Alborzi and Hanson Are Recipients of the 2023 Outstanding Graduate Student Award in Experiential Learning
Mechanical engineering student Saeed Alborzi, PhD’24, and computer engineering student Nathaniel Hanson, PhD’24, are recipients of the 2023 Outstanding Graduate Student Award in Experiential Learning, which recognizes graduate students who have shown an extraordinary capacity to integrate academics and professional work and establish themselves as emerging leaders in their field.
Alborzi has participated in LEADERs and has completed an industrial co-op internship with Amgen. While on his LEADERs project at Amgen he “succeeded where many others had already failed” due to his ability to overcome several different coding challenges in his project that was to simulate flow through a pharmaceutical tool to optimize its functionality.
Hanson’s research explores the intersection of hyperspectral sensing and near infrared spectroscopy to enable better material recognition in unstructured, real-world environments. He has shown a strong research and publication record, publishing four conference papers and one journal paper since 2022. These publications are focused on improving the experience of working with robots—understanding robotics science to improve object identification and object manipulation. This research is a critical step in bringing robots from highly structured environments, like labs and factories, into daily life.