Research Day 2024 Speakers
Welcome Speakers
Jennifer L. West
Dean, School of Engineering & Applied Science - University of Virginia
Jennifer L. West’s formidable record of accomplishments spans more than 25 years as a transformational researcher, award-winning teacher and mentor, inventor, and entrepreneur. Her research focuses on the use of biomaterials, nanotechnology and tissue engineering, applying engineering approaches to studying biological problems and solving unmet medical needs, particularly in the fight against cancer.
Dean West came to UVA as Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science in 2021, from Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, where she was the Fitzpatrick Family University Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Associate Dean. Prior to Duke, she was one of the founding members, and then chair, of Rice University’s Department of Bioengineering, building the department over 16 years into a top-10 program. She is a highly respected leader in her field, with a publication “h-index” of 108 and national and international recognition for her contributions. The h-index is a measure of a scientist’s or scholar’s productivity as an author and the citation impact of their publications.
Dean West was elected in 2015 to the National Academy of Engineering and in 2016 to the National Academy of Inventors. It was just announced this October 2023 that she was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine for her pioneering biomedical engineering research. In 2015, she received the Society for Biomaterials Clemson Award. In 2014, she was recognized by Thomson Reuters as a Highly Cited Researcher, the top 1% in the field of materials science. She has been listed by MIT Technology Review as one of the 100 most innovative young scientists and engineers worldwide. She has 19 patents that have been licensed to eight different companies. One company, Nanospectra Biosciences Inc., co-founded by West, is running human clinical trials of a cancer therapy she invented.
Jonathan Goodall
Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Link Lab Director - University of Virginia
Jonathan Goodall is a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Virginia (UVA) and Director of the UVA Engineering LINK LAB. He is a water resources engineer working to advance the field of hydroinformatics where data and computational sciences are used to improve the understanding, forecasting, and management of water systems. Much of his current work focuses on adapting techniques from cyber-physical systems for real-time flood mitigation in coastal urban communities experiencing sea level rise impacts. Professor Goodall leads the HYDROINFORMATICS RESEARCH GROUP housed in the Link Lab, co-directs the UVA PUBLIC INTEREST TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY NETWORK (PIT-UN), is a member of UVA's Pan-University ENVIRONMENTAL RESILIENCE INSTITUTE steering committee, and is an affiliated faculty member of the CENTER FOR TRANSPORTATION STUDIES. Professor Goodall is a registered Professional Engineer (PE), a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and an elected member of the Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. He earned his Ph.D. and M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and his B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Virginia.
Keynote Speaker
Steven Truitt
Principal Program Manager, Microsoft
Mr. Steven Truitt is a Principal Program Manager at Microsoft leading work on the practical applications of large language models deep reasoning in science and critical mission applications. Prior to joining Microsoft, Steven was CTO of Kimetrica, a humanitarian technology company applying AI to detect and avoid food insecurity and conflict emergence. Additionally, he has worked on advancing remote sensing technologies within the IC and DoD through various senior leadership and advisory roles at startups, FFRDCs, and contractors.
Speakers/Panelists
Homa Alemzadeh
Homa Alemzadeh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science (by courtesy) at the University of Virginia. She is also affiliated with the UVA Link Lab, a multi-disciplinary center for research and education in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). Before joining UVA, she was a Research Staff Member at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. She received her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the University of Tehran. She is the recipient of the 2022 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation and 2017 William C. Carter Ph.D. Dissertation Award in Dependability from the IEEE TC and IFIP Working Group 10.4 on Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance.
Jundong Li
Jundong Li is an Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia, with appointments in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Computer Science, and School of Data Science. His research interests are generally in data mining and machine learning, with a particular focus on graph machine learning, trustworthy/safe machine learning, causal inference, and, more recently large language models. He has published over 150 papers in high-impact venues and won several prestigious awards, including SIGKDD Rising Star Award (2024), PAKDD Best Paper Award (2024), PAKDD Early Career Research Award (2023), SIGKDD Best Research Paper Award (2022), NSF CAREER Award (2022), JP Morgan Chase Faculty Research Award (2022 & 2021), Cisco Faculty Research Award (2021), among others. He has served on the organizing committees of conferences such as KDD, WSDM, SDM, and IEEE BigData, and is currently on the editorial boards for ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology (TIST) and ACM Transactions on Knowledge Discovery from Data (TKDD).
