Meet new Lassonde Professors
We are very fortunate this year to be welcoming an outstanding group of new faculty members to our School.
We have new appointments in all four of Lassonde’s academic departments. Each one of them is talented, energetic and full of new ideas.
Four of the new professors have the title Assistant Lecturer, which means they will be focused on teaching and program development to further improve the learning experience of our students.
Department of Civil Engineering
Peter Park
Associate Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
Dr. Peter Park earned his Ph.D. first at Seoul National University and later at the University of Waterloo.
His expertise is in transportation safety and security (highways and railways), intelligent transportation systems, transportation planning, and advanced statistical analysis.
Prior to joining Lassonde, he taught at the University of Saskatchewan. He also worked in national and international consulting as a traffic safety analyst, transportation engineer and planner.
Dr. Park has authored or co-authored numerous papers published in top journals and various conference proceedings and delivered more than 30 technical reports for a variety of North American agencies focused on transportation safety and security.
Lal Samarasekera
Assistant Lecturer
Department of Civil Engineering
Dr. Lal Samarasekera received his M.Sc. at the University of British Columbia and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Alberta, where he used numerical modelling to analyze the behaviour of tunnels and other excavations.
Following his graduate research, Dr. Samarasekera worked as a researcher and instructor for over 20 years in the field of geotechnical engineering.
Prior to joining Lassonde this year, Dr. Samarasekera had worked in industry as a consultant for SNC Lavlin and Golder Associates.
Professor Samarasekera’s primary interest is engineering education and in particular the use of technology including web-based teaching and learning.
Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering
Franz Newland
Assistant Lecturer
Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering
Dr. Franz Newland obtained his Ph.D. in the department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the University of Southampton.
He undertook post-doctoral research at the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales in Toulouse, focusing on tracking spacecraft and debris near the geostationary arc using a fully automated telescope based in Haute Provence.
He is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Space Operations and Support Technical Committee and an associate fellow of the AIAA.
He worked on ESA missions, at CNES’ ATV control centre and at COM DEV Ltd. in Cambridge on nanosatellite and microsatellite missions.
William Colgan
Sessional Assistant Professor
Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering
Dr. William Colgan received his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado. He is currently serving on the International Glaciological Society executive council and the Canadian Cryospheric Information Network Advisory Council.
His research has focused on glacier and climate interactions in the Arctic. He has been modelling the ever-changing glacial ice flow, using continuum mechanics and thermodynamics. Lately, his main preoccupation had been assessing glacier mass loss via satellite gravimetry.
Most recently he spent three years working on the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, helping to maintain a network of glacier and climate monitoring stations around the ice sheet.
Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
Matthew Kyan
Associate Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Dr. Matthew Kyan received a B.Sc. in Computer Science, B.Eng., and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Sydney.
Dr. Kyan’s research focuses on the challenges in the efficient organization, management and analysis of media-rich datasets while developing more natural and intuitive modes for associated human-computer and computer-mediated interaction.
He won the Siemens National Prize for Innovation, Australia for his work with 3D confocal image analysis.
Prior to Lassonde he worked at Ryerson University where he was instrumental in establishing the Centre for Interactive Multimedia Information Mining (CIM2).
James Smith
Assistant Lecturer
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Dr. James Andrew Smith received B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Alberta.
Following the completion of his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at McGill University he undertook a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Jena’s Institute for Sports Science in Germany.
His research focus applies a background in robotics, biomechanics and 3D printing to the development of dynamic human birth models.
Prior to Lassonde, he taught at Ryerson University and the University of Alberta where he won teaching awards.
Dr. Smith was the recipient or co-recipient of four IEEE Real World Engineering Projects awards from 2007 to 2010.
Ali Hooshyar
Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Dr. Ali Hooshyar received B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Isfahan University of Technology, and the University of Tehran, Iran, respectively.
He earned his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo in 2014.
He completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Applied Power Electronics.
His research interests include protection and control of renewable energy systems and smart grids.
He focuses on the application of digital signal processing in power system analysis and the applications of power electronic converters in grid integration of wind and solar farms.
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Hossam Sadek
Assistant Lecturer
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Hossam Sadek received his B.Sc. from Ain Shams University in Egypt.
He received his Ph.D. degree from McMaster University, Department of Mechanical Engineering.
The focus of his research is developing an energy recovery system capable of capturing waste heat (thermal energy) from commercial and industrial applications.
He designed a complex experimental facility to both visualize and obtain quantitative data for tube side convective condensation under the application of high voltage electric fields.
In 2010, he won the MITACS Industrial Accelerate Ph.D. Fellowship and began his research as a post-doctoral fellow at McMaster University.