Professor Min Wu Receives Poole & Kent Senior Faculty Teaching Award

Distinguished University Professor Min Wu has been named this year’s recipient of the A. James Clark School of Engineering Poole & Kent Teaching Award. This award is given annually to a senior faculty member for excellence in teaching.

“(Professor Wu) has accumulated an impressive record of accomplishments that have brought distinction to the Clark School. “ said Dean Samuel Graham, when notifying Wu of the award. “This is a very well-deserved recognition for Min, who has been an outstanding educator in our department for the past 25 years, and who has spearheaded many educational initiatives at the undergraduate and graduate levels,” said Department Chair Sennur Ulukus.

The selection committee noted Wu’s educational leadership in pioneering student learning through innovative curriculum development in signal processing, skillfully translating cutting-edge research findings into classroom education at both undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as the real-world lessons she brings into the classroom by incorporating video forensics and case studies to inspire students’ imagination and logical reasoning.

Professor Wu is the Christine Yurie Kim Eminent Professor in Information Technology and the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs at the A. James Clark School of Engineering. She holds joint appointments with the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS), the Institute for Systems Research (ISR), and the Maryland Robotics Center. She was named a Distinguished University Professor in 2024.

She did her undergraduate study at the Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, receiving a BE in electrical engineering (automation) and a BA in economics. She earned her Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton University, and joined the ECE at UMD in 2001.

Wu leads the UMD Media, Analytics, and Security Team (MAST). Her research interests are information security and forensics, multimedia signal processing, and applications of data science and machine learning for health and IoT.

A recipient of many awards and recognitions from UMD and the Clark School of Engineering, Wu has been honored with the Outstanding Research Award for Senior Faculty, UMD Distinguished Scholar-Teacher, and the UMD Invention of the Year Award twice.

Other honors from outside UMD include the the IEEE Harriett B. Rigas Award from the IEEE Education Society, Maryland Innovator of the Year Award, and the IEEE Signal Processing Society Meritorious Service Award. In May 2024, she received an Excellence in Research Award from the Washington Academy of Sciences, recognizing her significant contributions to the research and innovations of multimedia forensics, security, and smart health. Wu is a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. She was elected to serve as President of the IEEE Signal Processing Society for 2024-2025, as the first woman of color to take on this leadership role in the technical society’s 75-year history.

“I’m deeply honored by this recognition! “ said Professor Wu, “Students have inspired and challenged us to keep learning in this truly two-way process. Their growth and success—short-term and especially long-term—bring an incredible sense of responsibility and achievement to us educators.”

Professor Wu joins a distinguished group of ECE faculty members who have been recognized by the Poole & Kent Senior Faculty Teaching Award since its inception in 1986, including Isaak Mayergoyz (1987), William Destler (1994), Charles Striffler (2000), K.J. Ray Liu (2005), Adrian Papamarcou (2010), Rama Chellappa (2011), Chris Davis (2012), Steve Marcus (2013), and Romel Gomez (2019). She will receive the award at the Spring Faculty and Staff Recognition Ceremony in May 2026.

Published April 28, 2026