Graduate Student of the Month

Cook's research focuses on precast concrete diaphragm design. He is researching new precast diaphragm design provisions in the ASCE 7-16. After a large earthquake in California in 1994, multiple precast structures failed. It was later discovered that the diaphragm design force in previous codes was underestimated during a large earthquake event. Cook is from Manhattan, Kansas, and enjoys watching and playing sports and spending time with friends and family. One of his favorite pastimes is collecting and watching movies. His favorite food is almost all seafood. Cook's top bucket list item is to see the Coliseum in Rome, Italy. Bill Zhang is his advisor.

Zhao comes to K-State from China to perform research in biochemical engineering (biochemical conversion of agricultural residues into biofuels and biomaterials; techno-economic analysis and life-cycle assessment of biorefinery based on experimental and empirical data; extraction and modification of grain-derived starch and protein for high-value functional bioproducts ). Zhao enjoys playing soccer, traveling, watching movies and hiking. His favorite food is oiled fish with pickled cabbage and chili, and he also enjoys steak. Top bucket list item is an Apple MacBook laptop. Donghai Wang is his advisor.

Everhart's research focus is on photocatalytic degradation of atmospheric pollutants. He is working on fabrication of photocatalytic composite materials with the goal of breaking down atmospheric pollution, particularly nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The research group has focused specifically on carbon nanotube-titanium dioxide photocatalyst composites and has also included carbon nanotube growth, focusing on diameter control of single wall carbon nanotubes. Everhart is from Olathe, Kansas, and hobbies include training for/competing in bodybuilding, hiking/backpacking, golf and gaming. Steak is his favorite food. He would like to visit every national park in the United States. Everhart has been to 20 national parks so far! Backpacking in the Alaskan National Parks is top on his list. Placidus Amama is his advisor.

Kannan's research is in environmental engineering examining anaerobic membrane bioreactor treatment of swine wastewater from animal feeding operations to extract valuable fertilizer macronutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus. The major goal of this work is to produce an ammonia-based slow release fertilizer to enhance soil quality, prevent nitrate and phosphorus contamination in surface water and groundwater aquifers, and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions due to land application of agriculture waste biosolids. He is from India and enjoys playing cricket, eating Thai food and south Indian cuisine. Bucket list items include watching a World Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan in a stadium, visiting all the national parks in the United States and to try skydiving. Prathap Parameswaran is his advisor.

Information policy is Sharma's research focus. In online platforms, users often disclose their personal information in exchange for some utility. For instance, in social media, users frequently share their pictures with the hope of receiving likes. Unfortunately, the pursuit of utility often entails the loss of privacy. His research focuses on finding the optimal tradeoff between privacy-leakage and utility-gain. Sharma is from Nepal and his favorite food is chicken momos. He likes traveling and visiting new places, which goes along with his top bucket list item of visiting Switzerland. Advisor is George Amariucai.

Sadeque is from Bangladesh and enjoys traveling, cooking and reading. His favorite food is chicken biryani, and traveling all over the globe is the top item on his bucket list. Sadeque's research focuses on cooperative inverters specifically on the development of control algorithms for cooperative inverters where the inverters can assist each other in various mode of operations, such as grid-forming inverters in asymmetrical grid, self-secured and autonomous operations of inverters during cyberattacks, and parallel inverter operations. The research also involves development of multi-inverters test-beds consists of commercial and laboratory-designed high-density inverters. Behrooz Mirafzal is his advisor.

Tetik's research in additive manufacturing focuses on developing 3D-printed functional aerogels using a novel 3D-printing method, namely 3D freeze printing (3DFP), which was introduced by their research group. Aerogels are a class of highly porous materials produced by replacing the liquid solvent of a gel with air without causing a collapse in the solid network. Unlike conventional fabrication methods, additive manufacturing has been applied to fabricate 3D aerogels with customized geometries specific to their applications, designed pore morphologies, multi-material structures, etc. 3D-printed aerogels showed great promise for a variety of applications, including tissue engineering, electrochemical energy storage, controlled drug delivery, sensing and soft robotics. With 3DFP, they were able to develop 3D printed aerogels without needing inks with viscoelastic behavior or complex chemistry requiring photo-curable formulations. Tetik is from Turkey and his favorite hobby is 3D printing of common household items. His favorite food is lasagna. Seeing a polar bear tops the bucket list. Dong Lin is his advisor.

Bin Mujib's research focus is in nanomaterials and energy storage with the goal of developing low-cost, sustainable and high-performance electrode materials for electrical energy systems like super-capacitors and rechargeable batteries that can replace fossil fuels. His focus lies in synthesizing highly porous and electrochemically active carbons and composites and utilize the developed carbons/composites as high-performance electrode materials in supercapacitors and especially in Li-ion/Na-ion batteries. Bin Mujib is from Bangladesh and his top bucket list item is to visit the eight national parks in Alaska. He enjoys gardening and his favorite food is biryani. Advisor is Gurpreet Singh.