Graduate Student of the Month
The Carl R. Ice College of Engineering recognizes one outstanding graduate student from each department during the academic year. This program was established to enhance graduate student recognition and development. Students are nominated each month by their department heads.
April 2024 recognitions
Collins’ research focuses on wood reinforced concrete, specifically, utilizing bamboo to reinforce concrete structures in place of steel. The research will attempt to prove viability and cost effectiveness of the practice. Collins is from Springfield, Missouri, and his hobbies include rock climbing and chess. His favorite food is homemade butter chicken, and his top bucket list item is to eat food in 50 different countries.
Monzon’s research focuses on river stabilization and restoration, specifically, assessing the effects of two specific streambank stabilization projects on bank stability and sediment transportation. Monzon is from Concordia, Kansas, and his hobbies include beekeeping, flying, hunting and fishing. His favorite food is seafood, and his top bucket list item is to ski the Swiss Alps.
Meier’s research focuses on establishing an evaluation process for determining the condition of prestressed and post-tensioned concrete railroad ties, some of which are 50 years old. His goal is to assess if these ties are nearing a failure limit state, identify potential failure modes and develop methods for predicting when they are likely to fail. Meier is from Lincoln, Kansas, and his hobbies include long walks, sports and being outdoors. His favorite foods are steak and potatoes, and his top bucket list items are to learn to fly a plane and travel the world.
Dinani’s research focuses on leveraging advanced deep learning models to improve the classification of disaster-related text and image posts on Twitter. Dinani is from Iran, and her hobbies include watching movies and hiking. Her favorite food is ground lamb kabob with saffron rice, and her top bucket list item is to visit Egypt.
Tharzeen’s research focuses on developing robust and computationally efficient machine learning based methodologies for inferencing in sparse spatio-temporal biophysical systems. Tharzeen is from Kerala, India, and her hobbies include cooking and playing badminton. Her favorite food is ghee rice and chicken stew, and her top bucket list item is to go skydiving.
Sabahfar’s research focuses on improving humanitarian supply chain through collaboration using cooperative game theory. Her research addresses the questions of which agencies should collaborate to minimize total social cost, and how to develop a cost allocation framework to make this collaboration stable. Sabahfar is from Tehran, Iran, and her hobbies include puzzle solving, hiking and cooking. Her favorite foods are kebab, dolma, sushi and ice cream, and her top bucket list item is to learn a new musical instrument.
Owiredu’s research involves the fabrication of atomically thin layers of advanced semiconductor materials by use of chemical vapor deposition technique for electronics applications. Specifically, he is involved in the growth of molybdenum sulfide and using photolithography to create two or three-terminal electrical devices for reliability/aging studies under various environmental conditions. Owiredu is from Ghana, and his hobbies include website design, video editing and biking. His favorite food is banku and okro soup, and his top bucket list item is to travel the world.