mechanical Engineering

Research Centers

Civil and Environmental Engineering

» Daniel A. Badoe, Ph.D.

Professor, Transportation Engineering

Research Interests: Urban travel demand modeling; transportation data collection; travel behavior analysis.

931-372-3490 | dbadoe@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall (PRSC) 434 | Profile
» Steven Click, Ph.D., P.E.

Associate Professor, Transportation Engineering

Research Interests: Traffic signal design; timing; operations; and analysis; traffic signal system design; timing; operations; and analysis; non-traditional intersection design; operations; and analysis; non-traditional interchange design; operations; and analysis; highway traffic simulation modeling.

931-372-6464 | sclick@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall (PRSC) 350 | Profile
» L. K. Crouch , Ph.D., P.E.

Professor, Construction Materials

Research Interests: Construction materials; aggregates; portland cement concrete; flowable fill; bituminous materials.

931-372-3196 | lcrouch@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall (PRSC) 316 | Profile
» Tania Datta, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Environmental Engineering

Research Interests: Biological Wastewater Treatment Process and Design; Urban Water Quality Management; Environmental Microbiology; Bioenergy Production through Anaerobic Processes; Resource Recovery from Organic Waste Streams; Sustainable Decision Making; Role of Microorganisms in Natural Aquatic Ecosystems; Developing Low-Cost Technologies for Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries.

931-372-3446 | tdatta@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall (PRSC) 333 | Profile
» Craig Henderson, Ph.D., P.E.

Professor, Structural Engineering

Research Interests: Masonry; concrete and steel testing and design; structural dynamics and earthquake engineering; computational structural modeling.

931-372-3062 | chenderson@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall (PRSC) 417 | Profile
» Tim Huff, Ph.D., P.E.

Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Earthquake engineering; seismic design of structures; ground motion selection and modification for structural analysis; nonlinear analysis of structures in practice; seismic isolation; bridge design.

931-372-3605 | thuff@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall (PRSC) 424 | Profile
» Sharon Huo, Ph.D., P.E

Associate Provost, Professor of Structural Engineering

Research Interests: Structural analysis; reinforced concrete design; prestressed concrete design; structural steel design; bridge design.

931-372-3463 | xhuo@tntech.edu | Derryberry Hall (DBRY) 204 | Profile
» Alfred Kalyanapu, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Water Resources

Research Interests: Climate impacts; computational hydraulics and hydrology; hydraulic/hydrologic modeling urban water management; regional scale flood modeling and simulation.

931-372-3561 | akalyanapu@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall (PRSC) 334 | Profile
» Jane Liu, Ph.D.

Professor, Structural Mechanics

Research Interests: Composite materials; vibration analysis; plates & shells; computational mechanics symbolic computer systems in engineering applications; computational algebraic geometry in nonlinear structural analysis.

931-372-3256 | jliu@tntech.edu | Prescott Hal (PRSC) l 432 | Profile
» Benjamin Mohr, Ph.D., P.E.

Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Associate Professor of Construction Materials

Research Interests: Durability; microstructure; and chemistry of cement-based materials; early-age behavior of cement and concrete; fiber-reinforced concrete; supplementary cementitious materials.

931-372-3454 | bmohr@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall (PRSC) 216 | Profile
» Guillermo Ramirez, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Structural Mechanics

Research Interests: Theoretical and computational mechanics; mathematical formulation and corresponding computer implementation to describe the electro-mechanical behavior of solids under different types of environments.

931-372-3261 | gramirez@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall (PRSC) 415 | Profile
» Daniel VandenBerge, Ph.D., P.E.

Associate Professor, Geotechnical Engineering

Research Interests: Rapid drawdown analysis; behavior of compacted clays; fully softened shear strength; levee seepage; dam failures; geotechnical reliability analyses; sustainable earth structures; engineering education.

931-372-3257 | dvandenberge@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall (PRSC) 332 | Profile
» Lenly Weathers, Ph.D., P.E.

