Faculty

Prof. John R. Buck is a Chancellor Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.  His research interests include array signal processing, underwater acoustics, marine mammal bioacoustics, and engineering pedagogy.  Prof. Buck joined UMass Dartmouth in 1996 after receiving his Ph.D. from the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Electrical and Oceanographic Engineering.  Dr. Buck is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and a Senior Member of the IEEE.  He is a past recipient of the ONR Young Investigator award and the NSF CAREER award, as well as a former Fulbright Senior Fellow to Australia.  His teaching awards include the Manning Prize for Excellence in Teaching from the University of Massachusetts President’s Office, the Mac Van Valkenburg Early Career Teaching Award from the IEEE Education Society, the Leo M. Sullivan Teacher of the Year award from the UMass Dartmouth Faculty Federation, and The Goodwin Medal from MIT.  He is the co-author of the Signals and Systems Concept Inventory, and two signal processing textbooks.   Dr. Buck has held visiting appointments at the University of Saint Andrews, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, George Mason University, the University of New South Wales, Brown University, the University of Sydney, the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.  His hobbies include cycling, ice hockey, hiking, and most recently, learning to play ukulele.

Boringly exhaustive full CV

Obligatory Google Scholar Link

Mathematics Genealogy Project Entry: “He was always boasting of his ancestors, as stupid people do who are aware that they have done nothing themselves to boast about.” -Robert Graves

Graduate Students

Brandon Keefe is an M.S. student in Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Brandon also received his B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.  His research focuses on the detection and estimation of rainfall at sea using underwater acoustics.  Brandon Keefe won outstanding academic excellence in both electrical and computer engineering and after graduation he plans to work at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, RI.  Outside of research, Brandon loves playing all kinds of sports especially football, basketball, and soccer as well as fixing his own project cars in his free time.

Marvin Mboya is a Masters Student in Electrical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Marvin received B.S. in Electrical and Telecommunication Engineering from the Multimedia University of Kenya in 2021. His research focuses on infotaxis in marine acoustics hence gearing to achieve an optimal search strategy in the macroscopic environment. Marvin’s hobbies include art, developing creative web projects and listening to music.

Muhammad Mudassir Jawaid is a doctorate student in ECE department at the Umass Dartmouth. He got his Bachelors in Electronics Engineering in the year 2017 from Hamdard University with two Gold Medals. Later, he completed his MS in Electrical (Control) by Research in Autonomous Underwater Vehicles from the National University of Sciences and Technology in 2021 with the President Gold Medal. He has four years of work experience as a Research Officer at the Robotics and Dynamic Systems Research Laboratory (NUST-PNEC) where he worked on small-scale Unmanned Underwater Vehicles and various robotics platform. His research in autonomous vehicles focuses on the search strategies, enabling efficient adaption to dynamic environment for enhanced safety and performance.

Nathanael Winchell is an MS student in Electrical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.  Nathanael received the Department of Defense SMART scholarship to fund his M.S. studies. He is studying rainfall estimation from passive underwater acoustics. Nathanael’s hobbies include playing soccer, having fun with friends and family, and working on projects around the house.

Undergraduate Interns

Craig Belanger is an undergraduate student in the class of 2026 studying Electrical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. His current research focuses on transferring audio data from a microphone array to an AI computer, where beamforming is performed using parallel processing. Craig’s interests and hobbies include hikes, music, spending time with friends/family, and video games.

Alumni

CJ Berg completed his MS degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in May 2023.  His thesis was “A comparison of two approaches for rainfall estimation from underwater acoustics in Buzzards Bay.” CJ also received his B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.  His research focuses on the detection and estimation of rainfall at sea using underwater acoustics.  CJ won a DoD SMART scholarship to fund his MS degree.  He now works at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, RI.

Chris Gravelle completed his M.S. student in Electrical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in November 2024. Chris received a B.S. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in Spring 2022. His research focuses on bio-inspired active sonar target localization strategies and how to imitate them in man-made systems. Chris’s hobbies include rock climbing and petting his cat, Stormy.  He now works at MIT Lincoln Laboratories.

James Bourgeois completed his M.S. degree  Electrical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in May 2025.  He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering in May 2024. James received the Department of Defense SMART scholarship to fund his M.S. studies.  His research focuses on the detection and estimation of rainfall at sea using underwater acoustics. James’s hobbies include biking, swimming, going to the beach, and tinkering with electronics.  He will soon join the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, RI.

Savas Erdim completed his PhD in Electrical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in May 2025. He received an M.S. degree in Underwater Acoustics from Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California in 2015 and an MS Electrical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2022. His research in passive sonar focuses on the suppression of moving interferers with universal adaptive beamforming. He won the second place award in the signal processing student presentation competition at the Fall 2021 Acoustical Society of America meeting in Seattle, WA.  Savas presently works as a cybersecurity analyst at Commonwealth Financial Network.