Three Engineering Faculty Win NSF Early CAREER Awards

Three teachers University of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) they have recently been awarded National Science Foundation (NSF) Early CAREER grants.

Xinwei MaoAssistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering; Shanshan Yao, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering; and Shubham JainAn assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science has combined $1.6 million for his research.

NSF Early CAREER awards are given to early-career faculty who show promise as researchers and educators, and are distinguished as emerging professionals poised to advance the mission of their academic departments.

“The NSF CAREER Award is one of the most prestigious awards an early-career faculty member can receive, and it recognizes the extraordinary cutting-edge research that takes place every day at CEAS and at Stony Brook,” said Jon Longtin, interim dean of the College. Engineering and Applied Sciences. “We are incredibly proud of our faculty achieving this distinction and are grateful for their contributions to the research enterprise within CEAS and their ongoing commitment to our students.”

Mao is a senior member of the group New York State Clean Water Technology Centerthe leader Center’s Phosphorus research initiatives. His CAREER research, “Next generation onsite wastewater treatment system for nitrogen management”, is to study the development and validation of biofiltration systems for nitrogen removal from next generation wastewater treatment systems (OWTS).

With this $559K grant, Mao will explore the development of novel soil biofilters for nitrogen removal based on a hybrid physical/chemical and biological treatment process that integrates biochar sorbents with anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) microbiomes. The proposed study is based on the results of previous studies, showing that anammox microbiomes play an important role in the conversion of nitrogen compounds into dinitrogen (N).₂) gas in soils, wetlands and marine/freshwater sediments.

“By receiving the prestigious CAREER Award, NSF is recognizing the importance of water pollution from wastewater systems and that Dr. Mao has proposed an innovative approach to researching effective and energy-efficient solutions,” said Rigoberto Burgueno, president. Department of Civil Engineering.

Read more about Mao’s research On the Civil Engineering website.

Yao was awarded $500K From NSF and the Division of Electrical, Communications, and Cybernetics Systems (ECCS) for its proposal, “Closing the Loop of Human-Machine Interactions via Skin-Like Multimodal Haptic Interfaces,” for research aimed at developing haptic interfaces that can generate signals. would be able to feel that skin. This exploration of haptic interface design will help to find out which feedback sensations are most effectively experienced on the skin.

The information gathered from this project will create a foundation for closed-loop human-machine interfaces and interactive user-machine applications. In addition, the project has the potential to improve robotics, prosthetics, teleoperation, smart manufacturing, entertainment, medical/military training, and virtual reality (VR)/augmented reality (AR) machinery. Once enough research has been done on this topic, students will be able to enter the diverse fields of haptic devices and nanotechnology.

Yao’s research is mainly in the areas of functional materials, smart structures, advanced manufacturing and soft electronics. Professor Yao’s research aims to provide new solutions and/or explore new applications through combined innovations in personal health, fitness tracking, rehabilitation, soft robotics and entertainment, materials engineering, mechanical design, and multi-scale manufacturing and integration.

“Dr. Yao’s award to support research in the development of skin sensors would be a major step forward in the current frontier of human-machine symbiosis and robotics and virtual reality research,” said Jeff Ge, Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. continues to grow as a leader in education.”

Jain will receive $550,000 over the next five years for the project,”Closed-loop health behavior interventions in multi-device environments“. Driven by the disruption of face-to-face medical care, increasing caregiver burden, and the challenges of remote health behavior monitoring, Jain’s research develops supportive interventions to respond to dynamically changing health behaviors. Wearable devices have become common among the general population and this research is an opportunity to navigate this complex ecosystem.

“My CAREER research has the potential to transform human health outcomes by capturing and responding to accurate behavioral information continuously, inexpensively, and unobtrusively,” said Jain.

Jain takes it PiCASSo (Pervasive Computing and Smart Sensing) Lab. His research interests are in cyber-physical systems, mobile health and data analytics in intelligent environments. His work on pedestrian safety has been featured in various media, including The Wall Street Journal.

“Shubham is an early-career faculty member of our department who is engaged in a number of research, education and outreach initiatives. This award will advance research in developing cyberphysical systems to solve fundamental real-world problems,” said Samir Das, Chair of the Department of Computer Science.

Read more about Jain’s award Informatics website.

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards to support early-career faculty who have the ability to act as academic role models and achieve breakthroughs in research and education. the mission of their department or organization. Activities undertaken by early career teachers should build a strong foundation for integrating lifelong leadership education and research.