Every April, The Catholic University of America celebrates student and faculty research at University Research Day (URD). This event highlights current research being conducted at the university and serves as a platform to share the accomplishments of our students and faculty with the wider Catholic University community and beyond. The College of Engineering, Physics, and Computing is well represented each year, sending faculty and student representatives from each of the academic departments. Participation—and success—at this event exemplifies the achievements of our faculty and students, as well as the valuable contributions they continually make in their respective areas of expertise. 

Below, you will find additional information about University Research Day, as well as information pertaining to past events. 

University Research Day 2026

The eleventh annual University Research Day was held on April 15, 2026. Students and faculty from the College of Engineering, Physics, and Computing joined members of the Catholic University community to present a wide range of research projects. The event showcases innovation across the university and highlights the ongoing scholarly contributions of students and faculty.

The day opened with a welcome address from President Peter Kilpatrick in Della Ratta Auditorium, followed by an update on the state of research from Provost Aaron Dominguez, Professor of Physics in the College. Dr. Joseph Yost, Senior Vice Provost for Research, also shared the university’s research vision, outlining priorities for continued growth and impact.

Throughout the day, attendees participated in oral presentations, a poster session, live musical performances, a film festival, and a closing awards ceremony. Several students from the College of Engineering, Physics, and Computing received university-wide honors at this year’s event. The full list of College award winners is provided below.

Award Winner - Best Undergraduate Poster

2026 Student Steel Bridge Competition
William Granci, College of Engineering, Physics, and Computing (Civil & Environmental Engineering),  Undergraduate Student

Award Winner - Best Undergraduate Oral Presentation

Spasticity after Spinal Cord Injury: A Journey to the Solution
Clare Tong, College of Engineering, Physics and Computing (Biomedical Engineering), Undergraduate Student

Finalist - Undergraduate Oral Presentation

Printing Blood Vessels? Science Fiction or New Reality
Nathan Ford, College of Engineering, Physics and Computing (Biomedical Engineering), Undergraduate Student

Finalist - Master’s Oral Presentation

An Analysis of Single-Phase and Multi-Phase Cine CTA for Deep Learning-Based Cardiac Structure Segmentation
Andrew Heller, College of Engineering, Physics and Computing (Computer Science), Master's Student

An AI-Enabled Framework for Risk Scoring in Healthcare
Laura Trujillo, College of Engineering, Physics, and Computing (Computer Science), Master's Student

In addition to student recognition, a faculty member from the College also received a distinguished honor. Dr. Dominick Rizk, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science, was awarded the Young Faculty Scholar's Award. This award recognizes early-career faculty who have demonstrated outstanding achievement within the first four years at the rank of assistant professor, along with strong potential for continued scholarly impact.

Dr. Rizk has published twenty-six peer-reviewed articles, two conference papers, and one book chapter, with five additional conference papers accepted. His research spans high-impact areas including applications of artificial intelligence and deep learning in brain tumor analysis, secure Internet of Things (IoT) architectures, and quantum protein structure prediction.

For additional information and access to the full Schedule of Events, please visit the University Research Day Website.

Previous University Research Days

  • University Research Day 2025

    The 10th Annual University Research Day was held on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. The event showcased the research excellence demonstrated by our students and faculty, as well as the University's recent R1 classification, joining the ranks as a top research institution in the United States. The event ran throughout the day, beginning with a welcome address and update on the state of research at the University by Provost Aaron Dominguez in Della Ratta Auditorium, Maloney Hall. President Peter Kilpatrick also addressed those in attendance, stating, “We bring all the threads of knowledge together to tackle interdisciplinary problems or multidisciplinary problems," continuing, “We are blessed with the opportunity to engage in research to pursue the truth about the universe and the human person.” The University's first-ever Senior Vice Provost for Research, Joseph Yost, Ph.D., also spoke, stating, “The fact that we are now an R1 research institution, a top tier research institution in the country, gives us an opportunity to build on the momentum that is captured on Research Day.” The remainder of the day included several oral presentations, the poster ceremony, live musical performances and film festival, and the concluding award ceremony.  

    Below is a list of the College of Engineering, Physics, and Computing student award winners for URD 2025:

    PhD & Law Student Oral Presentation Winner

    Phuc Long Duong: "Electrofabricated Chitosan Membranes on Filter Paper for Household Water Purification in Disaster Relief”
    College of Engineering, Physics, and Computing, Department of Mechanical Engineering

    In addition, three College of Engineering, Physics, and Computing faculty won awards this year. Jandro Abot, Ph.D. (Department of Mechanical Engineering) won the Overall Teaching Excellence Award, which honors an accumulated record of teaching effectiveness and recognizes faculty who have excelled in teaching over a period of at least 10 years. Rebecca Kiriazes, Ph.D. (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) won the Teaching Excellence in Early Career Faculty Award, which honors faculty who have excelled in the teaching role and who have taught at the university for less than ten years. Sang Wook Lee, Ph.D. (Department of Biomedical Engineering) won the Achievement in Research award, which honors faculty conducting exceptional research at the University.  

