Dr. Poras Balsara

The fast growth and strong reputation of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science continues to attract faculty members eager to build on current competencies.

The addition of two new tenured or tenure-track faculty members this year brings the number of tenured-track faculty members to 155, a 65 percent increase from a decade ago. The Jonsson School now has a total of 250 faculty members who educate close to 8,000 students.

The growth isn’t just in people, but also facilities, such as the 200,000-square-foot Engineering and Computer Science West building that opened this fall. The facility houses about 50 faculty members and their research labs and students, in addition to several meeting spaces of varying sizes designed for promoting collaboration and interaction.

The Jonsson School also is growing in ways to interact with the larger community.

“I have noticed a significant increase in entrepreneurship, startup activity and collaboration on and around campus,” said Dr. Poras Balsara, interim dean of the Jonsson School. “There is a lot of interest among business leaders, outside researchers, and our alumni and current students in cultivating this ecosystem in North Dallas and surrounding areas.”

To provide even more opportunities for community and corporate engagement, the Jonsson School recently kicked off Fearless 2020, a comprehensive engagement initiative to raise $20 million by 2020.

“Fearless 2020 is creating an opportunity to transform the world through education,” Balsara said. “This initiative builds upon our founders’ fearless vision of breaking down boundaries and impacting technology across the globe, enabling our community to rise to new levels of excellence.

“I am confident that our new faculty members will continue in our traditions of distinction.”

New Tenure-Track Faculty

Dr. Baowei Fei

Dr. Baowei Fei, professor of bioengineering

Previously: associate professor with tenure at the Emory University School of Medicine and the Georgia Institute of Technology

Research interests: biomedical imaging, image-guided intervention, translational imaging, machine learning and artificial intelligence, cancer research, neurodegenerative disorders, cardiovascular diseases

Quote: “UT Dallas is so young and fast-growing that each faculty member is a founder. It is my honor to work with the great teams in the Department of Bioengineering, Jonsson School and across the University to continue to build on the legacy of excellence.”

Dr. Wei Yang

Dr. Wei Yang, assistant professor of computer science

Previously: PhD candidate, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research Interests: software engineering, security, adversarial machine learning, mobile computing

Quote: “I enjoy teaching and doing research on software engineering and security in the Jonsson School. My current primary projects relate to mobile security and adversarial machine learning. I joined UT Dallas mainly because my research involves software engineering, security, natural language processing and machine learning, and the Department of Computer Science at UT Dallas is strong in these fields. Plus, the DFW area is a great place to live. I enjoy the fast growth of the city and the University.”

New Faculty Series

News Center is publishing profiles of tenured and tenure-track professors who have recently joined the University. The following school profiles have been published: