The College of Engineering welcomed 13 new faculty members for the 2026-27 academic year as classes began Aug. 24, continuing a decade‑long period of growth that includes 113 new faculty hires.
This year’s cohort adds strength across research, teaching, and industry partnerships, reflecting the college’s commitment to expanding opportunities for students and advancing Nebraska’s workforce in engineering, computing and construction.
Among the new arrivals is James Stine, who now serves as chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Formerly the Joullian Endowed Chair at Oklahoma State University, Stine is widely recognized for his contributions to VLSI design, computer arithmetic, and the development of open‑source hardware ecosystems. His leadership of multi‑institutional research collaborations and his direction of high‑productivity chip‑design groups demonstrate a strong history of academic management and team building.
The new faculty members include:
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department
- Kacey Beddoes, research assistant professor, investigates sociocultural dimensions of engineering education, including gender, mental health, and interdisciplinary teamwork in engineering pathways. As a research faculty
- Jiachao Liu, assistant professor, studies connected and automated transportation systems, using dynamic network modeling, optimization, and machine learning to understand and improve urban mobility. His work examines how vehicles, infrastructure, and algorithms interact to create safer, more efficient, and more resilient transportation networks.
- Chenzhi Ma, assistant professor, conducts research in structural fire engineering and multi‑hazard resilience, analyzing how buildings and communities respond to extreme thermal and mechanical loads. His research includes advanced simulation, wildland–urban interface fire modeling, and strategies for improving structural performance under increasingly complex environmental risks.
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
- Quan Luu, assistant professor, focuses on soft robotic sensing and multimodal perception, developing visuotactile systems and embodied‑AI approaches that allow robots to interact safely and adaptively with complex environments. His work integrates materials, machine learning, and manipulation strategies to advance next‑generation human‑robot interfaces.
- James Stine, department chair and Jim and Gail Anderson Professor of Engineering, joins the college after serving as Edward Joullian Endowed Chair in Engineering and Professor at Oklahoma State University. Stine’s research spans a wide range within VLSI design and computer arithmetic, from foundational work on accurate function approximation and floating‑point architectures to cutting‑edge open‑source chip‑design ecosystems. His portfolio includes influential contributions to memory architectures, digital circuit and system design, and application‑specific integrated circuit methodologies, reflecting a career defined by technical depth and broad impact across modern integrated‑circuit engineering.
- Renato Amorim Torres, assistant professor, has research experience spanning high‑performance electric drives, advanced motor‑drive control, and wide‑bandgap power‑electronics systems. As a senior researcher at General Motors R&D, he broadened that expertise into electric‑vehicle propulsion research, contributing to next‑generation integrated motor‑drive technologies and high‑efficiency energy‑conversion systems.
Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department
- Mohammad Charara, assistant professor, investigates mechanical metamaterials and architected structures, exploring how lattice geometry, wave propagation, and multiscale mechanics can be engineered to create materials with programmable responses; his research blends theory, simulation, and fabrication to push the boundaries of structural performance and dynamic control.
- Rakesh Karunakaran, research assistant professor, focuses on advanced additive manufacturing and hybrid materials processing, studying microstructure evolution, residual stress behavior, and reactive material systems; his work integrates design, modeling, and experimental methods to improve the performance and reliability of next‑generation manufactured components.
- Matthew Norris, assistant professor, focuses on engineering education through studies of student learning, instructional practice, and conceptual development, using simulation tools, classroom interventions, and assessment methods to understand how engineering students build knowledge and how teaching strategies can be improved across STEM disciplines.
School of Computing
- Anurata Prabha Hridi, assistant professor of practice in both the School of Computing and the Jeffrey Raikes School of Computer Science and Management, explores machine learning for education, focusing on privacy‑preserving analytics, federated learning, and human‑centered computing approaches that improve how learning data is collected, interpreted, and used. Her research aims to create equitable, secure, and effective digital learning environments.
- You-Jin Kim, assistant professor, researches augmented and mixed reality, spatial interaction, and neuro‑interactive systems, creating immersive experiences that blend human cognition, AI, and digital environments. Her work includes EEG‑based interfaces, human‑AI collaboration, and new modalities for engaging with virtual and physical spaces.
- Bhaskar Vundurthy, assistant professor, specializes in multi‑agent planning and control, applying game theory, computational geometry, and autonomous‑systems design to problems involving coordination, safety, and decision‑making. His work spans academic research and industry applications, including algorithm development for robotics and intelligent systems at MathWorks.
Master of Engineering Management Program
- Carlo Ciliberti, professor of practice, brings more than 35 years of engineering management leadership to his new role, drawing on senior automation and engineering management experience at Kenvue/Johnson & Johnson, extensive project‑engineering work in defense and renewable‑energy sectors at Lockheed Martin, and a career shaped by intrapreneurship, systems engineering, and industry‑driven innovation.
