Dr. M. Edwin Sawan, the director of the School of Computing within the College of Engineering, is retiring from WSU and stepping down from his position, effective after Friday, Sept. 12. Following Sawan’s departure, Dr. Visvakumar Aravinthan will serve as the interim director of the School of Computing. He is also the chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Sawan has been serving as the director of the School of Computing since March 2024 and served as the interim director for several years prior to that. Before those roles, Sawan was a faculty member in the (then) electrical engineering and computer science department for 30 years before retiring as a professor emeritus. During his tenure, he won numerous teaching awards and was published many times. Following the death of his wife, Sawan founded the Maha “Maggie” Sawan Fellowship for international graduate students in 2011, which awards two new Sawan Fellows each academic year.