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CoE Announces 2020 Outstanding Faculty Award Winners

Saturday, May 30, 2020

Every year, the senior class in each degree program in UC Santa Barbara’s College of Engineering selects an outstanding faculty member. The class of 2020’s Outstanding Faculty are Joe Chada (chemical engineering), Yogananda Isukapalli (computer engineering), Diba Mirza (computer science), Mark Rodwell (electrical engineering), and Tyler Susko (mechanical engineering). We asked each faculty award recipient three questions, including what words of wisdom did they might have for the class of 2020. Read their responses below.

JOE CHADA 
Joe Chada joined UCSB’s Chemical Engineering Department in fall 2018 as the department’s initial tenure-track teaching professor. He is a first-time winner of the Outstanding Chemical Engineering Faculty Award.  His primary focus is to design and construct experiments for students that reflect the latest in the chemical engineering field. The goal behind the experiments, which are conducted in the Rinker Undergrad Laboratory, are to reinforce fundamental chemical engineering principles, expose students to industrially relevant situations, provide hands-on lab training on modern equipment, and enhance opportunities for students to succeed during and after their time at UCSB.
 
1. What does it mean to you to receive the outstanding faculty award from the Class of 2020?
It's quite the honor. As an instructor, the best part of the job is seeing students develop into talented problem solvers.  I think the challenge, from a teaching perspective, is to develop courses that are both challenging and engaging.  It's always a rewarding feeling to know that our students appreciate the effort that goes into that development and that they enjoyed their experience.
 
2. How do you go about trying to positively impact your undergraduate students?
I do my best to give my students the experience I had as an undergraduate. I was fortunate to have professors who put a tremendous emphasis on teaching and learning. Every student has a unique undergraduate experience when it comes to their desires, motivation, and external commitments. It's important for me to give opportunities for every student to get what they want out of their time in one of my courses.
 
3. Because of COVID-19, the last quarter at UCSB has been anything but normal for you and the undergraduate Class of 2020. What uplifting message and words of wisdom do you have for them?  
Earning an engineering degree is no small feat. By graduation you will be more than a chemical engineer; you will be a problem solver ready to make a positive impact on the world. While the future may contain some uncertainties, you've already shown this quarter that you can adapt and rise to the occasion. Your time at UCSB may be nearing its end but you have many years to continue to improve yourself and to grow as a person and as an engineer. Even in uncertain times, there is often an opportunity to continue to learn something new and exciting.
 
YOGANANDA ISUKAPALLI
For the second year in a row, graduating seniors have selected Yogananda Isukapalli for the Outstanding Computer Engineering Faculty Award. Isukapalli joined UCSB’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department as a tenure-track teaching professor in winter 2017, after several years working as a staff scientist in the Wi-Fi division at Broadcom, a semiconductor manufacturing company. At UCSB, his primary role is running the undergraduate capstone program for computer engineering, which focuses on developing students into professionals by pairing them with industry or academic experts to create an engineered solution for real problems. This year, the topics of capstone projects ranged from blood sensors that detected coagulation, to an autonomous drone to keep elephants away from humans, and using cell-tower signal information to improve localization. 
 
1. What does it mean to you to receive the outstanding faculty award from the Class of 2020?
The award has a lot of significance for me because it comes from graduating CE seniors. I have taught most of them in many of my classes, and I enjoyed seeing them mature as computer engineers. I am honored that they feel I have made an impact through my teaching.
 
2. How do you go about trying to positively impact your undergraduate students? 
I try to present concepts as clearly as possible and connect them to real-world examples. Students seem to enjoy this part of my teaching. Before joining UCSB, I designed Wi-Fi chips at Broadcom for about seven years, and I use that experience to connect theory with real-world applications. In my opinion, one-one interaction with instructors is an essential part of the undergraduate experience. So, I make myself accessible as much as possible. I have an open-door policy where students can drop in anytime beyond set office hours.
 
3. Because of COVID-19, the last quarter at UCSB has been anything but normal for you and the undergraduate Class of 2020. What uplifting message and words of wisdom do you have for them?
One of the classes I am teaching now involves graduating seniors designing a capstone project with significant hardware and software complexity. Students have to build a robust embedded system, anticipating many possible points of failure in both hardware and software. Apart from the technical aspect of the project, the students are also learning how to deal with uncertainty. When COVID-19 forced students to work remotely on a group project, they showed remarkable maturity and a collaborative spirit. I am proud of what they have achieved, and they should be too! Without getting too philosophical, there will be plenty of challenges ahead in life that are not under your control, but how you respond to them is. I am confident that the graduating CE students are ready to face new challenges using the technical and life skills they have learned at UCSB.
 
DIBA MIRZA
For the second straight year, Diba Mirza has been selected by graduating seniors as the recipient of the Outstanding Computer Science Faculty Award. Mirza joined the Computer Science Department in November 2016 as a tenure-track teaching professor. Since then, she has taught several core undergraduate computer science classes, including Introduction to Computer Science (CMPSC 8), Problem Solving with Computers I and II (CMPSC 16 and 24), and Teaching Methods in Computer Science (CMPSC 190J). Mirza’s research focuses on embedded systems and their application to cyber-physical systems. For example, she has worked with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to develop underwater robotic swarms to help scientists learn more about the ocean. She is the author of six journal papers and nearly twenty peer-reviewed conference papers. 
 
1. What does it mean to you to receive the outstanding faculty award from the Class of 2020?
Receiving this award from our graduating seniors is immensely valuable to me. I cannot think of a better way to conclude the academic year, and I want to thank the students for this wonderful recognition.
 
