Junjie Niu awarded STEM Forward’s Engineer of the Year

Junjie Niu, Richard & Joanne Grigg associate professor of materials science and engineering, was named the 2023 STEM Forward Engineer of the Year. The award recognizes outstanding contributors to the engineering profession from the greater Milwaukee area.  

STEM Forward is a Milwaukee-based non-profit organization that inspires youth to pursue STEM careers. Past winners have helped raise the visibility of the profession in the region while serving as role models. The award recognizes a UWM faculty member for the second year in a row. Wilkistar Otieno, associate professor of industrial engineering, was named in 2022.

Niu will receive the award Feb. 13 at the organization’s annual Celebration of STEM banquet. 

Niu’s research focuses on materials for next-generation batteries, battery and polymer recycling, and the water-energy nexus which includes self-cleaning and water purification materials. These are topics that relevant to preparing students to meet the ever-increasing demand for engineers in the renewable energy and energy storage fields. 

He is a productive researcher who has more than 90 papers published in peer-reviewed journals and is highly cited by other scientists. He holds two U.S. patents. 

Niu has received several millions of dollars research funding from federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, and local industries, such as Johnson Controls, Milwaukee Tool, SSI Technologies, A.O. Smith, Badger Meter and Sloan Valves. Through these projects, he is helping manufacturers in the Milwaukee area improve their capability in the rapidly increasing areas of energy storage and environment.

He devotes significant time to inspiring students and encouraging them to pursue careers in engineering and science. Through UWM’s Support for Undergraduate Research Fellows program, he recruits students to become involved in his lab’s research in paid positions. Also, by providing high school teachers with support and teaching materials, and offering summer experiences for high school students, he is attracting more students, particularly women and under-represented groups, to study at UWM. 

Niu has been funded by a number of grant awards, including a Richard & Joanne Grigg Associate Professorship in 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, a UWM Office of Research/ Foundation Research Award in 2020, and a Technology Licensing Award in 2018 from the UWM Research Foundation. He also won an Ignite Grant for Applied Research Award for 2020-2021, given by the Universities of Wisconsin. He has organized and chaired several international conferences in the STEM fields. 

Microsoft’s Satya Nadella named CEO of the Year for 2023 by CNN 

In a year fueled by artificial intelligence, CNN Business chose Microsoft’s Satya Nadella (’90 MS Computer Science) as its CEO of the Year for 2023, beating out Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. 

After making a multi-billion-dollar investment in AI last year, Nadella was the first to commercialize and add AI tools like ChatGPT into its product line, influencing the commercial direction of AI, according to the CNN judging panel. 

“There’s no question 2023 was the year of AI,” Nadella told CNN in an emailed response. “We’re no longer just talking about innovation in the abstract; we’re seeing real product-making, deployment and productivity gains. At the end of the day, though, this innovation will only be useful if it’s empowering all of us in our careers, in our communities, in our countries.” 

The CNN Business’ team of writers and editors began singling out a CEO whose executive performance stood out in 2018. Read more.

Wishing everyone happy holidays from the College of Engineering & Applied Science!

CS alum Ahmad Tafti lands a ‘Eureka Award’ from Oracle

Computer science alumnus Ahmad Tafti (’16 PhD; advisor: Zeyun Yu), who is now assistant professor of health informatics in the University of Pittsburgh, has received an Oracle Excellence Award for Research, one of several awards the company bestows on researchers in academic, commercial, and governmental settings. The honor recognizes a researcher who is using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to explore novel ways advance their fields and make the world a better place.

Tafti was honored for his work as director of the Pitt Health + Explainable AI (HexAI) Research Laboratory, which is assembling a large retrospective dataset on total joint arthroplasty (surgery), using medical images, scientific literature, and health-related social media.

The team is also building advanced AI models to address critical challenges in prognosis, diagnosis and treatment of joint disease as it relates to total knee and hip replacements.

Tafti serves as vice chair of the Pittsburgh Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society and also works with Pitt’s Center for AI Innovation in Medical Imaging.

Eleven students awarded scholarships from Foundry Educational Foundation

Eleven UWM students from the Materials Science & Engineering Department were recently awarded scholarships from the Foundry Educational Foundation (FEF).

