Northwestern Computer Science Recognizes Teaching-Track Faculty Promotions
Newly promoted faculty include Branden Ghena and Yiji Zhang
Northwestern Engineering’s Department of Computer Science has announced the promotions of Branden Ghena and Yiji Zhang to associate professors of instruction, effective September 1.
As specified by Northwestern’s Office of the Provost, promotion reflects a faculty member’s high level of distinction in the field and professional achievement in the areas of scholarship, creative work, research accomplishments and potential, service, and excellence in teaching.
“I am delighted that both Yiji Zhang and Branden Ghena have been promoted to associate professors of instruction,” said Samir Khuller, Peter and Adrienne Barris Chair of Computer Science at the McCormick School of Engineering. “Both have done an amazing job over the last few years developing new classes, revamping older courses, and helping to modernize our curriculum as well as mentoring student research projects. It’s a pleasure to have them as colleagues and see them promoted.”
Branden Ghena
Ghena, who joined the University in fall 2020, was promoted to associate professor of instruction at Northwestern Engineering.
In 2022, Ghena won both the Northwestern Engineering Cole-Higgins Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Department of Computer Science Instructor of the Year award.
This spring, Ghena is teaching COMP_SCI 433: Wireless Protocols for the Internet of Things, a course he launched in winter 2021 to provide students with both the technical knowledge of the capabilities and limitations of wireless networks and the practical knowledge of using wireless protocols for Internet of Things technologies. He also teaches several introductory and advanced-level courses, including COMP_SCI 213: Intro to Computer Systems; COMP_SCI 343: Operating Systems; and COMP_ENG/COMP_SCI 346: Microcontroller System Design.
A computer systems researcher, Ghena specializes in resource-constrained embedded hardware, software, and networking. He investigates networking protocols such as Bluetooth Low Energy, LoRaWAN, and LTE-M, which are capable of supporting various Internet of Things communication needs. He is also a developer for the Tock embedded operating system.
Ghena serves as the Northwestern CS Study Abroad program co-adviser with Professor Xinyu Xing. He is also the faculty adviser for Northwestern’s Trading Card Game Club.
Yiji Zhang
Zhang was promoted to associate professor of instruction. She joined Northwestern Engineering in fall 2024.
Passionate about software quality throughout the development lifecycle, Zhang launched the COMP_SCI 380: Software Quality Engineering course to introduce students to both product and process quality engineering practices, including test-driven development, unit testing and integration testing, internationalization, version control systems, and the continuous integration/continuous delivery pipeline. She also developed the COMP_SCI 381: Software Design Principles and Practices course, focused on object-oriented design patterns. In winter 2027, Zhang will also teach COMP_SCI 387: Responsible Software Engineering in collaboration with Professor Vincent St-Amour.
Zhang is actively engaged with the education community across campus. In 2025, she received the Spirit of Searle Award from Northwestern's Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching and was also inducted to Northwestern IT’s Canvas Hall of Fame with the student-nominated award for “Most Innovative Course Site” for COMP_SCI 211: Fundamentals of Computer Programming II. In collaboration with NUIT’s Teaching and Learning Technologies team, Zhang has also presented at the TeachX conference and completed the Educational Technology Fellows program.
While Zhang’s primary research interests include automated debugging, automated testing, and compiler verification, she’s also advising undergraduate student Paula Eyituoyo Fregene on an independent study project that spun off from their Northwestern CS Research Track program collaboration. The team is integrating large language models into an intelligent tutoring system called “My Tutor Bot” to enhance student learning outcomes in foundational and advanced programming courses.
An enthusiastic proponent of hackathons as an important learning opportunity for students to experience the entire product building process, Zhang served as a judge for WildHacks 2025 and 2026, Northwestern’s largest hackathon event.