Brendon Allen, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, received a $472,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for the project “Safe Lyapunov-Based Deep Neural Network Adaptive Control of a Rehabilitative Upper Extremity Hybrid Exoskeleton.” Chad Rose, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Jaimie Roper, associate professor of kinesiology, are collaborators on this project.

Majid Beidaghi, associate professor of materials engineering, was recognized as a Rising Star of Science by Research.com. He is ranked 137 out of 644 researchers worldwide.

David Bevly, the Bill and Lana McNair Distinguished Professor of mechanical engineering, received a $1.4 million contract from Radiance Technologies Inc. This effort will study different positioning, navigation and timing methods for space and cyberspace.

Imon Chakraborty, assistant professor of aerospace engineering, was elected Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Jeff Fergus, associate dean for undergraduate studies and program assessment and professor of materials engineering, visited the University of Indonesia as a Fulbright Specialist to support curriculum development related to outcome- based approaches and the incorporation of experiential learning in mechanical engineering and other engineering disciplines.

Gregory Harris was named chair of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. He was also made the SME Member Council Chair for 2023 and was appointed to the Intelligent Manufacturing Technology Group for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for 2022-23. In 2022, Harris gave an invited presentation to the Defense Manufacturing Conference General Session and served on the Advanced Manufacturing Enterprise Session Planning Committee for the Defense Manufacturing Conference.

Roy Hartfield, Walt and Virginia Woltosz Professor in aerospace engineering, was selected to receive the 2023 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Aerodynamics Award. This award is presented for meritorious achievement in the field of applied aerodynamics, recognizing notable contributions in the development, application and evaluation of aerodynamic concepts and methods and is sponsored by the AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Technical Committee.

Brendan Higgins, associate professor of biosystems engineering, is the principal investigator on a $9.95 million grant to transform controlled environment agriculture (CEA). This project will reduce the demand for heating and cooling in CEA food-production environments, improve the overall efficiency of CEA climate-controlled environments, lower the carbon intensity of resource inputs, and shift consumer and producer behavior surrounding CEA products and practices. Auburn Engineering co-PIs include Sushil Adhikari, professor, Department of Biosystems Engineering; David Blersch, associate professor, Department of Biosystems Engineering; Hossein Jahromi, assistant research professor, Department of Biosystems Engineering; and Daniela Marghitu, Department of Computer Science & Software Engineering.

Ali Khosravi, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, is the lead investigator on a $197,550 Alabama Department of Transportation grant to develop a system to detect movements along highways that may indicate failures like sinkholes or landslides are developing. Jack Montgomery, associate civil and environmental engineering professor, is a collaborator on the project.

Shiwen Mao, the Earle C. Williams Eminent Scholar and professor of electrical and computer engineering, was appointed to be the editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking. Additionally, along with his students, Mao won the Best Journal Paper Award from IEEE Communications Society eHealth Technical Committee. Mao also won the Distinguished Service Award from the IEEE Communications Society eHealth Technical Committee for his exemplary service to eHealth-TC over a sustained period of time.

Scott Martin, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, received a $490,000 contract from the Missile Defense Agency. This effort includes assessment feedback loops for layered defense methods. He also received a $427,000 award from Geeks and Nerds Inc. to study Shifted Carrier Phases for alternative methods of navigation.

Jack Montgomery, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, is the principal investigator on a $234,648 grant from the Alabama Department of Transportation to improve methods to characterize bridge sites and identify sites that may be at more risk from earthquakes. Robert Barnes, Brasfield & Gorrie Professor of civil and environmental engineering, is a collaborator.

Alice Smith, Joe W. Forehand/Accenture Distinguished Professor of industrial and systems engineering with a joint appointment in computer science and software engineering, was named a Life Fellow of IEEE and an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer for 2023-2025. Smith gave invited seminars at the University of Southern California and Rutgers University. Smith also recently earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Auburn University.

Yin Sun, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, is serving as editor of IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking, and is also serving as associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering. He will also be a guest editor for the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Information Theory special issue on “The Role of Freshness and Semantic Measures in the Transmission of Information for Next Generation Networks.”

Yi Wang, associate biosystems engineering professor, is the principal investigator on a $300,000 grant from the US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture titled “Towards a sustainable bioeconomy: Biotransformation of paper mill sludge for value-added chirally pure (R)-1,3-butanedoil production.” Zhihua Jiang, Auburn Pulp and Paper Foundation associate professor of chemical engineering, is the co-PI on the project.