The Volgenau School of Engineering Undergraduate Research Celebration took place on Tuesday, April 16. Students presented about 40 different projects before the Mason community.
The competition encourages all types of research, design, and scholarly work including individual or group projects, research projects with a faculty mentor, course projects at any level, student organization activities, or research from an outside internship.
Many engineering undergraduates work in teams on senior design projects, tackling complex research ideas that often are sponsored by companies and government agencies.
Industry representatives served as judges for the competition, and the grand prizes included $1,000 cash awards from Dean Ken Ball.
The award winners were:
Opportunity to present to the Dean’s Advisory Board
Project R.A.N.G.E.R.
Luca Estinto, Kevin Verhaalen, Brenda Cheng, Eric Werner, Troy Acuff
Design of a Frozen Shoulder Expert Rehabilitation System
Farzad Nikpanjeh, Blaine Lacey, William Calaman, Faisal Alharbi, Emmanuel Kwakye-Dompreh
Keynote Presentations
Operation Asteria – Mason’s First Small Satellite Launch
Hina Fatima, Brandon Goodrich, Gabe Haddad, Jay Deorukhkar, Jeremiah Terrie, Reagan Gillette
An Automated Dilation System for Minimally Invasive Brain and Spine Surgery
Paige Epler, Laura Carter, Tyra Bookhart, Andrew Ryan
People’s Choice Award
Mason Baja
Natalie Schwarzkopf, Sophia Upshaw, Mubeen Farukh
Outstanding Project Awards
Micron Technology Outstanding Project Award
Proposal to Transition the Annapolis Government to Carbon Neutrality
Caroline Wagner, Daniel Corcoran, Charles Coffey, Raniah Al-Amili
Harris Corporation Outstanding Project Award
Evolving Cryptographic Sponge Functions Using Genetic Algorithms
Zaine Wilson
Northrop Grumman Corporation Outstanding Project Award
Project R.A.N.G.E.R.
Luca Estinto, Kevin Verhaalen, Brenda Cheng, Eric Werner, Troy Acuff
Accenture Federal Services Outstanding Project Award
Design of a Frozen Shoulder Expert Rehabilitation System
Farzad Nikpanjeh, Blaine Lacey, William Calaman, Faisal Alharbi, Emmanuel Kwakye-Dompreh
Noblis Inc. Outstanding Project Award
Deep Learning for Signal to Noise Enhancement of Fluorescence Microscopy Images
Tram-Anh Nguyen
A special thank you to our judges who help make this possible by volunteering their time.
Fabien Armogathe, SES Satellites; Ebrima Ceesay, Noblis Inc.; Dave Gaucher, Accenture Federal Services; Andy Goldin, Advanced Systems Development, Inc.; Malika Grayson, Northrop Grumman Corp.; Deepak Hathiramani, Vistronix; Kevin Hicks, Micron; Alan Kobran, Harris Corp.; Sean Mallon, George Mason University; Andrea Norris, National Institutes of Health; Michael Papay, Northrop Grumman Corp.