The CSEE department welcomes Dr. Don Engel as an Affiliate Assistant Professor. Dr. Engel currently works as UMBC’s Assistant Vice President for Research, where he manages prospective internal and external research partnerships.
“I believe this [new appointment] will make me better at my core duties by putting me in the same situations that UMBC students, staff, and faculty face every day,” he says. He is eager to draw on his background in Computer Science and Physics through research and teaching.
“Perhaps most importantly, I like the people in the department and am glad to be a member of the departmental community in a formal way.”
Currently, Dr. Engel is working with CSEE professor Dr. Tim Finin and Dr. Anupam Joshi on research with NIST, while also exploring research opportunities in Big Data and Bioinformatics. He hopes to eventually teach classes that are at the intersection of computer science with physics, the life sciences, linguistics, and politics.
Dr. Engel has had a passion for Computer Science since elementary school, when he taught himself BASIC. He has written a handful of applications including when2meet.com, a scheduling tool that coordinates busy schedules that was inspired by his stint in student government, and ShowMe3D, an iPhone application that takes and displays 3D photos. “I code to solve problems I’ve run into firsthand and because it’s fun to learn new things and apply them,” he says.