Brendon Allen, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been appointed as an associate editor of the IEEE Technology Conference Editorial Board, which reviews papers submitted to the IEEE Conference on Control Technology and Applications.

David Bevly, the McNair Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, is the principal investigator on a $100,000 grant from Integrated Solutions for Systems. Also, under Bevly’s direction, the Autonomous Tiger Racing Team won the Tier 1 Time Trial at the latest Indy Autonomous Challenge held Jan. 13 in Las Vegas. Also, Jake Ward, a doctoral student Bevly is advising, won the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Automotive and Transportation Systems Technical Committee Award at the 2024 Modeling, Estimation and Control Conference.

Greg Harris, chair of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering and director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Manufacturing Systems (ICAMS), was elected this past fall into the Society of Manufacturing Engineers College of Fellows.

Roy Hartfield, the Walt and Virginia Woltosz Professor of Aerospace Engineering, received the Solid Rocket Motor Best Paper, with colleague Vivek Ahuja, from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Hartfield also received the AIAA’s Greater Huntsville Section Konrad Dannenberg Educator of the Year Award. The award is conferred in recognition of outstanding service to education and the promotion of math and science within the community.

Peter He and a team of researchers were awarded $3.16 million in funding by the U.S. Department of Energy for their project, “Intensified and Energy Efficient Cultivation, Processing, and Conversion of Flue Gas Produced Algal Biomass to Aquafeed.” Part of a multi-university/industry DOE initiative aimed at advancing mixed algae developments for low-carbon biofuels and bioproducts, He is joined by co-PIs Jin Wang, the Woltosz Professor of Chemical Engineering, Zhihua Jiang, the Auburn Pulp and Paper Foundation Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, and Allen Davis, professor at the Auburn University School of Fisheries, Aquaculture & Aquatic Sciences.

Zhihua Jiang, associate professor of chemical engineering and director of the Alabama Center for Paper and Bioresource Engineering, is the principal investigator on a $1.88 million Department of Energy project to convert CO₂ to polyethylene using pulp and paper flue gas. Jiang is also co-PI on two additional DOE projects, including a $3 million peroxyacid pulping project (with $800K to Auburn) and a $579K project on supercritical CO₂ for wood/pulp dewatering. Collaborators include Selen Cremaschi, Tae-Sik Oh, and Yucheng Peng.

Allison Ledford, assistant research professor in industrial and systems engineering, is lead inventor on a U.S. Army co-owned patent for Data Element Mapping and Analysis (DEMA). She is leading projects with the DoD, DoE, and industry partners to improve digital thread realization and has a follow-on patent pending to reduce waste in data and information flows. Ledford was recently featured in SME’s January issue of “Women Advancing Manufacturing.”

Bosen Lian, assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering, was appointed to the editorial boards of both ISA Transactions and the International Journal of Robust and Nonlinear Control as of January 1.

Shiwen Mao, professor of electrical and computer engineering and director of the Wireless Engineering Research and Education Center, won Best Paper at the 2024 International Conference on Wireless Communications and Signal Processing. Mao also received an NSF grant in partnership with the University of Miami to explore untethered extended reality, and he was elected vice president of Technical Activities for the IEEE Council on RFID (2024–2026). He continues to be a frequent keynote and invited speaker worldwide.

Scott Martin, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is co-principal investigator on a $100,000 grant from Integrated Solutions for Systems (IS4S).

Panagiotis Mistriotis, assistant professor of chemical engineering, was named the inaugural recipient of the Auburn Emerging Faculty Creative Research and Scholarship Award in the Sciences, Engineering, Agriculture, Architecture, and Business category.

Akond Rahman, assistant professor in computer science and software engineering, is serving as co-chair of the 2025 International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE) and leads Auburn’s VICEROY program, which received $200,000 to support cybersecurity scholars.

Mark Schall, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering, is recognized for his ongoing leadership in ergonomics and human factors, with multiple active research collaborations across campus and federal agencies.

Anton Schindler, the Mountain Spirit Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of the Highway Research Center, was appointed by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) executive committee to serve a three-year term as chair of TRB standing committee AKM50, advanced concrete materials and characterization. His term began April 15. The committee focuses on research and technologies related to hydraulic cement and other concrete materials, including nanotechnology, alternative cements, and non-destructive testing methods. TRB is one of seven program units of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

Yin Sun, the Bryghte D. and Patricia M. Godbold Endowed Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, began duties in January as an editor for the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking scientific journal.

Ernest Tufuor, assistant research professor at the Auburn University Transportation Research Institute (AUTRI), is principal investigator on two new Alabama Department of Transportation research projects totaling $528,396. The projects are titled, “Evaluate road tunes and thermoplastic raised bumps rumble strips,” and “Evaluate a mobile-based curve safety evaluation tool for cost-effective curve safety evaluation.” AUTRI Director Laurence Rilett and Assistant Director for Outreach Rod Turochy are co-PIs on both projects.

Huaguo Zhou, the Elton Z. and Lois G. Huff Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was awarded $190,000 by the Alabama Department of Transportation for a two-year project evaluating the effectiveness of Regional Transportation Operations Programs.