The ECE Department would like to congratulate each of our undergraduate and graduate students who received awards and recognition during the May 13, 2021 Virtual Celebration! We had a great time celebrating your accomplishments virtually and look forward to the day that we can congratulate you in person.

For anyone who missed the Celebration, you are welcome to view a recording of the event on our ECE YouTube channel.

UG and Graduate Award Presentation 2021 (PDF)

Opening remarks were made by ECE Chair Narayan Mandayam, Dean Thomas N. Farris, and ECE Undergraduate Director Wade Trappe.

ECE Faculty presented Undergraduate Leadership / Service Awards to:

• Samantha Cheng – Ambassador – department liaison
• Ariela Chomski – RU IEEE President
• Puru Saxena – Fishbowl tutor
• Tran Trong Tan Ngo - Fishbowl tutor
• Natalie Kim - Fishbowl tutor
• Yang Bai – Fishbowl tutor
• Thorson Dai- Fishbowl tutor
• Amber Haynes – Federal Work Study
• Sukhjit Singh – Federal Work Study
• Piotr Zakrevski – Federal Work Study

The George and Ilsa Goubau Memoria Awards for Academic Excellence and Strength in Electromagnetics were presented to:

• Andrew Simon
• Peter Wu
• Crystal D’Souza
• Naomie Popo

The Ashok and Yohavall Sethu Electrical and Computer Engineering Annual Scholarships were presented to:

• Jakub Vogel
• Yati Patel

Graduate awards introductory remarks were given by Graduate Director Yingying Chen. The ECE Graduate Program had 24 doctoral graduates in the 2020/2021 school year.

The following doctoral graduates are the recipients of the ECE Graduate Program Academic Achievement Awards:

• Intessar Al-Iedani, January 2021, advisor: Dr. Zoran Gajic
• Ali Haddad, January 2021, advisor: Dr. Laleh Najafizadeh
• Guangyuan Li, May 2021, advisor: Dr. Yicheng Lu
• Siyu Liao, October 2020, advisor: Dr. Bo Yuan
• Vidyasagar Sadhu, October 2020, advisor: Dr. Dario Pompili
• Mohammad Yousefvand, May 2021, advisor: Dr. Narayan Mandayam

The Teaching Assistant Awards for the Spring 2020 semester were presented to:

• Corey Norton
• Faith Johnson
• Shiva Salsabilian

The Teaching Assistant Awards for the Fall 2020 semester were presented to:

• Anastasios Dimas
• Carolina Naim
• Pei Peng

The Graduate Leadership / Service Award was given to:

• Demetrios Lambropoulos, Capstone Assistant

The Professor Narindra Puri Memorial Endowed Scholarship awards were presented to:

• Jeffrey Isaacs
• Zhaoyi Xu
• Shounak Rangwala

The Paul Panayotatos Endowed Scholarships were awarded to:

• Tahiya Chowdhury
• Murtadha Aldeer

IEEE Communications Society Phoenix ISS Award was presented to:

• Tejashri Kuber

Prof. Narayan Mandayam, the ECE Department Chair gave closing remarks.

Congratulations and good luck to all ECE students!

“The SOE provides a great collaborative community.” – Samantha Cheng

Electrical and computer engineering (ECE) and English double major Samantha Cheng has served as an Engineering Ambassador, the chair of the First Year Integration Peer Mentor Program, and a MATLAB learning assistant. She took part in the Aresty Summer Science program, where she studied the effect of climate change on the Mackenzie River Basin. She also had a software development internship with MITRE, where she worked on several government-related projects, as well as a systems engineering internship with Lockheed Martin. An Honors College Scholar and SoE Class of 2021 convocation speaker, she will be joining Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Akamai Technologies’ Platform Rotation Engineering Program after graduation.

Why Rutgers?

