Graduate Students

CU Engineering welcomes largest doctoral class in college history

Caroline Harrah — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 19:29:26 +0000

CU Engineering welcomes largest doctoral class in college history Caroline Harrah Thu, 09/19/2024 - 13:29

Caroline Harrah

College tops 1,100 PhDs with most diverse class

The College of Engineering and Applied Science at the �鶹ӰԺ is celebrating a milestone, welcoming its largest-ever cohort of doctoral students. With a 25% rise in PhD enrollment year-over-year, CU Engineering continues to solidify its reputation as a leader in graduate education, particularly among women and students from minoritized communities.

“CU Engineering is dedicated to becoming a top destination for the brightest minds across engineering fields, where novel research and innovation have the potential to impact everyday lives,” said Keith Molenaar, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science. “Our growth in PhD enrollment is a testament to the success of this strategy, and our strong enrollment of women and students from diverse backgrounds reflects the inclusive and supportive environment we seek to cultivate.”

The incoming class includes a record percentage of female doctoral students, with women making up 37% of new PhD enrollees, surpassing the national average of 29%, according to data from the American Society for Engineering Education. CU �鶹ӰԺ stands as the top large public institution for the percentage of women doctoral students enrolled—among institutions with more than 1,000 PhD students—holding a lead over peer institutions.

The overall PhD enrollment at CU Engineering now has 10% of its students from minoritized communities, higher than the national average of 7%. These gains are part of the college’s broader efforts to attract and support a more diverse student body through targeted recruitment and funding opportunities.

Among the incoming and continuing doctoral students, 18 have been awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, putting CU �鶹ӰԺ in the top 15 for NSF GRFP recipients nationwide across all disciplines and the College of Engineering and Applied Science at No. 7 nationwide in engineering disciplines. This recognition, which supports outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines, further proves the academic excellence found within CU �鶹ӰԺ Engineering’s doctoral programs.

Doctoral Program Strengths and Expanding Opportunities

The college’s growth extends beyond traditional engineering fields, in line with its strategy to continuously innovate a portfolio of programs that address emergent needs and opportunities in climate, space, health and quantum.

Newer programs, such as engineering education, biomedical engineering and robotics, have attracted significant interest from prospective students. These interdisciplinary programs are designed to meet the evolving needs of the workforce and offer doctoral students cutting-edge research opportunities in emerging fields.

"Exploring physics during my bachelor’s and master’s studies sparked a deep curiosity about how complex systems function and their potential to drive innovation, and encountering Kaushik Jayaram’s research at CU Engineering introduced me to the fascinating world of bio-inspired robotics," said Mija Jovchevska, incoming PhD student and CU �鶹ӰԺ Chancellor Scholar. "At first, I wasn't sure how my background would fit, but after meeting Jayaram and Nicole Xu, I knew CU �鶹ӰԺ was the right choice. Their pioneering work in bio-inspired robotics and biohybrid systems, along with CU’s interdisciplinary approach, supportive community, and �鶹ӰԺ lifestyle, made it the perfect place to bridge my physics background into this exciting, emerging field of research."

CU Engineering’s doctoral programs continue to gain national recognition, with recent rankings placing the college at No. 12 among public institutions and in the top 25 overall for graduate engineering education, according to U.S. News & World Report.

�鶹ӰԺ: A Top Destination for Graduate Students

In addition to academic prestige, CU �鶹ӰԺ’s location in the heart of �鶹ӰԺ, Colorado, offers doctoral students an unparalleled quality of life. �鶹ӰԺ is consistently ranked among the best places to live in the United States, known for its access to outdoor recreation, vibrant cultural scene and innovative tech ecosystem.

The region’s proximity to national laboratories and leading technology companies also provides CU Engineering students opportunities to collaborate on research and internships, further enhancing their graduate experience.

