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College of Engineering
Office of Faculty Development and Success

New Faculty Cohort 2026

Welcome to our newest faculty members!

The College takes pride in bringing exceptional new faculty to NC State. Since 2000, more than 100 of our faculty members have earned prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER awards, among the top honors given by the federal agency to early-career faculty in science and engineering.

Biological and Agricultural Engineering

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Kitae Kim
[email protected]
Assistant Professor
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering

Education:

  • Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, 2026
  • M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Korea University, 2021
  • B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at Korea University, 2019

Kitae Kim’s research focuses on intelligent systems capable of robust and reliable autonomy in complex and unstructured environments, with an emphasis on agricultural environments. He has a goal of integrating robotic technologies into agriculture to secure food safety and agricultural sustainability. His recent projects have been funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center on the Internet of Things for Precision Agriculture (IoT4Ag).

His work has been published in top-tier journals and conferences in robotics. Kim was nominated for a Mechanical Engineering Student Award at Purdue University and selected for the Doctoral Consortium at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ICRA in 2025. Kim has been honored with several professional awards and academic fellowships, including the second place Poster Award in 2025 from the U.S.-Korea Conference as well as the Lozar Assistantship and the Adelberg Fellowship at Purdue University, both in 2021.

Research Interests:

  • Mobile, field and agricultural robotics
  • Sensors and controls

Awards and Honors:

  • Mechanical Engineering Student Award nominee at Purdue University (2025)
  • Doctoral Consortium at IEEE ICRA in (2025)
  • 2nd Place Poster Award from the U.S.-Korea Conference (2025)
  • Lozar Assistantship Purdue University (2021)
  • Adelberg Fellowship at Purdue University (2021)

Websites:

Biomedical Engineering

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Kirstie Queener
[email protected]
Assistant Teaching Professor
Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at NC State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Education:

  • Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at NC State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • M.S. in Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University, 2021
  • B.S. in Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University, 2016
  • B.S. in Biology at Butler University, 2016

Kirstie Queener is an assistant teaching professor in the Lampe Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill, where her research focused on the development of self-adhesive conductive elastomers for wearable biomedical technologies and biopotential recording. Her broader experience spans biomaterials, biosensors and medical device development, including industry experience at Eli Lilly in device design, validation, manufacturing and quality control.

As an educator, Dr. Queener is interested in connecting biomedical engineering fundamentals with practical design and development challenges. She currently teaches undergraduate biomedical engineering design with an emphasis on biologics development and will contribute to the department’s senior design curriculum. She is particularly interested in helping students develop the technical, problem-solving and interdisciplinary skills needed to translate biomedical concepts into viable products and technologies.

Research Interests:

  • Wearable devices for medical applications
  • Biomaterials
  • Biologics design and development

Websites:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vMJArjwAAAAJ&hl=en

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

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Aaron Frye
[email protected]
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Education:

  • Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at NC State University, 2026
  • B.S. in Chemical Engineering at NC State University, 2012

Aaron Frye was born in Durham, North Carolina in June 1989. After graduating from Chapel Hill High School, he enrolled at North Carolina State University in 2007 to pursue a degree in Chemical Engineering. After obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering (magna cum laude), he joined ExxonMobil full-time in Beaumont, Texas, as a process engineer. Aaron spent four years in process engineering roles in Beaumont before relocating to Houston, where he designed the first crude oil distillation unit constructed by the company in 50 years. He then transitioned his career to Baytown, Texas, where he enjoyed several roles as a senior process engineer and process engineering technical supervisor.

These roles ignited his passion for teaching and helping others achieve their goals. During 2021, Aaron made the difficult decision to resign from ExxonMobil with a dream of pursuing a position as a teaching-focused chemical engineering professor.