I chose it for its perfect balance of having the resources of a large school, while still having smaller, tight-knit communities. The SOE provides a great collaborative community, while the university offers research and career experiences. The different campuses, schools, and people contribute to the diverse experiences I have had here. This semester, I even took a class on Animal Handling, Fitting, and Exhibition on the Cook Farm – and worked with goats.

What drew you to computer engineering?

I’m interested in how hardware and software work together and I liked that the computer engineering track is part of the broader, interdisciplinary ECE department, which means I could obtain experience in both hands-on lab work involving circuitry as well as coding software. I appreciate the versatility of being able to take ECE skills and knowledge and apply them elsewhere, such as in biomedical or environmental sciences.

What about your English major?

I’ve always loved reading and analyzing literature, so I knew I wanted to take a few literature classes in college. On my first day of school at Rutgers, I sat in on an English lecture and that class solidified my interest and made me want to study English more formally. Studying English has also improved my communication and critical thinking skills, which are important in any field.

What do you most value about your Rutgers education?

I value the community the most. I’ve learned so much in my four years here, but I couldn’t have done it without the support of my classmates and professors. Rutgers SOE has given me a large network of people – and the people are truly what makes Rutgers SOE unique. As graduation comes closer, I’m comforted by the fact that I have so many people I can rely on or reach out to in the years to come.

Did any professors make an impact on you?

Many of my professors have made profound impacts on me as a student and as a person. One in particular is industrial and systems engineering professor Dr. Elsayed Elsayed. I took his Introduction to Reliability Engineering class as an elective. I’m so appreciative of the time he took to talk to each student – he is clearly invested in his students’ futures. I greatly admire his passion for his work, and hope one day to have a passion and expertise similar to his.

How did the coronavirus pandemic affect you?

The switch to online learning was a challenge, but I adapted with the help of professors and other resources. Many professors were even more accessible through online learning than before, and it was a great help to still be able to schedule meetings and have face time with them.

I was also able to take trainings through the learning assistant program, that helped me both be a better student in my classes and to be a better MATLAB learning assistant. These trainings covered topics such as metacognitive skills, time management, and online resources.

What did it mean to you to be selected as the SOE Class of 2021 speaker?

Being the SOE convocation speaker is an exciting and meaningful experience for me because I want to share a message that can resonate with the whole class. Graduation is a time to look back on the great memories we've made at Rutgers, as well as to look forward to new beginnings. I hope this gives everyone a moment to reflect on their own paths, and celebrate themselves and their achievements.

Do you have any advice for incoming students?

Don’t be afraid to ask questions! This is a typical piece of advice, but I was still afraid as an incoming freshman to ask too many questions. It turns out that people – whether they’re fellow freshmen, upperclassmen, professors, or anyone else at Rutgers – are more than happy to help you out. There’s nothing wrong with asking questions – as long as you ask and listen.

What will your job at Akamai Technologies involve?

I’ll be rotating through four tracks – information security, platform engineering, global performance operations, and networks – during Akamai Technologies’ two-year Platform Rotation Engineering Program. I’ll be taking on different roles depending on the track, so I can gain exposure to these fields before fully committing to one. I’ll also be learning general technical and soft skills that I’ll be able to apply in any role.

The story by SOE https://soe.rutgers.edu/story/senior-class-speaker-samantha-cheng-eng%E2...

With my degree, I have the chance to become economically mobile and garner real change. 

Amber Haynes ENG’21, from Newark, NJ, entered the School of Engineering through the Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) program in 2017 and earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering with a minor in mathematics. During her time at Rutgers, she conducted machine learning and data science IoT research with electrical and computer engineering assistant professor Jorge Ortiz in his Cyber-Physical Intelligence Lab and co-authored a paper that was accepted to an international conference. She also participated in the Minority Engineering Educational Task (M.E.E.T.) student organization.

Just before graduating, Amber shared her thoughts and reflections from her time at Rutgers Engineering and as a member of the EOF family.