As the College of Engineering and Applied Science continues to grow, it remains dedicated to providing students with the resources, mentorship, and opportunities they need to excel in their fields and become leaders in research and innovation. With a record-breaking doctoral class and strong enrollment gains in female students and students from historically underrepresented communities and minoritized identities, CU Engineering is well-positioned to continue its upward trajectory.

Prospective students interested in joining CU Engineering’s growing doctoral programs can learn more and apply online.

For more information on the college and programs, visit our main engineering program page.

CU �鶹ӰԺ's College of Engineering and Applied Science welcomed its largest-ever cohort of doctoral students in 2024. With a 25% rise in PhD enrollment year-over-year, CU Engineering continues to solidify its reputation as a leader in graduate education, particularly among women and students from minoritized communities.

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Asteroid named for CU �鶹ӰԺ aerospace grad student

Anonymous — Thu, 15 Feb 2024 17:02:11 +0000

Asteroid named for CU �鶹ӰԺ aerospace grad student Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/15/2024 - 10:02

Jeff Zehnder

PhD student played key role on NASA’s DART Mission

Alex Meyer is an astrodynamics expert, engineer, PhD student, and now, a part of the night sky. The International Astronomical Union has officially named an asteroid after him.

Asteroid 2000 ND17 is now (33974) Alexmeyer.

“It’s pretty cool and quite an honor,” Meyer said. “You look around at other asteroids and the people they’re named after; it’s very good company to be in.”

As a fifth year aerospace PhD student at the �鶹ӰԺ, Meyer is being recognized for fundamental research he conducted on the dynamics of binary asteroid systems and how they are affected by close planetary flybys.

His work is part of NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission, which in 2022 intentionally crashed a space probe into an orbiting binary asteroid to study deflection technology.

“Alex’s research was fundamentally relevant to the DART mission,” said Dan Scheeres, a distinguished professor of aerospace at CU �鶹ӰԺ and Meyer’s advisor.

Scheeres nominated Meyer for the naming honor.

“He played such a big role and the work he provided was really unique. He developed simulations on what would happen to this asteroid after the impact and provided advice on the science to other engineers,” Scheeres said.

The naming is made all the more impressive by the fact that Meyer’s contributions began somewhat unexpectedly.

“When I started at CU �鶹ӰԺ I was interested in orbital mechanics, but was playing around in a couple different areas of research. Then a more senior grad student who had responsibility with DART was leaving, and Dan asked if I could take over,” Meyer said.

He dove in with aplomb.

“Binary asteroids gave me the opportunity to work on cutting edge missions and I just kept finding new and interesting things to study,” Meyer said. “The dynamics of these binary systems can be quite complicated. Asteroids don’t look like spheres; they’re weird shapes and their orbits are quite close together. So the gravity between them becomes really complex.”

A personal ambition toward advanced research and analysis is what drove Meyer’s interest in graduate school and specifically CU �鶹ӰԺ.

“This is one of the best astrodynamics schools in the country, and being able to apply myself on these real world problems as a PhD student is a great opportunity. I was one of the main dynamicists on the mission,” Meyer said.

The research has become a key part of his PhD thesis. Meyer intends to graduate this summer and is currently at work on his dissertation. After graduation, he hopes to work full time in a research laboratory.

Meyer’s asteroid orbits as part of the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Approximately 7 km (4.35 mi) in diameter, it was originally spotted in 2000. It is possible to see with a large personal telescope, but it requires at least an 18” mirror, and so is best viewed from an observatory.

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Electrical engineering PhD student earns Department of Defense NDSEG fellowship

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Jul 2023 22:02:44 +0000

Electrical engineering PhD student earns Department of Defense NDSEG fellowship Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/12/2023 - 16:02

Jonathan Musgrave received the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship for his promising research in laser physics and nonlinear photonics.

