Student News and Awards - 2018

Graduate students explain structural engineering to kindergartners

During the second week of February, Ph.D. candidates Justyna Kosianka (left) and Yolanda Lin (right) co-taught a structural engineering mini-course to curious kindergartners at Beverly J. Martin Elementary School in Ithaca, NY. “Although we were a little nervous going in, not having much experience presenting to an early elementary audience, we were excited,” said Kosianka. Their community outreach visit was organized through the Graduate Student School Outreach Program at Cornell University. Lin described that “in the last lesson, we introduced the effects of natural disasters, and students had the opportunity to test their own newspaper and pasta structures against a simulated flash flood (using a bucket of water in a large tank) and an extreme snow load of many structural engineering textbooks!” Both are research structural engineering students in the Earls Group.

Juan Carlos Martínez Mori

Martinez Mori was awarded a fellowship through the Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program (DDETFP). He is a first-year Ph.D. student in Systems Engineering, working with CTECH co-PI and CEE Assistant Professor Samitha Samaranayake. His research interests are in the development of algorithmic solutions for networked transportation systems. In particular, he is interested in the integration of on-demand mobility with public transportation, as a first/last mile solution. The DDETFP is a Federal Highway Administration program that awards fellowships to students pursuing degrees in transportation-related disciplines. The program advances the transportation workforce by helping to attract the nation’s brightest minds to the field of transportation, encouraging future transportation professionals to seek advanced degrees, and helping to retain top talent in the U.S. transportation industry.

Dara KaraC ’18

Karać is recipient of the 2017 Moles Scholarship, a scholarship awarded annually by CEE to a deserving and academically qualified junior or senior studying civil engineering with high academic standings and expressed interest to pursue his/her career in the construction industry.

Aurora Namnum ’19

Namnum received the 2017-18 Clark Construction Scholarship, a prize awarded annually through CEE to a top civil engineering junior who has shown an interest in and an aptitude for construction.

Shiyao Sun ’18

Sun received a Co-Op Student of the Year Distinguished Honor. Cornell’s Engineering Co-op program provides opportunities for students to advance and apply their knowledge and skills in the context of industry, government, and society, enabling them to make well-informed choices about their academic and career paths. As part of the program, students work 28 weeks or more with a firm or business, typically in their junior year. Sun worked with Public Service Enterprise Group in Hicksville, NY, a diversified energy company. The Co-Op Student of the Year Award is presented to one student each year. The nominations for the awards are submitted by supervisors who have worked closely with a Co-Op student that they feel has demonstrated leadership, initiative, and innovation in the Co-Op position.