  • University Research Day 2024

    University Research Day 2024 was held on Wednesday, April 17th, 2024. Dr. Christopher Raub, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, served as a co-chair of URD 2024. The event ran throughout the day, beginning at 9:00am, with a welcome address from President Peter Kilpatrick in Della Ratta Auditorium, Maloney Hall. Following President Kilpatrick's opening remarks, University Provost, Dr. Aaron Dominguez, offered an update on the State of Research at the university, followed by a Keynote Seminar by Dr. Jeffrey Herrmann, the newly endowed St. Abbo of Fleury Chair of Engineering. The remainder of the day included several oral presentations, the poster ceremony, live musical performances and film festival, and the concluding award ceremony. 

    Below is a list of the School of Engineering student award winners for URD 2024:

    Best Oral Presentation - Undergraduate

    Spinal Suspension System for Prosthetic Arm
    Students: Daniel Zhao, Louis Nwuha, Abigail Post, Maria Hargrave, Nathan Ford, Sean Farrelly (Biomedical Engineering)
    Advisor: Dr. Alessandro Vato (Department of Biomedical Engineering)

    Best Poster - Undergraduate

    Electromechanical Properties of Distal Electrofabricated Chitosan Membrane Crosslinked with Cu2+
    Students: Maria Erquiaga (Mechanical Engineering) and Emma Wallace (Biomedical Engineering). 
    Collaborators: Claire Wang, Priscilla Ye, Long Duong, and Dr. Xiaolong Luo
    Advisor: Dr. Xiaolong Luo (Department of Mechanical Engineering)

    Finalist - Oral Presentation - Master's

    Brain Tumor Detection: A Hybrid Transformer-Based Approach
    Students: Sandeep Shiraskar (M.S. in Electrical Engineering)
    Collaborators: Dr. Dominic Rizk, Alireza Omidi
    Advisor: Dr. Dominic Rizk (Department Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)

    Finalist - Oral Presentation - Master's

    Machine Learning Approach to Predicting Electric Vehicle Adoption Rates at the County Level in the United States
    Student: Michael Graham-Cornell (Electrical and Computer Science)
    Advisor: Dr. Lin-Ching Chang (Department Electrical Engineering and Computer Science)

    Finalist - Poster - Undergraduate

    Rotary Kite Wind Turbine
    Students: Ethan Kerr, Michael Dougherty, Matthew Dietl, and Payton Seppala

    In addition, two School of Engineering faculty won teaching awards this year. Dr. Jason Davison (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering) won the Teaching Excellence in Early Career Faculty Award, which honors faculty who have excelled in the teaching role and who have taught at the university for less than ten years. Dr. Gregory Behrmann (Department of Biomedical Engineering) won the Overall Teaching Excellence Award, which honors an accumulated record of teaching effectiveness and recognizes faculty who have excelled in teaching over a period of at least 10 years.

  • University Research Day 2023

    Dr. Christopher Raub, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, served as a co-chair of URD 2023. There were 33 presentations and posters presented by School of Engineering students and faculty. Three School of Engineering students won awards and an additional four were finalists. Data analytics Master's student, Gerson Escobar won the Best Masters Oral Presentation award for Parkinson Disease Detection Using Traditional Machine Learning Algorithms and Voice Signals. In the Best Doctoral Oral Presentation category, Matteo Pergami-Peries, biomedical engineering PhD student, won the award with HandMATE: Hand Movement Assisting Therapy Exoskeleton, and mechanical engineering PhD student Binh Hoang was a finalist for Develop High-Capacity FeF3 thin film conversion cathode for Next-Generation Li-ion Batteries. Mina Grace Larraquel's computer science poster A Smarter Parking System Mobile Application won the Best Masters Poster Presentation award. Biomedical engineering student Madison Hughes was a finalist for Best Undergraduate Oral Presentation for Latching Mechanism for Golf Adaptive Device, along with collaborators Elizabeth Caufield and Ryan Walczak. Thomas Nargi, electrical engineering, (with collaborator Arthur Coy) and Noah Miller, biomedical engineering, were finalists for Best Undergraduate Poster Presentation. For more information on the winners and finalists, see Finalists and Awards.