SYDE Graduate Symposium 2026

Tuesday, April 7, 2026 9:30 am - 3:30 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Join the Department of Systems Design Engineering's Graduate Research Symposium! 

SYDE Symposium Schedule

Time Session
9:30 a.m. Meet & Greet
Session 1: Optimization and Mechatronic Systems
10:00 a.m.

Amir Taheri 

Comparing Electricity Market Configurations: Transmission, Distribution, and Peer-to-Peer 

10:15 a.m.

Lin Huang 

Optimization-Guided Design and Experimental Characterization of a Sub-THz Micro Circular Log-Periodic Antenna 

10:30 a.m.

Cody Raycraft 

Towards more robust, non-invasive, blood oxygen measurement, and malaria detection. 

10:45 a.m.

Narenkrishna Thambidurai 

Robotic Closed-Loop Navigation of Ultrasound-Guided Magnetic Microrobots 

11:00 a.m. Break
Session 2: Biomedical Engineering
11:15 a.m.

Paul Wolfe 

Neuromodulatory Enhancement of BCI Critical EEG Features: Site Specific iTBS Effects on Movement Related Cortical Activity 

11:30 a.m.

Atusa Ghorbani Siavashani 

Enabling Human-Exoskeleton Co-Adaptation During Gait via Game Theory 

11:45 a.m.

Anas Mahdi 

A Robotic Rollator for Sit-to-Stand Transfer and Walking Assistance: Design, Biomechanics, Perception, and Clinical Feasibility 

12:00 p.m.

Naomi Loughlin 

Distinct functional profiles of severe medial knee osteoarthritis during gait: A clustering approach 

12:15 p.m.

Noah Franco 

Microrobotic-mediated Gallstone Dissolution 

12:30 p.m. Lunch
12:40 p.m. Dr. Kate Sellen, Keynote Address
Session 3 Human Factors, AI and Image Processing
1:30 p.m.

Marco Moran Ledesma

Design and Evaluation of Haptic Simulators for Hands-On Clinical Examination of Ligament Injuries
1:45 p.m.

Fariha Muqtadir

A Structured, 360⁰ VR Video-Based Evaluation Approach for Assessing the Communicative Effectiveness of eHMI Signals in Unsignalized
2:00 p.m.

Naomi Paul

A Design Thinking Process for Digital Storytelling: An Example of Tipi Teachings in Virtual Reality
2:15 p.m.

Tina Tang

A Human Factors Study on Gamelike Elements in End-of-life Decision-Making Tools
2: 30 p.m.

Andrei Perez

Comprehensive Development and Signal Processing Advancements in Functional Optical Coherence Tomography: From System Design to Hemodynamic Preservation
2:45 p.m.

James Vandersluis

Optimizing Hybrid Primitive and Non-Primitive Rendering: A Cross-Platform C++ and WebGPU Architechture
3:00 p.m. Closing remarks 

For any questions, please reach out to Tara Campbell, Academic Services Coordinator, Graduate Studies.