Syracuse Sun

Five early-career faculty members have earned national recognition and funding for their research. The awards are among the most sought-after recognitions that junior faculty members can receive in their fields.

The faculty are Endadul Hoque and Yiyang Sun of the College of Engineering and Computer Science (ECS); Yiming Zhao and Craig Cahillane of the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S); and Ying Shi of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Duncan Brown, vice president for research and Charles Brightman Endowed Professor of Physics, says the awards demonstrate the exceptional promise of junior faculty in both research and education. “It is exciting to see such a diverse range of research projects recognized by the federal government and philanthropic foundations,” Brown says. “The awards provide funding that will help our researchers find ways to reduce inequality, develop new forms of energy, build better aircraft, secure computer systems, and advance the frontiers of mathematics.”

Endadul Hoque, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science in ECS, and Yiming Zhao, assistant professor of mathematics in A&S, both earned National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Awards—the NSF’s most competitive award for early-career faculty.

Hoque will use the $538,697 award to enhance computer network security by developing an innovative technique known as “fuzzing.” Fuzzing injects invalid or unexpected inputs into a system to find security vulnerabilities in software. His work involves creating a language to encode complex structures of inputs that change depending on the context and creating techniques that can mutate inputs to systems without losing their context sensitivity. The research will create new methods to find loopholes in real-world security-critical systems. Hoque also plans to hold workshops for K-12 students to promote cybersecurity awareness and support students from historically marginalized communities to pursue careers in STEM.

Zhao specializes in convex geometry, geometric analysis, and partial differential equations. He will use the $434,697 grant to explore new variations of two geometry problems: the isoperimetric problem and the Minkowski problem. These problems focus on recovering the shape of geometric figures from their properties such as volume and surface area. Applications include solutions for science and engineering problems ranging from antenna reflector design to urban planning. Zhao will host educational sessions at the Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science & Technology for K-12 students.

Yiyang Sun received a Young Investigators Program Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The program enhances career development for young researchers advancing science relevant to Air Force missions. Sun’s grant totals $446,360 for her project on multi-modal interactions in three-dimensional unsteady flows aimed at improving aerodynamic performance in aircraft designs under challenging conditions.

Craig Cahillane was awarded an "Inspiring Generations of New Innovators to Impact Technologies in Energy" (IGNIITE) award by the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). He was one among 23 researchers selected nationally as IGNIITE fellows receiving $500,000 over two years for his work on fusion energy optimization with a prototype designed to make fusion reactors nearly twice as efficient.

Ying Shi received $350,000 from the William T. Grant Foundation Scholars Program for her study on Asian American students’ exposure to victimization and hate crimes in schools—a project aimed at reducing inequality among youth outcomes using administrative data across multiple U.S cities.