Dear Colleagues,
To scale up to match our size and to meet organizational needs, we are moving to a new structure that I believe will better serve our faculty, staff and students as we continue to build strong programs and improve faculty, staff and student outcomes. Over the summer we will name three vice deans who will help manage both the day-to-day needs of our college as well as advance strategic initiatives.
The first of these vice deans is the vice dean of faculty administration. I am pleased to announce that Marco Saraniti, professor of electrical engineering, will assume this role starting immediately.
Marco was a faculty research associate at ASU from 1996 to 1998 before joining the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. He returned to the Fulton Schools in fall 2007 as a full professor. His research expertise is in computational electronics and biophysics. His current research focuses mainly on computational electronics applied to the simulation of semiconductor devices and biological structures. His recent scientific work includes the development of Monte Carlo and cellular automaton techniques for 2D and 3D simulation of semiconductor devices, simulation and engineering of semiconductor devices, and the development of numerical methods for the modeling and simulation of membrane proteins.
Marco earned his doctorate in physics from Technische Universität München (Germany).
More recently, Marco has been central to the establishment and tremendous growth of the online delivery of the electrical engineering BSE. Starting in the summer of 2012, he worked at the application of web-based technology to higher education. In collaboration with ECEE and the infrastructure supplied by EdPlus, he developed a new approach for the web-based delivery of knowledge. This approach has been instrumental in the success of the fully web-delivered component of the undergraduate EE program. Since 2015, he has served as the director of that component.
The second of these vice deans will be the vice dean for academic and student affairs. Jim Collofello, currently the senior associate dean, will assume this role and continue that work that he has been doing with ASA.
Jim joined ASU in 1979 from Northwestern University where he earned his doctorate in computer science. He was was one of the faculty who formed the Computer Science program at ASU. His primary area of teaching and research is in software engineering, specializing in software modeling, software quality assurance and software project management.
As senior associate dean since 2006, Jim has led innovative efforts to transform engineering education at ASU by building a suite of instructional and experiential programs that make up the Fulton Difference. This has included transforming the freshman year experience with new project-based Introduction to Engineering and Engineering Success classes as well as signature programs like E2, Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative (FURI), Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS), Undergraduate Teaching Assistants, entrepreneurial programs, K-12 outreach programs and the Grand Challenge Scholars program.
Please join me in supporting Marco and Jim in these new roles.
Sincerely,
Kyle
