[CCoE Notice] Haleh Ardebili Appointed Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

[Grayson, Audrey A]

Sent on behalf of Dean Tedesco



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Dear Cullen College Faculty, Staff and Students,



It is my distinct pleasure to announce the appointment of one of our own to the position of Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the college. Mechanical engineering professor Haleh Ardebili, an award-winning teacher and business-savvy inventor, will be taking on this role effective this June 1.



Haleh will take over the reigns in implementing the Cullen College’s strategic goals of developing new entrepreneurship programs and cultivating a culture of innovation and entrepreneurialism. Over the next few years, an engineering technology incubator will be established at the college to support increased student and faculty IP generation and start-ups.



An accomplished researcher and inventor, Haleh is no stranger to taking innovative ideas out of the laboratory and into the marketplace. Haleh’s research focuses on energy storage, with a variety of projects aimed at developing flexible, stretchable batteries capable of powering everything from spacesuits to submarines. A patent is pending for her stretchable batteries while her research continues to receive funding from NASA, the Department of Energy, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Subsea Systems Institute and many more.



Her work in energy storage earned her the National Science Foundation’s CAREER Award in 2012, the Texas Space Grant Consortium’s New Investigator Award for 2014-2015, and the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH Award in 2010.



Haleh is equally devoted to teaching and supporting her students’ careers as she is to inventing better batteries. She serves as director of the NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates, a ten-week summer program that allows undergrads from around the country to work in her lab creating new, sustainable materials for manufacturing and energy. Last year she received the W.T. Kittinger Teaching Excellence Award, the highest teaching award given by the Cullen College.



Please join me in congratulating Haleh on her new role as Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship!



Sincerely,

Joseph W. Tedesco Ph.D., P.E., F. ASCE

Elizabeth D. Rockwell Dean

Cullen College of Engineering


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