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Environmental engineering on an icebreaker ship at the North Pole

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Jan 2023 17:12:41 +0000

Environmental engineering on an icebreaker ship at the North Pole Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/31/2023 - 10:12

Jeff Zehnder

Shelby Buckley has made the research trip of a lifetime – studying the impacts of climate change up close and personal on a five-week trip to the Arctic aboard the Kronprins Haakon icebreaking ship.

It offered a unique chance to personally collect ice core and seawater samples and experience the excitement and fears of life on top of the world.

Polar Bears

“I flew into Svalbard, Norway. It’s an Arctic island with no trees and you can’t leave the city limits without a rifle because there are so many polar bears,” Buckley said.

On the ship, they took similar precautions. Any time a team was on an ice flow, observers with rifles and binoculars kept watch, and with good reason. Over the course of the trip, Buckley saw 20 polar bears.

“I was shocked by the number. The first one I saw I think I screamed like a little girl. By the 14th one, it’s okay, another one,” Buckley said.

Buckley is studying organic matter and pollutants and as a PhD student in environmental engineering at the �鶹ӰԺ, working under the leadership of Professor Fernando Rosario-Ortiz.

Diminishing Ice Coverage

“Seeing how little ice there was at the North Pole was very sad,” Buckley said. “When we got there we struggled to find an ice floe big enough to walk on. The climate projections in general are frightening and seeing it with your own eyes, it’s real.”

The trip was sponsored by the Norwegian Polar Institute and came about through a longstanding research collaboration Buckley has with Juliana D’Andrilli, a professor at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.

Buckley’s work includes analysis of organic matter in the Arctic. When organic matter is hit by sunlight it reacts to form carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. As the ice sheets continue to melt, the sunlight will penetrate further into ocean releasing these greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

In addition, Buckley is studying the presence of persistent organic pollutants such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, herbicides and flame-retardant chemicals. While the arctic has very few people, these pollutants are carried to the region on air and water currents from more populous areas thousands of miles away.

She was able to conduct some analysis on the ship, but much of the work required collecting samples to bring back home to a more controlled environment.

“When the ship is breaking ice, the boat lifts up over the ice and then comes down over and over. It’s hard to do chemistry,” she said.

24 Hours of Sun

Life on board was a continuous adventure with nearly every experience shared with her shipmates. And with the sun above the horizon all day and night, there was plenty of time to get to know the 28 researchers and 15 crewmembers aboard.

The Kronprins Haakon above the Arctic Circle.

“It’s 10 p.m. and still sunny and we’re wondering if we should we keep hanging out or go to bed,” Buckley said. “Every night we would play board games. I learned to knit. A researcher gave me needles and yarn and we would sit and talk and have coffee and tea.”

Although there was an abundance of high-tech scientific instruments, there was no internet access and while email was available, it was a single account shared by the entire crew.

“You’re with these people for five weeks 24 hours a day. I formed really strong relationships and friendships I hope last forever,” Buckley said. “It’s a little like summer camp in that way.”

Now back in the lab, Buckley is conducting organic matter photochemistry on the samples.

“I run optical measurements like absorbance and fluorescence to characterize the samples,” she said. “I use a solar simulator to hit the Arctic organic matter samples with artificial sunlight. You can measure the formation of reactive intermediates, which are generated by reactions between organic matter, the environment and light.”

The goal is to learn more about how sunlight interacts with the Arctic organic matter in the environment and how that affects climate change.

More Arctic Plans

Despite the risk of polar bear encounters, Buckley is eager to return to the tundra, and is planning an expedition to Alaska and Mt. Denali for this spring to analyze persistent organic pollutants in the high alpine.

“My Mom is excited but is concerned about my safety,” Buckley said. “She has asked why I can’t pick a field that doesn’t risk my life.”

After completing a trek to the North Pole, Buckley is also hopeful to make a similar trip to the opposite end of the Earth.

“It was never on my bucket list to visit the South Pole, but now that I’ve visited the North Pole, I want to go,” she said. “I am passionate about research and leading project, and I want to make a positive difference in the fields of environmental and climate science.”

