July ’24 Awards & Recognitions

Student Recognitions

Congrats to all our students for their achievements over these past few months! Here are a few to note:

Purdue Team Named Runner-Up in Prestigious SAS Curiosity Cup with Innovative EV Charging Demand Project

VIP ORSOL team led by ASPIRE faculty member Siva Seetharaman at Purdue named runners-up in SAS Curiosity Cup Data Analysis Competition.
VIP ORSOL Team at Purdue University: (L-R) Jaewon (Jae) Cho, Hyunjun (Jared) Park, Byung Wook (Wooky) Kim, and Hyunsang (Ethan) Cho pose with James J. Solberg Head and Ransburg Professor Dr. Young-Jun Son (3rd from left) and Assistant Professor Sivaranjani “Siva” Seetharaman (3rd from right). (Photo courtesy Purdue University, College of Industrial Engineering)

The Vertically Integrated Project (VIP) Operations Research Solutions (ORSOL) team at Purdue University, mentored by ASPIRE faculty member Siva Seetharaman, were named runners-up in the SAS Curiosity Cup Data Analysis Competition. Competing against 107 teams from 19 countries, the ORSOL team consisted of Jaewon (Jae) Cho, Hyunjun (Jared) Park, Byung Wook (Wooky) Kim, and Hyunsang (Ethan) Cho, Spencer Gries, Ryan Hsieh, Kisal Wijesooriya, and Zach Witek, with ASPIRE’s Assistant Professor Sivaranjani “Siva” Seetharaman serving as the team’s faculty mentor.

Their project, “Predicting EV Charging Demand: A Novel Approach Utilizing Traffic Flows”, addressed the lack of granular public data on EV charging demand, utilizing insights into seasonal variations and driver behavior to improve predictions.

Learn More About the VIP ORSOL Team

Zainab Imran Wins Perfect Pitch Competition, with Bruno César Krause Morás as Runner-Up

We are thrilled to announce that Zainab Imran has won our internal Perfect Pitch competition at ASPIRE, with Bruno César Krause Morás securing the runner-up position!

As a 4th-generation National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center (ERC), we at ASPIRE are honored to attend the NSF’s biennial ERC meeting in September. This event fosters collaboration among active ERCs and features the prestigious Perfect Pitch competition, where Zainab will now have the opportunity to compete with ERC students nationwide. Students present a 90-second elevator pitch addressing a real-life problem, their unique solution, and its societal impacts.

In 2022, ASPIRE alum Marium Rasheed earned 3rd place, and we’re also rooting for Zainab to excel this year. Additional kudos to all our internal competition participants: Hector Cruz, Mayank Chawla, and Fariba Mandolakani.


Faculty Recognitions

Shoutout to Nadia Gkritza, Patrick Singleton, and Rose Hu, who received the following awards:

ELATES Program Fellow: Nadia Gkritza

Dr. Nadia Gkritza, professor of Civil Engineering and Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue, joined the 2024 cohort of the Executive Leadership in Academic Technology, Engineering, and Science (ELATES) fellowship at Drexel University. This national program promotes women faculty and faculty allies of all genders into leadership roles in engineering, computer science, and other STEM fields, committed to increasing women’s representation in STEM.

Learn more about Drexel’s ELATES Fellowship

AAAS Fellow: Rose Hu

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(Photo courtesy of Utah State Today)

Rose Hu, the associate dean for research in the College of Engineering and professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Utah State University, has been selected as a fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science — one of the nation’s highest scientific honors.

Dr. Hu is recognized for her contributions to mobile wireless communications systems and exceptional academic leadership. Of the 502 fellows selected this year, she is the only recipient from USU and one of three in Utah. Hu, also a fellow of IEEE and ASEE, has published six books and 300 journal articles and holds more than 20 patents. The AAAS Fellowship tradition started in 1874, and includes notable figures like W.E.B. Du Bois and Thomas Edison.

Read Rose’s Article

UDOT Trailblazer Award: Patrick Singleton

Patrick Singleton, co-lead of Systems of Systems, was presented with the Utah Department of Transportation’s Trailblazer Award. (Photo courtesy of Sydney Dahle, Utah State Today)

Utah State University Associate Professor Patrick Singleton has won this year’s Trailblazer Award from the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT). This award honors those who conduct valuable transportation research or champion its implementation. Since joining USU in 2017, Dr. Singleton has secured over $600,000 in research funding, focusing on travel behavior, transportation planning, traffic safety, active transportation, and data analysis. His team developed models to relate pedestrian crossings to button-presses at intersections, adding nearly 2,000 pedestrian data collection sites to UDOT’s network without new infrastructure.

Read Patrick’s Article

Public Service Recognition: Ivonne Santiago

Outgoing Public Service Board Chair, Dr. Ivonne Santiago (middle), was recognized by Chief Executive Officer John Balliew and El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser during her last meeting, July 10.
(Photo courtesy of El Paso Water)

After serving on the Public Service Board for the last eight years, Outgoing Chair Dr. Ivonne Santiago was recognized by El Paso Water’s Chief Executive Officer John Balliew and El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser during her last meeting on July 10. We’re grateful to have Dr. Santiago as our center co-director as she leads with passion for greater accessibility to clean and equitable transportation.