BHM Periodic Table @ The Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences

BHM Periodic Table - ICS/Engineering Faculty

ICS/Engineering Faculty

In February, UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS) celebrates Black History Month by highlighting pioneers in science and technology and sharing resources to expand diversity in tech. This year, we’re following the lead of Dana Boone, a student in Florida who, in 2021, put up at a display at his elementary school of the Periodic Table of Black History, created in 2019 by staff members at the Lakeland Public Library in Florida. Using that model as a foundation, we’ve created our own version, and here are the ICS/Engineering faculty members included:

13 RC Roderic Crooks, Assistant Professor of Informatics, studies the intersections of race, technology and public life. His current project explores how community organizers in working-class communities of color use data for activist projects, even as they dispute the proliferation of data-intensive technologies in education, law enforcement, financial services and other vital sites of civic concern.

31 IH Ian Harris, Professor of Computer Science, has been in ICS since 2004. His research interests include the design of secure hardware and software systems and the application of natural language understanding to security and design. His current projects include the detection of phone-based social engineering attacks, the formalization of natural language specifications, and the development of a cyber test range to evaluate the security of IoT systems. He is also leading a team of students participating in the MITRE Embedded Capture the Flag competition.

32 JRO Joni Ricks-Oddie is the first full-time director of the UCI Center for Statistical Consulting and is also director of the Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS) Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design (BERD) Unit. By managing both, Ricks-Oddie — who earned her Ph.D. in epidemiology from UCLA in 2012 — has streamlined processes so the two groups operate in sync as a “one-stop shop” for the UCI community and affiliated organizations needing to collaborate with a statistician. She works with a variety of organizations, including Chapman University and Children’s Hospital of Orange County, and has organized many training sessions and workshops at UCI. She is helping lead the ICTS Black Thriving Initiative Strategic Plan as well as working with faculty in the Statistics department to expose underrepresented minority (URM) middle and high school students to careers in statistics and data science. She also now represents District 9 on the Long Beach City Council!

49 TA Tayloria Adams, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, studies the physical properties of stem cell and cancer cell populations using innovative microfluidic devices. Her projects use electric currents and cell motion to develop membrane capacitance and other measurable cellular properties as reliable label-free biological markers. She holds a patent for her discoveries and was a National Science Foundation (NSF) Postdoctoral Fellow and UCI Chancellor’s ADVANCE Postdoctoral Fellow. Adams recently earned a prestigious NSF CAREER award and an award from the University of California Cancer Research Coordinating Committee. Also, she is working with a multidisciplinary team to develop a curriculum focused on the meaningful engagement of minoritized students in the classroom. This NSF-funded grant, led by Pheather R. Harris, director of UCI’s California Alliance for Minority Participation, is cutting-edge and explores the environmental factors causing minoritized students to leave STEM. Adams is also highly engaged in activities to increase the number of Black high school, undergraduate and graduate students pursuing STEM fields.

50 AA Adeyemi Adeleye, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, conducts research across environmental chemistry and environmental nanotechnology. He is interested in improving environmental sustainability by (1) investigating the release, fate, and effects of emerging pollutants in the environment; and (2) developing novel technologies for treatment and remediation. Before joining UC Irvine, he was a National Research Council (NRC) research associate at the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) in Narragansett, RI. He was named one of C&EN Talented-12 in 2022 and also received the Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization’s (SNO) 2022 Emerging Investigator Award.

51 WB William Bowman, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, uses advanced transmission electron microscopy to study electroceramics for energy conversion and storage applications. He aims to understand and design nanoscale structural and chemical phenomena vital to the electrical and catalytic properties of these materials. He earned his doctorate in materials science and engineering at Arizona State University, before doing postdoctoral research in the Laboratory for Electrochemical Interfaces at MIT. During his graduate studies he was a visiting student ETH Zurich, and earned an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, a Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship, an NSF Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide Award and an ASU Doctoral Enrichment Fellowship, as well as a Microscopy Society of America Presidential Scholar Award.

68 AT Aaron Trammell, Assistant Professor of Informatics and Core Faculty in Visual Studies, writes about how “Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering,” and board games inform the lived experiences of their players. Specifically, he’s interested in how these games further values of white privilege and hegemonic masculinity in geek culture. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Analog Game Studies and the Multimedia editor of Sounding Out! He has a two books out this year, Repairing Play (MIT) is a provocative study that reconsiders the notion of play — and how its deceptively wholesome image has harmed and erased people of color. The Privilege of Play (NYU) is a history of games in the twentieth century that shows how games are key to understanding a predominately white male culture of hackers, tinkerers, and hobbyists.

