Personnel

Reza Ghodssi is the Herbert Rabin Distinguished Chair in Engineering and the Director of the MEMS Sensors and Actuators Lab (MSAL) in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the Institute for Systems Research (ISR) at the University of Maryland (UMD). He is also affiliated with the Fischell Department of Bioengineering (BIOE), the Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices (Fischell Institute), the Maryland NanoCenter, the Maryland Energy Innovation Institute (MEII), and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) at UMD. Dr. Ghodssi is the Inaugural Executive Director of Research and Innovation for the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University System of Maryland at Southern Maryland (USMSM), MATRIX Lab (MATRIX). Dr. Ghodssi's research interests are in the design and development of micro/nano/bio devices and systems for chemical and biological sensing as well as small-scale energy conversion and harvesting with a strong emphasis toward healthcare applications. Dr. Ghodssi also served as the director of the Institute for Systems Research (ISR) for eight years (2009-2017). During this time, he launched a number of interdisciplinary initiatives such as the Maryland Robotics Center (MRC) and the Brain and Behavior Initiative (BBI), where he served as the founding co-director for six years (2015-2021), aimed at enhancing the impact of ISR research efforts on society while building a more interactive faculty, staff, and student community across different disciplines in the institute. Dr. Ghodssi served as the President-elect of the Transducer Research Foundation (TRF) from 2020 until 2022. Since June 2022, he has been serving as the new President of TRF. Dr. Ghodssi is a University of Maryland Distinguished Scholar-Teacher, a Fellow of IEEE, AVS, and ASME, has 172 journal publications and 369 refereed conference papers, and is the co-editor of the MEMS Materials and Processes Handbook published in 2011. He served as an associate editor for Biomedical Microdevices (BMMD) for thirteen years (2008-2021) and also served as editor of the Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems (JMEMS) for twelve years (2008-2020). Also, Dr. Ghodssi is the guest associate editor of the IEEE Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems "Special Proceeding" of the Hilton Head 2020 Workshop (October 2020). He has nine U.S. patents issued, nine U.S. patents published, with another nine pending.

Jude Stephen joined the University of Maryland Electrical and Computer Engineering Department in Fall 2023 pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering. Jude is currently interested in developing actuation and fluidic technologies to control localized drug release in the GI tract using ingestible devices.