ECE Department celebrates 2025 successes in research, student achievement
The spring 2026 semester at Binghamton University has just started, and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science is excited to share its achievements in education and research over the past year.
New ECE chair
Professor Indranil Bhattacharya, the new department chair, joined Watson College last fall from Tennessee Tech University. He brings more than two decades of academic experience, multidisciplinary research leadership and a commitment to both student success and faculty development.
Bhattacharya’s research includes lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries, dynamic wireless charging of electric vehicles, power electronics and semiconductors. Over the past seven years, he secured research funding from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
He also has received awards for both teaching and mentorship, including Tennessee Tech’s highest faculty honor, the Centennial Scholar Mentor Award, and the University-Wide Outstanding Faculty Award for Teaching. His experience building industry-academic partnerships to address real-world challenges includes Volkswagen USA, Nissan and the TVA.
Summerville named distinguished professor
Douglas H. Summerville, former chair of the ECE Department, was named a SUNY distinguished teaching professor in 2025.
Summerville has authored more than 50 journal and conference papers and two textbooks on embedded systems design. His research and teaching interests include microcontroller systems design, digital systems design, computer and network security, covert channels and tamper detection.
He has received two State University of New York Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Faculty Service and Teaching, the Binghamton University Council/Foundation Award for Service to the University and several teaching awards.
Research news
Twenty-nine Binghamton University researchers were recognized for their work by a Stanford University study that looked at the impact of scientists in 2024. Three ECE faculty members were named among the top 2% of researchers worldwide: Professor Yu Chen, Professor Seokheun “Sean” Choi and Distinguished Professor Jessica Fridrich.
Chen won $50,000 from the SUNY Technology Accelerator Fund (TAF) to support the development of his CerVaLens technology, which uses environmental “fingerprints” and data to flag AI content and deepfakes.
Choi also made headlines for his research, including:
- The potential of using probiotics to create an environmentally friendly, dissolvable biobattery.
- A new method for the printing of stainless-steel microarchitectures to build a biobattery run on bacteria that produces 1 milliwatt in power.
- Liquid living metal composites that embedded bacterial endospores, paving the way for integration between electronic and biological systems.
- A self-powered robot “bug” that can skim across the ocean and provide data on climate change and other key metrics.
Professor Tara Dhakal is a researcher on a project that received a $254,737 grant from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the long-term stability and environmental effects of solar cells.
Student news
In a feature in the Watson Review magazine, Ron Alweiss discussed his work with Professor Choi to develop a biosensor that’s able to sense bacteria in the human mouth that can lead to cavities.
Soumit Mondal was among the doctoral students chosen for the inaugural cohort of the Watson Future Faculty Fellows (WF3) Program. It is designed to provide professional training to encourage successful faculty careers.