Engineering graduate students earn prizes at 2023 Graduate Exhibition

April 11, 2023

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on Penn State News. It features several Penn State graduate students pursuing degrees in engineering.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Seventy-four Penn State graduate students earned first-, second- or third-place prizes at the 2023 Graduate Exhibition, held March 20-24 on the University Park campus and online. More than 275 students from more than 65 graduate programs participated in one of five categories: research, design, performance, visual arts and video.

Seven College of Engineering students earned accolades:

Research poster option, engineering

Second place

Kevin Mekulu and Haedong Kim, both graduate students in industrial engineering in the College of Engineering, “Sensor-based Detection of Neurocognitive Disorders in a Virtual Environment: An Intelligent Approach”

Third place

Jorge Diaz Gutierrez and Helia Mohammadi Mavi, both graduate students in civil engineering in the College of Engineering, “COVID-19 Impacts on Online and In-store Shopping Behaviors: Why They Happened and Whether They Will Last Post Pandemic”
Yanqiu Yang, graduate student in agricultural and biological engineering, a program jointly administered by the College of Agricultural Sciences and the College of Engineering, “Smartphone-assisted apple scab identification and quantification using artificial intelligence”

Video option

Second place

Connor Huxman, graduate student in mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering, “Leveraging Mechanical Flexibility to Improve Bone Healing”

Third place

Eden Binega Yemesegen, graduate student in architectural engineering in the College of Engineering, “Exploring 3D Printing Technology for Sustainable ‘HempCobcrete’ Structures: Material Science and Design Analysis”

Data Visualization Award

Honorable mention

Kevin Mekulu, graduate student in industrial engineering in the College of Engineering, “Sensor-based Detection of Neurocognitive Disorders in a Virtual Environment: An Intelligent Approach”