College of Engineering Appoints New Associate and Assistant Deans
Dr. Bruce Eisenstein, Interim Dean of the College of Engineering, is pleased to announce the appointments of Dr. Adam Fontecchio as Associate Dean of Engineering for Undergraduate Affairs and Dr. Timothy Kurzweg as Assistant Dean of Engineering and Director of the BSE Program.
Dr. Adam Fontecchio
Dr. Fontecchio is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and he is currently serving as the ECE Assistant Department Head for Undergraduate Affairs. He is an Associate Dean of the College of Engineering, Co-Director of the A.J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute, an affiliated member of the Materials Science and Engineering Department, and a member of the Center for Educational Research.
His research focuses on the area of nanophotonics. He is the recipient of a NASA New Investigator Award, the Drexel Graduate Student Association Outstanding Mentor Award, the Drexel University ECE Outstanding Research Achievement Award, the Drexel University
ECE Ph.D. Mentor Award, and the International Liquid Crystal Society Multimedia Prize. In 2003, he received a NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship to research NEMS/MEMS adaptive optics in the Microdevices Laboratory at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed publications.
Dr. Fontecchio also has a long, active history of educational and outreach activities. He is currently PI on an NSF STEM GK12 grant, PI on an NSF CCLI grant, and was the PI on an NSF Nanoscale Undergraduate Education award. Dr. Fontecchio is also a Co-PI on four NSF awards including his positions as Director of Graduate Fellows on a second NSF GK-12 award, which has funded 13 graduate fellows from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds and as Co-PI on an NSF Discovery K-12 grant. His other educational activities include serving as Senior Investigator in the Drexel NSF IGERT Program (with more than 45 Fellowships having been awarded), Senior Investigator on 2 NSF REU programs; Senior Investigator on 2 NSF RET programs; mentoring more than 10 high-school students in his research lab through the Drexel Summer Mentorship Program; serving as Project Manager for the Rhode Island Council on Education’s Project Comet Chasers (an activity which earned the PI a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition from the US House of Representatives and a Citation of Excellence from the RI House of Representatives); and working with inner city students in the Brown University/NSF/MRSEC Urban Scholars Training Institute.
Dr. Timothy Kurzweg
Dr. Kurzweg is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Assistant Department Head for Undergraduate Affairs. He joined Drexel in 2002 after completing his MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. He received his BS in Electrical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University.
Dr. Kurzweg’s area of research is in micro-optical systems with applications to optical pre-cancerous detection, single pixel imaging, and optical chip-to-chip communications. Kurzweg co-founded MetaTenna, LLC, a company spun-out from Drexel research, which creates optically transparent antennas.
Dr. Kurzweg has had leadership experience at the Department, College and University levels at Drexel, as well as outside of Drexel. He was the ECE Assistant Department Head for Planning and Development and a member of the ECE Senior Design Committee. At the University level, he is a member of the Faculty Senate, and serves on the Senate Committee on Faculty Affairs. Professor Kurzweg was an active member of the Provost Task Force for Undergraduate Research, giving him a good perspective of how undergraduate students can participate in research activities. Outside of Drexel, Dr. Kurzweg serves on the IEEE Conferences Committee and the New Initiative Committees.
BSE Program — Broad Synergistic Engineering
The Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is a degree program for those high ability students seeking flexibility and customizability. In consultation with an academic advisor, each student will develop a curriculum plan tailored to their individual interests. The flexibility inherent in the program will allow students to obtain a broad, interdisciplinary education that is rooted in engineering but can extend to medicine, law, business, media arts, entrepreneurial activities, humanities, environmental studies, and many other pursuits.