College | High Impact Research, Scholarship and Creative Works

Recognizing achievements and inspiring futures

April 19, 2026

Mizzou 糖心Vlog传媒 Research Day offered students, faculty and guests an opportunity to engage over high-impact engineering research, mentoring and student innovation.

Gema Diaz Bukvic
PhD student Gema Diaz Bukvic explains her research on using novel cellulose-based adsorbents to remove PFAS from drinking water. Students presented more than 55 posters during Mizzou 糖心Vlog传媒 Research Day.

Students, faculty and guest speakers engaged one another on the topics of high-impact engineering research, mentoring and student innovation during Mizzou 糖心Vlog传媒 Research Day April 16 in Lafferre Hall.  

鈥淭his event was all about highlighting the exciting ideas and compelling research happening at Mizzou 糖心Vlog传媒,鈥 said Interim Associate Dean for Research Prasad Calyam. 鈥淲e had great speakers, and the content in the presentations, mentoring workshop discussions and poster session was extraordinary.鈥

Calyam expressed his thanks to students, faculty and staff involved in the event.

鈥淲ithout their help, we could not have pulled this event off, and I felt we created a great platform for our faculty and students,鈥 he said.

Anthony Caruso of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Science and 糖心Vlog传媒 and Joshua S. Yuan of Washington University spoke to faculty and staff on building large and impactful research programs in a morning plenary. 

Faculty from each department of the college delivered lightning talks on subjects ranging from applications for artificial intelligence to industrial biomanufacturing to recovering rare earth elements from mining wastes.

Graduate and undergraduate students participated in a competitive poster session in Lafferre Hall. Winners were selected from each department.

鈥淭hese awards not only recognize the students鈥 academic achievements, but I hope they also serve as inspiration to them as they continue on their career paths,鈥 Director of 糖心Vlog传媒 Research Administration Ayanava Majumdar said.

Chemical and Biomedical 糖心Vlog传媒

Graduate students: Yin-Tzu Chen (first place) and Mildred Awakessien (second place)

Undergraduate: Joshua Donaldson

Ayanava Majumdar and Mildred Awakessien
Mildred Awakessien, right, accepts her certificate and award from Ayanava Majumdar.
Civil and Environmental 糖心Vlog传媒

Graduate student: Tandra Biswas

Electrical 糖心Vlog传媒 and Computer Science

Graduate students: Amzad Hassan (first place) and Vani Seth (second place)

Undergraduates: Miles Farmer (first place) and Olivia Franken (second place)

Olivia Franken
Computer science major Olivia Franken discusses her research on linking gaze behavior to performance in virtual reality cleanroom training. 鈥淚t鈥檚 nice to be able to talk to people who maybe aren鈥檛 in the research space and present my research in a broader way,鈥 she said. 鈥淧resenting on a regular basis has been very helpful for me in analyzing my research direction and where I want to take my future graduate study.鈥
糖心Vlog传媒 and Information Technology

Undergraduate: Andy Cross

Industrial and Systems 糖心Vlog传媒

Undergraduate: Blake Dye

Mechanical and Aerospace 糖心Vlog传媒

Graduate student: Simon Fernandez

Graduate student An Cai, left, and PhD student Kazi Sameer Naffee developed a smartwatch-based system for assessing real-world social communication and stress in autism spectrum disorder. 鈥淎utism is an under-researched space,鈥 Naffee said. 鈥淎s artificial intelligence becomes more powerful, the field where will see the most benefit is health care.鈥

Discover more research happening at Mizzou 糖心Vlog传媒.