New Faculty
Meet the newest academia and industry experts to join the MAGE faculty. They bring case studies, real-world examples, problems, and solutions to our curriculum which continues to evolve and adapt to shifts in industry. Their expertise and experience are imperative to ensuring our students gain the skills, knowledge, and tools to succeed.
Behtash Babadi (pictured above)
Lecturer
Engineering Artificial Intelligence
Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering department at UMD
Sungmin Eum
Lecturer
Engineering Artificial Intelligence
Research Scientist and Principial Investigator at U.S. Army Research Laboratory
Zachary Hanif
Lecturer
Cloud Engineering
Vice President of Machine Learning & Software Development Infrastructure at Capital One
Rakesh Radhakrishnan
Lecturer
Energy Systems
Technology to Market Advisor at Advanced Research Projects Agency ‑ Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy
Zoltan Safar
Lecturer
Engineering Artificial Intelligence
Director, MS in Telecommunications Program, ECE department at UMD
Richard La (pictured above)
Lecturer
Engineering Artificial Intelligence
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering department at UMD
Chatonda Mtika (pictured above)
Lecturer
Embedded Systems
Research area: AI technology in space operations
Seyedmohammad Shams
Lecturer
Cloud Engineering
Senior Healthcare Scientist Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning at the University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing
Faculty Spotlight: Debra Beckham
This year, MAGE debuted Faculty Spotlight, a new series highlighting the outstanding educators who bring real-world expertise and passion into our classrooms. Our first feature focused on Debra Beckham, a valued member of the MAGE teaching community.
Beckham has been teaching with MAGE for less than a year, but she brings more than three decades of IT experience to her students. She currently teaches ENPM818P: Linux System Administration, a subject she first discovered a passion for while working at Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) in their Education department. There, she helped professionals prepare for Solaris System Administration certification exams. “I really enjoyed being able to help people who were just starting out as well as learn new things from people who had been using Linux/Unix,” she recalls. That same curiosity and supportive spirit now guide her teaching at MAGE, where she hopes students leave her class with practical skills they can use to land jobs or advance in their careers.
In addition to teaching, Beckham serves as the Team Lead of the Platform Engineering group at the University of Maryland’s Division of IT, managing infrastructure for clients that include the State of Maryland and other university departments. She often brings this applied expertise into the classroom, including lessons learned from her own missteps. “It’s important for students to know it’s okay to fail and learn from your mistakes,” she says. Her advice to graduating students is simple but powerful: “Don’t be afraid to ask questions or ask for help. The more you understand the basics and create a solid base, you can develop your knowledge from there.”
Outside of work, Beckham enjoys puzzles, collecting rooster statues, and surprising people with the fact that she was born in Hawaii. Colleagues describe her in one word: supportive—a quality that shines through in both her teaching and professional work. MAGE is honored to have her as part of our faculty community.