College of Engineering students receive 11 Wayne State Undergraduate Research and Creative Projects awards

The Wayne State University College of Engineering is pleased to announce that 11 student projects were recently awarded Undergraduate Research and Creative Projects (UROP) awards from the university. The UROP awards are designed to enhance opportunities for students to participate in research and creative activities under faculty guidance. "In 2012, the college put five high-impact practices - our five pillars - into place to enhance the student experience. The expansion of undergraduate research opportunities was one practice, and these awards reflect the success of our initiatives," says College of Engineering Dean Farshad Fotouhi.

The college is particularly proud to note that, for the first award period of 2015, it has received more awards than it did in 2014 and 2013 combined. "Undergraduate research is a high priority among our five pillars. I completely support anything we can do to promote it among all our constituents, including current students, alumni, employers and prospects," says Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Student Services Darin Ellis.

To be considered, students submitted a project proposal sponsored by a faculty member with whom they would like to collaborate. Possible research projects focused on developing and testing a hypothesis or theory using methods relevant to one or more academic disciplines. The awarded projects from the COE include research on diesel injection processes, optical intrinsic signal imaging, and algorithm enhancement for application to Big Data analytics and genomics. Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering Mohammad Avanaki is the faculty mentor for several of the projects. "Working with such talented undergraduate students allows me to help them get the incredible feeling that comes from finishing a project and knowing that they have produced knowledge," Avanaki explains. "Hopefully I am doing my part to inspire the next generation of researchers."

The UROP award recipients from the College of Engineering are:

Nour Arafat, biomedical engineering

Nicholas Bely, biomedical engineering

Rachel Berlin-Allaire, mechanical engineering

Madeline Betterly, Hanan Mazeh and Bijal Patel (co-authors), biomedical engineering

David Gatti, mechanical engineering

Dominic Isopi, biomedical engineering

Hamad Mirza, biomedical engineering

Ashura Molla, biomedical engineering

Ronda Safadi, electrical and computer engineering

Jacob Taylor, computer science

Wesley Trescott, computer science

In addition to the universitywide UROP awards, the college also awarded 11 students internally. These awards are assigned throughout the semester and as of the time of publication, the recipients of this award are:

Christian Avila, biomedical engineering

Matthew Brown, biomedical engineering

Avik Chakravarty, mechanical engineering

Ranting Davis, mechanical engineering

Kristen Larsen, mechanical engineering

Genna Peltier, biomedical engineering

Mehon Rahman, biomedical engineering

Porpaavai Sampath Kumar, computer science

David Tes, biomedical engineering

Steven Stapleton, civil engineering

Enxhi Xhafa, chemical engineering

For those interested in applying for the spring/summer UROP award, applications and proposals are due no later than 4 p.m. Friday, March 27. The application is available at urop.wayne.edu/applications/ur_award_spring-summer_2015.pdf.