Research Interests:

  • Incorporating industry experience into the classroom, including process troubleshooting, unit operations and process safety

Awards and Honors:

  • Linde Teaching Fellow
  • Preparing the Professoriate Fellow
  • Felder Excellence in Teaching Award (x2)
  • Schoenborn Symposium 3MT Winner
  • Best Oral Presentation SECS Conference (2026)

Websites:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-frye-21b72136

Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering

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William “Bill” Martin
[email protected]
Lecturer
Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering

Education:

  • Ph.D. in Civil Engineering at NC State University, 2026
  • M.S. in Civil Engineering at NC State University, 2010
  • B.S. in Civil Engineering at NC State University, 2007

William Hurley Martin earned his bachelor’s in civil engineering, his master’s degree in civil engineering and doctorate in civil engineering from North Carolina State University. He is currently completing a bachelor’s degree in geomatics at North Carolina A&T State University. He spent over a decade in the design-build telecommunications industry, rising from project engineer to president and chief engineer while helping grow his firm from 15 to roughly 1,400 employees across the United States, Canada and India. His credentials include professional engineering licensure in all 50 states, structural engineering licensure in every state recognizing the designation, geotechnical licensure in California and Oregon and additional licensure as a land surveyor, general contractor, certified welding inspector and certified welder. He has served on the American National Standards Institute/Telecommunications Industry Association and American Society of Civil Engineers 7 Standards Committees.

In 2023, he returned to NC State to pursue a Ph.D. in civil engineering under Jason F. Patrick, associate professor in the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, developing a non-contact, wireless method for activating self-healing in fiber-reinforced polymer composites via electromagnetic induction. He served as instructor of record for CE 420, Structural Engineering Senior Design, and CE 426, Structural Steel Design. He was named a Mentored Teaching Fellow and Paul Zia Scholarship recipient.

Research Interests:

  • Civil engineering, structural mechanics and design, construction engineering and land development
  • Multifunctional self-healing fiber-reinforced composites
  • Behavior of structural steel and reinforced concrete, including strengthening methods for seismic loads

Awards and Honors:

  • Dr. Paul Zia Scholarship recipient (2025)
  • Consulting – Specifying Engineer 40 Under 40 (2017)
  • Engineering News-Record Top Young Professionals (2017)

Electrical and Computer Engineering

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Brittany Smith
[email protected]
Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Education:

  • Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University, 2024
  • M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University, 2023
  • B.S.E. in Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Connecticut, 2016

Brittany N. Smith joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University as an assistant professor in fall 2026. She directs the Fabrication Laboratory for Active Microelectronics (FLAME). Prior to joining NC State, she was a postdoctoral researcher in the Miskin Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, where she fabricated microscopic actuators for micro-scale robots (2025 – 2026). Before that, she was a postdoctoral researcher and Ph.D. student in the Franklin Group at Duke University in electrical and computer engineering. There, she focused on depositing nanomaterial inks for transistors via aerosol jet and capillary flow printers (2020 – 2025).

She received her B.S.E. degree from the University of Connecticut in 2020 and Ph.D. from Duke University in July 2024, both in electrical and computer engineering. She is excited to establish her research program at NC State and welcomes new interdisciplinary collaborations. 

Research Interests:

  • Active microelectronics by leveraging cleanroom and printer-based fabrication techniques
  • Micro- and nano-fabrication and fabricated devices

Awards and Honors:

  • NC State University Postdoctoral Fellowship for Incoming Faculty (2025)
  • Duke Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Graduate Program Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award (2025)
  • National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF) (2020)

Websites:

man with short dark hair, wearing black round-framed glasses, and a light red dress shirt

Wei-Hsi Chen
[email protected]
Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Education:

Ph.D. in Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, 2022

Dr. Wei-Hsi Chen is an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University, where he directs the FORGE (Function-Oriented Robotics Geometry and Engineering) Lab. His research lies at the intersection of robotics, computational design and computational fabrication, with the long-term vision of automatically generating robots from desired tasks. His work seeks to establish the fundamental principles connecting robot morphology, materials and control, enabling task-driven robot design.

His research spans robot morphology, origami- and kirigami-inspired robotics, tunable stiffness mechanisms, dynamic locomotion, computational fabrication and robot co-design. By integrating mechanical design, control and fabrication, his group develops new design methodologies, modeling frameworks and robotic systems that reveal how physical embodiment shapes robot capabilities.

