This spring, the Virginia Tech College of Engineering announced the recipients of the 2024 Paul E. Torgersen Graduate Student Research Excellence Awards.

These prestigious awards, which have been presented annually since 1990, recognize outstanding research contributions by graduating master’s and doctoral students in the College of Engineering.

This year's event was hosted in a virtual format, embracing inclusiveness for both our on-campus and extended campus community. The competition featured digital poster presentations for master’s and Ph.D. students (or recent graduates) who were near degree completion or had recently completed their degrees.

From a group of 10 master’s and 10 Ph.D. finalists, a panel of judges, consisting of engineering faculty, selected four winners from each category (Ph.D. and master's) based on the quality, impact, and significance of their research. The recipients come from the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE), Mechanical Engineering, and the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics (BEAM).

The 2024 Paul E. Torgersen Graduate Student Research Excellence Award winners come from are:

Ph.D. Recipients

  • First place: Nitasha Sahani, ECE
    • Research: Intelligent Detection of Coordinated Attacks in Power Distribution Systems
  • Second place: Mubarak Alrumaidhi, CEE
    • Research: Evaluating Factors Contributing to Crash Severity Among Older Drivers: A Machine Learning Approach with Synthetic Resampling Techniques
  • Third place: Paulo Ignacio Jr., CEE
    • Research: Exploring the Effects of Nature Sounds on Engineer’s Bodies, Brains, and Minds.
  • Fourth place: An-Chi He, Mechanical Engineering 
    • Research: The Development of a Locomotion Interface for Virtual Reality Terrain Simulation

Master's recipients:

  • First place: Shahwar Atiq Khursheed, ECE
    • Research: Suspended Payload Transportation via Collaborative Drones Using Model-Based Deep Reinforcement Learning
  • Second place: Daniel Myers, CEE
    • Research: Effect of Corrosion on the Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Beams Subject to Blast Loading
  • Third place: Seetharam Krishnapuram Sreehari,  Mechanical Engineering
    • Research: Design and Control of Upper Body Exoskeletons for Augmenting Human Lifting Capabilities
  • Fourth place: Julia Damron, BEAM
    • Research: Material Failure Properties of Human Costal Cartilage Perichondrium in Tension.

The College commends all the participants for their exceptional research contributions and congratulates the winners on their outstanding achievements. These awards highlight the College's commitment to fostering innovation, excellence, and leadership in engineering research.

For more information about the Paul E. Torgersen Graduate Student Research Excellence Awards and the winning research projects, please contact Alicia Johnson, jalicia@vt.edu.

Written by Alicia Johnson.

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