Innovative research from students, faculty and alumni take center stage during WVU Research Week

Graduate and undergraduate students present their research at the Student Research Poster Symposium during WVU Research Week at the Statler College. (WVU Photo/Laney Eichelberger)

In the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources on Friday, halls were filled with brilliant minds and innovative research with the culmination of the 2025 West Virginia University Research Week. Engineer and scientist at Idaho National Laboratory Dong Ding delivered this year’s distinguished seminar on nuclear energy and students from across the College presented their posters as part of this year’s symposium.

Photos by Laney Eichelberger

Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

This year’s winning graduate research group from the computer science and electrical engineering department is directed by faculty advisor and professor Parviz Famouri, along with electrical engineering PhD student Solmaz Nazaralizadeh. Their research focused on “Real Time Modeling and Control Algorithm of a Grid-Connected Battery Energy Storage System.”

According to electrical engineering PhD student Sephr Karimi, the group is to develop modeling connected to the battery energy by developing the inverters and control methods in real time to observe what happens to the grid.

“The goal of this research is to enhance implementation of resilient and efficient electric power infrastructure through microgrid architecture,” Famouri said. “The societal impact will be reliable and inexpensive source of electric power for everyday people.”

Second place was awarded to mechanical and aerospace engineering graduate researcher Madhav Rijal, whose collaborative work with PhD students Trevor Smith and Rashik Shrestha under the guidance of faculty advisor Yu Gu is focused on robotics automating the agriculture industry to optimize harvesting fruits and produce.

According to Rijal, the motivation for this research is that the bees are dying due to global warming. “We want to find alternatives with the help of robots so we can pollinate flowers to get the fruits that we eat every day.”

Biomedical engineering major, Supriya Rathinam was awarded first place in the undergraduate category. Her research in microfluidic chips enhances student experiments in school systems to inspire a greater interest in science. Rathinam currently works with assistant professor Soumya Srivastava to maximize the types of scientific experiments conducted with these chips and spread them through classrooms across the country.

This year’s seminar focused on opportunities and challenges in nuclear energy. In his lecture, Ding shared insights as a former WVU and Georgia Tech postdoc, as well as his path from Redox Power Systems as a Senior Materials Engineer to his recent position as a distinguished staff engineer and scientist at the Idaho National Laboratory.

Ding encapsulated the lifecycle of nuclear energy from its history to the societal drive of the industry and the possibilities of the field for the next generation of researchers.

As for projecting goals for the future, the objective is “Enhancing the cooperation between universities, the National Laboratories and industry would be the key to accelerating the research ecosystem,” according to Ding.

“There are a lot of the challenges in this research but that means there are a lot of opportunities,” Ding said. “Leveraging all of the resources from the past and present will significantly impact research and progress in this field.”

---