Tag: #fellow

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Dr. Candice L. Bledsoe, Hunt Institute Fellow

Bledsoe is a Faculty member at Simons School of Education & Human Development’s Graduate Liberal Studies Program, a professor at Cox School of Business, serves on the Leadership Council in the Inclusive Economy Consortium, and Fellow in the Hunt Institute. Bledsoe is, the executive director of the Action Research Center, an organization designed to enhance equity in our communities. Dr. Bledsoe is also the founder of the Collective

Candice L. Bledsoe, PhD. is a Faculty member at Simmons School of Education & Human Development’s Graduate Liberal Studies Program, a professor at Cox School of Business, serves on the Leadership Council in the Inclusive Economy Consortium, and Fellow in the Hunt Institute. Bledsoe is, the executive director of the Action Research Center, an organization designed to enhance equity in our communities. Dr. Bledsoe is also the founder of the Collective, a group comprised of community leaders, writers, scholars, and entrepreneurs who share the stories of minoritized women in America. She is the co-convener of the SMU Women of Color Research Cluster sponsored by the DCII. The cluster aims to create space for women of color to share their stories, especially as it relates to the intersections of race, gender, and class.

Dr. Bledsoe has received numerous fellowships including: The National Endowment of Humanities, the New Leadership Academy, National Center of Institutional Diversity, University of Michigan, and Boone Family Foundation. She is a proud member of the 2017 cohort of Dallas Public Voices. She is the recipient of the 2020 UN Day Global Leadership Award, in the category of Sustainable Development Goal 4, Quality Education. This prestigious award reflects the bold, transformative work Bledsoe has done to advance the United Nations goals for sustainable development, shifting the world onto a more resilient path through quality education.

When asked about her motivation working with the Hunt Institute as a Fellow and collaborator across multiple initiatives she replied, “The Institute’s mission is to serve as a national and international hub to partner with leaders in business, academia, NGOs and government to develop and scale sustainable and affordable technologies and solutions to local and global challenges. At the SMU Hunt Institute, I enjoy using creativity and innovation to develop new solutions to create change.”

Dr. Bledsoe holds a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University. She received her masters from Southern Methodist University and her doctorate in higher education from University of Southern California.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn,Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu

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James Olivier, Ph.D

Dr. Olivier is a Hunt Institute Fellow, a researcher, engineer, and educator. As an adjunct professor at SMU’s Lyle Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Olivier brings over 30 years of experience in the areas of telecommunications and computer networking to his classes. As a Fellow at the Hunt Institute, Dr. Olivier leads research efforts into the application of transformational technologies to the Hunt Institute’s mission of developing sustainable and affordable technology solutions to local and global challenges.

Dr. Olivier is the program lead for the Hunt Institute’s Maps4good/ MapInDallas effort. This project seeks to connect individuals in need with free service providers in Dallas to increase the number of eligible individuals taking advantage of local services. The maps created by MapInDallas will empower individuals to use the services available to them by providing them with tools and resources to seek out the services they require.

Dr. Olivier is also the principal researcher for the Hunt Institute’s investigation into the use of AI to provide legal services to the underrepresented. This investigation is studying the applicability of AI systems known as expert systems, integrated with Web-based technologies, to automate simple legal tasks and improve access to legal resources for the underserved in Dallas.

When asked about his motivation for working at the Hunt Institute Dr. Olivier commented, “When I was first introduced to the Hunt Institute, I was impressed from the start, the people, their commitment and even its name, ‘The Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanity’. The idea of an institute dedicated to engineering and humanity spoke to me. I was honored when they asked if I would join them. I try to bring my experience and understanding of various advanced technologies to help out in any way I can.”

As chairman of the IEEE Dallas Blockchain group, Dr. Olivier has given numerous presentations on transformational technologies, speaking at Dallas Startup Week, Villanova’s Engineering Entrepreneurship Summer Institute, and SMU’s InpactNights. He also volunteers to serve on the board for Dallas College’s Bill J. Priest Institute’s Innovation Lab.

Over the past 20 years Dr. Olivier in addition to acting as a consultant on the design of both advanced networking equipment and the design of advanced networks, Dr. Olivier has also been an intellectual property consultant in the area of networking and telecommunications technologies. Dr. Olivier’s education and background have allowed him to be recognized as an expert in such areas as Packet Switching, Cellular Networks, and Network Security before United States District Courts and the International Trade Commission.

Dr. Olivier currently lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife Margaret. A native of Cincinnati Ohio, Dr. Olivier received his Bachelors, Masters and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University during which he was named a Kodak Fellow, one of twelve fellowships given out nationally by the Kodak Corporation in the areas of physics and engineering.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Scott Douglas, PhD, Hunt Institute Fellow

Scott Douglas, PhD., is a Hunt Institute Fellow and professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Scott C. Douglas, Ph.D. Hunt Institute Fellow, is the author or co-author of two books, eight book chapters, and more than 200 articles in journals and conference proceedings.  He is a senior member of the IEEE and a past Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing (IEEE), the IEEE Signal Processing Letters (IEEE), and the Journal of Signal Processing Systems (Springer).   He has served in numerous roles to the IEEE, including General Chair of ICASSP 2010, Chair of the Neural Networks for Signal Processing Technical Committee, and Secretary of the Signal Processing Education Technical Committee of the IEEE Signal Processing Society. 

Dr. Douglas has played an integral role in developing and managing the Infinity Project, an effort among university faculty, high-tech industry, and civic educational leaders to bring an exciting and practical engineering curriculum to high school students both in the U.S. and internationally.  He was one of the first researchers to demonstrate acoustic source separation of speech signals, and he manages the Multimedia Systems Laboratory housing an acoustic chamber with real-time recording and processing capabilities for microphone arrays. 

When discussing Dr. Douglas motivation, he said, “Research begins as an act of creativity through a myriad of choices: what problem or issue to explore, what questions to ask, and the ways to collect or develop new knowledge or expertise. Then, it turns into a task of execution. In these ways, it is a lot like an artistic performance. Preparation is key.”

Scott C. Douglas received the B.S. (with distinction), M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, Stanford, CA. He is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.  His research activities include acoustic blind source separation, wireless geolocation/direction-finding, and VLSI/hardware implementations of digital signal processing systems. 

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Chris Kelley

Photo of Chris Kelley

Chris Kelley is an award-winning writer with more than 35 years of experience in journalism and strategic communications.

An ardent champion of truth and getting the story behind the story, Kelley began his career as a newspaper reporter fresh out of college, working his way through the ranks of The Dallas Morning News (Dallas-based A.H. Belo Corp.) — from street reporter to city editor over the course of 27 years — and ultimately becoming the founding editor of DallasNews.com, the evolutionary step of the Dallas Morning News, as the major news operation entered the new millennium.

A relentless problem solver, Kelley, after accepting a voluntary severance arrangement from A.H. Belo Corp in 2006, formed The Kelley Group to bring his communications skills to select non-profits, humanitarian organizations and visionary corporations to expand the reach of their message effectiveness, using both traditional media and New Media formats to inspire a greater audience worldwide to take positive action on society’s challenges.

Focusing on human causes and social justice issues, Kelley is an expert in media relations and crisis communications, and through his media consultancy he has partnered with the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum, Refugee Services of Texas, SMU, the Lighthouse for the Blind (Envision Dallas), the Deaf Action Center, and Alliance for Greater Works, among other institutions that engage in what he describes as having a big difference to make but needing some help to make it more efficiently and effectively.

When asked for his motivation behind his impactful work, he replied, “At the start of every day and before sleep every night, I ask: ‘What will I do/what have I done to level the playing field for others who are unable to pursue this aim themselves.'”

As an author, Kelley has traveled the world to get the first-person accounts of those who’ve lived through the indescribable trauma of human atrocities, specifically in an effort to keep the stories of those who’ve survived the horrors of the Rwandan genocide of the late 20th Century from being buried by the passing of time. And, through the friendships he’s forged with people of all walks of life, who’ve endured monumental hardships and nevertheless prevailed to grasp their own purpose and meaning and forge their own successes, Kelley has gained an appreciation for the potential within every person and strives to present the triumph of the human spirit in all his work.

Among his works, Kelley is the author of Rwanda: 25 Years Later: A primer on the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and what’s happened since then (2019, Amazon) and I Was a Stranger: Hope for a Hidden World (2008, Brown Books).

He also served as executive producer of the DVD, JFK: Story Behind the Story, on the 40th anniversary of the JFK assassination. He is executive producer of Tragedy Over Texas: The Columbia Shuttle Disaster. And, he has also helped produce an online resource for KERA-TV and Radio, Living with the Trinity (TrinityRiverTexas.org).

Kelley is a contributing author for Demographics: A Guide to Methods and Data Sources for Media, Business, and Government (2006, Routledge).

Kelley is a graduate of Texas Christian University and is a member of both the News Leaders Association and the Dallas Press Club.

Kelley and his wife, Sheryl, live in Dallas and have raised two children who have both followed in their parents’ footsteps of living to enjoy life with meaning and purpose while striving to be servant-leaders in collaboration with others who are seeking to achieve equity and equality for all persons.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Andrew Quicksall, Hunt Institute Fellow

Andrew Quicksall

Associate Professor, SMU
B.S., Environmental Sciences, Texas Christian University, 1998
M.S., Geology, Washington State University, 2000
Ph.D., Earth Science, Dartmouth College, 2009

It is with pleasure we announce Andrew Quicksall as a Hunt Institute Fellow. The Hunt Institute Fellows are appointed for their expertise and demonstrated excellence in their fields. During their tenure, they will collaborate on projects and contribute to the endeavors of the Institute.

Andrew Quicksall, Ph.D., as assistant professor of enviornmental engineering, studies aqueous metal enrichment and water contamination in the natural environment by probing both solution and solid chemistry of natural materials.

Supported by a grant from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Quicksall and a team of his graduate students collected water samples in UNHCR camps and brought them back to SMU for analysis and also trained workers in and around the refugee camps to test water supplies. The group is integrating information from other sources to develop a database that will help UNHCR planners provide safer drinking water in existing and future refugee camps.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Evelyn Parker, Hunt Institute Fellow

Evelyn Parker

Susanna Wesley Centennial Professor of Practical Theology
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

It is with pleasure we announce Evelyn Parker as a Hunt Institute Fellow. The Hunt Institute Fellows are appointed for their expertise and demonstrated excellence in their fields. During their tenure, they will collaborate on projects and contribute to the endeavors of the Institute.

Evelyn Parker is Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. She joined the faculty in July 1998. Parker received her Bachelor of Science (B.S.) from Lambuth College, Jackson, TN (1974), and her Master of Science (M.S.) from Prairie View A&M University (1983). Upon receiving her M.S., she served as a research scientist in the Department of Human Biological Chemistry and Genetics at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. She attended the two week Christian Educators Seminar at Perkins School of Theology from 1986 until 1989 and received a Certificate as an Associate in Christian Education in June 1989. The seminars were the impetus for further study in theological education and the transition from a vocation in biological research to one in educational ministry. During the fall of 1989, Parker became a full-time student at Perkins and in 1991, she earned a Master of Religious Education. In December 1996, Parker earned her Ph.D from the Joint Program of GarrettEvangelical Theological Seminary/Northwestern University in Religious and Theological Studies, with an interdisciplinary emphasis in Christian Education, Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society, and Education and Public Policy. While at Garrett Seminary/Northwestern University, she was a Fund for Theological Education Black Doctoral Scholar from 1993-1995.

Parker is the editor of The Sacred Selves of Adolescent Girls: Hard Stories of Race, Class, and Gender (Pilgrim Press, 2006) and Trouble Don’t Last Always: Emancipatory Hope Among African American Adolescents (Pilgrim Press, 2003). She is the co-author of In Search of Wisdom: Faith Formation in the Black Church (Abingdon, 2002). Parker has also published several chapters and journal articles on adolescent spirituality. She is an active member of the International Academy of Practical Theology, the American Academy of Religion, the Association of Practical Theology, and Religious Education Association, where she has presented papers, coordinated segments of consultations and convened sessions.

Parker is a native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where she grew up in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME). She has served the CME church as a local and district Director of Christian Education. She has also taught numerous educational ministry workshops and seminars on local, district, Annual Conference and Connectional levels. She has represented the CME Church on the World Council of Churches (WCC), Faith and Order Plenary Commission from 1996 to 2006. During the WCC Ninth Assembly in 2006 she was elected to the Central Committee and serves until 2013. Within the WCC Central Committee she is co-secretary/reporter for the Nominations Committee. She is also a member of the 10th Assembly Planning Committee that will be held in Busan, South Korea in 2013. She is an active member of the Kirkwood Temple C.M.E. Church in Dallas, Texas where she serves as Christian Education Coordinator.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Paola Buckley, Hunt Institute Fellow

Paola Tettamanzi Buckley, is a Hunt Institute Fellow, Senior Lecturer and Advisor at Southern Methodist University.

Paola Tettamanzi Buckley, is a Hunt Institute Fellow, Senior Lecturer, and Advisor at Southern Methodist University. A native speaker of French, Italian, and English, Buckley has taught foreign languages at Southern Methodist University since 2003. She is presently an associate area chair and faculty advisor for the department of French and Francophone Studies. She also designed and directs the SMU-in-France summer program, a five-week faculty-led immersion program in Paris.

She teaches Business French and oversees the internship program for French majors and minors who wish to apply their language skills in a professional setting. She is a Board Member of the Alliance Française of Dallas.
Before becoming a faculty member at SMU, Paola worked at United Nations headquarters in New York and was accredited as both a French and Italian interpreter by the State Department in Washington; she has served as an interpreter at the White House, the Pentagon and other U.S. government agencies.

Paola’s academic interests include Languages for Specific Purposes, Study Abroad and Translation. She is currently translating the book Au Texas by Victor Considérant.

When asked what motivates Paola to do impactful work she said, “When you open your passport, you open your mind: students who are exposed to multiple languages and cultures gain insights about themselves and develop new perspectives that are essential to advance a more balanced and genuine understanding of the world in which they live and the people with whom they interact.”

Her most recent academic presentations include:
French for Fashion and the Diplôme de Français Professionnel: a model for Second Language immersion abroad. ISLSP-CIBER conference:5th International Symposium on Language for Specific Purposes, March 2019

Enseigner le français des affaires en ligne ? Mais oui, c’est possible! Webinaire, Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie de Paris, September 2020

“Global Literacy and Languages for Specific Purposes: Curricular design for building transferable skills” Southern Methodist University, Research Cluster co-convener

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Dr. Simon Mak

Dr. Simon Mak (@profsmak) is Executive Director of the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship and Professor of Practice in the Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship, and Business Economics at the SMU Cox School of Business. He directs the Caruth Institute staff and its many community service programs, such as the Dallas 100 Entrepreneur Awards, the Southwest Venture Forum, the Starting A Business certificate course, and the Startup Camp for Teens. In addition, Dr. Mak leads the academic entrepreneurship programs at Cox by overseeing the BBA Specialization in Entrepreneurship and the MBA/graduate program in entrepreneurship, managing a team of over a dozen adjunct professors in teaching over 20 entrepreneurship courses. Dr. Mak also works with the Lyle School of Engineering on the MS in Engineering Entrepreneurship degree program.

Dr. Mak is one of the leaders at SMU in researching blockchain and created an MBA class called Blockchain Entrepreneurship where he taught about CryptoKitties as one of the first NFT (Non-Fungible Token) startup business models. He has traveled to London, Berlin, Malta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Israel, Beijing, and Shanghai researching blockchain startups. He has formed a company Genesis Blockchain Academy, LLC that is supported by the SMU Incubator.