2. How do you go about trying to positively impact your undergraduate students?
I am fortunate to be part of a department that cares deeply about its undergraduate students. Behind the scenes, our faculty frequently collaborate to make a positive impact. It does indeed take a village! 
I try to make a difference by teaching with enthusiasm, creating an inclusive environment, mentoring students, and staying invested in their long-term success. I have led two departmental initiatives to promote these values - an undergraduate learning-assistant program and a research program. Both have become immensely successful, and I say that because they have grown far beyond me, involving many instructors, faculty, and graduate students who mentor undergraduates. Once again, these efforts would not have taken root without my colleagues' enthusiastic support and the ingenuity of our amazing students.
 
3. Because of COVID-19, the last quarter at UCSB has been anything but normal for you and the undergraduate Class of 2020. What uplifting message and words of wisdom do you have for them?
As a computer scientist, you have many superpowers. Combine them with the values that you have learned at UCSB, and I am confident that you will be a force for good! On a more practical level, I expect that some of you may face short-term challenges transitioning into the workforce because of COVID-19. Don't be deterred by them. In the long term, the world needs your skills.
 
MARK RODWELL
Mark Rodwell joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at UCSB in 1988. For nearly twenty years, he served as director of UCSB’s Nanofabrication Laboratory, a campus facility that annually serves roughly three hundred graduate students, and dozens of industrial partners and professors. As the Doluca Family Endowed Chair, Rodwell teaches several undergraduate core classes, including Circuits & Electronics I/II (ECE 137A/B), and Communication Electronics (ECE 145A). This year marks the second straight year and the sixth time overall that graduating seniors have selected him as the Outstanding Electrical Engineering Faculty Award winner. Additionally, over the years, Rodwell has been elected a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and he received the 2010 IEEE David Sarnoff Award for exceptional contributions to electronics. Rodwell’s research group works to extend the operation of electronics, such as semiconductor devices and communications systems, to the highest feasible frequencies. He directs the SRC/DARPA ComSenTer Wireless Research Center, which presently supports the research of 92 students. 
 
1. What does it mean to you to receive the outstanding faculty award from the Class of 2020?
It is satisfying to learn of the award, because it tells me that the students are learning the material, are enjoying it, and can see how the course will help them in their future careers.
 
2. How do you go about trying to positively impact your undergraduate students?
I try to have clear, simple, and readable lecture notes available online so that the students can have these in front of them during lectures. That way, they don't have to choose between listening carefully to understand and writing furiously to keep up. The class (classes) have a pretty intense design content, where the goal is to teach the students how to independently create their own design (versus just following instructions), build it, realize that it doesn't work, figure out why,  change it, test it again, and eventually make it work.  The business of inventing, building, failing, testing and fixing is the core business of being an engineer and is the focus of my courses.  The courses and the design projects tie in not only the core material of circuit design but also signal processing, communications, and feedback/control theory: the goal is to show the students that real work in electronics involves all these subjects. I am trying to show them, at the junior year, a little about how all of electrical engineering fits together.  
 
3. Because of COVID-19, the last quarter at UCSB has been anything but normal for you and the undergraduate Class of 2020. What uplifting message and words of wisdom do you have for them?
It is a tough time. We all know young people who have graduated college and can't find work. Some of us have already faced tragic losses. All of us are all worried about our friends and relatives, particularly those at high risk, including the ill, older parents and grandparents, and doctors and nurses we know.  Even young people are at risk, and I am scared for UCSB students, and for my son, my nieces, and my nephews. My generation had, until now, escaped such hardship, and has had fairly peaceful lives. Not so those before us: my wife's parents as very small children fled the invasion of the Philippines, and one uncle, in the army, was among those who freed a concentration camp. So, people we know have risen to much more serious challenges not so long ago.  We must prevail in this crisis through science, medicine, and intelligent public policy. Soon there will be yet harder work to be done. Worldwide industrialization and agriculture’s green revolution has, in my lifetime, dramatically reduced poverty worldwide even as population has soared. But, this progress has come with potentially catastrophic environmental damage.  We must address these through a commitment to science, engineering, and coordinated national and worldwide public policy. The next century, that of your generation, is critical.
 
TYLER SUSKO
Tyler Susko has received the Outstanding Mechanical Engineering Faculty Award for the fourth time in the past five years. Since joining the Mechanical Engineering Department at UCSB in March 2016, Susko has overseen the department’s capstone program, which focuses on the development of students into professionals by pairing them with industry or academic experts to create an engineered solution for real problems. A motorized drum tuner, a new insulin patch pump, a rocket propelled by liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen, and a cost-efficient Mars rover were among the nearly twenty capstone projects that involved mechanical engineering students this year. The capstone course is among nine engineering design courses taught by Susko. He also oversees Lab D4H (Design for Humans), a space where students develop machines and products that enhance the human experience. Susko created the MIT-Skywalker Gamma prototype, a rehabilitation robot designed to help people who have gait impairment due to a neurological injury, such as a stroke. 
 
1. What does it mean to you personally to receive the outstanding faculty award from the Class of 2020?
It is such an honor to be chosen by the students.  I count myself lucky to be able to teach and mentor such motivated and thoughtful students. UCSB is a special place.
 
2. How do you go about trying to positively impact your undergraduate students?
I learned from a handful of advisers and mentors in my life that the number-one thing you can do is to show respect and interest in the best interest of mentees.  I try to respect the intelligence and creativity of each student and only to nudge its course rather than direct it.
 
3. Because of COVID-19, the last quarter at UCSB has been anything but normal for you and the undergraduate Class of 2020. What uplifting message and words of wisdom do you have for them?
The sun shines brightest after a storm

 

Outstanding Faculty of 2020 (clockwise from top left) Joe Chada, Yogananda Isukpalli, Diba Mirza, Mark Rodwell, Tyler Susko