Before joining NC State, Dr. Chen was a postdoctoral associate in the GRASP Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. There, he worked with professors Daniel E. Koditschek and Cynthia R. Sung. He earned his Ph.D. in electrical and systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. His work has been published in leading robotics venues, including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Research Interests:

  • Robot morphology, computational robot design, computational fabrication, origami robotics, dynamic locomotion, dynamics and control and embodied intelligence

Awards and Honors:

  • University of Pennsylvania Postdoctoral Association Mentorship Award, finalist
  • IEEE Transactions on Robotics King-Sun Fu Memorial Best Paper Award, honorable mention (2023)

Websites:

Forest Biomaterials

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Sumner Dudick
[email protected]
Assistant Professor
Department of Forest Biomaterials

Education:

  • Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022
  • B.S. in Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University, 2018
  • B.S. in Paper Science at North Carolina State University, 2018

Dr. Sumner Dudick is an assistant professor in the Department of Forest Biomaterials at North Carolina State University. An alumnus of the NC State paper science and chemical engineering programs, he earned a doctorate in chemical engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, supported by funding from the Renewable Bioproducts Institute in his work to improve dewatering efficiency in the press section. He subsequently worked as a research engineer for four years at Solvay Specialty Polymers, developing new products and processes for polysulfone materials servicing demanding consumer and industrial applications. He aims to bring this polymer science perspective, along with experience in data analytics, to overcome challenges in designing, creating, processing and characterizing renewable biomaterials. 

Research Interests:

  • Sustainable biopolymers, advanced separations and biodegradable materials 

Awards and Honors:

  • Best presentation at the annual chemical and biomolecular Engineering graduate research symposium at the Georgia Institute of Technology (2022) 

Websites:

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jxw9Z8cAAAAJ&hl=en

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

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Xusheng Luo
[email protected]
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Education:

Ph.D. in Mechatronics, Robotics and Automation Engineering at Duke University, 2020

Xusheng Luo is a tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at North Carolina State University. There, he will establish the Intelligent Robotics and Trustworthy Autonomy Lab. His research develops intelligent, trustworthy and human-centered robotic systems that can understand high-level goals, learn from data and interaction, coordinate with other robots and operate safely in complex environments. His work integrates robotics, control theory, artificial intelligence, machine learning and formal methods.

Xusheng Luo was previously an associate research scientist in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Before joining Carnegie Mellon, he worked as an autonomous driving research engineer at DJI Automotive. Luo received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Duke University and his B.S. and M.S. degrees in aerospace engineering from Harbin Institute of Technology. His research has been published in leading robotics, control and cyber-physical systems venues.

Research Interests:

  • Robotics, trustworthy and assured autonomy, neuro-symbolic planning and learning, embodied intelligence, formal methods, multi-robot systems, human-centered robotics, robot control and machine learning

Awards and Honors:

  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers Dynamic Systems and Control Division Rising Star (2025)
  • National Science Foundation Rising Star in Cyber-Physical Systems (2024)

Websites:

https://xushengluo92.github.io

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Zhiyu Huang
[email protected]
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Education:

Ph.D. in Robotics & Intelligent Systems at Nanyang Technological University, 2024

Zhiyu Huang is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at North Carolina State University, where he leads the PARIS Lab (Physical AI, Robotics, and Intelligent Systems). He received his Ph.D. from Nanyang Technological University and previously held research positions at the UCLA Mobility Lab, NVIDIA Research and UC Berkeley MSC Lab. His research focuses on AI and machine learning for physical intelligence, robotics and autonomous systems. His group develops scalable, efficient and generalizable AI algorithms that enable robots and autonomous agents to perceive, learn, reason, make decisions, interact with humans and act safely in real-world environments. His work spans machine learning, reinforcement learning, generative AI, world modeling, perception, planning and simulation, with applications in embodied AI, robotics and intelligent systems.

Research Interests:

  • Artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, reinforcement learning, autonomous vehicles and robot perception

Awards and Honors:

  • University of California, Los Angeles Chancellor’s Awards for Postdoctoral Research, nominee (2025)
  • Nanyang Technology University Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Best Ph.D. Thesis Award (2025)
  • U.S. Department of Transportation Intersection Safety Challenge Tier 1 Winner (2025)
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Intelligent Transportation Systems Conference in Gold  Best Dissertation Award Finalist, 2024

Websites:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1wDR2IilWo7m_goQqTwuKQCLR4tIb5CMf