Robert Leander Email & Phone Number

Hi! My name is Bob; and I've been a professor, in the Dept. of Electrical & Computer Engineering, at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) for seventeen years (including the 2021-2022 academic year). I earned my Ph.D. in bioengineering/biomedical engineering, from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). My Ph.D. research and dissertation were in functional electrical stimulation -- more specifically, the design of microelectrode arrays in sub-retinal implants to foster bionic vision, aka, artificial vision, in people blinded by retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. My bachelor’s and master’s degrees are in electrical engineering (SIUE), with a specialization in computer vision and image processing. Since working at SIUE, I've done research in computer-aided diagnosis of skin lesions. Most recently, however, I have developed an interest in biophotonics, biomedical optics, and medical lasers and have developed and taught courses in those areas. I also teach engineering research methods with thesis writing and a course in stochastic processes. In my seventeen years of experience as a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, I have been the advisor of and guided approximately 15 masters and Ph.D. degree candidates in their project research and thesis work. A sample of my students' and my work you can find published on the Skin Research & Technology Journal website. I also hold bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and SIUE, respectively. Before teaching engineering, I taught public school elementary instrumental music, for thirteen years.