Meet Nebraska Engineering's new faculty

The UNL College of Engineering introduces its newest faculty members, including:

In the BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS ENGINEERING Department, Joe Luck,Ph.D., P.E., is an assistant professor and precision agriculture engineer. His Ph.D. in Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering is from the University of Kentucky. Jennifer Melander is a new extension assistant professor and biomedical engineer in BSE. Her interests are in biomedical engineering youth programs and STEM outreach; she advises the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) student chapter and is an instructor for BSEN 317: Introduction to Biomedical Engineering. She earned her Ph.D. in Oral Biology and Engineering from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, her master’s and bachelor’s degrees are from UNL. Derek Heeren is an irrigation engineer and assistant professor. His Ph.D. in Biosystems Engineering is from Oklahoma State University. He also works with the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Institute. Amy Schmidt is an assistant professor who holds a Ph.D. In Biological Engineering from Mississippi State University.

In the DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, George A. Hunt was hired as a lecturer. His Ph.D. in Civil Engineering is from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

Hongfeng Yu arrived as an assistant professor with the DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING. Yu’s research interests include visualization, high performance computing, and computer graphics. He completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of California at Davis. He also worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Calif.

The DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING hired Assistant Professor Liyan Qu. Qu earned her Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was most recently a lecturer with UNL EE and also worked as an engineer with Ansoft Corp. in Irvine, Calif.

In MECHANICAL & MATERIALS ENGINEERING, Sidy Ndao now serves as an assistant professor; he previously worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering is from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Benjamin Terry is an assistant professor; his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering is from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Sangjin Ryu is an assistant professor; his Ph.D. in Engineering is from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In THE DURHAM SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTION, Changbum Ahn is an assistant professor of construction management in Lincoln. He holds a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Ahn’s research focuses on sustainable construction processes. Yuebin Yu, assistant professor of architectural engineering, holds a Master of Science in Architectural Engineering from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and a Ph.D. in Building Performance and Diagnostics from Carnegie Mellon University. Yu’s research explores building performance and diagnostics in continuous commissioning, which complements the DSAEC emphasis on intelligent building systems.