Six World-Class New Faculty Join Ying Wu College of Computing for the 2023-2024 Academic Year
Ying Wu College of Computing (YWCC) is proud to formally announce the appointments of six new assistant professors who have joined the departments of Computer Science, Data Science and Informatics. They will begin their tenure as educators and researchers during a time of unprecedented growth for the college and NJIT, particularly in the area of enrollment, with a total of 4,581 YWCC students across all degrees entering the university for the fall semester. This accounts for 35% of NJIT total enrollment and marks an approximate 11% increase over the previous record-breaking year.
All new faculty bring a distinctive record of expertise to the classroom, providing students with an unparalleled, real-world experience that immediately responds to the most pressing issues facing the modern global ecosystem.
Collectively, their research has been published in leading scientific journals for professional organizations, such as IEEE and ACM, and span the intersection of human-computer interaction, Trustworthy AI, mobile and edge computing, cybersecurity and privacy, deep learning, and machine learning. Their innovations have influenced the next generation of assistive robots, self-driving cars, surveillance systems, healthcare and medicine, banking, smart home devices, socio-economic equity solutions and system security, and earned prestigious awards and recognitions from the aforementioned organizations as well companies such as Google, Qualcomm, IBM, and institutions including MIT, Johns Hopkins University and UC Irvine.
Ali Mili, interim dean of YWCC, said: "On behalf of YWCC, I extend a warm welcome to our new faculty, Akshay, Alisha, Kasthuri, Nathan, Shuai and Zhihao. I am delighted that they have chosen YWCC@NJIT to pursue their careers, and I pledge that our college will provide them with the best possible resources and conditions to enable them to succeed in their academic pursuits. They bring a great deal of talent, expertise and energy to our college, and I am confident that they will contribute significantly to raise its profile, impact and visibility."
Learn more about the newest members of the YWCC community:
Computer Science
Kasthuri Jayarajah – Assistant Professor (Ph.D., Singapore Management University)
Why is NJIT the right “fit” for you?
The push for diversity and the mission of ensuring upward mobility for all of its students makes NJIT feel like home for me. My own personal experiences coming from a humble background resonate well with NJIT's story and evolution.
What is one thing that you are most looking forward to during fall 2023
Meeting and getting to know a lot of students. I'm looking forward to sharing my research ideas with them and learning from them.
What do you expect to accomplish in your first year at NJIT?
I'm hoping to improve on my teaching skills through the courses I'm undertaking, kickstart my research with my first official Ph.D. student, and create a network of friends and colleagues at NJIT.
Briefly describe the focus of your research
My work explores solutions to real-world urban problems cutting across mobile and edge computing, applied machine learning, and human behavior understanding. Drawing on experiences from both system and human-centric aspects of technology, I'm contributing towards the burgeoning field of "Artificial Intelligence of (Collaborative) Things" where enabling lightweight sensing, processing and sharing of data across a multitude of "Internet of Things" devices is instrumental in realizing the next generation of practical systems ranging from assistive robots, self-driving cars and advanced surveillance systems.
What are some hobbies and pursuits away from your profession?
I've a 3-year-old daughter, and enjoy cooking and sewing with her.
Zhihao “Zephyr” Yao – Assistant Professor (Ph.D., University of California, Irvine)
Why is NJIT the right “fit” for you?
I was attracted by NJIT's strong commitment to technology innovation. NJIT's focus on practical computer research aligns well with my passion for system security, and NJIT's diverse and motivated student body is an ideal environment for research engagement.
What is one thing that you are most looking forward to during fall 2023
I'm particularly looking forward to teaching a graduate-level operating system class and mentoring my students. Being able to share my expertise in building operating systems and inspiring my students to get hands-on experiences is a highlight that I'm anticipating for fall 2023.
What do you expect to accomplish in your first year at NJIT?
In my first year, my primary goal is to establish a dynamic research group focused on tackling system security challenges. Along with my students, I plan to initiate collaborations with industry and academia researchers to design secure systems for the emerging computational needs, such as AI and blockchain.
Briefly describe the focus of your research
My research focuses on improving system security and trustworthiness. I co-invented a solution called "bowknots" that prevents unpatched vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel from being exploited by hackers. Recently, I designed and tested a new hardware solution (Split-Trust hardware) and operating system (OctopOS) that minimizes the need to trust hardware and system software for security-critical applications, such as banking and medical apps. This platform received the ACM MobiSys Best Artifact Award.
What are some hobbies and pursuits away from your profession?
I'm a passionate traveler who finds joy in landscape, driving and hiking, like my recent road trip from California to New Jersey exploring various national parks along the way. My college experience in media art sparked my interest in capturing my journeys through painting and photography.
Data Science
Akshay Rangamani – (Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University; Post-doctoral Associate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Why is NJIT the right “fit” for you?
NJIT’s diverse research program and the opportunity to collaborate within and outside the university (in the NYC area) make it attractive to me. The large and diverse student body – especially in the College of Computing – will surely be a source of enthusiasm and inspiration for me.
What is one thing that you are most looking forward to during fall 2023
Starting my own research group to investigate the foundations of modern machine learning.
What do you expect to accomplish in your first year at NJIT?
I hope to obtain external funding and recruit the best students to setup an interesting research group at NJIT.
Briefly describe the focus of your research
My broad research agenda is in the Science of Deep Learning. I’ve most recently worked on understanding deep networks – especially classifiers – by investigating the phenomenon of neural collapse.
What are some hobbies and pursuits away from your profession?
I enjoy biking, exploring the outdoors, basketball, and Carnatic (Indian classical) music. You can also convince me to watch nearly any sport with you.
