UT Tyler Engineering Professor Recognized for Outstanding Research
February 15, 2023
UT Tyler Engineering Professor Recognized for Outstanding Research
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The University of Texas at Tyler announced that Dr. Shawana Tabassum, assistant professor of electrical engineering, has received the 2023 Curtis W. McGraw Research Award (Non-PhD Granting Program Category) from the American Society for Engineering Education. This is UT Tyler’s first McGraw award.
The Curtis W. McGraw Research Award was established in 1957 to recognize outstanding early achievements by young engineering college researchers from an ASEE-recognized college/institution. Tabassum will receive a certificate along with a $1,500 honorarium.
“We are very proud of Dr. Tabassum for this honor bestowed upon her by the American Society for Engineering Education,” said Dr. Amir Mirmiran, UT Tyler provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “The award recognizes her commitment to engineering research.”
A member of the UT Tyler faculty since 2020, Tabassum studies flexible and soft sensors and actuators, flexible electronics, micro/nano-optics, microfluidic devices, micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems (M/NEMS) and their applications in sustainable agriculture, environmental monitoring, plant sciences and biomedicine. The university most recently received a nearly $320,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant for Tabassum to develop wearable sensors for freshwater fish to enhance water toxicity monitoring.
“Winning the Curtis W. McGraw Research Award is certainly a testament at the national level to the caliber of research and the commitment and skill of Dr. Tabassum and her research support staff,” said Dr. Hassan El Kishky, UT Tyler professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the College of Engineering remain committed to recruiting and supporting outstanding faculty, like Dr. Tabassum, and developing world-renowned research programs.”
Tabassum holds a doctorate in electrical engineering from Iowa State University and a Bachelor of Science in electrical and electronics engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
She will be recognized at the annual business meeting of the ASEE Engineering Research Council next month during the 2023 Research Leadership Institute to be held in Arlington, Virginia.
Founded in 1893, the ASEE is a non-profit member association dedicated to promoting and improving engineering and engineering technology education. For more information, including a complete list of past McGraw awardees, visit asee.org/.
With a mission to improve educational and health care outcomes for East Texas and beyond, UT Tyler offers more than 80 undergraduate and graduate programs to 10,000 students. UT Tyler recently merged with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler (now known as UT Tyler Health Science Center). Through its alignment with UT Tyler Health Science Center (HSC) and UT Health East Texas, UT Tyler has unified these entities to serve Texas with quality education, cutting-edge research and excellent patient care. Classified by Carnegie as a doctoral research institution and by U.S. News & World Report as a national university, UT Tyler has campuses in Tyler, Longview, Palestine and Houston.