College of Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Receive Engineers’ Council National Award

Three faculty members from FAU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science received prestigious awards from the Engineers’ Council, a leading non-profit society that advances education in engineering and recognizes engineers for their accomplishments. They were honored at the Engineers’ Council’s banquet and awards ceremony on February 25th at the Palm Beach Convention Center. The event recognized industry experts and awardees from leading companies including Aerojet Rocketdyne, Agilis Engineering, Belcan, Lockheed Martin, NextEra Energy, and Pratt & Whitney.

This year’s recipients from FAU were:

• Madasamy Arockiasamy, PhD, director of the Center for Infrastructure and Constructed Facilities and professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatics Engineering
• Jason Hallstrom, PhD, director of Institute for Sensing and Embedded Network Systems Engineering (I-SENSE) and professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
• Javad Hashemi, PhD, associate dean for research and professor in the Department of Ocean and Mechanical Engineering

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“We are tremendously proud of our professors for being recognized for their exceptional contributions and efforts on behalf of education, research, and community engagement,” said Stella Batalama, PhD, dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science. “Their well-deserved awards exemplify the revolutionary research and innovative projects that we are consistently pursuing at our College.”

Dr. Arockiasamy won the John J. Guarrera Engineering Educator of the Year award, which recognizes achievements by a professor in the successful involvement of students in learning and research, and in the application of science and mathematics to the solution of problems in engineering design or theory. He also received the Engineers’ Council Distinguished Engineering Educator Award in 2015.

As the director of FAU’s Center for Infrastructure and Constructed Facilities, Dr. Arockiasamy’s pioneering research focuses on infrastructure safety and security, intermodal transportation network security, and hurricane-resistant infrastructure. During his career of 40+ years, he has served as principal/co-principal investigator on more than $7.5 million in research projects, authored over 300 publications, and established partnerships with institutions in the United States, Canada, and Japan.

Dr. Arockiasamy currently leads the NASA Minority University Research and Education Project MUREP Aerospace Academy, working with over 3,300 underrepresented students in grades 6-12. At FAU, where he has been teaching since 1984, his experience includes classroom instruction and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students at both the MS and PhD levels. Since 2018, Dr. Arockiasamy has served as the elected President of the Faculty of the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Outside of FAU, he is an active member of the American National Standards Institute, American Society of Civil Engineers, and American Concrete Institute.

Dr. Hallstrom and Dr. Hashemi each won the Distinguished Engineer Educator Award, which recognizes senior university faculty who have a top reputation for engineering education, mentorship, and leadership, through contributions to either students’ academic and extracurricular engineering enrichment or to academic or industrial research.

Dr. Hallstrom joined the College of Engineering and Computer Science in 2015 to establish the Institute for Sensing and Embedded Network Systems Engineering (I-SENSE, http://isense.fau.edu), where he serves as director. Under his leadership, I-SENSE has become one of FAU’s most distinguished programs and a national leader in the technology necessary to achieve large-scale, fine-grained situational awareness.

Dr. Hallstrom has 10 years of experience as an independent system architect and software engineer. He is a leader in the design, deployment, and operation of sensing infrastructure for large-scale situational awareness, and his accomplishments span embedded networked systems, software engineering, and computer science education. His work has contributed to 115 publications and 110 presentations and has resulted in multiple awards. His contributions to computing education and research training are also significant. He has led or co-led several federal awards focused on improving computing education, and his team has engaged more than 800 K-12 students in outreach programs focused on increasing the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in computer science and engineering careers.

Dr. Hashemi’s impressive career spans close to 30 years, and he has been deeply involved in all levels of education at the College of Engineering and Computer Science, including in-class teaching, writing textbooks, publishing educational articles, student society advising, and student club support. With a genuine passion for teaching and educating the workforce of the future, he won the Distinguished Teacher of the Year award at FAU in 2014. His research interests include metal forming and manufacturing, materials synthesis and characterization, structural failure, biomechanics, and sports medicine.

In addition to serving as the college’s associate dean for research, Dr. Hashemi is a former chair and current professor in the Ocean and Mechanical Engineering department. Under his leadership, new areas of research related to robotics, biomedical devices, and bioinspired engineering have been developed, and funding sources have expanded to NSF and NIH. Due to new extracurricular offerings, students are successfully competing with the best and the brightest on a national and international level, and the number of degrees awarded at both the undergraduate and PhD levels have increased significantly.