How SOE/EOF Impacts Success

I had no idea how much I would come to depend on the EOF program and especially my advisor, assistant dean and EOF/EOP director Michael Brown. As a first-generation college student living in the projects, I did not realize how sheltered I was from the professional world and I also did not realize at the time how many obstacles I would have to manage just to continue pursuing my degree.

A big change I underwent in my first two years, was learning how to be my best professional self. Pitching to recruiters, speaking passionately about my interests, interviewing, and even standing my ground and managing conflicts are all things I would not have known how to do if it were not for my EOF advisors. Yet just as I began growing as a student, unexpected turns in my life that caused me to struggle with my academics.

Surmounting Personal Challenges

Though I had always had to balance taking care of my mom, who has several chronic illnesses, with doing my best in school, this especially picked up steam in my sophomore year. My mother suffered from an injury that caused her to be bedridden for seven months straight. We had no resources to help take care of her, so I was tasked with catching the train nearly every day to take care of her while trying to manage my engineering classes and labs.

While I love my mom dearly, this was extremely daunting and stretched me very thin. I doubted myself immensely and did not know if I would be able to finish school. I tried to remain strong in front of her, but on the train rides back to New Brunswick I would break down. There was increasing pressure from my classes and professors that year, and if I did not have Dean Brown to lean on, for consolation, mentorship, and advocacy, I would not have been able to continue my college career. He helped me stay motivated to do what I could to catch up in my classes.

By May, I had maintained a 3.4 GPA despite my challenges with my home life. By the start of my junior year, I had won an outstanding research award from Rutgers LSAMP for Computational Neuroscience I had done over the summer and I had already received an offer for an internship in my junior year summer. I had been on the Dean’s List numerous times.

I then had to manage the change none of us were expecting late in my junior year: the COVID-19 pandemic. As someone who already suffers from anxiety, especially surrounding the well-being of my mother, I found it difficult to find the energy to continue school once again. I struggled to keep up with classes again. Despite how much I wanted my degree and loved academia, it was hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel. I came close to not passing certain classes, and if it were not for Dean Brown’s encouragement to push through, I would not be graduating this May.

I am graduating with a 3.2 GPA. I am extremely grateful to the SOE-EOF program at Rutgers for keeping me motivated to push for change for my family.

Facing a Bright Future

With my degree, I have the chance to become economically mobile and garner real change. The first thing I am going to do when I start working is move. I want to move out of the apartment my mother and I are in as fast as the money will let me. She deserves so much better.

In the future, I eventually hope to pursue a higher degree in mathematics and/or engineering because research and teaching are interests of mine as well. As for my immediate plans after graduation, I am currently managing a job search that I hope will lead me into the industry as a software engineer. I am eager to see how my ideas can make direct change for the world, in what I hope will be an immensely positive way.

The story by SOE https://soe.rutgers.edu/story/senior-spotlight-amber-haynes-eng21

Top ten award winners and special awards for 2021 Capstone Expo

Thank you, class of 2021, for an amazing capstone program year, driven by your hard work and innovation! With the challenges we all faced this year, it is a testament to your character and strength. We are so proud of you!

A panel of judges joint us to identify the top ten projects and winners of special awards. The judges feedback was overwhelmingly positive and commended your ‘out of the box’ thinking, your creativity, and your social conscious, exhibited through your project choices.
We would like to thank again our panel of judges for the support!

After hours of diligent work our panel of judges selected these top projects:

Top Ten Projects and Special Awards

#1 place (awarded $100/student, sponsored by BlackRock)
Project S21-34: SMART Glove
Team members: Erik Castro, Brian Cheng, Nicholas Chu, Gary Qian, Thomas Luy
Adviser: Dr. Hana Godrich

#2 place (awarded $75/student, sponsored by 7x24 Exchange Metro NY)
Project S21-10: Improvements to the Viability of. Solar Panels in the Field
Team members: Nathaniel Glikman, Alexander Laemmle, Nicholas Meegan, Bhargav Singaraju, Sukhjit Singh
Adviser: Dr. Michael Caggiano and Cameron Greene (L3Harris)

