Dr. Liang Cheng has been an interdisciplinary scholar and entrepreneurial leader in academia for more than two decades. He has been the Department Chair and Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science since he joined the University of Toledo (an R1 institution) in July 2021. The department has more than 600 undergraduate, Master’s and Ph.D. students majoring in Computer Science, Computer Science and Engineering, and/or Electrical Engineering on 2 campuses. The department has developed new major, minor, concentration, certificate and international partnership programs, nearly doubled the extramural research funding, and received significant donation supporting scholarship and education such as an endowed professorship and a new Senior Design lab since July 2021. He is also a Co-Acting Chair of the Engineering Technology Department, overseeing Computer Science and Engineering Technology, Cyber Security, and Information Technology programs (more than 250 students). Dr. Cheng also chairs the AI Curriculum Subcommittee of the University of Toledo.

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.