College of Engineering's Torgersen Award winners announced

21 Apr 2009

Left to right: Eric Williams, chairman of the Torgersen Awards Committee and a member of the College of Engineering Graduate Student Committee; Carolyn Hampton, a master's student in biomedical engineering; Don Leo, associate dean of research and graduate studies with the College of Engineering; Michael Johnson, a master's student in biological systems engineering; and Yaoshun Jia, a master's student in electrical and computer engineering.

The College of Engineering Graduate Student Committee held the Paul E. Torgersen Graduate Student Research Excellence Awards April 4 at the Torgersen Museum in Torgersen Hall.

In its 19th year, the annual competition showcases the top research performed by graduating master’s and doctoral students from the College of Engineering. Winners were as follows.

Master of Science Oral Presentations

First: Michael Johnson of Blacksburg, biological systems engineering, Novel Attachment System for Production of Algal Biodiesel
Second: Carolyn Hampton of Elsinboro, N.J., biomedical engineering, Limits of Permissible Crash Damage in Strong-Post W-Beam Guardrail
Third: Yaoshun Jia of Nanjing, China, electrical and computer engineering, Demonstration of a Single-Carbon-Nanotube-Based Fluorescent Nanoprobe

Ph.D. Oral Presentations

First: Rajesh Sudarsan of Tamil Nadu, India, computer science, A Scheduling Framework for Resizable Parallel Applications
Second: Anoop Varghese of Trivandrum, India, engineering science and mechanics (graduated), Strain Localization in Glassy Polymers
Third: Sung Yeul Park of Sungnam City, South Korea, electrical and computer engineering, A Wide Range and Precise Active and Reactive Power Flow Controller Using Admittance Compensator

Master of Science Poster Presentations

First: Michael Sano of Albany N.Y., engineering science and mechanics
Second: Matthias Hofman, Zürich, Switzerland, electrical and computer engineering
Third: Mohammad Zareian-Jahroni of Esfahan, Iran, electrical and computer engineering

Ph.D. Poster Presentations

First: Lee Bryant of Oak Ridge, Tenn., civil and environmental engineering
Second: William Miles of Gainesville, Fla., chemical engineering
Third: Brijesh Raghavan of Mumbai, India, aerospace and ocean engineering

The awards program was named after Paul Torgersen, dean of the College of Engineering from 1970 to 1990, and president of Virginia Tech from 1993 until 2000.