New faculty members join engineering
The Faculty of Engineering would like to give a warm welcome to the following new faculty members.
Dr. Xihui (Larry)
Dr. Xihui (Larry) Liang joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering as Assistant Professor in January 2018. He received his BSc and MSc degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Shandong University, China, in 2007 and 2009, respectively, and the PhD degree in mechanical engineering from University of Alberta in early 2016. After that, he worked as a Postdoc Research Fellow at the University of Alberta for about two years. He has authored/coauthored about 30 articles in prestigious journals, such as IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, and Reliability Engineering & System Safety. His research interests include nonlinear dynamics, condition monitoring, fault diagnostics and prognostics, reliability analysis, intelligent manufacturing and maintenance.
The following new hires started with the Faculty as of July 1st, 2018:
Dr. Babak Mehran
Dr. Babak Mehran joins the Faculty of Engineering as Assistant Professor in the department of Civil Engineering. Babak received his PhD in Transportation Engineering from Nagoya University, Japan in 2009. Before joining the University of Manitoba, he was an Assistant Professor of Environmental Systems Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science of the University of Regina. He also held research positions at the University of Tokyo and the University of Waterloo as well as an industrial research and development position with the IBI Group in Toronto. Dr. Mehran’s research is focused on development of innovative solutions to improve the performance of transportation systems. He is particularly interested in optimization of traffic operations and public transportation systems, traffic flow modelling and simulation, applications of intelligent transportation systems, and research on active transportation modes.
Dr. Jillian Seniuk Cicek
Dr. Jillian Seniuk Cicek joins the Centre for Engineering Professional Practice and Engineering Education as an Assistant Professor. Her research focus is engineering education. Her areas of investigation include program evaluation; outcomes-based teaching and assessment; engineering competencies; student-centered instruction and active learning strategies; instructor pedagogical practices and belief-systems; curricular design; and student identity. Dr. Seniuk Cicek received her BFA (visual arts), B.Ed., and PhD (Individual Interdisciplinary Studies) degrees at the University of Manitoba, and her MFA (visual arts) and MFA (English, Creative Writing) degrees at the University of Cincinnati and Purdue University, respectively. In her doctoral research, she explored stakeholders’ perceptions of the relative importance and interdependencies of the competencies required for engineering practice to inform undergraduate curricula design. Dr. Seniuk Cicek has taught communication courses for 15 years, and is thrilled by the opportunity to continue collaborating in best pedagogical practices and research in engineering education at the University of Manitoba.
Dr. Ahmed Ashraf
Dr. Ahmed Ashraf joins the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as Assistant Professor where he would be starting the Manitoba Learning and Artificial Intelligence Research (MLAIR) lab. He holds a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan, and a Master’s and Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. He conducted postdoctoral work in the department of Radiology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he developed machine learning and AI methods for discovering imaging markers of breast cancer, assessing cancer recurrence risk, and predicting chemotherapy response for personalized cancer treatment.
He has published in premier technical and clinical publication avenues such as the IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI), the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), the IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging (TMI), Medical Imaging Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention (MICCAI), Translational Oncology, and Radiology.
Dr. Ashraf is a recipient of a five-year Fulbright Fellowship, and a two-year AGE-WELL Networks of Centres of Excellence (NCE) fellowship. In recognition of his work in machine learning and its fit with Vector Institute’s vision and mission, he received the Vector affiliate award in 2018 from the Vector Institute of Artificial Intelligence.
Dr. Faouzi Belili
Dr. Faouzi Bellili also joins the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as Assistant Professor. Prior to joining the faculty he received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from INRS (University of Quebec), in 2009 and 2014, respectively. From 2014 to 2016, he was a Research Associate with INRS-EMT and from Dec. 2016 to June 2018 he was a Postdoctoral Fellow with the University of Toronto, ON, Canada. His research focuses on statistical and array signal processing for wireless communications and 5G-enabling technologies. He has authored/co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed papers in reputable IEEE journals and conferences. Dr. Bellili received many Awards and Distinctions including the very prestigious NSERC PDF Grant for the period 2017–2018, the prestigious PDF grant offered over the same period (but declined) from Quebec Fund for Research—Nature and technologies, and the INRS Innovation Award for the year 2014/2015. In 2011, he also received the Merit Scholarship for Foreign Students from the Ministère de l’Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport of Québec, Canada. In 2010, Dr. Bellili was also awarded the very prestigious Academic Gold Medal of the Governor General of Canada and the Excellence Grant of the Director General of INRS.
To review the bio’s of other new Faculty members who have joined our team since Fall 2017 please click here.