School of Engineering welcomes new faculty

Martin Allen, Associate Teaching Professor in Computer Science

Marty Allen utilizes computer science to do interdisciplinary research in which computing can be applied to subjects spanning the sciences and the arts. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Nadine Aubry, Provost and Senior Vice President, Professor in Mechanical Engineering

Nadine Aubry joins Tufts after having served as the Dean of the College of Engineering at Northeastern University. Her research focuses on fluid dynamics, dynamical systems theory, and chaotic mixing. She completed her Ph.D. in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University.

Felix Huang, Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering

Felix Huang received his M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and industrial operations engineering at the University of Michigan. His research interests include human motor control, robotic rehabilitation for stroke survivors, expert skill training for surgery, and control design of haptic devices.

Hoda Koushyar, Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering

Hoda Koushyar was promoted to full-time lecturer after having served as a part-time lecturer at Tufts since 2017. Her research interests include biomechanics, applied mechanics, materials characterization, and engineering education. She completed her Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from Virginia Tech.

Abani Patra, Director of the Data Intensive Studies Center (DISC), Professor in Computer Science, Professor in Mathematics

Abani Patra was appointed the inaugural director of Tufts’ new Data Intensive Studies Center. He previously served as the founding director of the University of Buffalo’s computational and data-enabled sciences and engineering program. He received his Ph.D. in computational and applied mathematics from the University of Texas at Austin.

Raja Sambasivan, Ankur and Mari Sahu Assistant Professor, Computer Science

Raja Sambasivan joins Tufts after having led a research group that focused on creating problem diagnosis tools at Boston University’s Mass Open Cloud. He completed his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

Elaine Schaertl Short, Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor, Computer Science

Elaine Schaertl Short’s work focuses on developing robots that can support children, older adults, and people with disabilities in achieving their goals. She received her Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Southern California.

Richard Townsend, Assistant Teaching Professor in Computer Science

Richard Townsend received his Ph.D. at Columbia University, where he studied programming languages and compilers. His research focuses on the use of functional languages and high-level optimizations to translate recursive algorithms with irregular memory access patterns into efficient hardware designs.

Matthew Woodward, Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering

Matthew Woodward joins Tufts from his position as a guest researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. His research areas focus on morphological intelligence, integrated multi-modal locomotion, and advanced actuation. He received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.