#3 place (awarded $50/student, sponsored by L3Harris)
Project S21-49: Mental Health Chatbot: KANA
Team members: Jennifer Huang, Samuel Zahner, Nishad Nalgundwar, and Vincent Chan
Adviser: Dr. Kristin Dana

#4 place ($25/student)
Project S21-13: Eagle-View: Realtime Onboard Monitoring in Agriculture for Weed Clusters
Team members: Andrew Dass, Andrew Vincent, Virajbhai Patel, Harsh Desai, Jeffrey Samson
Advisers: Dr. Dario Pompili and Khizar Anjum

#5 place ($25/student)
Project S21-45: RU-Therapy
Team members: Khizer Humayun, Akash Govindaraju, Sianna Arruda, Rebekah Bediako, Hedaya Walter, and Katherine Moreira
Adviser: Dr. Hana Godrich

#6 place ($25/student)
Project S21-11: Project LOUIS
Team members: Sahil Patel, Darshan Singh, Luan Tran, Tan Ngo, and Khanh Nguyen
Adviser: Dr. Kristin Dana

#7 place ($25/student)
Project S21-38: F-SCAN DS: Foot Splinter, Cut, and Nick Detection System for the Purpose of Preventing Amputations in Diabetics
Team members: Amber Haynes and Maria Rios
Advisers: Dr. Jorge Ortiz

#8 place ($25/student)
Project S21-02: Real-time Analytics of Hurricane Gliders
Team members: Radhe Bangad, Matthew Chan, Brian DelRocini, Kinjal Patel, Jasmine Philip
Adviser: Dr. Scott Glenn

#9 place ($25/student)
Project S21-21: Tracking Cleaning Progress with Computer Vision
Team members: Andrew Ko, Edler Olanday, Parth Patel, Piotr Zakrevski
Adviser: Dr. Yuqian Zhang

#10 place ($25/student)
Project S21-20: CO2NSUME
Team members: Samantha Moy, Shreya Patel, Atmika Ponnusamy, and Nandita Shenoy
Advisers: Dr. Jorge Ortiz

Best in Research Award ($50/student)
Project S21-49: Mental Health Chatbot: KANA
Team members: Jennifer Huang, Samuel Zahner, Nishad Nalgundwar, and Vincent Chan
Adviser: Dr. Kristin Dana

Best in Impact Award (awarded $50/student)
Project S21-38: F-SCAN DS: Foot Splinter, Cut, and Nick Detection System for the Purpose of Preventing Amputations in Diabetics
Team members: Amber Haynes and Maria Rios
Adviser: Dr. Jorge Ortiz

Best in Commercialization ($50/student) a tie between two teams
Project S21-31: Occupancy Monitoring System with Computer. Vision Algorithms
Team members: Samantha Cheng, Kylie Chow, Sonia Hua, Sneh Shah
Adviser: Dr. Yuqian Zhang

Project S21-52: I. O. Clean
Team members: Jonathan Banks, Edward Gaskin, Alex Martorano
Adviser: Dr. Kevin Lu (Stevens) and Dr. Hana Godrich

Congratulation to this year’s senior students who participated in the ECE capstone program and their advisers for a job well done!

Prof. Hana Godrich

Congrats to our capstone team S21-10 Nathaniel Glikman, Alexander Laemmle, Nicholas Meegan, Bhargav Singaraju, and Sukhjit Singh who won the IEEE PES best poster award in the IEEE PES Day Global 2021 (https://site.ieee.org/pes-day/) with their project “Improvements to the Viability of Solar Panels in the Field”.  Watch their presentation here: https://www.facebook.com/pesday/videos/1206442346478231 .

This project aims to increase the amount of sunlight received by a solar panel in the field each day by introducing a method to track the sun throughout the course of the day which increases the power absorbed and efficiency.

The team advisers are Dr. Michael Caggiano and Cameron Greene from L3Harris. The team will also participate in L3Harris competition on 5/6/21.