2025 Participants

Dr. Jing Bai joined the department as an Assistant Professor in August 2007, immediately after earning her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Bai’s current research focuses on nanoscale optoelectronic, photovoltaic, and biomedical devices, encompassing both fundamental and applied aspects. Her work at UMD has been supported by funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Whiteside Institute for Clinical Research, the University of Minnesota Graduate School, the MnDRIVE Initiatives and some internal grants at UMD. She is actively involved in mentoring undergraduate and graduate students across Electrical Engineering and other programs within SCSE, particularly on interdisciplinary research projects. Dr. Bai served as Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) from 2014 to 2018 and as Department Head from 2019 to 2022. 

My work focuses on the Minnesota state legislature, with a heightened focus on environmental issues. One of our office's primary functions is to educate legislators on the importance of research and advocate for enhanced investment. 

Alum of Purdue University with a degree in Agricultural Sciences Education and Communication. Research interests focus around the critical pedagogy of agriculture (critical indigenous pedagogy, critical ecological pedagogy, & critical pedagogy of place), as well as sustainability and sense of belonging in education. 

My research focuses on freshwater environments, with an interest in how lakes and rivers are impacted by human activities and climate change. 

Akintunde is a petrologist/economic geologist/geochemist that is interested in geological mapping, mineralogy, trace element geochemistry and environmental geochemistry. His previous research has focused on the application of petrology, mineralogical and geochemical data (major, trace and rare earth elements) to unravel the origins and evolution of rocks of the Basement Complex terrane. 

I am an aquatic ecologists with interests in biogeochemistry, invasive species especially crayfishes, data science, and statistics. Most recently I have been working on the ecology and biogeochemistry of a novel biofuel crop in the Midwest.

Graduated from UMD in 1989 with a masters in Computer Science. I worked at Sandia National Laboratories as well as other federal agencies in Cyber Security for over three decades. 

I’m beginning my masters program this fall and studying workplace culture of various demographics. I'm excited about this opportunity to learn about the Iron Range and all its industry offerings, its history, and the groups of individuals who have and currently are employed on the range. 

Jomara's research focuses on designing sociotechnical systems that promote individual health and well-being by combining computational methods from computer science with theoretical frameworks from the social sciences. 

Dr. Schokker is a licensed structural engineer specializing in design and materials related improvements in prestressed concrete. At UMD she has served as the founding Department Head of Civil Engineering and spent 4 years as the Executive Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs. She is currently the Director of a new asynchronous Master of Engineering program.

Lynne serves as part of the UMD leadership team and works closely with SCSE leadership and marcom colleagues to advocate and share success stories with key stakeholders. 

Yunxing's research centers on marine renewable energy harvesting, bio-inspired robotics, and complex fluids. His work combines experimental and data-driven approaches to investigate unsteady flow phenomena and their applications. His work integrates principles from fluid mechanics, materials science, and control to advance sustainable technologies and biologically informed engineering design. 

Julie's research focuses on the development and analysis of numerical methods for solving partial differential equations (PDEs) arising in physics, particularly in electromagnetics and materials science. She is especially interested in designing efficient and accurate computational techniques to address challenges in these complex systems.