Department Updates

Bioengineering (BE)

The B.S. in Bioengineering program has obtained the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) accreditation. The newly accredited program extends retroactively from October 1, 2019 to September 30, 2027.

Dr. Alycen Wiacek joined the bioengineering and electrical and computer engineering faculty as Assistant Professor.

The B.S. in Bioengineering program was ranked #9 and #10 nationwide by College Factual and Climb the Ladder, based on data from the U.S. Department of Education and such metrics as graduation rate, average salary for graduates, accreditation, retention rate and cost.

Dr. Gerard Madlambayan and Dr. Luis Villa-Diaz were awarded $449,795 by NIH National Cancer Institute to support their project “The Role of Hematopoietic Stem and Progenitor Cells in Solid Tumor Growth and Response to Radiation Therapy,” starting in September 2023.

Yasmeen Hassan, SECS bioengineering student, was named the winner of the Interdisciplinary Research Award in the Undergraduate Biotechnology Division at the Sigma Xi International Forum in Research Excellence (IFoRE) conference in November 2022.

Krista Williston, SECS bioengineering student, was selected as one of the five undergraduate finalists at Society of Women Engineers WE Local Collegiate Competition for her submission "Genome Diversity in Ukraine and Romania" in the field of genomics and bioinformatics.

Computer Science and Engineering (CSE)

Dr. Marouane Kessentini, professor of computer science and engineering, was appointed the chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Dr. Makram Soui joined the CSE faculty as Visiting Assistant Professor.

Dr. Marouane Kessentini secured over 4.5M in artificial intelligence research funding and received two distinguished university awards:Oakland University Researcher of The Year and Oakland University Most Research Active Award Winner.

Dr. Khalid Malik was awarded $92,500 by the Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) Innovation Hub for Advanced Computing for his work on anti-deep fake technology and deep forgery detection.

Dr. Doug Zytko received $403,107 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support his project "Understanding Online-to-Offline Sexual Violence through Data Donation from Users" for the duration of 3 years. The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the Department of Psychology, and the School of Nursing.

Dr. Huirong Fu, principal investigator of OU's NSF CyberCorps® Scholarship for Service (SFS) grant, and Dr. Darrin Hanna, Dr. Lunjin Lu and Dr. Amartya Sen, co-principal investigators, were awarded $3,198,315 and $147,958 by NSF and National Security Agency respectively to fund SFS and Oakland University GenCyber Teacher Program 2021-2023.

CSE partnered with the University of Colorado-Boulder and Oregon State University to establish a collaborative research center, NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) for Pervasive and Personalized AI (PPI). Dr. Marouane Kessentini serves as the director of the OU site of the IUCRC.

Oakland University Artificial Intelligence Center (OUAI) was founded to facilitate interdisciplinary research and teaching environment. Dr. Marouane Kessentini serves as the director.

OU-IBM "AI and Supply Chain Analytics in Smart Manufacturing" training workshop took place at OU in March 2022, featuring various activities to access and curate data, using automated AI modeling tools, working with supply chain decision optimization systems and more advanced modeling capabilities.

In October 2022, CSE and OUAI hosted the 37th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering, a premier international research forum in software engineering.

OU’s B.S. in Information Technology was ranked 27th in in the nation by Intelligent — an editorially independent website that provides unbiased, fact-based information.

Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)

Dr. Osamah Rawashdeh, professor and chair, was named the recipient of the 2022 Oakland University Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award. The award recognizes the extraordinary efforts of individual faculty, who serve as mentors to OU graduate students, and their outstanding contributions to students' academic, intellectual and professional development.

Dr. Geoffrey Louie was awarded two separate grants for $1,550,000 and $74,804 by the Department of Defense (DOD) Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) and the University of Michigan GVSC DOD respectively to fund his research “Virtual Experimentation for Soldier Evaluation of Autonomous and Non-Autonomous Combat Vehicle Technologies Using Immersive Gaming Environments” and “A Virtual Spectator System for a Multi-User Video Game Environment.”

Dr. Jun Chen received $500,000 from NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program to fund his project "Reconfigurable and Predictive Control with Reinforcement Learning Supervisor for Active Battery Cell Balancing” for the duration of 5 years.

Dr. Subra Ganesan received a grant/ subcontract for the amount of $75,000 for a project titled "“Real time Mapping of space debris in GPS deprived area"- STTR phase 1.

The 29th Annual International Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition was held in June, 2022, with twenty five teams from around the world competing in Autonomous Navigation and Self Drive competitions.