69 TD Timothy Downing, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, is leading a team of interdisciplinary researchers working to uncover the molecular and physical principles of epigenome replication. The project is funded through a $3 million NSF grant for research that seeks to better understand the dynamic nature of the epigenome, which will open new possibilities for cellular engineering. The award will also support activities that broaden participation in science among high schoolers and undergraduates, including students from underrepresented groups. In addition, Downing received $2 million in funding for a 2019 New Innovator Award. With this work, he aims to shed light on how mechanical cues integrate with and give rise to disease-driving epigenetic mutations, ultimately leading to the discovery of better treatment options for cancer patients.

70 SH Shakira Hobbs, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is conducting novel research in global sustainability, resource recovery from anthropogenic waste, and life cycle thinking applied to engineering equity at the food-energy-water nexus. Over the years, she has established synergy between her research and teaching that inspires students to pursue careers in environmental engineering. Students, who accompany her on humanitarian engineering trips, produce knowledge that advances the field of environmental engineering while gaining life-changing service learning experiences. Results from these experiences have led to co-published archival journal articles with students, international partnerships and collaborations, and graduate student recruitment in Hobbs’ Lab.

87 RO Ronke Olabisi, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, leads the Olabisi Lab. Research in the lab involves tissue engineering and regenerative medicine to repair or build de novo tissues for treating defects due to injury, disease, aging, or spaceflight. The approach is through the development of biosynthetic materials, which combine the best aspects of synthetic and biological materials to attain reproducible biomaterials that can drive or direct cell function. Current efforts focus on skin, orthopedic and retinal tissues.

88 QS Quinton Smith, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, focuses on bridging the gap between fundamental stem cell biology and the clinical application of stem cell derivatives. Miniaturization technologies from the electronics industry enable engineers to build models of human physiology. In particular, these technologies permit controlling interactions between individual cells and their physical microenvironment and spatial information like gradients in chemical signals. Coupling these powerful tools with stem cell and organoid technology allows precise re-creation of a tissue’s natural environment in the body. Smith’s lab is leveraging these organ-on-chip model systems to uncover new biology related to human development and study how organs maintain homeostasis, become diseased and regenerate.