Dr. Mak also researches esports entrepreneurship and just completed a project with a graduate assistant researching startup business models in esports. He is the faculty advisor for the SMU Esports Club and co-director of the newly created SMU Esports Business Management Certificate. He has traveled to London, Stockholm and Israel researching esports startups. His newest research interest is in space entrepreneurship.

Dr. Mak specializes in ideation (having created an BBA course called Identifying Entrepreneurial Opportunities), emerging business models and strategies, corporate entrepreneurship (having created an MBA course called Corporate Entrepreneurship:Intrapreneuring), and global entrepreneurship (having created an MBA course called Global Explorations in Entrepreneurship and brought his students to Berlin, Zurich, Israel, and Kuala Lumpur to study their local entrepreneurship ecosystems). Dr. Mak also teaches strategic thinking in the SMU Cox Executive Education program called Transformational Leadership.

Prior to joining SMU, Dr. Mak worked as an engineer for Fortune 50 companies Raytheon and Digital Equipment Corporation, and then was an early employee of venture-backed software startup Mercury Interactive in Silicon Valley as a field applications engineer and then was the Texas Regional Sales Manager after the company’s IPO. He was involved in his own healthcare dot.com startup and presented to top-tier venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, and then was the vice president of sales and marketing for a startup Asian business magazine, and most recently he was vice president of marketing and business development for a small, Dallas-based private-equity backed Linux software company and led the sales expansion into the Japanese market and the eventual company sale to a large Japanese systems integration company.

When asked what motivates his work, he replied:

Give a person a fish and s/he will eat for a day. Teach a person to fish and s/he will eat for a lifetime. Inspire a person to build a fishing business, then s/he will feed her/his community for a lifetime. This is my personal mission as an entrepreneurship professor.

Dr. Mak earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, an MBA in Finance from the SMU Cox School of Business, and a Ph.D. in Applied Science (Systems Engineering focus) from the SMU Lyle School of Engineering, where his PhD dissertation was entitled: Improving Investment Performance of Venture Financing Utilizing Bayesian Fundamentals. Dr. Mak is also the recipient of the SMU Cox Teaching Innovation award, SMU Distinguished Community Service Award, the SMU Rotunda Outstanding Professor Award, and the Global Educator of the Year by the Dallas Global Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Mak is also the faculty advisor to the SMU Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Club, the MBA Entrepreneurship Club, the SMU Intervarsity Fellowship, is on the SMU Incubator Advisory Committee, and also helps judge the annual Big Ideas undergraduate business plan competition.

In January 2021, Dr. Mak helped launch the USASBE (United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship) Special Interest Group (SIG) on Tech Entrepreneurship and serves as the inaugural chair.

In January 2021, Dr. Mak was appointed to the Dallas Mayor’s Task on Innovation and Entrepreneurship where he chairs the Big Fat Hairy Audacious Idea Committee.

#PeaceLoveStartups #FollowYourCalling

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Nicos Makris, Hunt Institute Fellow

Nicos Makris, Ph.D. Addy Family Centennial Professor in Civil Engineering, Hunt Institute Fellow, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Southern Methodist University

Dr. Nicos Makris is a Hunt Institute Fellow collaborating in the Global Development Lab focused on his passion for researching low-cost seismic solutions, more specifically in rocking isolation. The initial project began with Dr. Makris’ work on Filling the Gap for Seismic Protection. During the COVID 19 pandemic, the work shifted to focus on Resilient Shelter, Phase I with Kostas Kalfas (Ph.D. student and researcher), Corrie A. Harris (Portfolio Manager), JuliaGrace Walker (Undergraduate Project Manager), Sam Borton (Undergraduate Research Analysis). The conclusion of Phase I resulted in a report titled Seeking Low-cost seismic Protection for Urban Masonry in an Unstable Terrain.

Professor Nicos Makris received his Ph.D. (1992) and his Master of Science (1990) from the State University of New York at Buffalo, USA; while he holds a Diploma in Civil Engineering from the National Technical University, Athens, Greece. He has more than thirty (30) years of research, academic and professional experience in the areas of structural-earthquake engineering and structural mechanics-dynamics.

