from left to right: Mithuna S. Thottethodi, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Associate Head of Teaching and Learning, Emery C. Bredemeyer, Rohit Lala, Alfred Barandearan Gutierrez, and Benjamin C. Miller

Purdue University’s Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering is proud to recognize the contributions of undergraduate students who enhance every facet of departmental life through the annual ECE Undergraduate Excellence Awards. These students serve as undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs), contribute to groundbreaking research, complete innovative design projects, and perform vital service through student societies and volunteer groups.

Dave & Marsha Meyer Undergraduate Teaching Awards

UTAs are a vital part of Purdue ECE’s teaching mission. Each year, roughly 300 undergraduate students assist with classes by holding office hours, helping design and grade assignments, and ensuring that courses run smoothly. The Dave & Marsha Meyer Undergraduate Teaching Awards honor the top UTAs each semester who demonstrate exceptional performance and go above and beyond in their pursuit of excellence.

Aidan Dannhausen-Brun - for his dedication to the Software Engineering Tools lab; both in code reviews and resource creation, encouraging a clearer understanding and stronger academic outcomes among his fellow students.

Amit Vardhan Suryadevara - for being one of most hardworking, dependable and approachable UTA for ECE301, ECE20001 and 20502 lab at Purdue Indianapolis campus.

Dhruv Shah - for their outstanding dedication, initiative, and exemplary support as a TA for ECE 20007, consistently going above and beyond to assist students and meet all responsibilities with punctuality and efficiency.

Surya Turaga - for their exceptional dedication, proactive efforts in improving course structure, and remarkable responsiveness to student inquiries, significantly enhancing the overall learning experience.

Zafeer Reza - in recognition of his extraordinary commitment, leadership, and impact as an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant in ECE 27000. 

from left to right: Ryan Beasley, Director of Instructional Laboratories, Junpei Ota, Aden Hurd, and Matthew Patrohay

Undergraduate Research Awards

Home to the largest research program of any school at Purdue, ECE relies on undergraduates to play key roles in its research enterprise. These students design and conduct experiments, write papers, present findings, and strengthen Purdue’s top 10 nationwide research program. The Undergraduate Research Awards recognize the most outstanding undergraduate researchers for their drive, creativity, and achievement.

Zachary Au - for outstanding contributions towards understanding and improving antenna design and placement for high-speed vehicles.

Aniket Chatterjee - for outstanding contributions towards developing a topology analysis tool for systematic interconnection network design.

Undergraduate Service Award

Through organizations like the ECE Student Society and HKN, undergraduates provide camaraderie, advice, tutoring, mentoring—and, sometimes, coffee and donuts—to the ECE community. The Undergraduate Service Award recognizes students who have performed extraordinary service to the School over the past year.

Noah Rediker - for outstanding service and leadership as the Vice President and Treasurer for ECE Student Society at Purdue West Lafayette.

Chinwendu Zachariah Ayogu - for outstanding service and leadership as the President of the ECE Student Society at Purdue Indianapolis.

Senior Design Awards

Senior Design is a required capstone experience that allows students to apply their classroom knowledge to a semester- or year-long project. Students gain valuable hands-on experience, enhance their written and oral communication skills, and develop teamwork abilities. The Senior Design Awards honor teams that have demonstrated excellence in their projects.

Dan Gui, Fan Jing Hoon, Ann Zi Lau, and Marty K. Martin - for their design and implementation of an FPGA-based Tensor Processing Unit to accelerate machine learning workloads.

Alfred Barandearan Gutierrez, Emery C. Bredemeyer, Rohit Lala, and Benjamin C. Miller - for their design and implementation of Translating glasses; a device that translates spoken language to translated text in a wearable form factor.

Matthew Patrohay, Aden Hurd, Junpei Ota, and Alex Berta - for their design and implementation of a Rubik’s Cube solving machine as an example of industrial automation.

Akshath Ravikiran, Aneesh Poddutur, Gautam Nambiar, and Gokulkrishnan Harikrishnan - for their design and implementation of a distributed, scalable, microcontroller-based edge computing cluster.

Sam Wong, Parthiv Patel, and Andy Lam - for their design and implementation of an AI-powered ‘bedside assistant’ for medical professionals.

Parthiv Saji, Darin Tsai, and Haddy Alchaer - for their design and implementation of a karaoke-inspired language learning application.

Aaron Sandlin, Nick Hofer, Ben Dawes, and Kham Nom - for their design and implementation of “Solar Power -- Water Tower -- Kid Wow-er!” a well-conceived and well-implemented exhibit at the Kids Discovery Factory in Batesville, IN, to communicate solar energy concepts to children.

Photos from the 2024 Undergraduate Excellence Awards can be found here.