Dr. Ajay Mahajan, a former professor of mechanical engineering at the Southern Illinois University Carbondale's Department of Mechanical Engineering and Energy Processes, has joined The University of Akron College of Engineering as associate dean of research.
Mahajan earned both his doctorate and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Tulane University in New Orleans. He is president of Clipius Technologies, a company that produces concepts for novel products for applications in defense, aerospace and particularly, biomedical areas.
Mahajan has chaired the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Intelligent Systems Panel, now called the Model Identification and Intelligent Systems (MIIS) technical committee, and recently he received the ASME 2008 MIIS Honorary Award in Intelligent Systems for his contributions and service to the profession.
Recipient of NASA funding
“As a principal investigator or co-PI on research projects exceeding $3 million in grants and contracts from NASA, Formula One race teams, the Federal Highway Administration and others of notable significance, Dr. Mahajan brings strong leadership and vision to the college,“ says Dr. George K. Haritos, dean of the UA College of Engineering. Mahajan, in fact, placed first in the medical category of NASA Tech Brief’s 2007 Create the Future design contest for an ultrasonic-based neuro-navigation system for real time image-guided brain surgery.
Mahajan’s funding with NASA has been in the discipline of intelligent sensors and their integrated structural health monitoring (ISHM) vision. During his time at the Southern Illinois' College of Engineering, Mahajan received the 2008 Dean Juh Wah Chen Outstanding Faculty Award and 2003 Research Paper Award, and the 2008 Excellence Through Commitment Outstanding Scholar Award. He also was awarded the 2004 Dean Kenneth Tempelmeyer Outstanding Faculty Research Award. Mahajan has more than 100 peer-reviewed journal publications and conference proceedings.
The UA College of Engineering experienced a 40 percent increase in undergraduate student enrollment between 2004 and 2008, making it the fourth fastest growing college of engineering in the United States (among the 150 largest; data source: American Society for Engineering Education) and the fastest growing in the state. The college’s current enrollment of 2,142 undergraduate students represents a 54.9 percent increase in enrollment between fall 2004 and fall 2009.
Media contact: Denise Henry, 330-972-6477 or henryd@uakron.edu.