Dr. Changxue Xu joined the department in September 2015 as an assistant professor. He received a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University in 2014. Prior to joining Texas Tech, he spent one year as a postdoctoral associate at University of Florida. His research interests include fabrication of microspheres/nanofibers, rheology of biopolymer solutions/cell suspensions, 3D bio printing of living cells/tissues, 3D printing of functional materials, and electro hydrodynamic jet printing.

Dr. Dongping Du joined the Department of Industrial, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering at the Texas Tech University in Fall 2015. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial and Management Systems Engineering from the University of South Florida in May 2015. Dr. Du's research focuses on nonlinear stochastic modeling and analysis of complex systems with applications in healthcare and systems engineering. She received the 1st place in the IBM best student paper competition in IEEE EMBC 2011, and one of her papers was selected as a feature article by IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics. She is an active member of numerous professional associations including the American Heart Association, the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences. In addition to actively pursuing her research, Dr. Du is dedicated to both teaching and service. She is teaching the risk modeling and assessment course in spring, 2016, and serving as the committee chair for International Student Affairs. Dr. Du holds an M.S. degree and a B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from the China University of Mining and Technology in Beijing.