Return to Periodic Table

13	RC	Roderic Crooks, Assistant Professor of Informatics, studies the intersections of race, technology and public life. His current project explores how community organizers in working-class communities of color use data for activist projects, even as they dispute the proliferation of data-intensive technologies in education, law enforcement, financial services and other vital sites of civic concern.
31	IH	Ian Harris, Professor of Computer Science, has been in ICS since 2004. His research interests include the design of secure hardware and software systems and the application of natural language understanding to security and design. His current projects include the detection of phone-based social engineering attacks, the formalization of natural language specifications, and the development of a cyber test range to evaluate the security of IoT systems. He is also leading a team of students participating in the MITRE Embedded Capture the Flag competition.
32	JRO	Joni Ricks-Oddie is the first full-time director of the UCI Center for Statistical Consulting and is also director of the Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS) Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design (BERD) Unit. By managing both, Ricks-Oddie — who earned her Ph.D. in epidemiology from UCLA in 2012 — has streamlined processes so the two groups operate in sync as a “one-stop shop” for the UCI community and affiliated organizations needing to collaborate with a statistician. She works with a variety of organizations, including Chapman University and Children’s Hospital of Orange County, and has organized many training sessions and workshops at UCI. She is helping lead the ICTS Black Thriving Initiative Strategic Plan as well as working with faculty in the Statistics department to expose underrepresented minority (URM) middle and high school students to careers in statistics and data science. She also now represents District 9 on the Long Beach City Council!
49	TA	Tayloria Adams, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, studies the physical properties of stem cell and cancer cell populations using innovative microfluidic devices. Her projects use electric currents and cell motion to develop membrane capacitance and other measurable cellular properties as reliable label-free biological markers. She holds a patent for her discoveries and was a National Science Foundation (NSF) Postdoctoral Fellow and UCI Chancellor’s ADVANCE Postdoctoral Fellow. Adams recently earned a prestigious NSF CAREER award and an award from the University of California Cancer Research Coordinating Committee. Also, she is working with a multidisciplinary team to develop a curriculum focused on the meaningful engagement of minoritized students in the classroom. This NSF-funded grant, led by Pheather R. Harris, director of UCI’s California Alliance for Minority Participation, is cutting-edge and explores the environmental factors causing minoritized students to leave STEM. Adams is also highly engaged in activities to increase the number of Black high school, undergraduate and graduate students pursuing STEM fields.
50	AA	Adeyemi Adeleye, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, conducts research across environmental chemistry and environmental nanotechnology. He is interested in improving environmental sustainability by (1) investigating the release, fate, and effects of emerging pollutants in the environment; and (2) developing novel technologies for treatment and remediation. Before joining UC Irvine, he was a National Research Council (NRC) research associate at the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) in Narragansett, RI. He was named one of C&EN Talented-12 in 2022 and also received the Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization’s (SNO) 2022 Emerging Investigator Award.
51	WB	William Bowman, Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, uses advanced transmission electron microscopy to study electroceramics for energy conversion and storage applications. He aims to understand and design nanoscale structural and chemical phenomena vital to the electrical and catalytic properties of these materials. He earned his doctorate in materials science and engineering at Arizona State University, before doing postdoctoral research in the Laboratory for Electrochemical Interfaces at MIT. During his graduate studies he was a visiting student ETH Zurich, and earned an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, a Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship, an NSF Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide Award and an ASU Doctoral Enrichment Fellowship, as well as a Microscopy Society of America Presidential Scholar Award.
68	AT	Aaron Trammell, Assistant Professor of Informatics and Core Faculty in Visual Studies, writes about how “Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering,” and board games inform the lived experiences of their players. Specifically, he’s interested in how these games further values of white privilege and hegemonic masculinity in geek culture. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Analog Game Studies and the Multimedia editor of Sounding Out! He has a two books out this year, Repairing Play (MIT) is a provocative study that reconsiders the notion of play — and how its deceptively wholesome image has harmed and erased people of color. The Privilege of Play (NYU) is a history of games in the twentieth century that shows how games are key to understanding a predominately white male culture of hackers, tinkerers, and hobbyists.
69	TD	Timothy Downing, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, is leading a team of interdisciplinary researchers working to uncover the molecular and physical principles of epigenome replication. The project is funded through a $3 million NSF grant for research that seeks to better understand the dynamic nature of the epigenome, which will open new possibilities for cellular engineering. The award will also support activities that broaden participation in science among high schoolers and undergraduates, including students from underrepresented groups. In addition, Downing received $2 million in funding for a 2019 New Innovator Award. With this work, he aims to shed light on how mechanical cues integrate with and give rise to disease-driving epigenetic mutations, ultimately leading to the discovery of better treatment options for cancer patients.
70	SH	Shakira Hobbs, Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is conducting novel research in global sustainability, resource recovery from anthropogenic waste, and life cycle thinking applied to engineering equity at the food-energy-water nexus. Over the years, she has established synergy between her research and teaching that inspires students to pursue careers in environmental engineering. Students, who accompany her on humanitarian engineering trips, produce knowledge that advances the field of environmental engineering while gaining life-changing service learning experiences. Results from these experiences have led to co-published archival journal articles with students, international partnerships and collaborations, and graduate student recruitment in Hobbs’ Lab.
87	RO	Ronke Olabisi, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, leads the Olabisi Lab. Research in the lab involves tissue engineering and regenerative medicine to repair or build de novo tissues for treating defects due to injury, disease, aging, or spaceflight. The approach is through the development of biosynthetic materials, which combine the best aspects of synthetic and biological materials to attain reproducible biomaterials that can drive or direct cell function. Current efforts focus on skin, orthopedic and retinal tissues.
88	QS	Quinton Smith, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, focuses on bridging the gap between fundamental stem cell biology and the clinical application of stem cell derivatives. Miniaturization technologies from the electronics industry enable engineers to build models of human physiology. In particular, these technologies permit controlling interactions between individual cells and their physical microenvironment and spatial information like gradients in chemical signals. Coupling these powerful tools with stem cell and organoid technology allows precise re-creation of a tissue’s natural environment in the body. Smith’s lab is leveraging these organ-on-chip model systems to uncover new biology related to human development and study how organs maintain homeostasis, become diseased and regenerate.