Staff Reporter, Dhaka : Professor Syed Mahfuzul Aziz has recently joined BRAC University as Pro Vice-Chancellor and is also serving as the Acting Vice Chancellor. He has over 38 years of experience in research, teaching, curriculum design, community engagement and academic leadership. He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to BRAC University, which will be pivotal in further advancing the University’s mission. Prior to joining BRAC University, he was a Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of South Australia (UniSA). Here he served in various leadership roles including as discipline leader of Electrical Engineering and as acting Dean.

Prior to joining UniSA in 1999, Professor Aziz led the establishment of a networked multi-operating system Computer Aided Design lab in Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), the first of its kind in the country. In recent years he served as member of the Australian National Teaching Awards Committee (2018−2021). He was a visiting scholar at the University of Texas at Austin (1996), invited professor at the National Institute of Applied Science in France (2006), and a visiting professor at University College London (2017). He is a Senior Member of IEEE and a member of Engineers Australia.

Professor Aziz holds BSc and MSc degrees in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from BUET, a Ph.D. degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Kent (UK) and a Graduate Certificate in Higher Education from Queensland University of Technology.

After graduation he worked as a research engineer at Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (1985-86), where he led the development of the first batch of single-board computers and embedded systems in Bangladesh for various applications. He has authored over 180 research papers. He has conducted research in the fields of digital systems and embedded processors, microchip design, low-power wireless sensors, biomedical instrumentation, and renewable energy with electrical engineering focus.

Professor Aziz is widely acknowledged for his leadership in higher education and his engaging teaching methods, which have been adopted internationally. He was the winner of the Prime Minister’s Award for Australian University Teacher of the Year in 2009.