Alumni from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering received university-level research excellence awards at the annual Founders Day Convocation. The honors are awarded to those who have displayed exceptional quality and contributions in their completed theses and dissertations.
Shraddha Nehate ‘16MS ’21PhD received the Award for Outstanding Dissertation for “Characterization of Hydrogenated Boron Carbide and Boron Carbon Nitride Thin Films and Applications.” Nehate completed her research with advisor Dr. Kalphathy Sundaram and earned her Ph.D. last summer. She now works as a process engineer at Intel.
“I am highly honored to receive the Outstanding Dissertation Award and grateful for the recognition of my work. I am thankful for immense support and guidance from my advisor and lab mates during this journey,” Nehate said. “The doctoral program and numerous research opportunities at the University of Central Florida helped kickstart my professional career.”
Shahzeb Mustafa ‘21MS received the Award for Outstanding Thesis for “Optimizing Peer Selection Among Internet Service Providers.” Mustafa graduated with an M.S. in computer engineering last fall, completing his research with advisor Dr. Murat Yuksel. Mustafa is employed at Meta as a software engineer, where he said he is leveraging all he learned at UCF.
“My time at UCF has been truly transformative. The guidance that was available to me through Dr. Yuksel has resulted in making high impact in a short amount of time, despite the fact that we were living though a pandemic for most of my degree,” Mustafa said. “I’m grateful for having a supportive advisor and mentor. I am thankful to my peers for creating an environment that promoted growth, and especially my wife who was always there to support me through all the difficult, not so pleasant moments.”