The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) proudly announces a highly successful year for our WE Local Collegiate Competition program!
Collegiate members from all corners of the world participated in five WE Local conferences held this season, where they demonstrated their research work to a wider audience of engineering professionals, showcased their presentation skills, and competed for prestigious awards.
The conferences were held in renowned cities across the globe ― three in the U.S. (Las Vegas, Nev. Baltimore, Md., and Wichita, Kan.); one in Munich, Germany; and one in Bengaluru, India.
The WE Local Collegiate Competition student finalists were selected via a rigorous online abstract judging process. Award recipients in the U.S. were selected from the finalists based on oral and poster presentations. Award recipients outside of the U.S. were selected from the finalists based on poster presentations.
The competitions provided the audience and finalists with a diverse array of interesting topics and innovative research ― and potential inspiration. Here are the recipients of the 2024 WE Local Collegiate Competition awards by city:
Las Vegas, United States
Undergraduate
- 1st place: Regan Tracy (Utah State University)
Unraveling Carbon Fiber: Solvolysis for Sustainable Solutions - 2nd place: Chloe Hong (University of California, Davis)
Comparing Effectiveness of Aquatic Versus Terrestrial Plants on Filtrating Runoff in a Rain Garden - 3rd place: Caroline Souza (UNISAL – Salesian University Center of São Paulo)
Doe Vida Application – Revolutionizing the Blood Donation
Graduate
- 1st place: Daisy Kamps (University of California, Irvine)
Computational Catalysis for the Chemical Upcycling of Plastic Waste - 2nd place: Rachel Kennedy (Washington State University)
Mechanisms For Stable Movement Over Uneven Terrain - 3rd place (tie): Ivy Kwok (University of California, Los Angeles)
One Man’s Trash is Another Bug’s Treasure: Degradation of 1,4-Dioxane by Native Landfill Microorganisms - 3rd place (tie): Supriya Savalkar (Washington State University)
Evaluation of Earlier Planting as an Adaptation Strategy to Climate Change: Trade-Offs Associated With Reductions in Heat-Stress Exposure
Baltimore, United States
Undergraduate
- 1st place: Akansha Chauhan (Purdue University)
Stopping Blood Loss: An Intuitive Tourniquet for the Public - 2nd place: Nicole Allen (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Decreasing Pain in Procedures Requiring Cervical Stabilization - 3rd place: Jenevieve Surkin (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Impact of Arm Swing Mechanics on Gait Stability in Parkinson’s Disease
Graduate
- 1st place: Zahra Bassiri (The University of Alabama)
The Effects of Subsensory Electrical Noise Stimulation on the Compensatory Reactions During Support Surface Perturbations - 2nd place: Lydia Obeng (Norfolk State University)
LoRa Transmission of Photographic Data for Remote Monitoring and Geographic Analysis - 3rd place: Lin Lin (Washington University in St. Louis)
Electrically Programmable High-Q Meta-Reflect-Array Spatial Light Modulator for LiDAR Beam-Steering
Wichita, United States
Undergraduate Symposium
- Shahrizoda Rizokulova (Temple University)
Investigating Osteogenesis in Cultured 7F2 Osteoblasts: Role of Simulated Microgravity and Shear Forces in Rotating Wall Vessels - Tejaswini Sudhakar (The City College of New York, CUNY)
Developing Automated Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) for Managing Chronic Lower Back Pain in Patients With Limited Access to Healthcare
Graduate Symposium
- Onyeka Onyenemezu (Iowa State University)
Towards Sustainable Biofuels: Proteomic Profiling to Identify pH-Sensitive Proteins - Kaynat Shahzad (University of Arkansas)
Purification of Rubredoxin Tagged Recombinant Proteins Using the Three Phase Partitioning Technique
Munich, Germany
- Best in Show: Charley Cooke Conlon (Munster Technological University)
Sawbot – An innovative product development to reduce the amount of kickback-related injuries in circular saw users - Runner-Up: Périne Cunat (RWTH Aachen)
A toolbox to address the trade-off between computational complexity and accuracy in multi-energy systems models
Bengaluru, India
- Best in Show: Vaidehi Sinha (MIT World Peace University)
GrainLog: An IoT-ML based Food Grain Monitoring and Shelf-Life Prediction System for the Farmer - Runner-Up: Saniya Jethani (MIT World Peace University)
Women’s Safety Wearables Design Using an IoT-Based Framework Technology
Congratulations to all the finalists for their hard work and excellent display of their research! Special thanks go to the WE Local Advisory Board, Local Host Committee, and SWE Headquarters’ members for their dedicated efforts and tireless work in organizing the conference and ensuring the WE Local Collegiate Competition was a resounding success.
Finally, the WE Local Advisory Board is excited to announce that planning for the 2025 WE Local conferences has already begun. Keep an eye on the WE Local website for more information about the Collegiate Competitions and how you can be a part of this event.