Siva Sangameswaran
Sustainability Lead, Transportation Operations Management (TOM), Amazon
Siva is a Sustainability, Climate Risk Resiliency Leader within Amazon's Transportation Operations Management Yādo (Japanese for yard) organization. He specializes in the design and development of data driven processes, ML/AI models and products focused on implementing sustainability initiatives intersecting carbon, water, energy and environmental aspects. He is a Board Certified Water Resources Engineer (BC-WRE) and has 19 years of technical and leadership experience in the water resources, climate risk, computational modeling, cloud and informational technology sectors. Siva will share insights based on professional experience at various scales and contexts on the criticality and interplay of privacy, security and ethical aspects when complex physical systems interact with each other in a cloud based cyber environment.
Donald Byers
Technical Solutions Architect, Cisco
Donald is a Solutions Engineer at Cisco with nearly 10 years of experience, specializing in network, cloud, and application security, as well as Zero Trust architectures. He holds a Master’s degree in Cybersecurity from George Mason University and is CISSP certified. Outside of work, he enjoys volunteering with his therapy dog, Toby, as well as tackling hands-on projects, especially working on cars and boats. He is also an avid traveler and passionate snowboarder.
Arsalan Heydarian
Associate Professor, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Link Lab - University of Virginia
Arsalan Heydarian is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering as well as the UVA Link Lab. His research focuses on the user-centered design, construction, and operation of intelligent infrastructure, aiming to enhance sustainability, adaptability, and resilience. His work is organized into four primary research streams: (1) intelligent built environments, (2) mobility and infrastructure design, (3) smart transportation, and (4) data-driven mixed reality. Dr. Heydarian holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering and an M.Sc. in Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California (USC), along with B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech. He is also a co-founder of the Omni Reality and Cognition Lab (ORCL Lab), a cutting-edge facility that utilizes virtual and augmented reality technologies to study human behavior and responses to various infrastructure designs.
Amanda Watson
Amanda Watson’s research focuses on wearable technology for healthcare and athletic performance. Amanda Watson is an Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Virginia. She is also affiliated with the UVA Link Lab, a multi-disciplinary center for research and education in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). Before joining UVA, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the PRECISE Center at the University of Pennsylvania mentored by James Weimer and Insup Lee. Previously, she was a member of the LENS lab where she researched wearable technology with Gang Zhou. She received her Ph.D. in Computer Science from the College of William and Mary in 2020, an M.S. in Computer Science from the College of William and Mary in 2016, and a B.A. in Computer Science and Mathematics from Drury University in 2014 where she was a 4-year letterman on the varsity volleyball team.
Jeremy Tole
Vice President, Azbil North America Research and Development (ANAD)
Jeremy Tole serves as the Vice President of Azbil North America Research and Development (ANAD). Jeremy has more than 25 Years of General Management, R&D, Technical Marketing, Product Definition, Applications, and International Sales experience at semiconductor, electronics, and industrial control companies including Azbil, Maxim (now Analog Devices), Fairchild (now On Semi), Cirrus Logic, Cadeka (now Maxlinear), and Co-Founder of Golden Gate Integrated Circuits.
Jeremy has successfully organized and led cross-functional teams to create leading-edge, world-class products and technologies in areas such as IoT, wireless communications, wireless power, energy harvesting, sensors, AI, power management, video, and precision control products for industrial, consumer, communications, computing, security, and automotive markets.
Throughout his career, he has focused on growing business through innovative product definition and development, technology scouting, competitive selling efforts, and strong strategic acquisition identification and integration.
Jeremy serves as Vice President and Board Member of the Wireless Communications Alliance. Additionally, he is on the Advisory board for the University of Virginia Link Lab (Cyber Physical Systems) and a board member for the mmWave Coalition. He is also an Industrial Advisory Board Member for the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center (BSAC), the Berkeley Wireless Research Center (BWRC), and Berkeley’s Center for the Built Environment (CBE), respectively.
Jeremy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, with a concentration in Applied Electrophysics and Computer Engineering from the University of Virginia. He is a member of the IEEE, ASHRAE, and Trigon Engineering Society.
Jeremy’s interests include soccer (playing and watching), playing guitar, and serving as the Cubmaster of his son’s Cub Scout Pack.
Sharon Lee
Product Designer - Tidepool
Sharon is a full-stack product designer with 8 years of experience in digital health. At Tidepool, a diabetes-focused non-profit, she leads design for a clinical tool serving over 30,000 health professionals across 3,000 clinics worldwide. Her work integrates digital interfaces with diverse diabetes technologies, addressing unique design challenges for both people living with diabetes and their care teams. Previously at GoInvo, a Boston-based design studio, Sharon's projects spanned health insurance, pharmacy, care management, patient apps, research participation, health policy, and social determinants of health, impacting nearly 1 million Massachusetts residents. Sharon holds a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Virginia and maintains ties to academia by teaching healthcare design courses at her alma mater and Parsons New School.