ECE graduate student Matthew Bellafiare (advisor Dr. Osamah Rawashdeh), along with undergraduate students Timothy Mayer (Trine University) and Edward Corlett (Florida State University), was selected as the recipient of the Best Student Paper Award at the 2022 American Society for Engineering Education, North Central Section Conference for the paper entitled "Evaluation of Dead Reckoning Navigation for Underwater Drones using ROS."

ECE students Pourya Shahverdi, Madeline Trombly, Nathan Huang, Qinghua Chen and Jessica Korneder (advisor Dr. Geoffrey Louie) received the Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award for their publication “Robot-mediated Group Instruction for Children with ASD: A Pilot Study” in the 2022 IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication.

Connor Goetz, ECE’22, was named a recipient of the 2021-22 Cecil N. Coleman Medal of Honor, presented annually to the top male and female student-athletes, who demonstrate outstanding achievement in academics, athletics and extracurricular activities. Goetz also earned the Horizon League Post-Graduate Scholarship to continue his education at OU.

Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE)

Dr. Robert Van Til, Pawley Professor of Lean Studies and chair of the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, retired from OU. Dr. Vijitashwa Pandey, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering, was appointed as interim chair.

Sana Neji joined the ISE faculty as Special Instructor.

The 2023 reports from Intelligent.com, which provides unbiased research to help students make informed decisions about higher education programs, placed OU’s M.S. in Engineering Management fourth overall and Best for Product Lifecycle Management; M.S. in Industrial Engineering was ranked third overall and Best Evening Option.

The Pawley Lean Institute partnered with the Lean Learning Center and the Lean Lab housed in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department. The partnership includes a $60,000 pledge by the Lean Learning Center as part of the funding requirements for the Lean Lab.

Dr. Richard Olawoyin was named a U.S. Fulbright Scholar for 2022-2023.

Dr. Richard Olawoyin was appointed chair of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory (IDEA) Council at the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) to lead efforts to promote inclusivity, diversity and equity within ABET, its activities, its volunteer base and its accredited programs.

Dr. Richard Olawoyin was awarded 2021-2022 Charles V. Culbertson Outstanding Volunteer Service Award by the American Society of Safety Professionals. The award recognizes society members, whose services and activities have made a positive impact on the organization and led to measurable, significant and recognizable accomplishments.

Mechanical Engineering (ME) 

Dr. Marco Gerini-Romagnoli has joined the ME faculty as Assistant Professor.

Dr. Sayed Nassar was granted $730,00.00 by NSF to fund Oakland University Center for Composite and Hybrid Materials Interfacing.

Dr. Christopher Cooley received $321,479 from the Department of Defense Grants Awards to support his study "Damage-Induced Vibration in Planetary Gears.” This is a three-year project aimed to create a new predictive analytical framework for nonlinear dynamics in planetary gears with tooth root crack and surface pit damage.

Dr. Sergey Golovashchenko was awarded several grants from General Motors, Lubrizol Corporation, and NSF, totaling $136,0478.00, Among his upcoming projects are “Coefficient of Friction Evaluation for Forming” and Lubrizol testing and evaluation.

Dr. Ankun Yang received $315,000.00 from the NSF Major Research Instrumentation Program to acquire a Confocal Raman microscope for multidisciplinary research.

Dr. Chris Kobus made a number of appearances on TV shows, including WXYZ-TV7, to share his expertise on energy. He also received $108,000.00 from the State of Michigan and the University of Michigan to fund Earth System Science STEM camps, MICUP-HTech Jobs of the Future program, outreach and teacher training.

Dr. Qian (Beth) Zou was awarded SAE Fellow Membership. The SAE Fellow Membership designation is given to an elite group of professionals who have made a significant impact on the mobility industry through leadership, research, publishing, innovation, and volunteering.

College Factual ranked OU’s mechanical engineering bachelor graduates ninth in the highest salary category in the United States for 2022.

Sanjana Chintalacheruvu, Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering, was selected for the 2023 Society of Women Engineers leadership program, offered to the members interested in continuing their SWE leadership journey.

"Developing an Algorithm for Minimizing Steady State Engine Testing Time," written by recent graduates, Antonio Scalzi, ME’22, and Steven DeCoste, ECE’22, was selected as one of two winning projects in the 2022 American Society of Manufacturing Engineers ICE Forward Undergraduate Research Competition in the field of internal combustion engines, emissions systems, fuels and sprays, or carbon management.