Alumni Spotlight
Chenyang Lu
A professor of computer science and engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, Chenyang Lu has emerged as one of the leaders in cyberphysical systems since earning his Ph.D. at U.Va. in 2001. He is now editor in chief of Association for Computer Machinery’s Transactions on Sensor Networks, one of the leading publications in the field, and is also chairing the ACM/IEEE International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems, the flagship conference in the field.
Lu maintains an extensive research program. For instance, he has a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop advanced wireless monitoring and control systems for civil infrastructure. One use of this system is to help buildings and bridges respond to earthquakes. A challenge is designing the network architecture to optimize performance and longevity. With support from the National Institutes of Health, Lu has also conducted a series of clinical trials of a sensor network that collects vital signs from patients at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. This system is a way to extend the level of monitoring found in intensive care units to clinical wards.
“I was very fortunate to have been at U.Va.,” he says. “Jack Stankovic and his colleagues were at the forefront of developing sensor network technology. They set the standard for the kind of mentorship and research environment I wanted to create.”
Tian He
As a researcher, Tian He (CS ’04) is driven by the desire to create practical solutions to realworld problems, solutions that both advance the state of the art and improve the lives of others. He has a number of research interests, ranging from integrated sensor systems such as VigilNet, which he first encountered as a Ph.D. student of Jack Stankovic, to wireless systems, vehicular networks, and distributed and real-time systems in general.
His work has been well received and cited more than 10,000 times. As an associate professor at the University of Minnesota, He earned an NSF CAREER Award as well as a series of best paper awards from the top journals in his field. His university has also named He its McKnight Land- Grant Professor.
He credits his colleagues and mentors at U.Va. for giving him the tools he needed to launch a productive career. “In addition to providing an opportunity to develop my technical skills, U.Va. gave me valuable experience in leadership and management,” He says. “I was very lucky to be a graduate student at U.Va.”
Read more about CS graduate study here.