Day: September 11, 2019

Nominations sought for 2020 MAGS Thesis Award

The Executive Committee of the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) is soliciting nominations for the 2020 MAGS Distinguished Master’s Thesis Awards to recognize and reward distinguished scholarship and research at the master’s level.  Michigan Tech may nominate one candidate in each disciplinary category.

Eligible students:

  • will have earned a master of science degree between July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2019 in the fields of
    • Biological/Life Sciences OR
    • Humanities (history is considered with humanities)
  • will have completed an original thesis that makes an unusually significant contribution to the discipline
  • will not have earned a PhD (or comparable research degree) in any discipline prior to the writing of the master’s thesis

The 2021 competition will seek nominees in the fields of Social Sciences or Mathematics, Physical Sciences, and Engineering.

Please see our web page for complete details on eligibility and application procedures.

Nomination packets are due by 4pm, October 3, 2019 to the Graduate School via e-mail (gradschool@mtu.edu) or campus mail (address to Debra Charlesworth). Eligible students with a complete nomination packet will be evaluated by a panel of faculty from the University.

Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Fall 2019 Recipient – Hemanth Kumar Vemprala

Hemanth Kumar Vemprala
Electrical Engineering

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical Engineering, working with my advisor Dr. Bruce A. Mork. Currently, my research focuses on the time-domain modeling approaches for addressing disturbances such as Transformer Inner winding faults and also external events such as Geomagnetic Disturbances (GMD) causing GIC to flow in Bulk Transmission systems. Both these disturbances have an adverse impact on the normal operation of the power system. My research had lead to development and enhancement of the approach to accurately estimate the fault currents which is then used to study and improve the sensitivity of transformer protection. Similarly, GIC/GMD event is intricate and involves complex interaction in the physical world, using EMTP time-domain approaches, various tools and methodologies are developed that helps understand the behavior, study the consequences and to find effective mitigative strategies.
I am very grateful to the grad school and the funding panel for awarding me the finishing fellowship. This will certainly help me to focus on completing the dissertation and publishing my research papers.

Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Fall 2019 Recipient – Siyu Chen

Siyu Chen
Civil Engineering

Mr. Siyu Chen received his MS degree in Highway Engineering from South China University of Technology in China. Currently, he is pursuing his Ph.D. degree at MTU from Fall 2015 under the supervision of Dr. Zhanping You. His Ph.D. research focuses on investigating the water permeability of asphalt mixture. After the completion of his Ph.D., he would be interested to work as a faculty in an academic institution in China.

Doctoral Finishing Fellowship Fall 2019 Recipient – Mohammed Desouky

Mohammed Desouky
Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

I earned my bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Military Technical College in 2005 and my MSc in aerospace engineering from Cairo University in 2012. I started at MTU in Spring 2017. My research is on spacecraft attitude determination, dynamics and control. Specifically, I am developing control schemes that enable the spacecraft to carry out attitude maneuver in less time with less power consumption.

I would like to express my gratitude to my entire family for supporting me.  With Special thanks to my father, Abdelrahman, my wife, Eman and my son, Zeyad. I am grateful to the Graduate School for granting me the Finishing Fellowship for Fall 2019. I would also like to thank my advisors Dr. Abdelkhalik and Dr. Gauchia for their academic advice and their constant support and encouragement.

It has been great time at Michigan Tech and I am proud to be a part of it.