On April 19, 2017, the Opportunity Research Scholar’s (ORS) program held its 15th annual Research Awards Banquet. The ORS program is an academic enrichment program in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering for students interested in an extended undergraduate research experience. Students commit to a research team for a minimum of two semesters and earn course credit or pay for their participation. At the end of the spring semester, teams participate in a research poster competition and the winners are honored at the Banquet.

This year’s event showcased the research projects of 22 undergraduate student teams consisting of 77 undergraduate students, 22 Ph.D. mentors, and one postdoctoral mentor. Five awards were given out: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place for research; People’s Choice; and Best Presentation.

Each team was judged by a panel of two ECE faculty judges based on a rubric evaluating the team's research knowledge, the quality of the work, and the overall oral presentation. The People's Choice Award was determined by undergraduate students and mentors based on how well the team’s poster explained the research purpose and findings, as well as the visual quality of the poster.

Ernesto Mogena, product development engineer at Intel and ECE alumnus (BSEE 14, MSECE 15), was a special speaker at the event. Mogena was a participant in ORS for two years as an undergraduate.

“Coming back to an ORS banquet, so many years later, is most rewarding. Not only have I gotten to see how much the program has grown, but also how much ORS alumni can help current students understand the opportunities this program has to offer,” said Mogena.

The award winners at the Banquet are outlined below.

1st Place
Title: Development of Efficient Solar Power Based Nanogrid System with Modular Design
Faculty Member: Prof. Ron Harley, Prof. Maryam Saeedifard
Mentor:  Jingfan Sun
Undergraduates Kyron Longwood/Emily Pitts/Ellie Robelo/Jake Smith/Tshim Tshimanga
Sponsor: School of ECE

2nd Place
Title: A Scalable Architecture for Rural Electrification
Faculty Member: Prof. Deepak Divan
Ph.D. Mentor: Nishant Bilakanti
Undergraduates: Catie Camron/ Varun Duggal/Elijah Lubanski/ Aditya Retnanto/Jeffrey Zhao
Sponsor: Phillips 66

3rd Place
Title: Energy Harvesting Sensor Network: Energy Efficiency Optimization and Network Modeling Techniques
Faculty Member: Prof. Ying Zhang
Ph.D. Mentor: Qianao Ju
Undergraduates: Malik Barton/Dianna King,
Sponsor: National Science Foundation/ Prof. Ying Zhang

People's Choice
Title: Modeling of Novel Spintronic Devices
Faculty Member: Prof. Azad Naeemi
Ph.D. Mentor: Rouhollah Mousavi Ireai
Undergraduates: Will Scott/Vishnu Tanguturi/Yue Zheng
Sponsor: Intel/SRC

Best Presentation
Title: Autonomous Low Frequency Radio Receiver
Faculty Member: Prof. Morris Cohen
PhD Mentors: Nick Gross & Jackson McCormick
Undergraduates: Brad Daitch/Wendy Lin/Alex Simoneaux
Sponsor: School of ECE

Sponsors for the ORS program include Texas Instruments, Intel, Semiconductor Research Corporation, Raytheon, Corning, Phillips 66, Space Solar Power Institute, Kirchoff Endowment, National Science Foundation, and The Center for Grid Engineering Education.