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School of Engineering Faculty

SFBU's faculty are devoted to their teaching and give personal attention to their students' growth. Many esteemed faculty members have received teaching awards and are recognized leaders and researchers in their subject areas and within related professional organizations. A significant number of faculty members work in high technology, and advise business, governmental, and educational bodies as well as other organizations on a range of matters.

SFBU Mark

Samane Abdi

CS
Education
  • Ph.D., Doctor of Philosophy, Computer Science, University College Cork, Ireland, 2015
Area of Expertise
  • Cybersecurity, Cryptography, Threat Analysis, AI/Machine Learning, Fraud Analytics, Network Security.
Ahmed Banafa Profile

Ahmed Banafa

CS
About the Faculty

Prof. Ahmed Banafa has extensive experience in research, operations, and management, with a focus on IoT, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, and AI. He is the recipient of the Certificate of Honor from the City and County of San Francisco, Author & Artist Award 2019 of San Jose State University.

Prof. Banafa was named as No.1 tech voice to follow, technology fortune teller, and influencer by LinkedIn in 2018 by LinkedIn, his research featured on Forbes, IEEE, and MIT Technology Review, and Interviewed by ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, BBC, NPR, and Fox. He is a member of the MIT Technology Review Global Panel. He is the author of the books: "Secure and Smart Internet of Things (IoT) using Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence (AI)", and "Blockchain Technology and Applications".

Education
  • M.S., Master of Science, Electrical Engineering, Lehigh University, PA, 1993
Work Experience
  • San Jose State University
  • Stanford University
Area of Expertise
  • Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, robotics
SFBU Mark

Vidhyacharan Bhaskar

CS
About the Faculty

Dr. Bhaskar’s broad research and teaching interests include Wireless Communications & Networks, Signal processing, Error control coding, and Queuing theory. Dr. Bhaskar has won several national awards for outstanding academic and research contributions in coding theory applications for contemporary 4G wireless systems. Dr. Bhaskar is a Senior Member of the IEEE (SM-IEEE) since March 2013 and is a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (F-IETE), and Life Fellow of the Institute of Engineers (F-IE) in India. Dr. Bhaskar is also a professor at San Francisco State University in the College of Engineering.

Education
  • Ph.D., Doctor of Philosophy, Electrical Engineering, University of Alabama in Huntsville, AL, 2002
Work Experience
  • San Francisco State University
  • California State University - East Bay
Area of Expertise
  • Wireless communications systems, digital signal processing, cyber security systems
SFBU Mark

Yasin Ceran

BAN
CS
Education
  • Ph.D., Doctor of Philosophy, Management Information Systems, University of Texas at Dallas, TX, 2013
Area of Expertise
  • Data Science, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Python, R, Econometric Modeling, Statistics, A/B Testing, SQL, SAS.
Henry Change Profile

Henry Chang

CS
About the Faculty

Dr. Henry Chang had close to 40 years of computer industry experience in the United States, Taiwan and China. He also had experience as a manager or technical leads in large companies, including 18 years at Hewlett-Packard and CTO at small startup companies.

Dr. Chang is also the founder of Silicon Valley Movie & Literature Club (https://www.svmlc.com) in 2006.
The club has about 250 members.

Education
  • D.C.E., Doctor of Computer Engineering, San Francisco Bay University, CA 2008
  • M.B.A., Master of Business Administration, San Francisco Bay University, CA 2010
  • M.A., Master of Arts, Computer Science, University of Texas - Austin, TX, 1983
  • B.S., Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering, Tatung Institute of Technology, Taiwan, 1974
Work Experience
  • Hewlett Packard
  • FMC
  • Octomize
  • Webkomputing Inc
Area of Expertise
  • Network security, embedded engineering, wireless engineering, image processing, object-oriented design and analysis, and internet software development and applications.
Ken Cheung Profile

Ken Cheung

CS
Education
  • D.C.E., Doctor of Computer Engineering, San Francisco Bay University, CA 2015
  • M.S., Master of Science, Computer Systems Engineering, San Francisco Bay University, CA, 1997
  • B.S., Production and Industrial Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, 1988
Work Experience
  • Aehr Test Systems
Area of Expertise
  • Algorithms analysis and design, computer systems design and simulations, e-commerce, database design, networking applications, MS Windows system and .NET applications.
SFBU mark

Pragati Dharmale

CS
About the Faculty

Pragati has an experience of 13 years which includes 8 years of experience in teaching and 5 years in the IT industry. As a teacher, she has taught courses related to Engineering and Programming Languages. She has also worked as a senior design Engineer in Whirlpool of India, Web Developer and software developer in Resource Navigation, Boston, and Data Security Processor in Intuit, Tucson.

Education
  • M.S., Master of Science, Information Technology, Southern New Hampshire University, NH, 2016
  • M.E., Masters of Engineering, Digital Electronics, Amravati University, India, 2010
  • B.E., Bachelors of Engineering, Electronics and Telecommunications, Amravati University, India, 2000
Area of Expertise
  • Python Programming, Java Programming, JDBC, C#, Web Designing, AI, Machine Learning and Data Science, Database
SFBU Mark

Chester He

CS
Education
  • D.C.E., Doctor of Computer Engineering, San Francisco Bay University, CA, 2014
  • M.S., Master of Science, Computer Science, San Francisco Bay University, CA, 2001
  • B.S., Bachelor of Science, Northeast University of China, China, 1986
Work Experience
  • Fortinet Inc.
  • Terawave Communications
  • Hamburg Electrical Company, Germany
Area of Expertise
  • Computer networks and network security, web technology, database applications, software testing.
SFBU Mark

