Dr. Adnan is a Professor in the Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department and director of the Multiscale Mechanics and Physics Lab (MMPL) at UTA. He earned his PhD in Aeronautics & Astronautics Engineering from Purdue University. Before joining UTA in the Fall of 2010, he was a postdoctoral research associate at Northwestern University. His current research on brain injury and neuron damage are funded by the Office of Naval Research grants and Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) award.
Research Experience for Undergraduates Site
Hybrid Design and Fabrication (REU-HDF)
REU Site Faculty Mentors
REU participants will work directly with faculty at UTA across the different makerspaces on campus.
Ashfaq Adnan
Ben Dolezal
Ben Dolezal is a designer, creative strategist, educator, and researcher with more than 14 years of experience in creative industry and educational positions. His interests include a mixture of logo and brand development, typography, illustration, interactive media, and human centered design. Ben's creative work has been featured in multiple LogoLounge and American Corporate Identity books. As an Associate Professor at The University of Texas at Arlington, Ben is pursuing educational models that pair current design trends and industry standard technology in the classroom to enhance learning and prepare design students to become meaningful contributors after graduation. His current research centers around client/designer interaction and design strategy. Ben has done creative work for the Dallas Cowboys, American Cancer Society, NEC, Choice Hotels, Nokia, and Digital Realty Trust. Some of his recent client work includes full scale branding solutions for Taco Heads, Evolve Whole Health, Ride TV, and Crossfit Ironhorse.
Carlos Daniel Donjuan
Carlos Daniel Donjuan is an Assistant Professor and Drawing Area Coordinator of Art and Art History at The University of Texas at Arlington,
Cesar Torres
Dr. Cesar Torres is the Director of The Hybrid Atelier and an Assistant Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at The University of Texas at Arlington. As a design researcher, he synthesizes new media and craft theory into the software and hardware design of creative, tangible user interfaces. He has received multiple best paper awards at top-tier venues within HCI and has been recognized with the NSF CRII and NSF REU Site grants. He serves on the program committees for SIGCHI Human Factors in Computing, ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS), ACM User Interface Software and Technology (UIST), Tangible Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI), and Creativity and Cognition (C&C).
He holds degrees in Computer Science (Ph.D. '19 - UC Berkeley, B.S. '13 - Stanford), in Art Practice (B.A. '13 - Stanford), and in New Media (D.E. '19 • UC Berkeley).
Dr. Torres serves as the faculty advisor for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) since Fall 2020, sits on the Broadening Participation in Engineering committee within the College of Engineering and CSE Department, and is part of the McNair Fellowship committee at UTA.
Christopher McMurrough
Christopher D. McMurrough is a developer of perceptual computing techniques for intelligent robotic systems in a wide range of applications and environments. He has experience working with UAV/UGV systems, Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs), industrial automation, embedded development, real-time applications, 3D perception / machine vision, and assistive devices for users with severe physical disabilities.
Dr. McMurrough's main teaching responsibilities center around senior capstone courses and student project mentoring in the College of Engineering. He is especially interested in multidisciplinary projects with local impact, as well as engineering entrepreneurship.
As an Arlington native and STEM education advocate, he is an active community volunteer and regular guest speaker at local K-12 schools.
Emma Yang
Dr. Yiran (Emma) Yang is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering. She has a Ph.D. degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, an M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering, and a B.S. degree in Vehicle Engineering. Leading the Sustainable and Intelligent Manufacturing (SIGMA) Lab, Dr. Yang's research efforts are focused on enhancing the sustainability, resilience, and intelligence of additive manufacturing and hybrid additive-subtractive manufacturing, via theoretical modeling, experimental characterization, and data-driven modeling. The research projects at SIGMA lab are financially supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense Office of Naval Research, and the University of Texas at Arlington. In addition to innovative research, Dr. Yang has been devoting her time to serving the scientific community, mentoring female students in engineering, advising undergraduate research, K12 outreach, and STEM education and workforce development.
Justin E Ginsberg
Justin Ginsberg was born and raised in Dallas Texas, before traveling nationally and internationally learning from practicing artists. Since 2013, he has been the head of the glass area and assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, while also pursuing his own creative practice and research. His work focuses on the systems and structures we use for understanding the world around us. He questions the known and orderliness, while also bringing context to the unknown and chaotic. He considers process and action as he explores the perceived boundaries of materials and the presumed nature of things.Justin shows his work nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions in Germany, Norway, and Traver Gallery in Seattle WA. He has been selected for New Glass Review five times, an international publication produced by the Corning Museum of Glass, which features the top 100 works of art, which utilizes glass as a material. Justin is preparing for major installation projects at the Amon Carter Museum in Ft. Worth, TX and the Frye Museum in Seattle Washington in 2022
Mehdi Farahbakhsh
Mehdi Farahbakhsh is an architect, educator, and researcher in the College of Architecture, Planning, and Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Arlington. He graduated with a Ph.D. in architecture from Texas A&M University, and since 2010, he has been actively involved in architectural practice.
Dr. Farahbakhsh is an interdisciplinary researcher focusing on robotic-assisted additive manufacturing and human-robot collaboration. His work reflects a deep engagement with the evolving intersection of architecture and technology. His contributions to the field are documented through publications in prestigious journals such as Automation in Construction, and he has presented his findings at prominent conferences like CAAD Futures and ACADIA.
At the core of Dr. Farahbakhsh's research and pedagogy is a focus on how technological advancements can enhance social justice through architectural design and construction innovations. He seeks to understand and improve the ways in which these tools can be integrated into practice, ultimately aiming to enrich both the field of architecture and the quality of human-environment interactions.
VP Nguyen
VP Nguyen founded and directs Wireless and Sensor Systems Laboratory at the University of Texas at Arlington, where his team is focusing on building wireless, mobile, and embedded systems to identify the opportunities for cyber-physical system-based solutions to monitor and improve human health conditions and their living environments. He has been building wearable, mobile, and wireless sensing systems to monitor human breathing volume, brain activities, muscle activities, skin surface deformation, blood pressure for various healthcare applications. He has also developed systems to monitor objects in the environment such as drones, cars, trees, etc. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2018. He is the recipient of SONY Faculty Innovation Award 2020, ACM SIGMOBILE Research Highlight 2017 and 2020, Best Paper Award at ACM MobiCom 2019, Best Paper Runner up Award at ACM SenSys 2018, Best Paper Nominee at ACM SenSys 2017, Best Paper Awards at ACM MobiCom-S3 2016-2017.
Yana A Payusova
Payusova’s paintings and sculptures blend the styles and symbols of Russian icons, folk art, graphic poster art, illustration, and comics, and reflect Payusova’s cultural heritage and her training in traditional Russian realism. Payusova exhibits both nationally and internationally, including recent venues at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Howard Yezerski Gallery (Boston), Galerie Caprice Horn (Berlin), Rubin Center for the Visual Arts (El Paso) and the Northern Clay Center (Minneapolis). Last year Payusova was a featured speaker at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center and the 2020 California Conference for Advancement of Ceramics Arts.