Faculty Affairs

2023 Promotion Awardees

Professor

Dr. Rasim Guldiken started his academic career at USF in 2008 as an Assistant Professor and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2014. His research interests are Acoustics, Microfluidics, and Engineering Education. Within the last five years, his research specialization, along with his various collaborators, has resulted in grants and contracts through the NSF (three grants as the PI, two additional grants as the co-PI), the U.S. D.O.T through Industry (the PI) as well as from BYU (the PI). These research projects over the last five years resulted in six U.S.  Patents issued (two patents pending) and 20 journal publications (the first author of all are his Ph.D. students). Also, his research group has graduated 10 Ph.D. Students, 6 M.S. Students, and 6 Undergraduate Researchers within the last five years. During the same, he taught four separate courses 17 times (19 sections) to 1,250 students. In 2022, he was selected as an ASME Fellow and received USF Faculty Outstanding Research Achievement and USF Academic Excellence Awards.

 

In 1992, Dr. Zhixin Miao earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Wuhan, China). Following that, he spent seven years until 1999 as a protection relay engineer at Nanjing Automation Research Institute (NARI). In 1997, he accomplished his master’s degree from the Graduate School of NARI. Subsequently, his academic journey led him to West Virginia University in Morgantown, where he embarked on his Ph.D. studies in electrical engineering in 1999, successfully attaining his Ph.D. degree in 2002. After completing his doctoral studies, he held the position of a transmission planning engineer at Midwest ISO in St. Paul, Minnesota, until 2009, contributing to the power grid industry.

In 2009, Dr. Miao joined the University of South Florida (USF), where he initiated the creation of the smart grid power systems research lab and the power and energy teaching lab from the ground up. Currently, both the research and teaching labs are equipped with cutting-edge real-time digital simulators and hardware for prototyping inverter controllers. This facilitates research and teaching across a diverse range of electrification and clean energy areas, such as solar PV and wind grid integration, direct current grid technologies, microgrid technology, real-time monitoring, control and protection of power grids, electrical vehicles, cybersecurity, and more. Over the years, he has overseen numerous projects funded by federal, state, and local entities and has successfully guided the completion of 9 Ph.D. students since 2011.

Dr. Miao is significantly involved in the IEEE Power and Energy Society, where he serves as a reviewer for IEEE PES Transactions and has been recognized with the outstanding reviewer awards for IEEE Transactions on Power Systems and IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy. Additionally, he holds the position of Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy and co-chairs a task force dedicated to addressing BPS-Connected Inverter-Based Resource Operation Challenges.

 

Associate Professor

Dr. Mauricio Arias is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida (Tampa), where he is the Principal Investigator of the Watershed Sustainability Lab (https://www.watershedsustainability.org) and teach undergraduate and graduate courses in water resources. Areas of current research include surface water quantity/quality prediction and Ecological Engineering, with emphasis on tropical and subtropical watersheds. He came to USF in 2016 after completing a post-doctoral research fellowship in the Sustainability Science Program at Harvard University. He holds a Bachelor of Science (Magna Cum Laude) and a Master of Engineering in Environmental Engineering Sciences from the University of Florida, and a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Canterbury (New Zealand). Dr. Arias has published 63 peer-reviewed articles in top scientific journals including Science, Nature Sustainability, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Water Resources Research, and Journal of Hydrology. He has been the PI or Co-PI in 14 funded research projects for a total of US$6.8 million and has been the senior mentor of 18 graduate students. In 2021, Dr. Arias became a Gulf Research Program Early Career Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences.

 

Dr. Ashwin Parthasarathy leads the Translational Optics Imaging and Spectroscopy lab at USF, where he develops novel biomedical optics instruments for quantitative imaging and monitoring of tissue blood flow, especially for neurological injuries. The development and clinical translation of these optical instruments will help doctors and surgeons directly measure tissue physiology at the bedside and permit personalization of treatment. Dr. Parthasarathy's research has been supported by awards from the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, including the NSF CAREER award in 2023. In 2021 he received the Cade Prize for his technology created to quantitatively measure blood flow via a wearable and non-invasive optical device. Dr. Parthasarathy currently holds 5 patents with 6 more pending applications. He has been a panel reviewer for grants at NIH and NSF and is currently a member of IEEE, Optica, SPIE, AHA and Sigma Xi.