Jack Ho

CS
Education
  • M.B.A., Master of Business Administration, University of Massachusetts, MA, 2011
  • M.E., Master of Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Santa Clara University, CA, 1999
  • B.E., Bachelor of Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY, 1996
Work Experience
  • Evergreen Valley College/San Jose City College
  • Jack Ho Consulting
  • Cadence Design Systems
  • Envis Corporation
Area of Expertise
  • ASIC, semiconductors, embedded systems, product management
Thawi Profile

Thawi Iwagoshi

Dean, School of Engineering; Co-Chair, General Studies

About the Faculty

Dr. Iwagoshi has garnered more than 30 years of experience in conducting research, working in the high-tech industry, and teaching courses in Computer Science. At HP, he led software engineering teams to design and implement various commercial software projects & applications. As an instructor, he taught and mentored numerous CS students in computer programming, algorithms, software engineering, and the development of their Capstone projects. After becoming the dean in 2017, Dr. Iwagoshi was instrumental in working with the faculty to introduce new courses and update the CS & EE programs' curricula to align with current technological advances and industry demands.

Education
  • Ph.D., Doctor of Philosophy, Material Science & Engineering, Ohio State University, OH, 1996
  • M.S., Master of Science, Computer Science, San Francisco Bay University, CA, 1999
  • M.S., Master of Science, Ceramic Engineering, Ohio State University, OH, 1990
  • B.S., Bachelor of Science, Ceramic Engineering, Ohio State University, OH, 1987
Work Experience
  • HP
  • MAS, Inc
Area of Expertise
  • Web-based applications, structured programming, Java applications.
SFBU Mark

Arun Jagota

CS
Education
  • Ph.D., Doctor of Philosophy, Computer Science, SUNY Buffalo, NY, 1993
Area of Expertise
  • Data Science, Machine Learning, Neural Networks, Algorithms Design, Python.
SFBU Mark

Michelle Liang

CS
Education
  • Ph.D., Doctor of Philosophy, Computer Science, Fudan University, China, 2013
  • M.S., Master of Science, Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, MN, 1999
  • B.S., Bachelor of Science, Computer Science, Fudan University, China, 1995
Area of Expertise
  • Project Management, IoT Management, Cloud Computing Management, Object-Oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD), Web Services
SFBU Mark

Charles Mori

CS
Education
  • M.S., Master of Science, Computer Science, San Francisco Bay University, CA, 2001
Work Experience
  • Guidewire Software
  • NICE Systems
Area of Expertise
  • Software design and development, software quality assurance.
SFBU Mark

Gunjan Patel

CS
Education
  • M.S., Master of Science, Computer Science, Santa Clara University, CA, 2017
  • B.S., Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering, San Francisco Bay University, CA, 2012
Area of Expertise
  • Java, Python, Go (Golang), Cloud Computing, Cybersecurity, Kubernetes, CNI, Docker, AWS, Open Source Projects
SFBU Mark

Yingli Ren

EE
Education
  • D.C.E., Doctor of Computer Engineering, San Francisco Bay University, CA 2015
  • M.S., Master of Science, Electrical Engineering, Santa Clara University, CA, 1995
  • B.S., Bachelor of Science, Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, CA, 1987
Work Experience
  • Synopsys (Acquired Virage Logic)
  • Lattice Semiconductor
  • Altera Corp
Area of Expertise
  • Logic design and synthesis, CAD tools, Verilog and HDL, ASIC and PLD design techniques, and software design tools development
SFBU Mark

Prakash Thakuri

CS
Education
  • M.S., Master of Science, Computer Science, Pace University, Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems, NY, 2020
Area of Expertise
  • Object Oriented Programming, Distributed Applications, Front-End Web Applications, JavaScript, REST, MERN Stack, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure DevOps (ADO), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), SDLC using Agile Methodologies.
Vander-Zanden Profile

Nels Vander-Zanden

CS
Education
  • Ph.D., Doctoral of Philosophy, Computer Science, University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, IL, 1991
  • M.S., Master of Science, Computer Science, University of Illinois- Urbana-Champaign, IL, 1986
  • B.S., Bachelor of Science, Computer and Information Science, Ohio State University, OH, 1984
Work Experience
  • Synopsys Inc
  • Synplicity
  • Cadence Design System - Sunnyvale,CA
  • Applied Micro Circuits Corp
Area of Expertise
  • Software design and development, hardware/software co-design automation, microarchitecture optimization, and VHDL synthesis.
SFBU mark

Chris White

EE
Education
  • D.C.E., Doctor of Computer Engineering, San Francisco Bay University, CA, 2015
  • M.S., Master of Science, Electrical Engineering, San Francisco Bay University, CA, 1999
  • B.S., Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, San Francisco Bay University, CA, 1997
Work Experience
  • NetApp
  • Seagate Technologies
  • Quantum Technologies
  • Western Digital
Area of Expertise
  • Logic design, microprocessor and digital systems, EDA tools, logic synthesis, computer architecture.
Alex Yang Profile

Alex Yang

EE
About the Faculty

Mr. Yang received his MSEE/MBA degrees at SFBU and is currently teaching courses in electronic/electrical hardware design & embedded system design. His professional interests include Digital/Analog IC design, Logic Design & Functional Verification in Verilog/System Verilog, Embedded System Design, Hardware System Level Design (PCB Design), and Artificial Intelligent/Machine Learning.

Education
  • M.B.A., Master of Business Administration, San Francisco Bay University, CA, 2014
  • M.S., Master of Science, Electrical Engineering, San Francisco Bay University, CA, 2004
  • B.S., Bachelor of Science, Mechatronics, Northeastern University, China, 1993
Work Experience
  • Qpict Inc
Area of Expertise
  • Digital/Analog IC design, logic design & functional verification in verilog/system verilog, embedded system design, board level design (PCB Design).