New Faculty BACKUP

College of Engineering

New Faculty for 2010-2011

Biomedical Engineering Department

Ranu Jung

Ranu Jung Ranu Jung holds the Wallace H. Coulter Eminent Scholars Chair in Biomedical Engineering at FIU where she is professor and chair of the Biomedical Engineering Department. She joined FIU in 2011 from Arizona State University where she was founding co-director of the Center for Adaptive Neural Systems. Jung received her bachelor’s degree with distinction in electronics & communication engineering from the National Institute of Technology-Warangal in India and her master’s and doctorate degrees in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University. Jung’s transdisciplinary research interests are in neural engineering and computational neuroscience.  She is actively engaged in the development of biohybrid neurotechnology.

Civil and Environmental Engineering Department

Atorod Azizinamini	Atorod Azizinamini Atorod  Azizinamini is chair and professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Prior to joining FIU, he was the Distinguished College of Engineering Professor and director of the National Bridge Research Organization at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He is recognized nationally and internationally as a steel bridge expert. He is currently working with AASHTO and FHWA to develop and transfer the technology that will enhance service life of U.S. bridges, with the help of multi-million dollar funding, provided by TRB of national Academy of Sciences. Since joining FIU, he has established Center for Accelerated Bridge Construction (www.abc.fiu.edu) and has established very close working relationship with the FDOT in addressing the state’s technical needs with respect to steel bridges.
Lakshmi Reddi	Lakshmi Reddi Lakshmi Reddi recently became dean of the University Graduate School at FIU.   As the new dean, Reddi will provide leadership over all aspects of graduate education at FIU.  Reddi holds a Ph.D. in civil engineering from The Ohio State University.  Prior to joining FIU, he held the Gerry and Ruth Hartman Professorship and served as the chair of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering at the University of Central Florida.  Prior to UCF, Reddi was at Kansas State University for fifteen years where he headed the Department of Civil Engineering during 2000 – 2007. During his career at Kansas State University, he directed the Civil Infrastructure Systems Laboratory, served as the outreach director of the Midwest Hazardous Substance Research Center and as the interim director for the University Transportation Center.
Anna Bernardo-Bricker	Anna Bernardo-Bricker Anna Bernardo-Bricker joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at FIU as an instructor in August of 2010. Her research interests include: method development and quality assurance of air quality monitoring data, molecular characterization of aerosol particles, indoor air quality, and chemical factors that control indoor and ambient air quality. She graduated summa cum laude with a Licenciate in chemistry degree from the Universidad Simon Bolivar in 1987. In 1993 she earned a Master of Science in chemistry from the University of Miami. Her participation in the field of air quality began as a researcher at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, in 1993. She received her Ph.D. degree in civil engineering from Florida International University in 2008
Khokiat Kengskool	Khokiat Kengskool Khokiat Kengskool has recently joined the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at FIU as an instructor. Prior to joining CEE he was a tenured associate professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at FIU. His areas of interest include applied artificial intelligence, decision-making support systems and productivity enhancement for business and industry.  He has currently been a representative of the CEC for the international programs in Thailand. Kengskool earned his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in industrial engineering from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1986 and a master’s degree in engineering management from Missouri University of Science and Technology in 1976.  He received a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand in 1974.
Cora Martinez-Franklin	Cora Martinez Cora Martinez-Franklin is a mechanical engineer from Universidad Simon Bolivar, Venezuela, with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in civil engineering from FIU. Her dissertation research was in the field of computational modeling of rainfall-triggered mud and debris flows along irregular slopes.  She has been a faculty member and the undergraduate academic advisor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering since January 2010. She has also been a member of the faculty of Universidad Simon Bolivar, Venezuela, for 15 years.

Construction Management

Ayman Morad

Ayman Morad Ayman Morad has more than 30 years of experience in the construction industry as a practitioner and educator.  He received his B.Sc. degree in civil engineering from Kuwait University (KU) in 1982, an S.M. (masters) degree in civil engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1984, and a Ph.D. degree from Virginia Tech (VT) in 1990.  Morad is an expert in construction claims, planning, scheduling, contract administration, and financial management.  In 1990, Morad joined the FIU Department of Construction Management as an assistant professor.  He left the Department in 1997 to pursue his consulting career in the construction industry.  At the same time, he continued to teach in the department as an adjunct professor.  Last year, in 2010, Morad rejoined the Department as a full time faculty member.

Wallied-Orabi

Wallied Orabi Wallied Orabi holds a B.Sc. in civil engineering from Cairo University (1996), M.Sc. in construction engineering from the American University in Cairo (2004), and Ph.D. in civil engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2010).  Orabi joined the faculty of the Department of Construction Management in fall 2010.  He has over 15 years of professional experience in both academia and the construction industry.  Orabi’s research interests are in the areas of resilient and sustainable infrastructure systems, sustainable building construction, and optimization and decision support in construction.

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Sakhrate Khizroev

Sakhrat Khizroev Sakhrat Khizroev is an engineer and an educator with a research focus on nanotechnology applications. In 2011, he re-joined FIU as a tenured professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering to launch a new FIU Center for Nanomedicine. From 2006 to 2010, Khizroev was a tenured professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California, Riverside (UCR), where his group conducted several groundbreaking demonstrations in the area of nanoelectronics and nanodiagnostics. Khizroev received a B.S. in quantum electronics and applied physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, a M.S. in physics from the University of Miami, and a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1992, 1994, and 1999, respectively.

Faisal Kaleem

Faisal Kaleem Faisal Kaleem received his M.S. degree in electrical engineering from FIU in 1999 and is currently finishing his Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering. He joined FIU in 1998 and served as a lecturer in various departments. Currently, he is serving as an instructor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.  He is also a certified trainer with strong skills in computer networking, programming, database design, and information security. He currently holds various certifications in the above areas, including the Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP).  his research interests include network security, wired and wireless networks, neural networks, and fuzzy logic based systems.

Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Andres Tremante, Instructor

Andres Tremante was hired as part of the adjunct to instructor conversion program in 2010.  Tremante received both his B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering (M.E.) from Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela, and his Ph.D. from ENSAM in Paris, France.  He remained there for post-doctoral studies in multi-phase flow and pumping.  Tremante began his stint at FIU working as a senior research scientist with the Applied Research Center before moving to the Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department in 2009.  Prior to this he was professor and head of the Mechanical Energy Conversion Laboratory at Simon Bolivar University (Laboratorio de Conversión de Energía Mecánica. Universidad Simón Bolívar – USB).