July ’26 ASPIRE Student Section

ASPIRE Student Cohort trip pose for a group photo after touring the US Capital building.
ASPIRE Student Cohort Trip touring the U.S. Capital Building in Washington, D.C. Learn more about the trip below.

Check out the student highlights, cohort trip, and available travel awards below!

Student Highlights:

Kiana presenting her Ph.D. research.

Congratulations to Kiana Haghjoo who received the Advanced GIST Award at the 2026 GIST + GeoAI Day at The University of Texas at El Paso.

The award was given for her “Deep Learning for Automated Bridge Localization from NAIP Aerial Imagery.”

Congratulations Kiana!

Shoutout to Dheeraj Etta, who successfully defended his dissertation and graduated with an Electrical and Computer Engineering Ph.D. from Cornell University.

His dissertation was entitled “Architectures for Soft-Switching and Power Scaling of Power Converters.”

Congratulations, and good luck with your next chapter!

Dheeraj (left) with his mentor, Dr. Khurram Afridi
Jaron Bono

We’d also like to recognize Jaron Bono, who successfully defended his Electrical Engineering master’s thesis.

Congratulations on this accomplishment!

Shoutout to Foeday Zinnah, for his efforts and presentations at this year’s American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference.

Foeday contributed to six papers (including two as first author) that spanned multiple divisions. He also served a s a moderator for two of the technical session at the conference.

Congratulations on your hard work!

Foeday Zinnah presenting on “Multiple-Case vs. Single-Case Study Designs.”
Hongjie Wang accepting the Best Paper Award on behalf of his research team.
Hongjie Wang accepting the Best Paper Award on behalf of his research team.

Congratulations to Aditya Zade, Mckay Waite, and Shubhangi Gurudiwan and their mentors Hongjie Wang and Regan Zane for being awarded the ITEC + EATS 2026 Best Paper Award.

Their paper is entitled “Modeling and Stability Analysis of a Modular IPOS-Connected DC Current Distribution System for EV In-Motion Wireless Charging System.

Well done team!

ASPIRE Travel Awards

ASPIRE is offering travel awards to undergraduate and graduate students accepted to present research or creative work directly applicable to the scope of work with ASPIRE. All disciplines are eligible to apply for funding for student posters, oral presentations, and exhibits.

Learn more about this exciting opportunity to fund your presentation opportunities!

All ASPIRE attendees posing in front of the TRB sign at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Conference.
ASPIRE Attendees at the Transportation Research Board (TRB) Conference

Student Cohort Trip

Student Cohort Trip at the National Inventors Hall of Fame
ASPIRE Student Cohort trip posing for a photo with the Bennett Group.
Visiting The Bennett Group DC as a part of the 2026 Student Cohort Trip

Twelve students — with majors ranging from applied economics to education to various specializations of engineering — came together to represent five of the 10 ASPIRE universities at the 2026 ASPIRE Student Cohort Trip. Together these students visited industry leaders and policymakers in Washington, D.C., and Utah. Check out details and highlights from the trip!