COE Adds Six New Tenure-Track Faculty
The CSULB College of Engineering this fall welcomes six new tenure-track faculty, expanding teaching and research expertise into new technology areas.
The new faculty include:
Dr. Muhammad Abdul Basit Ur Rahim, Assistant Professor, Computer Engineering and Computer Science Department
Dr. Basit obtained his Ph.D. in Software Engineering from the National University of Science and Technology in Pakistan. Dr. Basit was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Montana Technological University in Butte from 2020-22. Dr. Basit was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Software and Information Systems at the University of North Carolina Charlotte from 2018-19. He has worked in the software development industry for more than 13 years.
Dr. Basit’s research focuses on formal modeling and analysis of industrial systems. His multidisciplinary research applies to industrial and cybersecurity systems to verify the design in earlier design phases. During his graduate studies, Dr. Basit developed a framework to automate the process of requirement specification, modeling, and analysis of real-time systems. Recently, he designed the protocols for moving target defense.
Dr. Anna Lee, Assistant Professor, Electrical Engineering
Prior to joining CSULB, Dr. Lee was an assistant professor at University of Minnesota. She completed postdoctoral fellowships in the Center for Nanoscale Materials and Chemical Science & Engineering divisions at Argonne National Laboratory, as well as at the University of Toronto’s Electrical Engineering Department after receiving her Ph.D. from that university.
Dr. Lee is a materials scientist specialized in solid state electronics, with a specific focus on designing and developing next-generation devices used in sensing and energy storage and conversion. Her latest patented, highly cited work is about developing fast-charging batteries, solar cells, membrane technology, and nanoscale plasmonic sensors.
Dr. Lee is passionate about sharing and contributing scientific knowledge through teaching and research. Her goal is to make an impact on her students’ academic journeys. Her long-term research objective is to discover fundamentally new concepts and devices that will lead to disruptive advances applicable to sustainable energy, environment, and sensing systems.
Dr. Tairan Liu, Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department
Dr. Tairan Liu obtained his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Louisiana State University in 2020. He held postdoctoral appointments at the University of Georgia (2020-21) and North Carolina State University (2021-22) before joining CSULB.
Dr. Liu’s research focuses on control theory, networked systems, and robotics. His research offers solutions to many real-world challenges via robot swarm automation and cooperation. Dr. Liu developed control algorithms for networked systems that can achieve better performance of robustness, efficiency, and flexibility than traditional approaches. The idea of networked systems can be applied to various fields, including manufacturing, construction, agriculture, environment monitoring, and transportation. Recently, his work on wearable robots seeks to complement or enhance human performance via human-robot interactions.
Dr. Maricela Maldonado, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Dr. Maldonado obtained her Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California, Riverside in 2016, and was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Translational Research and Cellular Therapeutics at City of Hope in the Arthur Riggs Diabetes and Metabolism Research Institute at City of Hope from 2017 to 2022.
Dr. Maldonado’s research focuses on developing polymeric scaffolds to control stem cell behaviors for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications. Her research applies a multidisciplinary approach to engineer cell-instructive biomaterials to generate functional cells/tissues. During her graduate studies, Dr. Maldonado developed distinct nanofibrous scaffolds to study the effects of microenvironment stiffness on pluripotent stem cell behaviors. Recently, she utilized a novel cell/tissue culture system to investigate the effects of dynamic stiffness during pancreas development.
Dr. Amr Morsy, Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering and Construction Engineering Management
Dr. Amr Morsy obtained his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2017. After his Ph.D., he worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at UT Austin in 2018, and as a geotechnical engineer from 2018-20. Later, he worked as a research associate in the School of Architecture, Building, and Civil Engineering at Loughborough University from 2020-22.
Dr. Morsy’s research focuses on transportation geotechnics, environmental geotechnics, and climate adaptation. As part of his experience, he conducted research in soil reinforcement, unsaturated soil mechanics, earth retention, embankments, and bridge abutments. During Dr. Morsy’s doctoral studies, his research focused on reinforced soil structures and geosynthetics applications in geotechnical engineering.
He developed new experimental approaches and equipment to evaluate the loading mechanisms involved in reinforced soil structures. His current work involves investigating the impacts of climate change on weather-driven deterioration of geotechnical infrastructure, where he develops numerical modeling approaches to simulate weather-driven processes and forecast infrastructure service life.
Dr. Mortaza Saeidi-Javash, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Dr. Mortaza Saeidi-Javash received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 2022. Dr. Saeidi-Javash was a recipient of a Prince Engineering Fellowship and Dehner Graduate Fellowship in Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. He has published several peer-reviewed articles on printed flexible electronics in journals such as Advanced Functional Materials, Advanced Materials, Advanced Science, and Nano Energy.
Dr. Saeidi-Javash’s research goal is to develop next-generation flexible electronics leveraging advanced materials and 3D printing technologies. During his graduate studies, he applied an interdisciplinary approach to develop flexible, high-performance, and low-cost thermoelectric devices for wearable applications using aerosol jet printing and ultrafast flash sintering. In addition. Dr. Saeidi-Javash developed 3D printed multifunctional sensors with integrated multiple sensing capabilities for structural health monitoring and human-machine interface applications.
