3rd Annual Armour R&D Expo Winners Announced

Armour College of Engineering Students, Alumni, Faculty, Staff, and industry representatives gathered in the Atrium of The John T. Rettaliata Engineering Center for the 3rd Annual Armour R&D Expo 2017 on April 6. The poster exposition showcased the work of undergraduate students who participated in the Armour R&D program during the 2016-2017 academic year.

Armour R&D is an Armour College of Engineering Distinctive Education initiative that offers undergraduate engineering students the opportunity to gain hands-on research and development experience in the lab of a faculty mentor.

During the Expo, thirty Armour R&D participants presented posters representing research and development projects within the four Engineering Themes (Water, Health, Energy, and Security). Winners were selected by a panel of judges that included Illinois Tech Faculty members as well as graduate students from all engineering departments. The judges rated projects based on context, clarity, and overall visual presentation.

An awards ceremony was held after the poster competition to award the highest scoring presenters during each semester and one overall high score winner. Mehdi Modares, Associate Professor of Civil and Architectural Engineering, and Kenneth Tichauer, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, spoke briefly and presented the winners with their awards.

Each of the winners received an award that was laser engraved in the Armour College of Engineering Machine Shop by Craig Johnson, Head of Machine Shop & Coordinator of Student Fabrication and Design Studio.

3rd Annual Armour R&D Expo Winners

Omar Sharif Tawakol (BME, 3rd year) - Overall High Score 3rd Annual Armour R&D Expo, High Score Summer 2016
Tawakol and Associate Dean of Armour College of Engineering and Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Philip Troyk, continued work on their Health themed project Development of a Neural Electrode Implantation Device for In-Vivo Surgical Use. The group started the project during Spring 2016.

Vasundhara Agrawal (BME, 4th year) - Runner-up Summer 2016
Agrawal and Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Kenneth Tichauer, continued work on their Health themed project Solutions to Mathematical Models Governing Diffusion of Imaging Agents in Healthy and Cancerous Breast Tissue to Study Their Effect on Quantitative Accuracy in Lumpectomy Margin Assessment. The team started the project in Spring 2016. Agrawal earned the Spring 2016 High Score Award at the 2nd Annual Armour R&D Expo for her previous work on the project.

Geeya Patel (BME, 4th Year) - High Score Fall 2016
Patel partnered with Jennifer Kang-Mieler, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering, to work on the Health themed project Dual Antibiotic Release from PEG-PLLA-DA Hydrogel.

Morgan Fogarty (BME, 4th year) - Runner-up Fall 2016
Fogarty and Kenneth Tichauer, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, worked on their Health themed project Validating Performance of Optical Imaging System for Diagnosis of Metastatic Breast Cancer.

Kathleen Mullin (MSE, 3rd year) - High Score Spring 2017
Mullin and Philip Nash, Charles and Lee Finkl Professor of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering and Director of the Thermal Processing Technology Center, teamed up to continue work on the Energy themed project Loss of Germanium in Fe2TiGe and Co2FeGe, which they started in Fall 2016.

Sung Min Choi Hong (ChE, 5th year) - Runner-up Spring 2017
Hong and Assistant Professor, Seok Hoon Hong, worked on their Health themed project Effect of Fatty Acids on Persister Cells.