He has served as Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame (1992-1996) and at the University of California, Berkeley (1996-1998); Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley (1998-2002) and Professor at the University of California, Berkeley (2002- 2005), the University of Patras (2003-2014), the University of Central Florida (2014- 2018) and at Southern Methodist University (2018-present).

His research interests include the analysis, design, and protection of structures against natural and man-made hazards—from modern tall bridges and buildings to unreinforced masonry and historic structures, system identification and health monitoring studies, soil-structure interaction, and the reconstruction-preservation of ancient monuments and stone arches in areas with high seismic hazard. He has published more than 110 papers in archival journals, 120 papers in conference proceedings, and 30 technical research reports and monographs. His citation index is more than 9,200, while his H-index=52.

He has served as Associate Editor for the Journal of Engineering Mechanics, ASCE, and the Chair of the Dynamics Committee on the same Journal. He is a member of Academia Europaea “The Academy of Europe”, a distinguished visiting fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the UK, a member of the Congress Committee and General Assembly of IUTAM; while, he has been honored with several international prizes and awards including the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineering (ASCE) for his original contribution on the development of energy dissipation devices and for improving our understanding on the role of damping for the seismic protection of structures, the T. K. Hsieh Award from the Institution of Civil Engineers, the U.K. for the best paper in the Geotechnique Journal during year 1997, the Shah Family Innovation Prize from the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), USA and the CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, USA. He has directed as Principal Investigator more than 30 funded research projects in the USA and Europe with emphasis on structural testing and experimental methods. Professor Makris has also served for six (6) consecutive years as the Director of Reconstruction of the Temple of Zeus in Ancient Nemea, Greece. During that period (Jan 2004—Dec 2009) four entire columns and their capitals have been reconstructed.

When asked what his motivation is to do impact work he replied, “Part of our role as structural engineers is the design and construction of structures that are affordable to the local society and meet acceptable performance levels as present and the years to come without compromising the ability of future generations to use them, maintain them, and benefit from them.” Achieving this is his motivation.

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.

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Dinesh Rajan, Hunt Institute Senior Fellow

Dinesh Rajan, PhD., Hunt Institute Fellow

Dinesh Rajan, Ph.D., Hunt Institute Senior Fellow is the Department Chair for Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Professor. His areas of research focus are in wireless networking, computational imaging and signal processing, and system optimization.

Dinesh Rajan received his B.Tech degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras in Electrical Engineering. He was also awarded the M.S and Ph.D degrees from Rice University, Houston, Texas both in the areas of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is currently Department Chair and Cecil and Ida Green Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Southern Methodist University (SMU), Dallas, Texas.

Dr. Rajan’s broad interests are in the sensing/extraction, transmission, and dissemination of information. His current research is interdisciplinary and spans the traditional areas of communications theory, wireless networks, information theory, system optimization, and computational imaging. His work has lead to the design of algorithms that can improve energy efficiency of next-generation mobile devices by an order-of-magnitude compared to existing methods.

Dinesh has published over 100 peer-reviewed technical articles in leading journals and conferences. He has also co-edited 2 books. His work has been supported by federal agencies such as NSF, ONR, ARL, DARPA, and companies including Toyota and Nokia. He was technical program chair for the IEEE vehicular technology conference in 2009 and served on several other conference executive and technical committees.

Dinesh is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award in 2006 for his work on applying information theory to the design of mobile wireless networks. He has also received the Ford Research Fellowship in 2012 and the Golden Mustang Award in 2008 from SMU. IEEE Dallas named him outstanding young engineer in 2009. He has received multiple outstanding EE faculty teaching awards at SMU.

When asked what his motivation is for doing impact work he replied, “The simple joy in knowing that my actions have impacted another individual in a positive way is what motivates me to do what I do.”

To read more about the Hunt Institute’s work to develop future-focused solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems, please click here. For the latest news on the Hunt Institute, follow our social media accounts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. We invite you to listen to our Podcast called Sages & Seekers. If you are considering engaging with the institute, you can donate, or sign-up for our newsletter by emailing huntinstitute@smu.edu.