Engineering students earn graduate symposium honors

At the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering's third-annual Symposium and Poster Fair April 24, nearly 60 graduate students from Nebraska Engineering programs shared their research in presentations and poster sessions.

The event allows engineering grad students to present their research to receive feedback and be more confident at conferences, said Namas Chandra, the college's associate dean for research and graduate programs, who presented awards worth nearly $7,500 in cash prizes. The entries were judged by Nebraska Engineering faculty and engineering industry professionals.

Posters were evaluated on overall visual presentation, organization and verbal explanation. Outstanding Poster designations went to Dhairyashil Aher in engineering mechanics-materials engineering and Ann Kjerstad in electrical engineering.

Presentations were reviewed for organization, quality of research and visuals, time management and overall presence. Outstanding Presentation honors were won by Daniel Schmidt, electrical engineering, and Ashwani Kumar Goel, engineering mechanics. The "Best of Show" presentation award was won by Bushra Afzal, civil engineering.

The awards recognize and reward distinguished scholarship and research at the doctoral and master's level. The college also created an honor to reward and encourage more research activity at the undergraduate level and spur the desire to continue onto graduate school. Earning Outstanding Undergraduate Research awards were Jonathan Hein, mechanical engineering, and Travis Schafer, architectural engineering.

Nominated papers represented quality in clarity, scholarship, methodology and contribution to the field, with judging on both methodological and substantive quality. Outstanding Master's Thesis awards went to Casey Richards, industrial and management systems engineering, and Benjamin Polly, engineering mechanics. Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation awards went to Kaijun Yi and Flavio Souza, both electrical engineering.

Graduate teaching awards cited those who have demonstrated special effectiveness in teaching undergraduates in the classroom. The Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant distinction honored Andrew Sorensen, architectural engineering, and Jamilla Sudo Lutif, civil engineering.