During the first week of April, the research efforts of graduate and undergraduate students take center stage at UCF’s Student Research Week. This year, 10 mechanical and aerospace engineering students won awards for their research — and two faculty won awards for their teaching and dedication to student research. Read on for the complete list of MAE winners:
Graduate Research Forum
Christopher Kelley — “Mechanical Suppression of Pathological Tremor via External Artificial Muscles”
Mentor: Associate Professor Jeffrey L. Kauffman
Showcase of Undergraduate Research Excellence
Course-Based Projects
Adil Riahi — “Optimizing a Concentrated Solar Power Plant”
Mentor: Associate Professor Shawn Putnam
Samantha Brunson — “Corticomuscular Coherence of Active and Passive Recumbent Stepping”
Mentor: Assistant Professor Helen Huang
Dana Mikkelsen and Samuel Kleiner — “To Eject a Drop From a Dampened, Damped Beam”
Mentor: Assistant Professor Andrew Dickerson
Audience Choice
Alexander D’Angelo and Alexis Khalil — “Flying Under the Radar: A Study on Mosquito Landing Kinematics and Kinetics”
Research Week Kickoff
Distinguished Undergraduate Research Award
Zoe Barbeau, mechanical engineering
Mentor: Associate Professor Nina Orlovskaya
Daniel Rosato, aerospace engineering
Mentor: Assistant Professor Kareem Ahmed
Minh-Chau Le, mechanical engineering
Mentor: Stephen Florczyk, Biology
Champion of Undergraduate Research Faculty Award
Associate Professor Ali P. Gordon
Founder’s Day
Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award
Associate Professor Yuanli Bai
Founder’s Award
John Bal, aerospace engineering
- Written by Marisa Ramiccio