Andrew B. Williams, Ph.D., joined The Citadel School of Engineering on July 1. Last week, he shared a message about his new job at one of the oldest engineering schools in America,  accompanied by a photo of him standing in front of the iconic campus building.

“Began my first day as Dean of Engineering for The Citadel School of Engineering!,” Willimas wrote. “Looking forward to leading our School in educating the next generation of diverse, innovative principled engineering leaders that create solutions and systems for the good of all people and our planet.”

His career spans higher education and the private sector, including positions at Apple Inc., GE Medical Systems, and Allied Signal Aerospace Company. He was also a Boeing Welliver Faculty Fellow and GE Edison Engineer. He recently served as the Charles E. and Mary Jane Spahr Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Kansas School of Engineering.

He serves on a National Academy of Engineering workshop committee for diversity, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Education Advisory Committee, and as treasurer for the National GEM Consortium Alumni Advisory Board.

Williams was a department chair for computer and information sciences at Spelman College and a research affiliate in the Human-Automation Systems Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Williams was the John P. Raynor Distinguished Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Marquette University, where he founded and directed the Humanoid Engineering and Intelligent Robotics Lab.

His research and education work in artificial intelligence, autonomous robotics, and human-robot interaction has resulted in over 100 technical publications and presentations. Williams is the author of the book, “Out of the Box: Building Robots, Transforming Lives.”