Six engineering students among Auburn research symposium award winners

Sixty-eight students, including six from the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, took home awards for their research, creative scholarship posters and oral presentations during the 2023 Auburn University Student Research Symposium, held March 28 at the Melton Student Center.

More than 400 graduate and undergraduate students from Auburn University and Auburn University at Montgomery participated in the annual event, which showcases a broad spectrum of student research and scholarship from a variety of disciplines.

Cyrus Lloyd, a student in aerospace engineering and senior makerspace assistant, won second place among all undergraduate STEM students for the poster, “Design and construction of a low-cost diamond turning lathe and workflow for ultraprecision manufacturing.”

Wesley Lowman, a student in computer science and software engineering and president of the Auburn Robotics Club, won third place among all undergraduate STEM entries for the poster, “Control and path planning for an unmanned ground vehicle in simulation.”

Award-winners among the engineering poster presentations were Alex Edwards, a graduate student in mechanical engineering for the entry, “Evaluation of fracture properties of additively manufactured IN718 under quasi-static and dynamic loading using optical metrology,” and Ravi Nataraj, an undergraduate in chemical engineering, for the entry, “Adaptation of a microfluidic device for use in scalable cell encapsulation.”

Auburn Engineering’s oral presentation winners were Xueyang Hu, a graduate student in computer science and software engineering, for the entry, “Fast and high-resolution NLos beam switching over commercial off-the-shelf mmWave devices,” and Robin Weaver, an undergraduate in aerospace engineering for the presentation, “Viscoelastic Bias in Bistable Mechanical Metamaterials.”

“Through the symposium, the students’ presentations captured the impactful first-rate research in many disciplines,” said Lorenzo Cremaschi, director of undergraduate research. “Student presenters and faculty who participated as judges this year exemplify the strong, energetic, research-driven community at Auburn. I congratulate the award winners for their well-deserved recognition.”

For the second consecutive year, the Ralph Brown Draughon Library will electronically display a selection of winning posters, and details about this exhibit will be forthcoming.

A complete list of winners, along with titles of their projects, is available on the Student Research Symposium website.