student awards 2024
Leigh Preimesberger was a researcher with Dr. Julia Hsu’s group this summer. She won the computer science poster award as a part of the Summer Platform for Undergraduate Research (SPUR). Preimesberger’s research was “Incorporating a Multiplexer to Facilitate Fast Testing of Solar Cells.” Her mentor was Hsu team member Justin Bonner
Jessica Fink was a MSE/EE REU SPUR Poster award winner. Fink, a physics major at Missouri State University, did research involving radiation exposure to thin film transistors. Her poster was chosen as a winner by the Office of Graduate Education. She was part of the Quevedo/Young group, and her mentors were Dr. Chadwin Young, Dr. Leunam Fernandez-Izquierdo and Dr. Rodolfo Rodriguez Davila.
Aman Rahman was an MSE/EE REU SPUR Poster award winner. Rahman won the award sponsored by The Naveen Jindal School of Management. He says the award was especially meaningful to him because it was his first experience with research, and it confirmed his desire to pursue all opportunities to do research as an undergraduate and a graduate student. Rahman gives special thanks to his mentors, Dr. KJ Cho, Matthew Bergschneider and Austen Adams.
UTD student Andrew Gruber worked with the McCall group this summer on unique research. He won the Department of Computer Science SPUR award, during the poster competition. According to Gruber, Cs7Cd3Br13 is a unique luminescent material in which there are two cadmium coordination centers, one being a zero-dimensional tetrahedra and the other being a one-dimensional octahedra. This material emits orange photoluminescence under UV light at room temperature and this emission blueshifts as temperature decreases. However, it remains unclear which cadmium center is responsible for these emissions.
UT Dallas student Connor Hoy worked with the McCall group during summer of 2023 to refine the growth of organic-inorganic metal-halide hybrid scintillators for the simultaneous (mixed-field) detection of fast-neutrons and X-rays. As part of the SPUR program, Connor won one of the Naveen Jindal School of Management’s awards.
Marisol Valdez: GEM Fellow
Marisol Valdez is a PhD chemistry student, currently working in Dr. Julia Hsu’s research team in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. For the 2023-24 academic year, she was awarded the GEM Fellowship.
The objective of this program is to offer doctoral fellowships to underrepresented minority students who have either completed, are currently enrolled in a master’s in engineering program or received admittance into a PhD program. Fellowships may be used at any participating GEM member university where the GEM fellow is admitted.