Shuai Zhang – (Ph.D., Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
Why is NJIT the right “fit” for you?
NJIT encourages collaborative research and offers opportunities to work on cutting-edge projects
alongside experienced faculty members within the dynamic field of AI.
What is one thing that you are most looking forward to during fall 2023
Build collaborations and network. My research focuses on the theoretical and algorithm foundations of Artificial Intelligence (AI). I am hoping to collaborate with established researchers and scholars in their field and develop applications related to AI. I am hoping to build collaboration to lead to new insights for my research, expanded research opportunities in submitting joint research proposals, and a broader professional network.
What do you expect to accomplish in your first year at NJIT?
(1) My primary aspiration is to establish myself as an independent researcher and continually contribute high-impact papers that pioneer advancements in the realm of theoretical foundations of deep learning. (2) Excelling as an Instructor and Mentor, (3) Cultivating a diverse and collaborative research group.
Briefly describe the focus of your research
My research areas span deep learning, optimization, data science and signal processing, with an emphasis on learning theory – the design of machine learning algorithms – and the development of efficient and trustworthy AI. Challenges to effective AI implementation remain, however, such as the high cost of computation, the limited availability of high-quality labeled data, generalizability across domains, and the lack of transparency – the absence of explanations for how AI works, raising safety concerns in areas such as healthcare and autonomous control systems. We need to develop theoretical explanations of how AI works. I also create learning algorithms to reduce AI model complexity and the required number of training samples, improving the reliability and efficiency of AI systems in applications such as cyber-physical systems, computer vision and spatial-temporal data analysis. I have collaborated with the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center and the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab on scalable and trustworthy AI projects.
What are some hobbies and pursuits away from your profession?
Hiking, traveling, and video games.
Informatics
Nathan Malkin – Assistant Professor (Ph.D., UC Berkeley; Post-Doctoral Researcher, University of Maryland)
Why is NJIT the right “fit” for you
My research lies at the intersection of several fields — security, privacy, human-computer interaction — and I’m excited that NJIT has folks working in each of these areas, which means that I’ll have many opportunities for collaborating on research as well as new courses and educational programs.
What is one thing that you are most looking forward to during fall 2023?
In Spring 2024, I’ll be teaching NJIT’s first course focused on making security and privacy more usable. I’m already looking forward to interacting with students and helping them develop their own ideas about this important subject.
What do you expect to accomplish in your first year at NJIT?
I’ll be working on jump-starting my research program and building out my lab, so I’ll be looking for students at all levels — undergraduate, masters, and PhD — who are passionate about improving the world by making security and privacy more accessible to everyone.
Briefly describe the focus of your research.
The objective of my research is to prevent cybersecurity failures and help people manage their privacy; I do this by studying the role of human factors, from individuals’ cognitive constraints, such as the role of procrastination in delaying software updates, to organizational obstacles, including why administrators at large organizations struggle with the same task. I design systems to overcome these challenges and empirically validate their performance. I’ve proposed new ways, for example, for users to manage their smart home devices by eliminating confusing settings interfaces and instead relying on interpersonal norms, supported by technical checks and balances. My goal is to inform and improve the technology decisions made by users, system designers and operators, and policymakers.
What are some hobbies and pursuits away from your profession?
I enjoy hiking and try to spend as much time as I can outdoors. When I’m there, I also try to practice my photography and contribute to open-source mapping efforts.
Alisha Pradhan – Assistant Professor (Ph.D., University of Maryland)
Why is NJIT the right “fit” for you?
The interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of research at YWCC’s Department of Informatics made me feel it’d be a good home for the kind of work I do. I see several opportunities to collaborate within the department and the broader College of Computing and extend current research through my work at the intersection of human-centered computing, aging, and accessibility. Close proximity to NYC offers me the ability to partner with local organizations and industry for research and teaching. Finally, for me it was important to be able to engage with and mentor a diverse student body—something that NJIT can and will offer me.
What is one thing that you are most looking forward to during fall 2023
Getting to know people in the NJIT community. I am excited to meet and know students at NJIT, and apply my academic and industry background to teach, mentor, and work with a diverse student body. I’m also looking to meet my colleagues, some of the brilliant minds in computing research, and get to understand their work better to see where we can collaborate and help each other.
What do you expect to accomplish in your first year at NJIT?
As I start, one of my primary goals is to work towards establishing my research agenda and building relations with local and global organizations towards long term sustained collaborations. In addition to that, I want to understand more about the academic culture and priorities at NJIT, particularly within the College of Computing to see how I can fit and contribute towards the larger goals of our institute.
Briefly describe the focus of your research
My research lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction, aging, and accessibility. I study, design, and evaluate use of technology by older adults and people with disabilities. I study the nuances associated with current use of emerging AI technologies by older adults and include these individuals directly in the process of designing technology to build personalized technologies to support aging.
What are some hobbies and pursuits away from your profession?
I am a big foodie, always looking for new places to eat. And that’s one of the best parts of living close to NYC. One of the things I enjoy the most is visiting different parts of Queens (in NYC) and trying food from all cuisines. YWCC also welcomes the following seven senior university lecturers (SL) and six university lecturers (UL) for the 2023 -2024 academic year:
Computer Science
Khalid Bakhasaliev – SL
Arashdeep Kaur – SL
Samaneh Berenjian – SL
Jun Wu – SL
Data Science
Kaustubh Pethkar – UL
Nikita Gaikwad – UL
Pantelis Monogioudis – SL
Nikita Nemane – UL
Ravneet Kaur – UL
Informatics
Mark Chiusano – SL
Karl Giannoglou – UL