Graduate Student of the Month

Young’s research focuses on the seismic retrofit of unreinforced masonry buildings, specifically, developing a report that covers the different methods of retrofit available to such buildings in high seismic areas. Young is from Mulvane, Kansas, and his hobbies include cooking, watching movies and working out. His favorite food is sushi, and his top bucket list item is to learn to fly.

Onyekwelu’s research focuses on agricultural water management using simulation models, and the detection, adaptation and analysis of climate change’s impact on crop production systems. Specifically, he is scaling crop production from field to region using crop simulation models in the Eastern Kansas River Basin under historic and future climate conditions. Onyekwelu is from Nigeria, and his hobbies include traveling, reading, playing table tennis, learning and studying mathematics. His favorite foods are pounded yam (nri ji) and melon or bitter leaf soup, and his bucket list includes becoming a university professor, sponsoring the education of children in Nigeria and touring the world.

Nikumbh’s research focuses on examining current and alternate methods of evaluating air-void distribution in fresh and hardened concrete, and the error associated with them. She is creating a guide to enrich the current QC/QA practices by assessing their accuracy and uncertainty. Nikumbh is from Mumbai, India, and her hobbies include cooking, painting, dancing and listening to classical music. Her favorite foods are Indian street food and pasta with pesto sauce, and her bucket list includes seeing the Northern Lights, going scuba diving and parasailing, backpacking through Europe and northern India and dancing Garba in Vadodra (Gujrat).

Fang’s research focuses on solid oxide electrochemical cells, specifically, designing electrode materials to enhance the power and fuel generation efficiency in solid oxide electrochemical cells. Fang is from Hubei, China, and his hobbies include binge watching TV shows, cooking and paddle boarding. His favorite food is Wuhan hot-dry noodles, and his top bucket list item is to own a boba tea shop.

Okeukwu’s research uses graph theory and machine learning to uncover hidden connections between malicious users and groups in social networks. This can help to better understand how malicious actors or groups manipulate and spread opinions online. She’s also exploring the use of graph theory and stochastic models to design efficient algorithms for understanding the role of information diffusion in disaster resilience and for modeling interdependent infrastructures for building resilient communities. Okeukwu is from Nigeria, and her hobbies include traveling and reading science fiction novels. Her favorite foods are fried rice and moi-moi, and her top bucket list item is to learn to speak two additional languages.

Krass’ research focuses on RF integrated circuit design, specifically, building high-resolution programmable delay design for use in mixed signal integrated circuit systems. Krass is from Raymore, Missouri, and her hobbies include golfing, lifting weights, hiking, kayaking and video games. Her favorite food is pastitso, and her top bucket list item is to summit all the Class 1 and Class 2 14,000-foot peaks in the Colorado front range by 2027.

Maity’s research focuses on stochastic optimization, supply chain and logistics. The spectrum of her research encompasses developing mathematical models that optimize the supply chain logistics, traceability and implementing the concept of blockchain technology to quantitatively measure transparency of data. Maity is from India, and her favorite hobby is painting. Her favorite food is Chinese, and her top bucket list item is to see the Northern Lights.

Colgan’s research focuses on computational fluid dynamics, applying adjoint-based methods to optimize the motion of multiple solid bodies in a fluid flow to determine beneficial and detrimental flow-structure interaction, i.e., mother and calf whales, fish schooling, etc. His research displays a new approach to studying interactions between multiple bodies in the same fluid flow. Colgan is from Transfer, Pennsylvania, and his hobbies include anything that involves working with his hands. His favorite food is seafood, and his top bucket list item is to learn to play the violin.