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CU �鶹ӰԺ receives $1 million grant to fund minority PhD STEM students

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Aug 2022 20:56:28 +0000

CU �鶹ӰԺ receives $1 million grant to fund minority PhD STEM students Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/23/2022 - 14:56

Grace Wilson

The National Science Foundation has awarded $1 million for an LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate program at CU �鶹ӰԺ. The program will provide support for tuition, insurance and a stipend for two years to 12 incoming PhD candidates who are underrepresented minority students. It will also create a close-knit cohort model with faculty and staff support and valuable research connections and workshops.

Terri Wright, program director and the assistant dean for access, inclusion, and student programs in the College of Engineering and Applied Science, said the goal of the initiative is to improve the PhD experience and retention during the first two years when students are most likely to struggle and leave for other opportunities.

"It’s important that our fellows form a strong community, develop a solid foundation in their coursework, and receive financial support and mentoring, both peer-to-peer and faculty-to-student mentoring. Having this cohort during the first two years of their graduate studies will help them be successful academically, supporting their persistence to a PhD," Wright said.

The CU �鶹ӰԺ Bridge to the Doctorate program will be available for PhD candidates entering in fall 2023 in computer science, chemical and biological engineering, or physics.

Students applying must be participating in an NSF Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program at their undergraduate institution, or have participated in such a program in the past.

Ken Anderson, chair of the Department of Computer Science, said the program will help CU �鶹ӰԺ build on the important work started by the IDEA Plan and actively advance its goal to cultivate success for a diverse graduate student body with new financial resources and programming.

"The Bridge to the Doctorate program provides funds to recruit students who benefited from being actively involved in an LSAMP program during their undergraduate years to now set themselves up for success with the expanded knowledge, skills, and opportunities that come from earning a PhD,” Anderson said.

LSAMP programs are designed to increase the participation of Black, Hispanic/Latin/x, Native American, Alaska Native, and Pacific Islander community members in STEM higher education initiatives by preparing them for doctoral study or professional careers.

Though the number of PhDs earned by these historically underrepresented student populations has increased since the NSF began tracking numbers in the 1970s, they still account for a very small proportion of total PhDs earned. In 1975, their numbers combined accounted for less than 2% of doctorates. In 2020, that number was still only 9.9%.

For many students from these communities, there are compounding factors that prevent them from achieving PhDs, Wright said. Many had to work and study during the pursuit of undergraduate education, limiting their ability to take internships and research assistantships. There are also often institutional pressures, particularly in predominantly white institutions that can deplete student confidence and lead to isolation or frustration.

To combat these structural issues, a goal of the bridge program is to ensure students have a community with similar lived experiences to nurture and support their strengths and to provide allies in the staff and faculty who are committed to the students' success so that they can focus on their educational goals at a tier-1 research institution.

Robert Davis, dean emeritus of the College of Engineering and Applied Science, professor and Tisone endowed chair in chemical and biological engineering, said each student will select a faculty research advisor based on the student’s interests. The advisor will provide mentorship and guidance to the student, including regular one-to-one and small-group meetings. Each student will also be paired with a more senior student in the advisor’s group, who will help train the student in laboratory or computational techniques specific to their project.

"My hope is for the fellows to have an exceptional experience, both academically and socially, to come to CU �鶹ӰԺ and identify with the work that's being done here,” Wright said. “I want our fellows to bring their unique perspectives to the community and hone their skills, making valuable contributions to their programs of study and to the overall community."

NSF Bridge to the Doctorate grants are awarded through a competitive process. CU �鶹ӰԺ’s application was developed through the concerted effort of a cross-disciplinary team.

Along with Wright, Anderson and Davis, the grant proposal was supported by Sonia DeLuca Fernández, senior vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion; Noah Finkelstein, vice chair and professor of physics and Ernie Chavez, director of the CO-WY LSAMP Alliance.

