September 15, 2022
Welcome to the 22-23 academic year! This week we officially recognized our new faculty at a hybrid orientation, introducing them to our college and to one another. As the first of our faculty cluster hire, we are excited for the new energy and interdisciplinary expertise they will bring to Drexel.  
 
As we greet new faculty, we thank our recent retirees for all of their service and dedication to the college and University: Jeffrey Beard (ELS), Trish Gallagher (CAEE), and John Speidel (CBE). We wish them all the best as they embark on the next phase of their personal and professional journeys. 
 
Coming up, we look forward to seeing you all at the college’s new Faculty Research and Advancement Series to take place on Tuesdays around lunch time starting this fall. Look for an announcement in the coming weeks.
 
Warm regards, 
Associate Dean, Faculty Advancement
News
Seven Faculty Members Earn Tenure, Promotion
Drexel Engineering is pleased to announce seven tenure-track promotions, effective September 1, 2022. Read more.
Named Professorship Amplifies Early Career Success
The PC Chou Assistant Professorship in Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics celebrates a pioneer in Drexel Engineering. Ahmad Najafi, PhD, is the new holder of the professorship. Read more.
Harris Joins Drexel Engineering as Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
He comes to Drexel after six years at Oregon State University, where he served as director of the Lonnie B. Harris Black Cultural Center.

Welcoming New Faculty
Four tenure-track and two non-tenure-track faculty join the College of Engineering this Fall as part of the newest wave of cluster hiring, which seeks to recruit highly interdisciplinary faculty who will catalyze collaboration across departments and colleges to address global issues. In all, 12 faculty will join from this group by Fall 2023.

Welcome to the newest faculty on campus! Read more.
Announcements
Welcome to the Faculty and Staff Newsletter

This newsletter marks the debut of Drexel Engineering News: Faculty and Staff Edition. This revised newsletter expands on the Research and Faculty Affairs newsletter and will include all the original content faculty and staff have come to expect, plus expanded sections to incorporate new information relevant to all employees, including new hires, facilities updates, DEI news, DSA-E information and business administration, to name a few. If you have an announcement to share with the faculty and staff of the College, you can submit it via our announcement submission form. We look forward to offering expanded coverage of the College in this edition.

Sabbatical Proposals for AY 23-24

A non-binding Sabbatical Intention to Apply Form for 2023-2024 should be submitted to Dean Sharon Walker and emailed to sabbaticals@drexel.edu by October 16, 2022. For more information, visit the Provost’s website or contact Dorilona Rose at dr62@drexel.edu.

Updates to the 21-22 FAR Process 

The Faculty Annual Review (FAR) process evaluating the 2021-2022 academic year will once again use Career Pathway for submission. Some updates have been made based on feedback from last year’s process, including longer lead time, the ability to include creative activity in addition to research and scholarship, and a new field for information that may not be captured elsewhere. The deadline for submission is October 7, 2022. Please see the Office of Faculty Advancement website for more detailed information about the submission process.

NSF Innovation Corps Hubs

The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the addition of five new NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps) Hubs that will scale the NSF-led National Innovation Network, accelerating the translation of discoveries into new solutions that benefit society. Drexel will join the Princeton-led I-Corps Hub Northeast Region and will provide experiential entrepreneurial training to faculty, staff, and graduate students across all fields of science and engineering. Thank you to everyone who made this possible, including PI Shintaro Kaido, faculty lead Dr. Caroline Schauer, and special thanks to Chad Morris for playing an integral role in this opportunity. You can learn more about I-Corps, the Hubs, and the participating institutions here
Congratulations

Gail Rosen, PhD, professor of electrical and computer engineering, is the recipient of an award from the National Institute of Standards and Technology for her project “Quantifying and Interpreting Computational Techniques for Somatic and Structural Variant Calling Using Validated Reference Samples.” This project will evaluate somatic variant calling algorithms for use in the Medical Device Innovation Consortium (MDIC) Somatic Reference Samples Project.
 
Nagarajan Kandasamy, PhD, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Anup Das, PhD, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, received an award from the National Science Foundation for their project “Software Infrastructure for Programming and Architectural Exploration of Neuromorphic Computing Systems.” This project aims to develop a software infrastructure that helps both end-users as well as developers of neuromorphic systems by allowing for machine-learning tasks to be mapped on to neuromorphic chips in the most efficient way possible and providing analysis, simulation, and synthesis tools that can be used to explore new chip designs to meet the needs of emerging machine-learning workloads. 
 
Ahmad Najafi, PhD, PC Chou Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Gail Rosen, PhD, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Jennifer Atchison, PhD, assistant teaching professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics, received an award from the National Science Foundation for their project “Awards to Increase Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Diversity.” The team seeks to enhance enrollment, retention, academic performance, and graduation rates for low-income academically talented students, with a focus on those pursuing baccalaureate degrees in the mechanical engineering and mechanics and electrical and computer engineering departments at Drexel, while engaging in special efforts to attract female and underrepresented minority students to apply to be scholarship recipients. 
Seen and Heard
Yury Gogotsi, PhD, Distinguished University and Bach Professor in materials science and engineering, was mentioned in Sept. 3 stories in the Columbia Business Report (South Carolina) and Aiken Standard (South Carolina), about his work with Savannah River National Laboratory on a U.S. Department of Energy effort to develop new way to produce and store hydrogen as a source of clean energy.

Charles Haas, PhD, LD Betz professor of Environmental Engineering, was quoted in an Aug. 26 Philadelphia Inquirer story about the rollout of the city's new program to test wastewater as a way to monitor for viral surges.

Simi Hoque, PhD, associate professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering, was quoted in an Aug. 28 Inside Climate News article about annual U.N. climate talks and the possibilities for climate adaptation tools in cities like Philadelphia.

Christopher Sales, PhD, associate professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering, was quoted in an Aug. 25 Patch article about new updates in the treatment of 'forever chemicals' in water.


Upcoming Events
Convocation Ceremony and Reception

Materials Fall Seminar Series With Dr. Charles Shroeder, University Of Illinois At Urbana Champaign

Dragon Jamboree
Funding Opportunities
NSF

Full Proposal Deadline: October 3, 2022

Full Proposal Deadline: October 11, 2022

Full Proposal Deadline: October 6, 2022

Full Proposal Deadline: October 11, 2022

Full Proposal Deadline: October 11, 2022

Full Proposal Deadline: November 10, 2022

Rolling Deadline

Rolling Deadline for SMALL Projects

Rolling Deadline

See DCL for more details regarding deadlines

See DCL for more details regarding deadlines

See DCL for more details regarding deadlines

See DCL for more details regarding deadlines

See DCL for more details regarding deadlines

See DCL for more details regarding deadlines

See DCL for more details regarding deadlines

Other Federal Agencies

Full Proposal Deadline: October 3, 2022

Other Sponsors

Full Proposal Deadline: October 1, 2022

Full Proposal Deadline: November 7, 2022

In the Know

NSF programs will stop accepting proposals via FastLane website in January 2023 with some programs stopping earlier. Please consult the tables linked here for additional information about the transition to Research.gov.

Drexel's Office of Postdoctoral Affairs and Professional Development is accepting applications for the Cotswold Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, which is opened to Drexel postdocs (including international postdocs). The deadline to apply is October 10, 2022 at 4:59pm. You can view more information about the Fellowship and apply here.

RFI Deadline: October 14, 2022

NSF is accepting applications for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students who are pursuing full-time research-based master's and doctoral degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) or in STEM Education. Please view the solicitation here for more information about the program and deadlines.