Dr. Liang Cheng has been the Department Chair and Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science since he joined the University of Toledo in 2021. The department has about 700 undergraduate, Master’s and Ph.D. students majoring in CS, CSE, and/or EE on 2 campuses. The department has created a BSCS major, CSE pathway programs with KARE and TIET by articulation, and a certificate and two concentrations in semiconductor areas, and it has also doubled annual research expenditures and received significant donations supporting scholarship and education such as an endowed professorship and a new Senior Design lab since 2021.

When Dr. Cheng was a tenured faculty at Lehigh University, he served as a Faculty Senator and a Faculty Tri-Chair of Council for Equity and Community. His leadership in changing Rules and Procedures of the Faculty to add new categories of faculty (e.g. Research Faculty and Teaching Faculty) with their rights and responsibilities defined and in updating the Bylaws of the Council for Equity and Community to include the representation of Professor of Practice impacted the long-term development of the university and enhanced the climate of the university.

Dr. Cheng has led more than 20 sponsored research projects and been PI or Co-PI of expert teams for over $30M in funding from in variety of sources, including DARPA, DOE, DOT, NSF, PA state agency, and industry partners. His expertise includes AI/ML applications, CPS (e.g. autonomous drones and energy systems), Cybersecurity, Intelligent Infrastructure (e.g. transportation systems and underground sensing), Middleware, and Networking. He co-edited a book on Underground Sensing by orchestrating a multidisciplinary team of researchers from 20 universities and institutes in 6 countries. He has been invited to give keynotes for international conference/workshop and to serve as a judge for business pitch competitions.