Associate Professor, Environmental Engineering

Research Interests: Transport of pollutants in the environment; transformation of chlorinated compounds; oxidized metals and other pollutants in anaerobic environments in the presence of metallic iron.

931-372-6539 | lweathers@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall (PRSC) 339 | Profile

Chemical Engineering

» Pedro Arce, Ph.D.

University Distinguished Faculty Fellow, Professor of Chemical Engineering

Research Interests: Nanostructured materials-with functional performance; micro- and nano-flows in biophysical systems; environmental catalysis; engineering education.

931-372-3297 | parce@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall (PRSC) 207 | Profile
» Bahman Ghorashi, Ph.D.

Professor of Chemical Engineering

Research Interests: Agile manufacturing; rheology and non-newtonian fluid flow; blockchain technology and its applications in chemical industry; m2m communication and logistics; leadership in higher.

931-372-6921 | bghorashi@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall (PRSC) 422 | Profile
» Robby Sanders, Ph.D.

Interim Chair of Chemical Engineering; Associate Professor

Research Interests: Bio-assay development; drug delivery; wound healing.

931-372-3494 | rsanders@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall (PRSC) 311 | Profile

Computer Science

» Gerald Gannod, Ph.D.

Chair of Computer Science; Stonecipher Distinguished Professor

Research Interest: Software engineering; agile software development; agile instruction; enterprise computing; mobile computing; data science; analytics; and machine learning.

931-372-6855 | jgannod@tntech.edu | Bruner Hall 242 | Profile | Website
» Doug Talbert, Ph.D.

Interim Director, CEROC; Associate Chair for Computer Science; Professor

Research Interest: Machine learning; data mining; medical informatics; and usability.

931-372-6178 | dtalbert@tntech.edu | Bruner Hall 234 | Profile
» William Eberle, Ph.D.

Interim Assistant Dean of Graduate Education for the College of Engineering; Professor

Research Interests: Data mining; graph-based anomaly detection; and fraud detection.

931-372-3278 | weberle@tntech.edu | Bruner Hall 235 | Profile | Webpage
» David Elizandro, Ph.D.

Professor

Research Interests: Institutional leadership; strategic planning; systems integration and effectiveness.

931-372-3386 | delizandro@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall 323 | Profile
» Sheikh Ghafoor, Ph.D.

Professor

Research Interests: Parallel and distributed computing; high performance computing; programming model for heterogeneous high-performance computing environment.

931-372-3687 | sghafoor@tntech.edu | Bruner Hall 429 | Profile
» Michael Rogers, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Research Interests: GPGPU computing; distributed computing; distributed shared memory; operating systems; and network protocols.

931-372-6304 | mrogers@tntech.edu | Bruner Hall 427 | Profile
» Anthony Skjellum, Ph.D.

Professor

Research Interest: High-Performance Computing (MPI, scalable libraries, and
heterogeneous computing, and cybersecurity (with emphases on loT and
blockchain technologies).

931-372-6484 | askjellum@tntech.edu | Bruner Hall 431
» Amr Hilal, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Research Interests: Wireless networking, internet of things, machine learning, federated
learning

931-372-3253 | ahilal@tntech.edu | Bruner Hall 233
» Michael Rogers, Ph.D.

Associate Professor Research Interests: GPGPU computing; distributed computing; distributed shared memory; operating systems; and network protocols.

931-372-6304 | mrogers@tntech.edu | Bruner Hall 427 | Profile
» Muhammad Ismail, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Research Interests: Cyber-physical security; networking; smart grids; blockchain; resource
allocation; machine learning; optimization; stochastic modeling.

931-372-6287 | mismail@tntech.edu | Bruner Hall 333 | Profile
» Amani Altarawneh, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Cybersecurity, formal methods and simulation analysis, smart cities & loT,
computer network security, and blockchain technology & consensus algorithms.

931-372-3096 | aaltarawneh@tntech.edu | Bruner Hall 232

Electrical and Computer Engineering

» Ali T. Alouani

Professor

Research Interest: Autonomous robots, Internet of Things (IoT), driverless vehicle, intelligent control systems, mechatronics systems, health monitoring, learning systems, sensor data fusion.

