On the Move: Founding Dean, Vice Chancellor, & Director (June 2016)

A Kettering University faculty member since 1999, Craig J. Hoff, Ph.D. (MI G ’90) has been named the founding Dean of the College of Engineering. In this role he will oversee the departments of electrical & computer, industrial & manufacturing, and mechanical engineering. Dr. Hoff is currently a professor and head of mechanical engineering at Kettering.

His expertise is in energy systems, automotive powertrains, and he has been a longtime advisor to the University’s Formula SAE team. Read the news release for more information.

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Pramod P. Khargonekar, Ph.D. (FL A ’81), has been appointed vice chancellor for research at the University of California, Irvine, beginning June 30. Most recently, Dr. Khargonekar served as assistant director for engineering at the National Science Foundation, where he headed the Directorate for Engineering, which invests in frontier engineering research and education. He is also currently a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Florida.

Click here to read the announcement for more information on his new role and more biographical details such as receiving the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award and being a fellow of IEEE.

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Computer scientist and artificial intelligence authority figure Ron J. Brachman, Ph.D. (NJ D ’71) has been chosen as the new Director of the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute. According to the news release, the Jacobs Institute embodies the academic partnership between Cornell University and the Technion Israel-Institute of Technology at Cornell Tech.

Dr. Brachman will lead the Jacobs Institute’s strategic vision and become a member of the computer science faculty at Cornell University. Previously, he served as Yahoo’s chief scientist and head of Yahoo Labs. He was also one of the founders of Yahoo Research and served as the Director of the Information Processing Technology Office at DARPA. Dr. Brachman established the Cognitive Systems initiative, which developed the technology that led to the creation of Siri.

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