Sakib Hasan, assistant professor of electrical engineering, joined the UM School of Engineering faculty last fall. Submitted photo
Sakib Hasan, assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of Mississippi, has always loved academic challenges. As a high school student, he competed with applicants from schools in a country of more than 170 million people for admission to one of its top universities.
“My goal was to get into Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, which is the most prestigious engineering school in Bangladesh,” he said. “Students take a highly competitive admissions test. When the results came out, I found out that I was 10th in the merit list and free to choose any subject I want. That is an indelible memory for me and still makes me nostalgic.”
While Hasan was a graduate student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, he received the Best Teaching Assistant Award in 2014-15.
“This honor helped me to get the opportunity to teach as an instructor seven times as a graduate student, which is quite unheard of in our field,” he said. “I consistently got good evaluations, and this has always been a fond memory.”
Such academic challenges and achievements ultimately led Hasan to his current position in the School of Engineering, and he strives for excellence both inside and outside the classroom.
Hasan teaches EL E 385: Advanced Digital Systems, EL E 386: Advanced Digital Systems Lab and EL E 482: Digital CMOS VLSI Design. He is scheduled to teach CpE 431: Computer Architecture next year. His research interests include secure nanoelectronic circuit design, neuromorphic computing, emerging semiconductor and biomolecular device modeling and VLSI circuit design.
“My short-term goal is to develop a vibrant research group working on the frontier of hardware security and neuromorphic computing,” he said.
Hardware security is vulnerability protection in the form of a physical device installed on the hardware of a computer system. The implementation of neuromorphic computing on the hardware level can be realized by oxide-based memristors, spintronic memories, threshold switches and transistors.
“After 18 months as a postdoctoral researcher, I was determined to go into academia,” Hasan said. “I want to develop myself as a good educator with sound pedagogical methods to help undergraduate and graduate students in my class.”
Hasan said his long-term goal is to become an internationally recognized scholar and expert in the field of novel and secured computing (helping users protect data from hackers and cyberattacks) with substantial contributions from the research carried out in his lab.
Hasan recently had the opportunity to work on a high-impact research project. His team members published their results in very prestigious journals such as ACS Nano, Nature Communications and Nanoscale. He said he wants to keep publishing good articles and disseminating his research.
“Right now, I have a good momentum, and I will strive to keep this momentum going in the coming days and eventually succeed in accomplishing my goals through hard work, consistency and determination,” he said.
Research aspirations aside, Hasan’s primary objective remains becoming an excellent educator known for clarity, depth and helpfulness.
“My first priority is developing the courses I am assigned to teach and starting my research group with a view towards attracting internal and external grants,” Hasan said. “I already have three graduate students and currently am focusing towards writing proposal and building connections for possible collaborations. In addition, I am preparing materials for the courses I am teaching, have published a few journals and conference papers.”
Hasan is a welcome addition to the department, said Ramanarayanan Viswanathan, chair and professor of electrical engineering.
“Dr. Hasan is trained in emerging areas such as neuromorphic computing, hardware security, and semiconductor and bimolecular device modeling,” Viswanathan said. “He is leading our effort to fulfill curricular needs in (the) computer engineering program.
“His recent joint authorship of the article ‘Dynamical nonlinear memory capacitance in biomimetic membranes,’ in the prestigious journal Nature Communications, shows his potential for interdisciplinary research that cuts across several departments on campus. We look forward to his contributions to the department in terms of teaching, research and service.”
Hasan earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronic engineering from BUET in 2009 and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2017.
During his free time, Hasan likes to read books on history, science and philosophy. He also enjoys playing and watching several sports such as cricket, soccer, tennis and badminton.