931-372-3383 | aalouani@tntech.edu | Brown Hall 333 | Profile | Website
» Jeffrey R. Austen

Associate Professor

Research Interest: Signal processing; communication systems.

(931)372-3485 | jausten@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall 440 | Profile
» Indranil Bhattacharya

Professor

Research Interest: High-efficiency solar cells; high-energy-density sodium and lithium-ion batteries; wireless power transfer; semiconductor electronics; photonics and optics; electromagnetics.

931-372-3352 | ibhattacharya@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall 440A | Profile | Website
» J. W. Bruce

Professor

Research Interest: Data converter architectures; embedded and cyber-physical systems design; quantum computing logic systems; integration of unmanned aerial vehicles in the national airspace; engineering education.

931-372-3453 | jwbruce@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall 450 | Profile
» Lori Bruce

Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs; Professor

Research Interest: Remote sensing; image analysis; artificial intelligence; data analytics; hyperspectral imaging and precision agriculture.

931-372-3224 | lbruce@tntech.edu | Derryberry Hall 204 | Profile
» Nan Chen

Assistant Professor

Research Interest: Smart grids; mobile vehicle-to-grid technique; next-generation wireless and resource management for vehicular communication.

931-372-3349 | nchen@tntech.edu | Brown Hall 334 | Profile
» Tarek Elfouly

Associate Professor

Research Interest: Structural health monitoring (SHM) using wireless sensor networks (WSNs).

931-372-3847 | telfouly@tntech.edu | Brown Hall 210| Profile
» Syed Hasan

Professor

Research Interest: Artificial intelligence for edge computing; edge intelligence; security threats in deep learning architectures; Internet of Things'; vulnerabilities against hardware based attacks; machine learning algorithms on hardware.

931-372-3462 | shasan@tntech.edu | Brown Hall 319 | Profile | Website
» Allen MacKenzie

Associate Dean of Research and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Research Interest: Wireless communications and networking; dynamic spectrum access systems and spectrum policy; cognitive radio and cognitive networks; applications of game theory and auction theory; error control coding.

931-372-3397 | amackenzie@tntech.edu | Brown Hall (BRWN) 217 | Profile
» Satish Mahajan

Director of the Center for Energy Systems Research (CESR); Professor

Research Interest: Optoelectronics (lasers; solar cells; optical fibers); electromagnetics; wireless charging of EVs; sensors; renewable energy.

931-372-3875 | smahajan@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall 231 | Profile
» Mohamed Mahmoud

Professor

Research Interest: Security & privacy in smart grid, vehicular ad hoc network (VANET), and cloud applications.; secure/privacy-preserving machine learning models.; blockchain; cryptography and machine learning.

931-372-3677 | mmahmoud@tntech.edu | Brown Hall 331 | Profile | Website
» Joseph O. Ojo

Professor

Research Interest: Electric machine analysis and design; adjustable; speed motor drives; power electronic convertors; control theory applied to power electronics and power systems, power systems economics and deregulation issues.

931-372-3869 | jojo@tntech.edu | Brown Hall 323 | Profile
» Ghadir Radman

Professor

Research Interest: Smart grid; Integration of renewable energy sources; Power system operation/control.

931-372-3520 | gradman@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall 433 | Profile
» Syed Ali Asad Rizvi

Assistant Professor

Research Interest: Control theory; reinforcement learning; autonomous systems; cyber-physical systems; facilities planning and material handling; freight modeling and logistics; microalloying and mechanical behavior; modern manufacturing systems; optimization and simulation modeling; production planning and control.

931-372-3450 | srizvi@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall 440B | Profile
» Charles Van Neste

Assistant Professor

Research Interest: Energy generation and transmission; wireless and quasi-wireless power transfer; high frequency inverter design; electronic instrumentation; electromagnetic interactions.

931-372-3682 | cvanneste@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall 407 | Profile
» Kumar Yelamarthi

Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for the College of Engineering; Professor

Research Interest: Hardware assisted security; vehicular ad hoc network (VANET); security & privacy in vehicle communication; federated machine learning; engineering education.

931-372-3172 | kyelamarthi@tntech.edu | Clement Hall 201 | Profile

General and Industrial Engineering

» Kristine Craven

Associate Professor

Research Interest: Teaching and learning strategies; student success and retention; first year engineering programs.

931-372-6027 | kcraven@tntech.edu | Clement Hall (CLEM) 318 | Profile
» Mazen Hussein

Associate Professor

Research Interest: Freight modeling and logistics; facilities planning and material handling; optimization and simulation modeling; production planning and control; reverse logistics and recycling; modern manufacturing systems; microalloying and mechanical behavior.

931-372-3827 | mhussein@tntech.edu | Clement Hall (CLEM) 320 | Profile
» John Tester

Associate Professor

Research Interest: Manufacturing for design (M4D); additive manufacturing.

931-372-6796 | jtester@tntech.edu | Clement Hall (CLEM) 316 | Profile
» S. Michael Wells

Assistant Professor

Research Interest: Website development; global engineering communication; assisting international students in acclimating to American culture.

931-372-3829 | mwells@tntech.edu |Clement Hall (CLEM) 326 | Profile
» Christopher Wilson

Chair of General and Industrial Engineering; Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Research Interest: Composite materials testing; materials properties; simulation.

931-372-3216 | chriswilson@tntech.edu | Clement Hall (CLEM) 321 | Profile

Mechanical Engineering

» Steve Anton

Associate Professor

Research Interests: Energy harvesting; smart materials; piezoelectric sensing; biomedical sensing; robotics-based stem education; structural health monitoring; 3D printing.

931-372-3287 | santon@tntech.edu | Brown Hall (BRWN) 328 | Profile
» Stephen Canfield

Professor

Research Interests: Robotics; dynamic modeling; compliant mechanisms; smart actuators; mechatronics.

931-372-6359 | scanfield@tntech.edu | Brown Hall (BRWN) 304 | Profile
» Pingen Chen

Associate Professor

Research Interests: Modeling and control of engine; emission control; automated and connected vehicles; electric vehicle control and optimization; nonlinear control and optimization.

931-372-3310 | pchen@tntech.edu | Brown Hall (BRWN) | Profile
» Jie Cui

Associate Chair of Mechanical Engineering; Professor

Research Interests: Computational fluid dynamics; turbulence modeling; large eddy simulation; numerical heat transfer; thermal fluids.

931-372-3357 | jiecui@tntech.edu | Brown Hall (BRWN) 231 | Profile
» Ethan Languri

Associate Professor

Research Interests: Heat transfer study of functionalized nanodiamond colloids; latent thermal energy storage systems; sustainable evaporation in porous media; industrial equipment energy efficiency enhancement; heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

931-372-6790 | elanguri@tntech.edu | Brown Hall (BRWN) 240 | Profile
» Sally Pardue

Associate Professor

Research Interests: Random vibrations; modal analysis; non-destructive evaluation; machine design.

931-372-3309 | spardue@tntech.edu | Brown Hall (BRWN) 329 | Profile
» Mohan Rao

Chair of Mechanical Engineering; Professor

Research Interests: Vibrations; acoustics; noise control; damping design; sound quality and auditory engineering.

931-372-3254 | mrao@tntech.edu | Brown Hall (BRWN) 232 | Profile
» Rory Roberts

Associate Professor

Research Interests: transient model for propulsion; power and thermal systems for system design; optimization and control architecture development.

931-372-3260 | rroberts@tntech.edu | Brown Hall (BRWN) 312 | Profi
» Joseph Slater

Dean of the College of Engineering; Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Research Interests: Vibration of structures and machines; aeroelasticity; linear and nonlinear system identification; experimental modal analysis; nonlinear dynamics; cyber physical systems; morphing wing control; turbomachinery blade vibration.

