Students Impress in 2024 UREP Project Presentations

Pictured from left: Angily Ally, Ishaan Singh, Isha Kaur, Associate Professor Cecilia Dong, Mekan Agahanov present their poster “A Study on the Current Effects of Flash Floods in NYC on Electric Vehicle Infrastructure.”

Undergraduate student research continues to thrive at New York Tech, with the 30 College of Engineering and Computing Sciences students showcasing their projects on May 9 as part of the Undergraduate Research and Entrepreneurship Program (UREP) providing the most recent evidence.

Presenting their projects on topics ranging from developing green roofing systems for urban agriculture and using AI in dentistry to building robots to mitigate unsolved home invasions, studying the impact of flash floods on electric vehicles in New York City, and much more, the eight teams comprising students from both New York campuses highlighted the findings of their group research or entrepreneurship projects conducted under the guidance of faculty mentors. UREP provides each team with $500 to cover the cost of supplies and materials; the projects can run for a single semester or extend to multiple semesters for teams pursuing further development. 

Since the spring of 2018, more than 300 students have participated in this program established by Associate Professor Ziqian (Cecilia) Dong, Ph.D., who welcomed faculty, staff, students, and other attendees to the seventh annual event.   

Addressing the student participants, Dean Babak D. Beheshti, Ph.D., said, “All of you have had a chance to work closely with the College of Engineering and Computing Sciences faculty in an undergraduate research project, which is a really valuable experience for you personally and professionally, and an amazing thing to put on your résumé for whatever pursuit that you have in mind after graduation.”  

Teams featured undergraduate students, ranging from first through fourth year, and from programs including computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and mechanical engineering. Most teams were co-ed. Presented projects included:

2024 UREP Projects and Teams

• Comparative Study of Hydroponic Plant-Disease Detection Systems
  Team members: Joseann Boneo, Best Justus, Alysar Tabet
  Faculty mentor: Houwei Cao, Ph.D.
• Identifying Dental Cavities from X-Ray Images Using Cnn
  Team members: Sarah Allrozamo, Tanuza Abdin, Hannah Ocampo
  Faculty mentor: Huanying (Helen) Gu, Ph.D.
• Thermoacoustic Refrigeration
  Team members: Sheikh Ahmar, Jericho Lee, Ernesto Rosas Romero
  Faculty mentor: James Scire, Ph.D.
• Home Invasion Detection and Preventio
  Team members: Shan Caballes, Dani Gulino, D’ron Strapp, T’ron Strapp
  Faculty mentor: Kirti Mishra, Ph.D.
• Level Crossing Analog to Digital Converter Representation Using Chebyshev Polynomials
  Team members: Pavan Kanakkassery, Emilio Santana-Ferro, Damian Sarjudas
  Faculty mentor: N. Sertac Artan, Ph.D.
• AI Detection in Creative Writing
  Team members: Elijah Ewers, Vighanesh Gaund, Cheuk Tung Ho, Wedad Mortada, Tanat Sahta  
  Faculty mentor: Wenjia Li, Ph.D.
• Interactive Visualization Tool for NYC Open Data
  Team members: Ali Elshehawi, Ali Khachab, Guang Wei Too, Alan Yuan
  Faculty mentor: Ziqian (Cecilia) Dong, Ph.D.
• A Study on the Current Effects of Flash Floods in NYC on Electric Vehicle Infrastructure
  Team members: Mekan Agahanov, Angily Ally, Isha Kaur, Ishaan Singh
  Faculty mentor: Ziqian (Cecilia) Dong, Ph.D.

Beheshti noted that the variety and depth of the projects speak to the hard work that the teams have put in. He recognized and thanked the faculty mentors and reiterated to the students the importance of this experience gained by “handling an open-ended problem, outside of your classroom, that you owned, and you managed to take from an idea to a concept” and beyond.