Research Professor

Dr. Stephanie L. Carey is an associate research professor at the University of South Florida, College of Engineering. She is the research coordinator for the Center for Assistive, Rehabilitation & Robotics Technologies (CARRT), which integrates research, education, and service to improve quality of life. Her research includes gait analysis, applied biomechanics, prosthetic and orthotic function, design and testing of assistive technologies, injury prevention for performing artists and exercise systems for astronauts. She teaches Bioastronautics, Rehabilitation Engineering, and Capstone Design. Dr. Carey has been funded by NSF, DOD, SOCOM, VA and NASA. Dr. Carey is a member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). She has published more than 150 technical papers in national and international peer reviewed journals and conferences and has written several book chapters. Dr. Carey has received an Excellence in Innovation Award, a Nexus Initiative Award, a Faculty Outstanding Research Achievement Award, Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research Award, and several travel grant awards.  

 

Associate Professor of Instruction

Dr. Olukemi Akintewe is an Associate Professor of Instruction in the Department of Medical Engineering and the Director of the first-year engineering program at USF. She earned her Doctorate in Chemical Engineering from USF, a Masters in Materials Science and Engineering from the Ohio State University, and her Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering from the City College of New York. Her research focuses on increasing the retention of women in STEM. Currently, she is investigating the underlying explanatory factors that impact female attrition rate and assessment instruments that measure the progression of first-time in college (FTIC) and first-generation females at the USF College of Engineering. Dr. Akintewe aims to develop a three-tiered mentoring circle for female students in the first-year undergraduate engineering program that supports learning, inclusivity, and the preparedness needed for academic progression. She serves on the Executive Board of the American Society for Engineering Education’s First-year Program division. Her teaching and mentoring efforts have received recognitions, including the 2023 USF Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research Award, Sloan Scholar Mentoring Network Career Award, USF Systemic Transformation of Education through Evidence-Based Reforms Teaching Scholars Award, USF Women in Leadership & Philanthropy Kathleen Moore Faculty Excellence Award, USF College of Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award, and the 2020 Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) USF Student Chapter Faculty of the Year Award.

 

Dr. Schinnel Small received her Bachelor of Science and PhD degrees from Morgan State University (in 2004 and 2010 respectively, after pursing a Bachelor to PhD path of study). Her teaching philosophy is that everyone has the potential to learn, regardless of educational background, and every opportunity is a potential teachable moment.  Dr. Small’s research interests include Data Visualization, Programming Languages and Engineering Education. Since joining USF in 2016, she has taught various introductory and intermediate courses, including Programming Concepts, Program Design and Foundations of Engineering. Dr. Small has served as the Information Technology (IT) and Cybersecurity (CyS) Director, where she assists her department with scheduling courses, obtaining, and maintaining accreditation, and advising students. She is also the faculty advisor for Girls who Code and Gen Connect. Dr. Small will serve as the Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) Director from Fall 2023. In her free time, Dr. Small enjoys hiking and coin collecting.

 

Dr. Souheil Zekri currently serves as a Biomedical Engineering Associate Professor of Instructor at the Medical Engineering Department of the University of South Florida. His academic journey, rooted at the same institution, saw him earn his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, an M.S. in Biomedical Engineering with a concentration in Biomaterials and Biomechanics, and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Rehabilitation Engineering.  

His research endeavors spanned the field of biomedical engineering, with a focus on Rehabilitation Robotics, Biomaterials, Biomechanics, Nanotechnology, and their interplay within the biomedical field. His research interests focused on the synthesis and characterization of interfaces between naturally derived and synthetic nanostructures, in addition to the development of assistive devices and interface environments for persons with disabilities. Currently, Dr. Zekri focuses predominantly on student success by providing a blended teaching method that focuses on the combination of academic and career guidance.

As an educator, Dr. Zekri strived to infuse science and engineering concepts into K-12 education by developing student-oriented modules and workshops. As a seasoned K-12 school administrator, he established a rigorous academic environment focused on raising the bar for future generations of STEM students.