931-372-3172 | jslater@tntech.edu | Clement Hall (CLEM) 201 | Profile
» Ahmad Vaselbehagh

Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Turbulence and vortex dynamics; renewable energy generation; energy storage: atmospheric flows; fluid-structure interactions.

931-372-6468 | avaselbehagh@tntech.edu | Brown Hall (BRWN) 322 | Profile
» Chris Wilson

Chair of General and Industrial Engineering; Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Research Interest: Composite materials testing; materials properties; simulation.

931-372-3216 | chriswilson@tntech.edu | Clement Hall (CLEM) 321 | Profile
» Peng Zhang

Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Computational fluid dynamics; experimental fluid and solid mechanics; fluid-structure interactions; multi-functional materials; optimal design

931-372-3323 | pzhang@tntech.edu | Brown Hall (BRWN) 329 | Profile
» Ying Zhang

Director of the Center for Manufacturing Research; Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Research Interests: Protective coatings; high-temperature materials; thermal barrier coatings (TBC); chemical vapor deposition (CVD).

931-372-3969 | yzhang@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall (PRSC) | Profile
» Jiahong (John) Zhu

Professor

Research Interests: Solid oxide fuel cell; high-temperature materials; coatings; environmental effects in advanced materials; intermetallics.

931-372-3186 | jzhu@tntech.edu | Brown Hall (BRWN) 116 | Profile

Manufacturing and Engineering Technology

» Ismail Fidan

Professor

Research Interest: Additive manufacturing; smart manufacturing; electronics manufacturing; stem education and distance learning/remote laboratories.

931-372-6298 | ifidan@tntech.edu | Lewis Hall (LEWS) 103 | Profile
» Duckbong Kim

Associate Professor

Research Interest: Advanced manufacturing, wire + arc additive manufacturing (WAAM), metal big area additive manufacturing (mBAAM), data analytics, machine vision, high temperature alloys, and high entropy alloys (HEAs).

931-372-3227 | dkim@tntech.edu | Lewis Hall (LEWS) 111A | Profile
» Fred L. Vondra

Chair of Manufacturing and Engineering Technology; Professor

Research Interest: Metal casting processes; foundry tooling materials; industrial maintenance.

931-372-3263 | fvondra@tntech.edu | Lewis Hall (LEWS) 107 | Profile

Research Centers

Center for Energy Systems Research

» Satish M. Mahajan, Ph.D.

Director of the Center for Energy Systems Research (CESR); Professor

Research Interests: Optoelectronics (lasers; solar cells; optical fibers); electromagnetics; wireless charging of EVs; sensors; renewable energy.

931-372-3875 | smahajan@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall 231 | Profile
» Ali Arzani, Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Grid-Friendly, Smart, and Intelligent Control of Inverter-Based Resources; Transmission Planning with EMT Software; Real-Time Simulations and HIL Studies; Active Distribution Networks

931-372-3653 | aarzani@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall 438 | Profile

Center for Manufacturing Research

» Ying Zhang, Ph.D.

Director of the Center for Manufacturing Research; Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Research Interests: Protective coatings; high-temperature materials; thermal barrier coatings (TBC); chemical vapor deposition (CVD).

931-372-3969 | yzhang@tntech.edu | Prescott Hall (PRSC) | Profile
» Terry Guo, Ph. D.

Research Assistant Professor

Research Interests: NextG wireless communication & networking; Data & information science (data science, information theory, detection & estimation theory, signal processing, sensing, etc.); Industrial IoT & secure smart manufacturing

931-372-3102 | nguo@tntech.edu | Clement Hall 401 | Profile

Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach Center

» Doug Talbert, Ph.D.

Interim Director of the Cybersecurity Education, Research and Outreach Center; Associate Chair for Computer Science; Professor

Research Interest: Machine learning; data mining; medical informatics; and usability.

931-372-6178 | dtalbert@tntech.edu | Bruner Hall (BRUN) 234 | Profile

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