One of the recipients, doctoral student Omid Ghaderi, was recognized with the organization’s competitive Thomas Begel Memorial Scholarship, given to one outstanding student each year.

The award was presented during the annual College Industry Conference which took place Nov. 17 in Chicago.

This event featured more than 100 students from 24 colleges and universities within FEF’s network, along with representatives from 40 companies.

A second scholarship winner, doctoral student Swaroop Kumar Behera, also has secured a one-year fellowship with backing from the organization. In addition to managing the College’s foundry lab, Behera has been actively involved in outreach to high school students. 

Other scholarship recipients include: Graduate students Kaustubh Rane, Masum Bellah, Mehran Zare, David Palmer, and Seyedeh Omranian, and undergraduates Gavin Schmer, Carol Martinez, Sara Huerta, and Setayesh Shalmani.

The FEF program at UWM plays a crucial role in assisting students with scholarships and job opportunities in the foundry industry. More than 200 UWM students have received FEF scholarships since UWM became an FEF-affiliated school in 1996. Pradeep Rohatgi serves as the FEF key professor.

The livestream of the Thomas Begel Memorial Scholarship award ceremony can be found here.

College’s water researchers dominate WEP funding

Five of the six research projects awarded funding from the Water Equipment and Policy Center (WEP) for 2024 are led by researchers at the College, says center director Qian Liao, professor of civil and environmental engineering.

WEP is a university-industry research collaboration, backed by the National Science Foundation, that focuses on creating new sensors and devices, novel materials, and innovative systems that aim to help the world manage its stressed water resources. Because regulations significantly affect the adoption of new technologies in the water industry, WEP has a policy component as part of its mission.

Ten faculty members in the College are currently involved the center. WEP’s industry advisory board selected these UWM projects:

  • Nathan Salowitz, $93,922
    “Embedded Ultrasonic Inspection of Water-Filled Equipment.” 
  • Junjie Niu, $50,000
    “Designing an electrochemical sensor for PFAS detection in water.”
  • Junjie Niu, $79,769
    “Portable biosensor to rapidly detect bacteria in water.”
  • Xiaoli Ma, Yin Wang and Shangping Xu, $75,000
    “Development of positively charged nanofiltration membranes for water softening: Phase 2.”
  • Pradeep Rohatgi and Ben Church, $99,957
    “Low-cost surface alloying of brass to improve corrosion resistance in chlorine and chloramine-rich environments.”

Brett Peters elected to 2024 International Directors of the SME Board of Directors

In November, Dean Brett Peters was named as an International Director of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. SME is dedicated to developing the partnerships and solutions that work to ensure North American manufacturing competitiveness, security and superiority on the global stage.

Peters brings UWM representation to a very large professional society. With members in 70 countries and a network of hundreds of chapters worldwide, SME influences more than half a million manufacturing engineers, executives and practitioners annually.

“We are thrilled to welcome this group of industry veterans to the team,” said Bob Willig, SME executive director and CEO. “Their thought leadership will produce remarkable advancements for North American manufacturing to drive competitiveness, resiliency and national security. With their expertise, we are confident that SME is positioned to accelerate the widespread adoption of manufacturing technology and build North America’s talent and capabilities. Our leadership team is dedicated to advancing manufacturing as a diverse, thriving and valued ecosystem.”

His two-year term begins in January 2024.

Petering project highlighted on TMJ4 news

image of Matthew Petering in his office

Industrial and manufacturing associate professor Matthew Petering uses his computer coding skills to solve complicated problems. Now, Petering has used that expertise to devise an algorithm he believes would take human bias out of the legislative redistricting process.

Read more

Graduate featured on UWM Report

Congratulations to Jose Antonio Trujillo Parra, who is featured in the UWM slideshow of students with job offers before graduation. Trujillo is receiving a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. During his time at UWM, he worked as an undergraduate research assistant and served as a student ambassador for the College. Trujillo has been hired at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, where he interned this year. Watch the video.

Cuzner lab partnership with local industry featured on WUWM

The College’s Center for Sustainable Electrical Energy Systems is teaming up with Badger Technologies Group, a Port Washington-based engineering firm, on a contract to produce and test a hybrid energy storage system for the Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. The system will make it easier to integrate renewable energy sources for the location, said Center Director Rob Cuzner, Richard and Joanne Grigg Associate Professor.

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