CECS Students Awarded for Research, Academic Excellence at Student Research Week Events

Faculty are always recognized for their research, but during Student Research Week, UCF turns the spotlight toward students. At the Student Scholar Symposium, the main event of Student Research Week, more than 800 students with over 600 projects present their research to their peers, faculty, staff and judges who award the top poster presentations.

This year, more than 80 projects were presented by students from the College of Engineering and Computer Science and several of them won top awards during the two-day symposium:

Day One Award Winners:

• Kelsey Robinson (Bachelor of Science in Statistics), Viviana Arroyo Rodriguez (Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Nico Chen (Bachelor of Art in Emerging Media)
  “Breaking Stigma Through the Use of Artfully Designed Prosthetics”
  Faculty Advisor: Albert Manero
• Gabriel Duany, Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering
  “Ammonia-Hydrogen Shocktube Combustion Experiments”
  Faculty Advisor: Subith Vasu
• Akash Hari Bharath, Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering
  “Studies on Dual Sputtered CuGaO2 Thin Film”
  Faculty Advisor: Kalpathy B. Sundaram
• Chloe Pinkston, Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering
  “Identifying the Dynamic Function of Surgically Treated Achillies Tendons in Children With Idiopathic Toe Walking”
  Faculty Advisor: Hwan Choi
• Ossiryus Bury, Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering
  “Vibration-Based Control for Nonlinear Dynamic Motion”
  Faculty Advisor: Jeffrey Kauffman
• Matthew Hernandez, Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering
  “Mid-Infrared Spectral Effects of Porosity and Albedo on Asteroid and Lunar Analog Samples”
  Faculty Advisor: Audrey Martin
• Rushikesh Harikishan Kankar, Master of Science in Computer Science
  “Leveraging EEG Signals and Motion Artifacts for Accurate Gait Event Prediction: A Machine Learning Approach”
  Faculty Advisor: Helen Huang
• Disha Iyengar, Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Sciences
  “Infection Resistant Snail Mucin-Based Hydrogels for Would Healing Applications”
  Faculty Advisor: Kausik Mukhopadhyay
• Amanda Leonard (Bachelor of Science in Psychology), Iris Bain (Bachelor of Science in Psychology), Alexander Alen (Bachelor of Science in Computer Science), Carlos Rivera (Bachelor of Science in Computer Science)
  “Robotic Guide Dog to Aid Visually Impaired Individuals Navigate Unfamiliar Areas”
  Faculty Advisor: Crystal Maraj
• Riya Shanker, Bachelor of Science in Data Science
  “Investigating the Lift Characteristics of a Morphing Airfoil”
  Faculty Advisor: Jeffrey Kauffman
• Pritha Sarkar, Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering
  “An Antimicrobial Self-Conforming Silicone-Based Sponge for Rapid Hemostatic Treatment”
  Faculty Advisor: Kausik Mukhopadhyay

Day Two Award Winners:

• Jayla Pinkston, Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering
  “On the Computer Simulation and Mathematical Modeling of 304 Stainless Steel Beam Buckling”
  Faculty Advisor: Ali Gordon
• Andey Robbins, Ph.D. in Computer Science
  “Genetic Algorithms for More Efficient In-Memory Computation With MAGIC”
  Faculty Advisor: Mike Borowczak
• Maria Bonina Zimath, Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering – People’s Choice Award
  “Examining Direct Load Control Within Demand Response Programs”
  Faculty Advisor: Qun Zhou Sun

Student Research Week ends with the Excellence Awards, which recognizes the academic achievements of UCF students as well as the efforts of their faculty mentors. Here are the CECS winners at the university level, many of whom will also be honored during the Founder’s Day ceremony:

Graduate:

• Ce Zheng, Ph.D. in Computer Science – University Award for Outstanding Dissertation
  “Reconstructing Humans from 3D Data”
  Faculty Advisor: Chen Chen
• Tajnuba Hasan ’23, Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering – University Award for Outstanding Thesis
  “Control of Spar-Buoy Based Wind Turbine Floating Platform Through Mooring Line Actuation”
  Faculty Advisor: Tuhan Das
• Mousam Hossain, Ph.D. in Computer Engineering – Excellence by a Graduate Teaching Assistant

Undergraduate:

• Kevin Hanekom ’23, Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering – Outstanding Honors Undergraduate Thesis
  “A Framework for the Automatic Identification of Optimized Yield Surface Parameters”
  Faculty Advisor: Ali Gordon