Graduate Student of the Month
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 2022 recognitions
Andrew Sneed, M.S., architectural engineering
Sneed’s research area is building energy submetering analysis and application for university buildings. Buildings account for approximately 40% of the energy use in the U.S. Typical building meters only provide utility readings at a building level. Breaking down utility usage by application and area can offer valuable insights to help identify building inefficiencies, meet performance goals and improve occupant awareness while also meeting the latest, increasingly stringent building codes. Sneed is from St. Louis, Missouri, and enjoys Australian rules football. His favorite foods are steak and sushi, and he wishes to visit family heritage sites in Europe. Ray Yunk is his advisor.
Ben Weinhold, M.S., biological and agricultural engineering
Precision agriculture is Weinhold’s research area. His research concerns the implementation of autonomous robots for agricultural and ecological use. Weinhold is from DeSoto, Kansas, and enjoys blacksmithing. He looks forward to visiting Alaska and his favorite food is steak. Weinhold’s advisor is Daniel Flippo.
Nader Zad, Ph.D., civil engineering
Zad comes to K-State from Iran and his research focuses on structural-earthquake engineering, materials science, artificial intelligence machine learning, deep learning and data mining. He has a variety of ongoing research interests, including studies on model plastic-damage of reinforced concrete in finite element applications and a collaborative study using a machine learning algorithm to predict missing maximum residue limit, or MRL, amounts in veterinary drugs. Zad’s bucket list items are starting his own business and jet-skiing/waterskiing. He enjoys swimming and basketball. Hani Melhem is his advisor.
Safia Malallah, Ph.D., computer science
Malallah’s research focuses on computational thinking and technology for early childhood and is centered on metamorphic testing in scientific software, then expanding to include computer science education after observing computer science’s influence on her own children. She is currently advocating for computational thinking (CT) and technology over early childhood stages. Malallah has created several programs for children, age 4 and older, to teach them coding and robotics. One of her projects is creating a virtual world in Roblox that trains students’ CT abilities. She is from Failaka, a small island in Kuwait. Her hobbies include graphic design, henna design, playing video games and watching anime. She enjoys all seafood and would like to visit Korea and the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. Josh Weese is her advisor.
Junyao Kuang, Ph.D., electrical engineering
Network structure is Kuang’s research area, focusing on network construction and feature learning from miscellaneous data. Specifically, constructing gene co-expression network from noisy data obtained with different technologies, such as Microarray and RNA-sequencing. Kuang is from China, and he does not have a favorite food, but enjoys sampling food from different countries. Kuang likes swimming, taking road trips and cycling. Rafting on the Colorado River and crossing the Horseshoe Bend are things he hopes to do. His advisor is Caterina Scoglio.
Partha Chakraborty, Ph.D., mechanical engineering
Chakraborty’s research focus is to study evaporative drying from porous media and to analyze the subsequent effect of wettability on porous media drying. By altering the wettability of the porous system, faster or slower evaporation/drying can be achieved based on the applications. The core findings of this study can be applied in the field of evaporative cooling, micro/nano heat management, heat pipes, electronics cooling, micro/nano fabrication and soil-water conservation. Chakraborty is from Chittagong, Bangladesh, and hobbies include music and reading. He enjoys spicy chicken and rice pudding. Trekking in the Himalayas is tops on his bucket list. Melanie Derby is his advisor.