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.
February 2024 recognitions
Kinder’s research focuses on outdoor lighting, specifically, sustainable practices for effectively restoring the night. Kinder is from Kansas City, Missouri, and her hobbies include reading, singing off-key, dancing and spending time with friends. Her favorite food is homemade mac and cheese, and her top bucket list item is to see the Northern Lights.
Shende’s research focuses on wireless data communication for autonomous farming applications, specifically, developing a system that instantaneously transfers collected information to a single location. This would allow smooth and safe functioning of autonomous farming equipment which the grower can monitor from one place on a handheld computer. Shende is from Mumbai, India, and his hobbies include watching documentaries, reading and cooking. His favorite foods are Indian, Mexican, Thai and Vietnamese pho, and his top bucket list item is to watch the 2024 International Cricket Council Men’s T20 World Cup, hosted in part in the United States in person.
Ighalo’s research focuses on the development of MXene-based heterogenous catalysts for methane dry reforming, specifically, exploiting the tunable chemistry of MXene structures to overcome catalyst deactivation challenges. Ighalo is from Edo State, Nigeria, and his hobbies include playing the harmonica and table tennis. His favorite food is jollof rice, and his top bucket list item is to visit Jerusalem.
Barua’s research focuses on natural language processing and explainable AI, specifically the concept induction capabilities of large language models, aiming to enable them to identify complex logic expressions that can later facilitate the explainability pipeline. Barua is from Chittagong, Bangladesh, and her hobbies include traveling, hiking and watching movies and TV series. Her favorite food is Kachi Biryani, and her top bucket list item is to visit all the national parks in the United States and take a tour of Europe.
Zeinali’s research focuses on energy-based medical devices and computational modeling, specifically, designing, developing and evaluating a monitoring system that provides clinicians with real-time feedback during microwave thermal ablation procedures so they can stop the procedure at the optimal time and increase treatment effectiveness and patient safety. Zeinali is from Iran, and her favorite hobby is dance. Her favorite food is sushi, and her top bucket list item is to hike the Superior Hiking Trail in northeastern Minnesota.
Rahman’s research focuses on achieving bound modes in the continuum in different elastic structures. BICs are a new class of localized waves that have zero energy leakage outside a compact region of a structure and do not need any frequency bandgap. Rahman is from Rajshahi, Bangladesh, and his top hobby is gardening. His favorite foods are Polao and Biriyani, and his top bucket list items are to climb Mount Everest and have a sea-facing coffee shop.