PhD conferral statistics sourced from the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.

Fellowship to provide tuition support, stipend for two years and unique support system for 12 students to advance their PhD studies and research

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CU �鶹ӰԺ researchers develop highly accurate sensor for E. coli risk detection

Anonymous — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 15:22:43 +0000

CU �鶹ӰԺ researchers develop highly accurate sensor for E. coli risk detection Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 08/12/2022 - 09:22

Josh Rhoten

Emily Bedell(PhDEnvEngr’22) is the lead author on the paper from the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering describing a new sensor for E. coli risk detection.

Researchers at CU �鶹ӰԺ have developed and validated a new sensor for E. coli risk detection that features an impressive 83% accuracy rate when detecting contamination in surface waters.

The findings were recently published in Water Research and could improve detection of a variety of contaminants quickly and effectively in water systems around the globe and in America.

Emily Bedell (PhDEnvEngr’22) is the lead author on the paper from the Mortenson Center in Global Engineering. She said about two billion people worldwide use a drinking water source that has some level of fecal matter in it and can cause health issues ranging from diarrhea to stunted growth – especially in young children.

“�鶹ӰԺ 60% of all diarrheal deaths are related to water quality, globally,” she said. “This is a real problem, but current methods for finding poop in drinking water are expensive, have high barriers to entry like extensive training requirements or can take about 24 hours to provide results. We have invented a sensor combined with a machine learning model that uses fluorescence to show fecal contamination spikes in real-time.”

Both the sensor and machine learning model combination have been approved for a patent by the U.S. Patent Office.

Bedell said fluorescence works by shining a UV LED light source on a water sample and measuring the amount of light that is absorbed and re-emitted at a higher wavelength. That information can quickly show potential contamination, but it is sensitive to many environmental and physical factors such as sample temperature, which cause noise in the data and make it difficult to interpret.

“We use machine learning techniques to cut through that noise to better detect anomalies,” Bedell said.

Fast and accurate assessment of water quality is a growing need – not only in low-income countries, but in situations like the Flint, Michigan water crisis where citizens were exposed to dangerous levels of lead from poor government policies.

Professor Evan Thomas, director of the Mortenson Center, is a co-author on the paper. He said climate change is also a factor in this discussion as more frequent power outages may impact treatment facility operations and severe weather could contaminate critical water sources.

“We are going to need more data on water quality, and we need it to be widely available,” he said. “Taking measurements once a day will not be enough to ensure we are receiving water that doesn’t have either biological or chemical contaminants that can harm us in both the short and long term.”

Bedell is now employed as an engineer for Virridy in �鶹ӰԺ and is working on advancing the technology further. Ideally it will function in partnership with a larger home treatment system for those utilizing a private well – where water quality is not regulated by the EPA – for their drinking water.

“That sensor will be a miniaturized version of the design built in this paper and will be installed on a house’s main water line coming from the well,” she said. “The sensor’s data will be sent through the user’s WiFi to an online database where the machine learning model will be applied to predict risk level and send the information to a mobile app that will alert the user if contamination is detected.”

Bedell said she has always been interested in the intersections of engineering, the environment and social equity and this research project really brought those aspects together during her time with the Mortenson Center.

“Water quality research hits on all those points in so many ways. With more data we can explicitly point out how and when communities are being harmed through environmental injustices so that the policies and practices put in place that caused the harm can be addressed,” she said.

Researchers at CU �鶹ӰԺ have developed and validated a new sensor for E. coli risk detection that features an impressive 83% accuracy rate when detecting contamination in surface waters.

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Report outlines emerging technologies to improve Colorado water management

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 19:57:29 +0000

Report outlines emerging technologies to improve Colorado water management Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/02/2022 - 13:57

A new report outlines how a variety of emerging technologies can help water managers, landowners and policymakers improve western water management in the face of severe, ongoing drought.

