Tandon appointed to Litton Industries John M. Leonis Distinguished Associate Professor

Less than a year after earning tenure, associate professor Ravi Tandon has been appointed as the Litton Industries John M. Leonis Distinguished Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. This special appointment is reserved for engineering faculty who "have a recognized commitment to excellence in teaching and have exhibited a potential for leadership."

"I'm very honored to get this appointment," Tandon said. "Of course, it provides me with useful resources to continue my research, but I also plan to use it to support my students and their research."

Tandon joined ECE in 2015, with research interests in wireless networks, security and privacy, machine learning and more. Originally from India, Tandon earned his PhD in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Maryland before working as a research assistant professor at Virginia Tech. But research opportunities drew him to Arizona.

"The University of Arizona is a top school, and the College of Engineering is especially great. There are so many people working on exciting topics like 5G, security and so on," Tandon said. "And I collaborate with several faculty, not just in engineering, but across campus. I've collaborated with folks at the medical school, as well as law and psychology. So, working in a school like UA, which has all kinds of disciplines, really gives great opportunities for someone like me who works on machine learning, data science and more. It’s one of the most exciting things here."

Tandon's work with other units includes research into the ethics around security and machine learning. He uses these collaborations as inspiration for designing special topics courses.

"I'm very excited about some of these interdisciplinary collaborations. In my opinion, these help in both teaching and research," Tandon said. "As educators, we of course have core courses we teach. But when you're doing research, you discover new things and new ways to solve a problem. So, every once in a while, I like to teach a special topics course where I bring new research and fresh ideas into class."

Tandon previously won a $500,000 National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 2017, and the 2018 Keysight Early Career Professor Award for his work in advanced information theory for wireless networks and cloud computing.

"In his short time here at UA, Ravi has demonstrated exemplary performance in research and teaching,” said Tamal Bose, ECE department head. “This is a very well-deserved recognition."