James A. Nemes, D.Sc.

James A. Nemes, division head and professor of mechanical engineering, earned both his doctorate and master of science in solid mechanics and materials engineering from The George Washington University and his bachelor of engineering from the University of Maryland. Dr. Nemes was an associate professor of mechanical engineering and William Dawson Scholar at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where he also held a number of administrative positions, including interim dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies.

Dr. Nemes' research focuses on material behavior, particularly the development of constitutive models to describe deformation and fracture. His results have been published in more than 100 articles in journals and conference proceedings. Dr. Nemes has also held a number of positions in industry and government, including research engineer at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.

Adrian S. Barb, Ph.D.

Adrian S. Barb, assistant professor of information science, received his bachelor of science in industrial engineering from the University of Bucharest. He earned his doctorate in computer science and MBA from the University of Missouri, where he also worked as a database programmer-analyst and web system coordinator. Dr. Barb teaches courses in the area of database management, information retrieval, and data mining.

His research interests include data mining, software estimation, database management systems, knowledge discovery in databases, database indexing, knowledge representation and exchange in content-based retrieval systems, semantic modeling and retrieval, conceptual change in knowledge-base systems, ontology integration, and expert-in-the-loop knowledge exchange.

Joanna F. DeFranco, Ph.D.

Joanna F. DeFranco is assistant professor of information science. She earned her doctorate in computer and information science from New Jersey Institute of Technology, master of science in computer engineering from Villanova University, and bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Penn State. Dr. DeFranco was previously director of the master of science in instructional systems and technology program at Cabrini College, located outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she was also assistant professor in computer and information science.

Prior to entering academia, Dr. DeFranco held a number of positions in industry and government, including software engineer for Motorola and an electronics engineer for the Naval Air Development Center in Warminster, Pennsylvania. She has published a number of articles in journals and conference proceedings in the area of collaborative problem solving, group cognition, global engineering, and computer forensics.

Phillip A. Laplante, Ph.D.

Phillip A. Laplante is a professor of software engineering and a registered Professional Engineer. He is an alumnus of Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, where he earned his doctorate in computer science, master of engineering in electrical engineering, and bachelor of science in systems planning and management. He also earned an MBA from the University of Colorado.

Dr. Laplante teaches courses in software engineering, including project management, testing, and requirements engineering. His research focuses on software project management, development, and testing. He has published more than 160 articles and 24 books. He is currently chairing the committee that will develop the national Professional Engineering licensure examination for software engineers, and he also serves on a number of boards and committees relating to the profession.

Colin J. Neill, Ph.D.

Colin J. Neill, associate professor of software and systems engineering and associate division head of engineering and information science, is a graduate of the University of Wales, Swansea, United Kingdom, where he earned his doctorate in software and systems engineering, master of science in communication systems, and bachelor of engineering in electrical and electronic engineering. He teaches a wide range of software and systems engineering courses in design, architecture, project management, systems thinking, and IT strategy.

Prior to joining Penn State, Dr. Neill worked on manufacturing and enterprise systems with Oxford University, the Rover Car Company, and British Aerospace. His research has been funded by the Ben Franklin Technology PArtners (BFTP) and the Department of Defense. He has written more than 60 articles on software design, architecture, process, and management, and serves as associate editor-in-chief of Innovations in Software and Systems Engineering.

Michael J. Piovoso, Ph.D.

Michael J. Piovoso, professor of electrical engineering, earned both his doctorate and bachelor of science in electrical engineering from the University of Delaware and his master of science in electrical engineering degree from the University of Michigan. Dr. Piovoso spent more than 32 years with the DuPont company in Wilmington, Delaware. At DuPont, he did research in control of chemical processes, applications of chemometrics to process systems, neural networks, and instrumentation development.

Dr. Piovoso is a past winner of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Control Systems Technology Award. His research centers on control of complex dynamic systems, monitoring of complex processes and control systems, system biology, and data mining. Dr. Piovoso is currently working on modeling HIV to aid in treatment options.

Robin Guanghua Qiu, Ph.D.

Robin Guanghua Qiu, associate professor of information science, earned his doctorate in industrial engineering from Penn State and his master and bachelor of science degrees from Beijing Institute of Technology, China. He teaches courses on software design methods, computer security, and enterprise service computing. Dr. Qiu's research includes services operations and informatics, component business modeling and computing, business transformation and services innovations, automatic information retrievals (auto-IR), and control and management of manufacturing systems.

Dr. Qiu has served as editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Services Operations and Informatics and Service Science, associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, and is on the editorial board of several international journals. He has more than 120 publications to his credit.

David W. Russell, Ph.D.

David W. Russell, professor of electrical engineering, received his doctorate from the Council for National Academic Awards, United Kingdom, and a bachelor of engineering in electrical engineering from the University of Liverpool. He teaches courses in operating systems, real-time artificial intelligence and control, and systems engineering and design. Dr. Russell previously taught at Villanova University, Howard University, and Liverpool John Moores University (United Kingdom) and was a technical executive in a systems integration company. He publishes research and lectures worldwide on the control of unstable systems, information systems, and design for intelligence.

Dr. Russell is a fellow of the BCS, The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE, UK), and the IEEE. He is the Americas Editor for Springer's International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology and is Americas Chair for the IMechE and a member of their International Strategy Board. He was senior division head of engineering and information science at Great Valley from 1994 to 2006.

Raghvinder S. Sangwan, Ph.D.

Raghvinder S. Sangwan, associate professor of software engineering, holds a doctorate in computer and information sciences from Temple University. He joined Penn State in 2003 after a more than seven-year career in industry, where he worked mostly with large software-intensive systems in the domains of health care, automation, transportation, and mining. His teaching and research involves analysis, design, and development of software systems, their architecture, and automatic and semi-automatic approaches to assessment of their design and code quality, and he has several peer-reviewed publications in these areas.

Dr. Sangwan actively consults for Siemens Corporate Research in Princeton, New Jersey, and also holds a visiting scientist appointment at the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is also a senior member of the IEEE and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).