SIE Welcomes Three New Faculty Members

In addition to welcoming a new associate dean for research, the College of Engineering welcomed three new faculty members in fall 2020 -- all of them in SIE! Read more about our new faculty members here.

Hannah Budinoff Returns to Alma Mater

After earning her BS in mechanical engineering from the UA in 2013, Hannah Budinoff went on to work for Honeywell and complete her PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Now, she’s returning to her alma mater as an assistant professor in SIE. Her research is focused on solving problems in design and manufacturing, currently within the context of additive manufacturing.

“Manufacturing transforms crazy, amazing mechanical systems and devices that only exist on paper into physical, functional objects,” she said. “Studying and improving manufacturing processes is fascinating, and I love that it has such immediate real-world impact.”

The self-described Wildcat at heart said she is thrilled to be back at the university, especially because of the college’s focus on providing design opportunities for students.

Afrooz Jalilzadeh Uses Simulations to Solve Real-World Problems

Afrooz Jalilzadeh is joining SIE after earning her PhD in industrial engineering at Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on stochastic and simulation optimization for processes that involve uncertainty and randomness. For example, her proposed methods can be used to help determine the optimal amount of power generation, considering resources, cost and integrated renewable energy sources.

“To fulfill my passion for applying the art of problem-solving to real-world problems, I decided to pursue my education in industrial engineering and operations research,” she said. “I specifically decided to work on stochastic optimization because it can address a wide range of problems that frequently occur in the real world.”

Jalilzadeh said she is looking forward to working with collaborators in different departments and being a part of the UA environment.

Erfan Yazdandoost Hamedani Tackles Machine Learning

Erfan Yazdandoost Hamedani is also joining SIE after earning his PhD in industrial engineering at Pennsylvania State University. His work focuses on large-scale and distributed optimization with application in machine learning, signal processing and statistical data analysis. These techniques are particularly useful for solving problems with a large number of variables, which can’t be solved quickly or efficiently with currently available tools. For example, his proposed methods could improve the algorithms that power spam filters or generate online credit scores.

“In machine learning, the goal is to provide systems the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience, such as the ability to detect hand-written digits,” he said.