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New associate dean interested in helping students realize their potential

August 6, 2024 - by Kim Delker

photo: Sean Luan and family
When he’s not helping students, Sean Luan enjoys spending time with his wife, Hongchao, and their children Leo and Annie.

In the 1980s and 1990s, millions of youngsters dreamed they could “be like Mike” — legendary Chicago Bulls basketball player Michael Jordan.

Growing up in China, Shuang (Sean) Luan was one of those who idolized Jordan. In fact, his love of Michael Jordan is what persuaded him to attend graduate school in the United States.

Luan started Aug. 1 as the associate dean for academic affairs and community engagement in the School of Engineering. But before he set his sights on academia, his dreams were on the court.

“I wanted to be a basketball player, and I was hoping that I would grow to be 6’4’’ or 6’5’’ but I only made it to 6 feet,” he said.

Even though he realized his hoop dreams may not materialize, he was still dazzled by Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. So after earning a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from the Harbin Institute of Technology in China in 1998, he pursued graduate school in the U.S., targeting the Chicago area to be close to his favorite player and team.

“I applied to University of Chicago and Notre Dame,” he said. “Notre Dame was the only one who gave me a lot of attention, so I chose them.”

Notre Dame turned out to be a great choice for him academically (however, 1998-99 was the year of the NBA lockout, then Jordan retired in 2003, so Luan admits that part of the plan was a bit of a letdown).

He earned his master’s and Ph.D. in computer science from Notre Dame in 2002 and 2004, respectively. He has been a professor in the UNM Department of Computer Science since 2004, recruited by Professor Deepak Kapur.

“When I got the call from Deepak, I’d never heard of New Mexico!” Luan said. “But when I got off the plane in Albuquerque, I thought, ‘Wow, this is a lot nicer than Chicago!’ ”

His research and teaching focus has been in the area biomedical engineering challenges, utilizing computational geometry.

Luan loves the climate and culture of New Mexico, but also fell in love with the unique community that is UNM. Having attended graduate school at a prestigious private institution like Notre Dame, he saw some extreme differences between universities like that and UNM.

“So many of our students are first generation, many have families, some even have two jobs while going to school,” he said. “So when I see them succeed, it’s so much more satisfying.”

During his 20 years as a computer science professor, he could readily cite several examples of the transformative impact that UNM has had on students. For instance, he remembers a restaurant cook who was told he didn’t have a future in college but found his calling after taking a computer science course. He ended up graduating with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and working at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Another student he remembers through his research in radiation oncology physics. The student had only a high school diploma, served as an enlisted soldier in Iraq, then he realized he wanted to change his trajectory in life. He eventually earned a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering (Luan was on the student’s committee and worked closely with him on part of his research).

“They are doing amazing work,” he said. “I think our students benefit from talking not just about academics, but about life. I feel that a lot of students don’t realize their potential. I love to help them see this.”

That is what attracted him to the job of associate dean — the ability to help students understand how to achieve their dreams.

“It’s not how you start in life, it’s how you end up,” Luan said.

Luan knows that he has large shoes to fill after the retirement this summer of Charles Fleddermann, who held the position of senior associate dean for academic affairs and community engagement for more than two decades. But Luan said he is eager to dive into the role, meeting frequently with Fleddermann to learn the ropes.

In terms of goals for the position, Luan said he would like to find more opportunities to work with the Engineering Student Success Center, the academic advisors, and the Center for Teaching and Learning to ease students’ transition into engineering. He is especially interested in improving students’ readiness, providing them time to acquire the needed skills such as calculus that prepares them for an engineering or computer science degree. He also would like to expand students’ programming skills, especially in AI.

Longer term, he is also interested in starting an undergraduate degree program in bioinformatics, which he feels has great potential to reach a broader set of students, including females and groups that are underrepresented in engineering and computer science.

Luan and his wife, a UNM Health Sciences Center pharmacist, have a 12-year-old son and a 7-year-old daughter. In his spare time, he still enjoys basketball and likes to play chess.

Luan is planning to keep regular office hours, spending about half his time in his office in Centennial Engineering Center 3071. He can be reached at sluan@unm.edu.

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