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CU �鶹ӰԺ PhD grad, undergrads create drag-friendly garment that changes in real time

Anonymous — Tue, 31 May 2022 17:10:50 +0000

CU �鶹ӰԺ PhD grad, undergrads create drag-friendly garment that changes in real time Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/31/2022 - 11:10

Nathan Straub, a rising senior in computer science, works on the "skeleton" for the project – a network of accelerometers connected to a low-power computer.

Sarah Aguasvivas Manzano (PhDCompSci'22) and her team’s latest work has real-world, practical use. Wearable technology is being explored in the space industry for astronauts and big tech companies are eager for improvements to the inter-connected watches and other personal devices that increasingly support and streamline modern living.

But the CU �鶹ӰԺ team decided to make their own project in the wearables space just a little more … fabulous.

The team, called Escamatrónicas, is composed of Aguasvivas Manzano along with rising junior LeeLee James and rising seniors Nathan Straub and Zixi Yuan. Together they have designed a garment for drag queens that features neural networks and other creative technology. The idea is to have the garment respond and react to gestures when the queens perform with them on stage. James said this garment in particular is supposed to be like eye candy in terms of visual components, with sequencing scales that move based on the position of the person wearing it.

The team’s work is funded by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) on campus and they are based out of the Correll Lab within the Department of Computer Science. Funding for the research also came from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Aguasvivas Manzano’s research interests include soft robotics – focusing on the design, control and fabrication of robots composed of compliant material, such as hydrogels, fabrics, composites and more. She also has a particular interest in the deployment of learning, modeling and control of soft robots that simply cannot accommodate large and powerful computers in their physical design while still being effective. A light garment like this one for example – that reacts to the physical environment in real-time – requires a lot of computation and would previously have required a lot of hardware space. However, that aspect is no longer a limiting factor in the overall design and in this case the team created a compiler to translate forward inference computation for neural networks into practice to address those limitations.

“Neural networks are computational models loosely patterned after the human brain and they are now very ubiquitous,” she said. “Here I created a compiler that allowed us to automate the code-writing process. So now we can write code that can be interpreted in microcontrollers – tiny little computers that don’t have much memory or take up much space.”

James’ personal work as a technologically-empowered drag queen – documented on her YouTube Channel – gave the team inspiration to make a project that was definitely outside of the box. When it is finished there will be various sensor networks placed throughout the design, including at the hips, one at each knee, the shoulders and the sternum, Aguasvivas Manzano said.

“There’s a lot of design fabrication and sewing, but also programming as well as using our compiler (nn4mc) to offload the neural network,” Aguasvivas Manzano said.

As they move forward with the project, the team will continue to offload more efficient computation onto the garment so that the computer inside does not consume as much power. Doing so will improve useability, functionality and battery life.

The undergraduates are required to write a paper about their work for UROP, but Aguasvivas Manzano said the team also intends to turn the project into a white paper and add it to arXiv, since the project showed both creative skill and high-quality technical know-how.

Aguasvivas Manzano and Correll

Aguasvivas Manzano finished her PhD this spring and will work for Apple. She said that the team could not have done this type of research without the support they received from the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the Correll Lab, and the Intelligent Robotics Lab.

“In the five years I have been here, I could not have been happier with the culture – particularly in the computer science department. It was really refreshing compared to other universities,” she said. “My advisor (Associate Professor Nikolaus Correll) and the university itself enabled creative thinking – fostering out-of-the-box thinking that I haven’t seen in other institutions.”

James echoed similar sentiments, saying that everything she has wanted to do for research has not only been allowed, but encouraged.

“The most impactful thing for me was having Sarah for this process,” she said. “I have access to all these really amazing people and all these resources, but not only that, I feel totally free to utilize any of those people or tools and research to do anything and everything that comes to my mind.”

The CU �鶹ӰԺ team decided to make their project in the wearables space just a little more … fabulous.

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Civil engineering student, a tsunami survivor, awarded fellowship to study disaster recovery

Anonymous — Tue, 03 May 2022 14:56:20 +0000

Civil engineering student, a tsunami survivor, awarded fellowship to study disaster recovery Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/03/2022 - 08:56

Jeff Zehnder

Ilham Siddiq survived the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami and is now using his firsthand disaster knowledge to evaluate the effectiveness of recovery policies.

Siddiq, a civil engineering PhD student at the �鶹ӰԺ and native of Indonesia, has earned a prestigious United States Agency for International Development / Habitat for Humanity fellowship to investigate the effectiveness of long-term recovery initiatives, with a focus on the 2004 disaster, which took the lives of more than 200,000 people.

“This research is very important to the humanitarian shelter and settlement sector because billions of dollars were invested into the humanitarian and recovery efforts,” Siddiq said. “To go back and know what worked and what was not effective is really important. We can learn lessons so humanitarian organizations and other actors can manage their programs better.”

Siddiq is passionate about this issue as a survivor of the disaster. He has a unique viewpoint and desire for better disaster risk reduction and post-disaster reconstruction.

“My whole village was wiped clean by the tsunami,” Siddiq said. “There was nothing left to see, just flat clean ground. My mom and my grandma went away with the tsunami. I was the oldest in my family to survive, which made me the head of my family.”

His fellowship will focus on long-term recovery efforts, particularly with housing and jobs. This summer he will spend time in Indonesia to conduct field observations and meet with residents in nine villages across three municipalities. He will study areas that have had strong, moderate, and weak recoveries based on housing and livelihood indicators to determine factors that lead to the different recovery outcomes.

Growing up in a rural part of Indonesia, Siddiq never imagined he would become an engineer, much less earn a PhD in the United States. As a child, his village had no electricity and he did not begin to learn English until age 12. Today, he speaks it as well as any American.

“People say, ‘You sound like you’re from Kansas,’” Siddiq said.

Siddiq has always been interested in learning and the larger world. As a child, he was fascinated with the foreign languages on milk can labels, and when his family moved from their village to Banda Aceh, the capital of his province, he gained access to the internet for the first time.

“That was a game changer,” he said. “I had access to YouTube, Wikipedia, all kinds of stuff and I would lose myself in Wikipedia rabbit holes.”

He earned his undergraduate degree in civil engineering in Indonesia and began working at a disaster research institute in Aceh. It gave him the opportunity to network with international experts who visited the center. He connected with a group of researchers from Georgia Tech and was able to earn a Fulbright Fellowship to study at the Atlanta institution for his master’s degree.

A conference in Aceh shortly before he left for Atlanta also gave him his first connection to CU �鶹ӰԺ and his now-PhD advisor, Amy Javernick-Will, whose research focuses on global engineering, disaster recovery and resiliency.

“I met a CU �鶹ӰԺ PhD graduate at the conference,” Siddiq said. “I had seen his research abstract and struck up a conversation about his work. We talked for three hours until the hotel staff kicked us out. He said I needed to work with Amy Javernick-Will, his professor, and that he would put me in touch with her. Now I’m doing my PhD with her.”

Siddiq is grateful for the opportunities he has had and is eager to contribute to disaster recovery research that can help communities in the future.

“I have the combination of lived experience and theoretical knowledge,” he said. “I’m passionate about improving resilience in vulnerable communities, especially those that are low-resourced around the world. It’s a rewarding issue to work on. I think I was born to do this.”

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CU �鶹ӰԺ Engineering study finds at least nine pesticide chemicals near �鶹ӰԺ County homes

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 19:56:50 +0000

CU �鶹ӰԺ Engineering study finds at least nine pesticide chemicals near �鶹ӰԺ County homes Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/28/2022 - 13:56

The air quality study, led by mechanical engineering PhD candidate Aniya Khalili, aims to inspire the community to lead cleaner lifestyles and promote further research on pesticide exposure.

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