College | High Impact Research, Scholarship and Creative Works

Recognizing achievements and inspiring futures

April 19, 2026

Mizzou Engineering 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 Engineering Research Day.

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

“This event was all about highlighting the exciting ideas and compelling research happening at Mizzou Engineering,” said Interim Associate Dean for Research Prasad Calyam. “We had great speakers, and the content in the presentations, mentoring workshop discussions and poster session was extraordinary.”

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

“Without their help, we could not have pulled this event off, and I felt we created a great platform for our faculty and students,” he said.

Anthony Caruso of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Science and Engineering 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.

“These awards not only recognize the students’ academic achievements, but I hope they also serve as inspiration to them as they continue on their career paths,” Director of Engineering Research Administration Ayanava Majumdar said.

Chemical and Biomedical Engineering

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 Engineering

Graduate student: Tandra Biswas

Electrical Engineering 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. “It’s nice to be able to talk to people who maybe aren’t in the research space and present my research in a broader way,” she said. “Presenting 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.”
Engineering and Information Technology

Undergraduate: Andy Cross

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Undergraduate: Blake Dye

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

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. “Autism is an under-researched space,” Naffee said. “As artificial intelligence becomes more powerful, the field where will see the most benefit is health care.”

Discover more research happening at Mizzou Engineering.