UT Tyler Engineering Professor Earns NSF CAREER Award 

Dr. Shawana Tabassum to Help Advance Precision Farming 

TYLER, Texas (March 18, 2026) – Dr. Shawana Tabassum, the Mary John and Ralph Spence Assistant  Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Tyler, received a  $583,047 National Science Foundation CAREER grant through the Faculty Early Career Development  Program.  

The highly competitive award supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as  academic role models in research and education. 

“We are extremely proud of Dr. Tabassum and congratulate her on this extraordinary achievement  bestowed by the National Science Foundation,” said Dr. Javier Kypuros, dean of the UT Tyler College  of Engineering. “This recognition speaks to her exceptional potential as an educator and innovator,  and it also strengthens the college’s research portfolio at the national level in smart sensing,  sustainability and Artificial Intelligence.” 

With the five-year award, Tabassum will develop compact, biodegradable sensors that can “listen”  to plants in real time to determine whether they have enough nitrogen. Her current work explores  the development of flexible sensors and electronics using micro/nanoelectronics and photonics  technologies in areas like sustainable agriculture, plant sciences and biomedicine. 

Nitrogen is essential for plant growth, but farmers often apply more nitrogen fertilizer than  necessary because they cannot detect nitrogen deficiency until visible damage appears, Tabassum  noted. This project aims to improve nitrogen use efficiency, reduce fertilizer waste, prevent  environmental pollution, and support sustainable and climate-smart agriculture. 

“These sensors will detect very early molecular signals inside plants––before leaves turn yellow or  yields are affected, and they will be capable of measuring multiple indicators at once,” said  Tabassum, who joined UT Tyler in 2020. “The collected data will be analyzed using Machine  Learning to help farmers make precise, timely decisions about when and how much fertilizer to  apply.” She added the overuse of nitrogen fertilizer can lead to major environmental problems,  including water contamination and greenhouse gas emissions, while also increasing costs for  farmers. 

UT Tyler engineering students will gain valuable experience working alongside Tabassum, whose  research has garnered grants for UT Tyler totaling nearly $4.1 million. 

Tabassum earned the 2023 Curtis W. McGraw Research Award (Non-PhD Granting Program  Category) from the American Society for Engineering Education and currently directs the UT Tyler 

Center for Smart Agriculture Technology. She also serves as an associate editor of the Institute of  Electrical and Electronics Engineers, or IEEE, Sensors Journal. 

With a mission to improve educational and health care outcomes for East Texas and beyond, UT  Tyler offers more than 90 undergraduate and graduate programs to more than 11,500 students.  Through its alignment with UT Tyler Health Science Center and UT Health East Texas, UT Tyler has  unified these entities to serve Texas with quality education, cutting-edge research and excellent  patient care. Classified by Carnegie as a doctoral research institution and by U.S. News & World  Report as a national university, UT Tyler has campuses in Tyler, Longview, Palestine and Houston. 

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