Chemical engineering student wins first place in 2025 GradFlix Competition
Chemical engineering graduate student Ananya Muralidharan took first place in this year’s GradFlix competition! Three other chemical engineering graduate students were also finalists!
GRADflix is an annual competition that invites graduate students to present their complex research in a way that is accessible to a wider audience. Graduate students create presentations using a combination of live footage, slideshows, and animations to showcase their work. A panel of judges from various fields at the University of Waterloo selects the top four videos to receive cash prizes. Additionally, there is a Finalist’s Choice Award determined, by voting from fellow participants.
Launched in 2018 by the University of Waterloo’s Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA), GRADflix is funded by graduate students through the Graduate Studies Endowment Fund.
Muralidharan is a Master of Applied Science (MASc) student supervised by Professor Yverick Rangom focusing on electrochemical engineering in optimizing lithium-ion batteries used in EVs and electronic devices.
Gerard Agravante is pursuing a MASc degree under the supervision of Professor Jeff Gostick. Agravante is applying electrochemical engineering to research clean energy technologies such as fuel cells and batteries using computer simulations and computational modelling.
Sarah Rezaei is a graduate student in Professor Elisabeth Prince’s research group which specializes in nanotechnology. Her research targets thermoset nanocomposites, a material that currently is not recyclable. Rezaei, under Prince’s direction, is aiming to make a certain type of polymer cleavable and therefore the nanomaterials inside reusable to advance a circular economy.
Youssra Rahham is pursuing her PhD under the supervision of Professor Mario Ioannidis and is researching nanoplastics pollution. A key objective of her research is to understand the transport and fate of harmful nanoplastics in aquifers. Her research is both experimental and computational.
Congratulations to all of our creative chemical engineering finalists!