Seven engineering grad students awarded Presidential Fellowships
Several Buckeye engineers have earned the highest honor given by The Ohio State University Graduate School—a Presidential Fellowship.
This award recognizes the outstanding scholarly accomplishments and potential of graduate students entering the final phase of their dissertation research or terminal degree project. Awarded competitively, Presidential Fellowships provide one year of full-time financial support so students can complete their dissertations or terminal degree projects unimpeded by other duties. Competitions are held during autumn and spring semesters.
The College of Engineering’s Spring 2021 Presidential Fellows are Nidhin Kurian Kalarickal, Seunghyun Lee, Jianxiong Li, Kenechukwu Okoye, Ashutosh Pandey, Dung Dinh Vu and Binbin Wang.
Nidhin Kurian Kalarickal is an electrical and computer engineering PhD candidate. Advised by Professor Siddharth Rajan, Kalarickal is researching ultra-wide band gap semiconductor gallium oxide, which has gained a lot of attention in the last decade for its applications in power switching and high-frequency power amplification. His work focuses on lateral gallium oxide transistors to study and improve transport and breakdown properties using heterostructure and electrostatic engineering.
Seunghyun Lee is a PhD candidate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering focusing on semiconductor materials and devices. His research aims to develop low-noise and high-gain avalanche photodiodes that can be suitable for high-performance optical communication and eye-safe LiDAR applications. He is advised by Professor Sanjay Krishna in the Krishna Infrared Detector Laboratory.
Jianxiong Li is a welding engineering PhD candidate advised by Professor Boyd Panton. His research focuses on developing a systematic understanding of the process-structure-property relationship and the physics of the impact welding techniques, especially on creating a high-strength and fatigue-resistant metallurgical joint between a nickel-titanium (NiTi) shape memory alloy and dissimilar metals including stainless steel, brass and titanium. This technology is of significant importance to medical, automotive, aerospace and electronics industries.
Kenechukwu Okoye is a student in the Medical Scientist Training Program pursuing his MD and PhD concurrently. He is currently performing his graduate dissertation work in biomedical engineering. Okoye’s research focuses on both the intraoperative and in vivo biomechanics of the lower body in patients after total knee replacement surgery. The ultimate goal of his work is refining and clarifying surgical technique and knee prosthetic component design in order to improve patient outcomes with a primary focus on stair-climbing. His advisor is Professor Ajit Chaudhari.
Ashutosh Pandey is a PhD candidate in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering whose research focuses on developing machine learning algorithms, particularly deep neural networks for speech enhancement. Advised by Professor DeLiang Wang, his work aims at developing robust algorithms to improve the intelligibility and the quality of speech signals degraded by interferences, such as background noise, room reverberation, and interfering speakers. Applications include hearing aid design, robust automatic speech recognition and mobile speech communication.
Dung Dinh Vu is a mechanical engineering PhD candidate whose research explores new mechanisms of energy and charge transport by electrons based on topological properties of their equations of motion. His work not only advances fundamental understandings of electrons in solid, but also provides blueprints for future devices such as dissipation-less electronics and solid-state thermal transistors. His advisor is Professor Joseph Heremans.
Binbin Wang is a PhD candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Center of Electron Microscopy and Analysis (CEMAS). Advised by Professor David McComb, his research focuses on advanced magnetic characterization using electron microscopy and its application to spintronics. This work is essential to identifying magnetic materials that can host emergent spin textures and developing next-generation spintronic devices for information storage and processing.
To view the full list of Spring 2021 Presidential Fellows, visit the Graduate School’s website.
by Meggie Biss, College of Engineering Communications | biss.11@osu.edu
