Kiaei named new engineering associate dean of research

July 24, 2008

Sayfe Kiaei is the new associate dean for research for the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering. He will help lead efforts to reach the engineering school’s ambitious goal of achieving $100 million in research expenditures in five years. Kiaei will be responsible for the management and investment of engineering resources, ensuring efficient research administration, building industry and government relations, assisting with faculty recruitment and research project start-ups, and with the recruitment of quality graduate students. “The school of engineering has aggressive goals for the growth of its research portfolio,” says Executive Dean Paul Johnson. “We seek stronger engagement with research sponsors, better alignment with society’s grand challenges, an increase in consortium- and multi-investigator projects, and a greater awareness of the impact of our work.” Johnson says Kiaei was selected “from a field of excellent candidates, in part because of his industry experience, demonstrated success as the builder and leader of one of our largest industry consortia, and his vision for pursuing new strategic initiatives and funding opportunities for the faculty.” Kiaei says the school will play a major role in several of ASU’s leading research initiatives that are bringing together scientists and engineers from many different disciplines. Engineering faculty will be extensively involved in research focusing on solar power and other alternative energy sources, bioengineering and biotechnologies, health care, sustainable living, nanotechnology and wireless communications systems. “Advances in these technologies will pave the road for Arizona to move toward a new and more diversified economy, and provide a new model for the university as an integral part of society,” Kiaei says. “I’m excited to be a part of these endeavors.” Kiaei joined Arizona State University in January 2002 as a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering. His research has focused on wireless transceiver design and radio-frequency and mixed-signal integrated circuits. In August of 2002, he founded the Connection One (www.connectionone.org, a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center. It works with private industry and the federal governments to develop advances in wireless communications systems and networks, remote sensing, bio-sensor and bio-electronics technology. The center began with ASU as the lead institution and six industry partners. Today it has 25 industry partners and six universities – ASU, the University of Arizona, Ohio State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University of Hawaii and the University of New Mexico. For a decade prior to coming to ASU, Kiaei was a senior member of technical staff of the Wireless Technology Center and Broadband Operations at Motorola, where he was responsible for development of wireless transceiver integrated circuits and digital subscriber lines transceivers, global positioning systems and Bluetooth transceivers. He was an associate professor at Oregon State University from 1987 to 1993, teaching courses and conducting research in digital communications and wireless systems. During those years, he helped establish the Industry-University Center for the Design of Analog/Digital Integrated Circuits (CDADIC) and served as a co-director of the center for 10 years. Kiaei is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and a member of IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, IEEE Solid State Circuits Society and IEEE Communication Society. He has chaired several national and international conferences in his areas of expertise and published more than 100 journal and conference papers. Kiaei holds several patents. He earned his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Washington State University in 1987. His awards include the Carter Best Teacher Award from Oregon State University College of Engineering and the IEEE Darlington Award, for the best research paper “bridging the gap between theory and practice” published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems.