Page 17 - CEGE Magazine - Fall 2021

CEGE JuMP IN STEM PARTICIPANTS
SVETLANA BARANOVA, instructor, mentor, and
Ph.D. candidate ad- vised by Sofia Mogi- levskaya. Baranova’s
research focuses on theoretical developments
for modeling thin conductive and elas- tic layers.
She, along with Sagar Tamang and Mohammad Charara, mentored Ellery Moore from St. Paul Central Senior High School on her project “Sports Data Analysis: Pattern Recognition.”
SAGAR TAMANG, instructor, mentor,
and Ph.D. candidate advised by Ardeshir Ebtehaj. Tamang
is developing new weather models with the
goal to improve prediction of catastrophic events.
“JuMP has been a great experience. It’s a pleasure to see the potential of the stu- dents and realize how much they have achieved in such a short timeframe.”
MOHAMMAD CHARARA, mentor and Ph.D.
student advised by Stefano Gonella. Mo- hammand’s research is
in the area of topolog- ical metamaterials, which
are engineered materials designed in unique and usually repeated patterns that exhibit properties not displayed by their individual constituents. He is modeling how waves interact with such materials.
Charara also mentored Anna Heckel from St. Paul Central Senior High School on her project “Metamaterials: Breaking Symmetry in a Symmetric World.”
“The JuMP students were extremely dedicated, and clearly passionate about testing and improving their skills. It was exciting to provide an oppor- tunity and a platform for high school
students to be exposed to the analyt- ical tools we use on a daily basis, and to give them a chance to apply those tools via ongoing research.”
XIATING CHEN, mentor and Ph.D. student
advised by Xue Feng. Chen is interested in how the underground
stormwater drainage systems and above-
ground urban vegetation transform ur- ban watersheds, and what the complex interactions mean for water resources and land management in the bigger picture.
Chen mentored Anna Maristela from Eden Prairie High School on her project, “How Green is too Green? - Modeling Harmful Algal Bloom in Future Climate Conditions.”
DANIEL KENNEDY, mentor and Ph.D. stu- dent advised by Bojan
Guzina and Joseph Labuz. Kennedy is
developing a new and innovative non-destructive
field-testing technique for evaluating tower foundations.
Kennedy mentored Ryan Son from St. Paul Central Senior High School on his project “Machine Learning: Handwritten Digits Recognition.” Kennedy instructed Son on the development, optimization, and practical applications of neural networks. Together, they developed networks to recognize and classify hand- written digits.
JIYONG LEE, mentor and Ph.D. student
advised by Michele Guala. Quantifying characteristics of river-
bed evolution is crucial in understanding earth surface processes, predicting ancient
ral rivers. Lee is investigating sand-wave dynamics and their relations to sediment budgets in rivers.
Lee mentored Sreya Patri from Eden Prairie High School on her project, “Quantification of Characteristics of Sand Waves in Rivers.”
Lee encourages others, “Work with future generations; you will be inspired by their brightness!”
CHRISTOPHER CHEONG, instructor and MS
student advised by Gary Davis. Cheong’s research focuses on
transient vehicle and tire dynamics simulation
under low-speed and stopping condi- tions, with prospects towards application in vehicle crash reconstruction.
“JuMP encourages growth and learning by providing accessibility to advanced STEM knowledge and tools through graduate student mentors, but in a cur- riculum tailored to high school students. We aim to encourage participation and improve equity.”
OTHMAN OUDGHIRI-IDRISSI,
instructor and Ph.D. candidate advised by Bojan Guzina.
Oudghiri-Idrissi is devel- oping novel elastodynamic non-destructive evaluation techniques to
identify and characterize spent nuclear fuel assemblies within sealed storage canisters before their transport to perma- nent storage.
“As a project leader and instructor, I enjoyed designing the program structure and exploring funding opportunities for
it. I found also that the interaction time in class is rewarding for both students and instructors. I am looking forward to the program’s evolution. It could become an effective social impact lever of CEGE and the University of Minnesota.”
fluvial environments, and managing natu-
University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering | DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND GEO- ENGINEERING 17