Graduate Students Earn Samueli Endowed Fellowships
Nov. 26, 2018 - Eleven Samueli School doctoral students have won 2018-19 Henry Samueli Endowed Fellowships. Two students in civil and environmental engineering, six in electrical engineering and computer science, one in materials science and engineering, and two in mechanical and aerospace engineering received the awards, which recognize academic achievement and potential for future success.
Henry Samueli, co-founder of Broadcom Corp. and the Samueli School’s namesake, funds the fellowships, which are open to master’s and doctoral students. The number of awards and the amounts vary each year.
The Samueli Endowed Fellowships are competitive, rather than need-based, helping the school to recruit and retain talented graduate students. The awards are based on students’ academic records and research accomplishments, and are open to all graduate majors, covering fees and stipends for the academic year.
This year’s winners are:
Benjamin Brown, electrical engineering - power electronics
Undergraduate degree: B.S. Boston University
Adviser: Keyue M. Smedley
Research interests: switched capacitor, PWM (pulse width modulation) and resonant dc-dc converters, and the theory behind the convergence of the three
Kazi Khurshidi Haque Dia, electrical engineering
Other degrees: B.Sc electrical and electronic engineering, Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology; M.Sc electrical and electronic engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
Adviser: Keyue M. Smedley
Research interests: power electronics-based converter design
Emily Duong, materials science and engineering
Undergraduate degree: B.A. physics and chemistry, Occidental College
Adviser: Joseph Patterson (chemistry)
Research interests: nanocarriers as materials for drug delivery applications, optimizing drug loading efficiency and studying how the carriers interact with other molecules for targeted drug release
Nabil Khalifa, mechanical and aerospace engineering - aerodynamics and fluid mechanics
Undergraduate degree: B.S. aerospace engineering, Cairo University, Egypt
Adviser: Haithem Taha
Research interests: unsteady aerodynamics
Alejandro Lavernia, mechanical and aerospace engineering
B.S. mechanical engineering, Purdue University
Adviser: Jack Brouwer
Research interests: advanced energy systems and thermodynamics
Weiyu Luo, electrical engineering and computer science - computer engineering
Undergraduate degree: B.S. mathematics, Pennsylvania State University
Adviser: Brian Demsky
Research interests: developing testing tools for C/C++ concurrent data structures and programs
Antonios Mamalakis, civil and environmental engineering - hydrology and water resources
Undergraduate degree: Diploma in civil engineering, University of Patras, Greece
Adviser: Efi Foufoula-Georgiou
Research Interests: enhanced physical understanding of large-scale climate variability and teleconnections, along with regional hydroclimatic impacts. Regional precipitation and temperature forecasting in a changing climate.
Robert Marosi, electrical engineering
Undergraduate degree: B.S. electrical engineering, Cal Poly Pomona
Adviser: Filippo Capolino
Research interests: vacuum electronics
Ali Morshedifard, civil and environmental engineering - structural engineering
Undergraduate degree: B.S. civil engineering, University of Tehran
Adviser: Mohammad Javad Abdolhosseini Qomi
Research interests: modeling cementious materials, which contain concrete, one of the key materials utilized in construction; thermal analysis of novel functionalized cementitious materials for energy-efficient buildings; statistical mechanics of thermalized membranes
Ahmad Nahian, electrical engineering and computer science - computer engineering
Undergraduate degree: BSC, computer science and engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
Adviser: Brian Demsky
Research interests: software engineering, compilation, parallel software, program understanding
Yutian Ren, electrical engineering
Undergraduate degree: B.S. electronic science & engineering, Southeast University, China
Adviser: G.P. Li
Research interests: sustainable and data-enabled manufacturing, data engineering, contextual sensor systems
-Anna Lynn Spitzer
