Undergraduates take center stage at 2nd annual research conference

On August 15 the Lassonde School of Engineering hosted the “So You Think You Can Research?” Undergraduate Summer Student Research Conference at the Bergeron Centre for Engineering Excellence.

The event was a huge success with over 200 attendees from multiple faculties, departments and guests from funding agencies including NSERC and Mitacs.

The conference celebrated the research achievements of undergraduate students, and gave them an opportunity to experience a professional conference environment.

Students got a chance to showcase their work in front of a live audience and experts in the field.

“We got a chance to learn and showcase our work within a professional medium to further our careers and nurture our interests in the research field,” said Bita Yousefi Pihani, First Place Poster Award winner

Over 55 students presented their research finding through a poster or oral presentation with research topics ranging from implantable chip for human brain to the development of artificial intelligence.

Students were judged on the quality of content, presentation and discussion.

Students also got to participate in the judging process with the Students’ Choice award. The award was presented to a notable individual who received the most votes from their peers.

Many thanks to all the professors, graduate and undergraduate students, staff and volunteers for making our research conference a success and for contributing to the organization of the 2017 conference.

“This event empowers students by having them showcase their research; it simultaneously fosters important and necessary communications skills, while garnering a sense of pride in one’s work,” said Brittney Cooper, First Place Oral Presentation Award

“This conference was a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate scholarship, innovation and creativity,” said Spiros Pagiatakis, Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies

The conference booklet can be accessed here.

For the complete list of winners, see below.

To see all photos from the conference, click here.

The winners for the Oral Presentation Awards:

First Place Oral Presentation Award: Brittney Cooper from ESSE is working with Dr. John Moores on characterizations of Martian water-ice cloud crystal geometries from phase functions derived using Marci image data

Second Place Oral Presentation Award: Austin Martins-Robalino from Civil Engineering is working with Dr. Magdalena Krol on electrical resistance heating for soil and groundwater remediation

Third Place Oral Presentation Award: Coby Davis from EECS is working with Dr. Michael Jenkin on localization and SLAM with a unique landmark

Students’ Choice Oral Presentation Award: Austin Martins-Robalino from Civil Engineering is working with Dr. Magdalena Krol on electrical resistance heating for soil and groundwater remediation

The winners for the Poster Awards:

First Place Poster Award: Bita Yousefi Pihani from Civil Engineering is working with Dr. Ahmed EIDyasti on biological denitrification system using hydrogen gas under anoxic condition

Second Place Poster Award: Ragheb Abunahla from EECS is working with Dr. Gerd Grau on the modelling and development of a circuit-printing optimization algorithm

Third Place Poster Award: Constantine Papakonstantinou from Mechanical Engineering is working with Dr. Alidad Amirfazli on understanding the drop adhesion and shedding to facilitate dropwise condensation by shearing air flow

Honorary Mention: Farouk Wahsh from Mechanical Engineering is working with Dr. Alex Czekanski on the effect of high strain rate on the piezo properties of elastomers with carbon nanotubes

Honorary Mention: Brandon Loy from ESSE is working with Dr. Mark Gordon on pilot balloon tracking

Honorary Mention: Michael Soto from Civil Engineering working with Dr. Dan Palermo on repair and retrofit through nonlinear modelling of a post tensioned concrete bridge pier with FRP sheets

Students’ Choice Poster Award: Josh Karon from ESSE working with Dr. Mojgan Jadidi on public transit: big data analytics and visualization

Students’ Choice Poster Award: Bita Yousefi Pihani from Civil Engineering working with Dr. Ahmed Eidyasti on biological denitrification system using hydrogen gas under anoxic condition

Students’ Choice Poster Award (Honorary): Nicole Valkova and Hasma Habibiy are high school students working with Dr. Usman Khan on water conservation at York University.