Xiaocong Fan, Ph.D.
Xiaocong Simon Fan is an associate professor of computer science and software engineering at Penn State Behrend and the lead faculty for the Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering taught online. He received his doctorate in software engineering from Nanjing University, China.
Before joining the faculty at Penn State Behrend, Dr. Fan conducted his postdoctoral research at the College of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State from 2002 to 2007. During that time, and since, he has researched actively in the field of multiagent systems in three thrusts: (1) fundamental issues in team collaboration and theoretical studies in proactive information sharing, (2) construction of intelligent agent architectures for simulating teamwork and for supporting decision-making teams, and (3) experimental investigations on issues such as context-switching and trust in human-agent collaboration. From 2000 to 2002, Dr. Fan was a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Computer Science at Abo Akademi University, and at the Turku Centre for Computer Science, Finland. During this period, he focused mainly on software agents, agent-oriented methodologies, and fundamental issues in program refinement calculus.
Taking an interdisciplinary approach to teamwork issues by systematically bringing together concepts and techniques from artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and software engineering, Dr. Fan presently focuses his research on human-centered computing, multiagent systems, cognitive modeling, knowledge management, and service-oriented architectures.
Dr. Fan is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Thomas Hemminger, Ph.D.
Thomas Hemminger is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Penn State Behrend. He earned his bachelor's in electrical engineering in 1985 at Cleveland State University, his master's in electrical engineering in 1988 at Clarkson University, and his doctorate in electrical engineering in 1992 at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Hemminger was named chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department in January 2012.
Dr. Hemminger was the recipient of the Penn State Behrend Council of Fellows Faculty Research Award in April 2006. He was recognized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as the service award recipient for section chair in 2000 and the Outstanding Member Award from the Erie Engineering Societies Council in 1999. He was nominated for the Penn State Behrend Council of Fellows Faculty Research Award in spring 1996 and spring 1998. Dr. Hemminger was the second runner-up, with Dr. Robert Farrell, for the paper "Improving Blow Molding Machine Performance with Neural Networks" at ANNIE '97 (Artificial Neural Networks in Engineering) in November 1997, where they received the Novel Engineering Application Award for this work. He also received the Merl K. Miller Award for the outstanding COED journal paper on teaching/instructional methods, in Computers in Education, Division of American Society of Engineering Education in 1993. Dr. Hemminger is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Tau Beta Pi, and a past member of the American Society of Engineering Educators (ASEE).
Prior to employment at Behrend, Dr. Hemminger was an instructor during 1985–86 at Lorain County Community College, a teaching assistant from 1986–89 at Clarkson University, a graduate teaching assistant in 1989 at Case Western Reserve University, and a graduate research assistant from 1990–92, also at Case Western.
Jalaa Hoblos, Ph.D.
Jalaa Hoblos is an assistant professor of computer science and software engineering at Penn State Behrend. She joined Penn State Behrend in fall 2014. Before coming to Behrend, Dr. Hoblos was a visiting assistant professor at Hiram College for two years. Dr. Hoblos was also an adjunct faculty at Kent State University and at the University of Akron, Ohio, prior to Hiram College.
Dr. Hoblos received her bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Lebanese University in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1989, and her master’s and doctorate in computer science from Kent State University in 2006 and 2013, respectively. Dr. Hoblos is a member of ACM, AAWU, and the Anita Borg Institute.
Naseem Ibrahim, Ph.D.
Naseem Ibrahim joined Penn State Behrend as an assistant professor of computer science and software engineering in fall 2015. Before joining Penn State, Dr. Ibrahim was an assistant professor at Albany State University from fall 2012 to spring 2015. Dr. Ibrahim received his bachelor of science, master’s, and doctorate in software engineering from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.
Sudarshan Nelatury, Ph.D.
Sudarshan Nelatury is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Penn State Behrend. He received the bachelor’s in electronics and communications engineering in 1981 from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Hyderabad, AP India. He received both his master’s and doctorate in electronics and communications engineering in 1985 and 1996, respectively, from Osmania University, Hyderabad, AP India. Dr. Nelatury is a life member of the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE), New Delhi, India, and the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), Calcutta, India. He is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and its Communication Society, Signal Processing Society, and Antennas and Propagation Society. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE) and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).
Dr. Nelatury was selected for inclusion in AcademicKey's Who's Who in Engineering Academia in 2005; was chosen as an international reviewer for the Science and Engineering Research Council, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore, in 2004; and granted Rs. 500,000 for a project titled Development of Visual Electromagnetics++, A Pedagogical Tool, from the All India Council for Technical Education AICTE in 1999.
Prior to joining the Penn State Behrend faculty, Dr. Nelatury was an associate professor and graduate faculty adviser at Osmania University from 1983 to 1999 and a visiting assistant professor at Villanova University from 1999 to 2003.
Meng Su, Ph.D.
Meng Su is an associate professor of computer science and software engineering at Penn State Behrend, and chair of the Computer Science and Software Engineering Department. He received his bachelor’s in mathematics and his master’s in computational mathematics from Nanjing University, China, and both the master’s in computer science and the doctorate in mathematics in 1999 from the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
Before joining the faculty at Penn State Behrend in 2000, Dr. Su taught at the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale from 1999 to 2000, and was a member of the faculty at the East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai from 1987 to 1995. His original training was in nonlinear analysis and computational mathematics. Currently, his research is more involved in massive data analysis and application of machine learning to problems in informational retrieval, which are cross-disciplinary areas of computer science and mathematics.
Dr. Su is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).
George Walters, Ph.D.
George Walters is an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Penn State Behrend. He earned a bachelor’s in electrical engineering technology from Penn State Harrisburg in 1992, a master’s in electrical engineering in 2002 and the doctorate in computer engineering in 2009, both from Lehigh University. He is a licensed professional engineer in Pennsylvania since 1998.
Dr. Walters joined the Penn State Behrend faculty in August 2010. Prior to joining the faculty, he worked in industry as a controls engineer. Most of his experience is in the design, development, and commissioning of PLC-based control systems for the food and beverage and cement industries. Typical systems include networked PLCs for control, HMI/SCADA software for operator interface and data acquisition, and interface to MES, ERP, and Historian systems.
Dr. Walters is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the International Society of Automation (ISA).
Wen Li Wang, Ph.D.
Dr. Wen-Li Wang is an associate professor of computer science and software engineering at Penn State Behrend. He received the bachelor’s in management information systems from NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan, in 1991, and both the master’s and doctorate in computer science from the State University of New York SUNY at Albany in 1996 and 2002, respectively, where he received the Best Thesis Award in 2003 for his work. Dr. Wang joined the Penn State Behrend faculty in August of 2002.
Dr. Wang's first engineering job was as a LAN administrator for the Department of MIS in Taipei, Taiwan, from 1993 to 1994. He then worked as a graduate assistant and teaching assistant while completing his education at SUNY-Albany. Dr. Wang is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Zhifeng Xiao, Ph.D.
Zhifeng Xiao received his bachelor of engineering in computer science in 2008 from Shandong University, China. He completed his doctorate in computer science at the University of Alabama in 2013.
Dr. Xiao joined Penn State Behrend College in August 2013. His research interests are in the design and analysis of secure distributed and networked systems.
Richard Zhao, Ph.D.
Richard Zhao is an assistant professor of computer science and software engineering at Penn State Behrend. He joined Penn State Behrend as a faculty member in 2015 and is responsible for the game development program.
Dr. Zhao received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Toronto, and his master’s and doctorate degrees in computing science from the University of Alberta in 2009 and 2015, respectively. His research focused on applying artificial intelligence techniques to make the behaviors of virtual characters more believable.