Missouri S&T Kummer I&E Doctoral Fellows

As we wrap up our fourth-year fellow research presentations, we reflect on our “why.” Immersing yourself in research may send you down a rabbit hole, or many, but it is important to often come up to the surface and remember why it is we are chasing. The fellows not only shared their “why” to audiences, most not familiar in the subject matter, but also inspired them to pursue research. This week, Chukwuma Mgbenu presented on, “Lamina and Bed Properties and Microstratigraphy of Shelf Deposits of the Upper Cretaceous Tuscaloosa Marine Shale,” to identify more specific timeframes of climate impacts; Mehedi Hasan Tusar presented on, “Artificial Intelligence on Pressure Injury Diagnosis” in combining different AI models to detect several phases of pressure injuries more accurately; and Aidan Brooks presented on, “Thermal Feedback Control of Glass Additive Manufacturing,” which includes discovering ways to 3-D print optical lenses and medical or lab equipment. #FindYourWhy

Presenting Dr. Ademola Adesokan! Our first Missouri S&T Kummer I&E Doctoral Fellows graduate successfully defended his dissertation yesterday. Under the advisement of Dr. Sanjay M. in the computer science department, Dr. Adesokan’s defense was titled, “Leveraging Deep Learning Models and Social Media Data for Enhanced Situation Awareness in Disaster Management.” Dr. Adesokan is also the recipient of the Kummer Doctoral Achievement Award and medal for completing his Ph.D. within 4 years (2.5 years for him, to be exact). During this time, Dr. Adesokan published 8 papers with one other currently under review and participated in NSF’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps) at the national level conducting over 100 customer discovery interviews during a six-week period. As part of his research, he created the DisFact program, an automation system to fact-check disaster claims, which will be presented at the WISE 2024 conference in Doha, Qatar this December. Dr. Adesokan’s passion, tenacity, and ambition will be missed at Missouri University of Science and Technology but we know these characteristics will elevate him amongst the best of the best.

Thank you, Radwa Eissa, for presenting your research this week on, “Integrating Circular Economy in our Built Environment.” Your comprehensive approach sparked the audience to think about how the Department of Energy can incentivize companies to reduce carbon emissions.

Imagine having to do long-range molecular interaction calculations that are pages long. Now you don’t have to. Thanks to Adrian Luis Batista Planas and his research group, they created a software program to fit long-range molecular interactions. This week, Adrian presented to students about the importance, motivation, and process for his research. What an incredible example of finding an opportunity and improving a process!

Another excellent Missouri S&T Kummer I&E Doctoral Fellows research presentation this evening! Remy Mathenia shared with attendees his experiences and lessons learned during his research on metal additive manufacturing.

Busy week for the fellows-- Tuesday, Logan M. Wilcox presented his research to the campus community on Active Microwave Thermography. Wednesday, fellows in their second and third year of the program presented their research to the campus community during the fourth-annual Kummer Day celebration. Thursday, Amanda Hakenwerth, SHRM-SCP coordinated an incredible site visit at Nidec Motor Corporation for our students where they got insight into their worldwide impact, toured their array of labs, and the opportunity to ask their engineers technical questions about their testing methods.

Congratulations, Rachel Dzieran! We are so proud of you and amazed at the incredible work you are doing.

Incredible presentation last night by fourth year I&E Fellow, Niloofar Zendehdel, on "Human-Robot Collaboration in Manufacturing." Students on campus learned about the research Niloofar has been working on and observed several demonstrations.

This week, the fellows visited Phelps Health in Rolla. Our gracious host, Dr. Susan Bowles helped coordinate an insightful tour, which provided a behind-the-scenes look at some of the most critical units in the hospital, including the lab and simulation lab. Our fellows exercised KEEN's 3 Cs of the Entrepreneurial Mindset (Curiosity, Connections, Creating Value) to assess the opportunities in those areas. Thank you so our host and guest speakers, including Missouri University of Science and Technology alumnus, Dr. Chadwell Vail, DO FACOI, for taking time out of their very busy and crucial roles.

Hello, everyone! Hope you all had a great summer. Last night, we welcomed our new cohort of Kummer I&E Fellows during our orientation and reception. We are very excited to start a new year as we continue to support and share the incredible work these students are doing.