CoE Welcomes New Faculty
In preparation for another successful academic year, CoE is excited to announce that we have 10 new faculty members joining us in the fall. The new faculty members bring innovative and exciting ideas in a wide range of technological areas and seek to inspire Drexel students in many unique fields of engineering.


Priscilla Fonseca is joining the CAEE department as an Assistant Professor in the winter term. She holds a BS from MIT and an MSE degree from the University of Michigan.  She will receive her PhD from Northwestern University this December. Ms. Fonseca concentrates on modeling and characterizing the nanostructure of cement-based materials and developing links to macro-scale properties. She plans to continue her research at Drexel.








Dr. Mark Hempstead will join the ECE department in January as the Junior Colehower Chair Assistant Professor. He is interested in reducing the energy consumed by computing devices through power aware computer architecture and VLSI design. Dr. Hempstead received a BS in computer engineering from Tufts University and his MS and PhD degrees from Harvard University.








Jin Kang is joining the MEM department. Dr. Kang received his BS from the University of Michigan and his MS from Stanford University; both degrees are in aerospace engineering. After working for General Electric for two years, Dr. Kang went back to Korea to serve in the military. He was 1st Lt. in the Air Force teaching classes in space engineering at Korea Air Force Academy. During his time in Korea, Dr. Kang received his PhD from Korea Aerospace University in Satellite Systems. His main research area is in space systems engineering. He was directly involved in design and manufacturing of four micro and nano-satellites. He is currently working on developing Drexel’s first satellite.

Antonios Kontsos is welcomed into the MEM department as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Kontsos received his undergraduate Diploma from University of Patras in Greece, and his MS and PhD degrees from Rice University in Houston, Texas in mechanical engineering. His research interests are in the area of engineering mechanics with an emphasis on theoretical, computational and probabilistic methods in modeling advanced materials and their implementation in a variety of engineering applications.






Emin Kumbur is joining the MEM department as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Kumbur received his PhD and MS degree from the Pennsylvania State University. He received his BS degree from the Middle East Technical University, Turkey. Dr. Kumbur’s research concentrates on next generation energy technologies and thermal-fluid systems. He is particularly interested in the design and development of fuel cell systems for portable, automotive and stationary applications.







Steven May is a new addition in the MSE department.  Dr. May received his PhD from Northwestern University.  He joins us from Argonne National Laboratory where he worked on improving the properties of magnetic materials by controlling their atomic structure.  At Drexel, he will focus on using similar synthesis strategies to develop materials for energy conversion and storage applications.








Anu Raj Pradhan is joining the CAEE department as an Assistant Professor.  He received his PhD degree from Carnegie Mellon University.  His research interests span the areas of infrastructure management and construction engineering.  He is particularly interested in leveraging computer-aided tools and sensing technologies to support the construction and maintenance of critical infrastructure systems such as buildings, bridges and highways.









Kurt Sjoblom is joining the CAEE department. Dr. Sjoblom has an interest in laboratory testing of geotechnical materials. He earned his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology specializing in experimental geomechanics. He then served as Director of Laboratory services for Camp Dresser & McKee before venturing off as a private consultant to laboratories around the country. For the past three years, Dr. Sjoblom has been appointed as an Adjunct Professor at Drexel teaching soil mechanics and foundation engineering for both the CAEE and the Goodwin Schools.








Ying Sun is joining the MEM department from State University of New York at Binghamton where she has been an Assistant Professor since 2006. She obtained her Bachelors degree from Tsinghua University in Beijing and MS and PhD degrees both from the University of Iowa. Dr. Sun is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award. Her research interests include multiscale modeling and in-situ observation of transport phenomena in materials processing, energy and biological systems. Her research team’s projects involve multiphase flow and transport in printable electronics and photovoltaics, self-assembly of colloidal suspensions, atomistic modeling of wetting and phonon transport in nanomaterials.

Michael Waring is a new member of the CAEE department.  He received his PhD in civil engineering and MS in environmental and water resources engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.  His research on indoor air quality focused on the liquid-phase nano and fine particles that form in buildings due to ozone reactions with organic compounds.  He is currently interested in secondary effects of particle control devices as well as using smart mixture design and passive removal characteristics of building materials to reduce human exposure to indoor pollutants.