UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Eleven new faculty members joined the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) on July 1. They represent each of IST’s newly formed departments: Human-Centered Computing and Social Informatics, Informatics and Intelligent Systems, and Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics.
“We are so glad to welcome these 11 new faculty members,” said Andrea Tapia, dean of the College of IST. “They bring research and teaching expertise that will enhance our growing enrollment, program offerings and research efforts. We look forward to their contributions to the IST community as we work to positively impact people around the world.”
Human-Centered Computing and Social Informatics
Curtis Cain, associate professor, is a researcher and educator focused on increasing participation in computing and understanding the structural and individual factors that shape career pathways in technology fields. He was an associate professor at Howard University and is the current director of Broadening Participation in Computing Initiatives at the Computing Research Association. Cain holds a doctoral degree in information sciences and technology from Penn State.
Ying Chen, assistant professor, comes to Penn State from Kennesaw State University, where she served as a faculty member in the College of Computer and Software Engineering. Her research interests lie at the intersection of systems — with a particular focus on extended reality systems — and other fields, including cybersecurity, machine learning, human-computer interaction, edge computing and networking. Chen holds a doctoral degree from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University.
Jennifer McCauley, assistant teaching professor, is an experienced educator with a passion for fostering innovative learning experiences. She previously served as an adjunct faculty member at Penn State and was the Advance Program Manager for the Nittany AI Alliance, where she guided students in applying artificial intelligence to real-world challenges through experiential, team-based projects. McCauley holds a master’s degree in information sciences and technology from Penn State.
Ehsan Sabaghian, assistant teaching professor, was a scientist and manager at Syracuse University’s Smart Grid Research Center, where he conducted multi-disciplinary research on modernization of the electric grid with digital technologies. He holds a doctoral degree in information science and technology from the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University.
Yuxing Wu, assistant teaching professor, examines how sociotechnical systems can be better designed to support complex, evolving health, social and developmental goals and needs of parents and children. Her work focuses on understanding everyday family-food interactions and experiences to inform design implications for family technologies. She holds a doctoral degree in health informatics from Indiana University Bloomington.
Informatics and Intelligent Systems
Patrick Dudas, associate teaching professor, is passionate about creating data visualizations and storytelling methods to help researchers understand their underlying data and make their results more accessible and comprehensible. He previously served as the associate director of the Center for Immersive Experiences at Penn State. Dudas holds a doctoral degree in information science from the University of Pittsburgh.
Feng Tao, assistant professor, works at the interface of soil carbon science, mechanistic modeling and artificial intelligence to understand the global soil carbon cycle and its response to climate change. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University. Tao earned a doctoral degree with honors from the Department of Earth System Science at Tsinghua University, China.
Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics
Matt Ruff, lecturer, was a technical intelligence officer and graduate fellow at the Central Intelligence Agency, an information management technical specialist for the U.S. Department of State and an assistant professor of practice at Oregon State University. Ruff holds a master’s degree in cybersecurity analytics and operations from Penn State.
Funminiyi Olajide, associate teaching professor, has research expertise in cybersecurity, digital forensics, incident response, information security and cybercrime management. He previously served as a senior lecturer in cybersecurity and digital forensics at the University of Westminster’s School of Computer Science and Engineering. Olajide holds a doctoral degree from the University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom.
Joseph Squillace, associate teaching professor, was an assistant teaching professor of cybersecurity at Penn State Schuylkill. His expertise lies in cybersecurity and technology-based research, incorporating qualitative, quantitative and mixed methodology models, and his research focus extends into cyberbullying, cybercrime, user behavior and more. He holds a doctoral degree in information systems from Nova Southeastern University.
Yuchen Yang, assistant professor, researches delivering trustworthy and functional solutions for machine learning and artificial intelligence systems. She has broad interests in security, privacy and robustness, with a particular emphasis on enabling seamless real-world deployment of artificial intelligence systems aligned with societal values. Yang holds a doctoral degree in computer science from Johns Hopkins University.