Herff students present research at VIP Day
April 28, 2026
Dozens of Herff College of Engineering students presented their research at Herff's Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Day on April 17, 2026.
The annual research showcase initiative features multi-year, faculty-led research teams, enabling undergraduates from freshmen to seniors to earn academic credit while participating in sustained, authentic research alongside graduate mentors. The University of Memphis is home to the only VIP program in the Mid-South and in the State of Tennessee. Through the program's first three years, 82 undergraduates, 14 graduate mentors, and eight faculty mentors participated in Herff's VIP Day.
During the 2026 showcase, 36 students, broken up into seven teams, presented their research.
Under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Foti, students Natania Middleton, Jayce Fiene, Emma Grace Lumm, Bryan Mendoza, Jaretzy Nicholas, Fernando Rivera, Cherno Keita, and Brandon Burnett presented "Fan Array Wind Tunnels—Organizing Chaos: Understanding Turbulence in Large-Scale Applications." The team used BEM analysis to explore parameters of new, efficient fan designs and employed RANS simulations to assess UAV sensing labs and appropriate turbulence models for fan array wind tunnels. Members of the team presented papers at the AIAA Region 2 Student Conference in Columbia, South Carolina, in March 2026.
Lucy Ephrem, David Hunt, Satvika Kodali, Onyinye Okoli and Jean-Yves Thiemele, students in Dr. J. Amber Jennings' BIOME Lab, presented their project on the detection of infection through visual cues, the prevention of infection and promotion of healing, the enhancement of biopolymers for applications, and the improvement of crop yields and sustainability.
Dr. Hasan Ali's group, made of Doc Aberle, Ibrahim Ansari, and graduate lead Elijah Durkee, presented "Secure Monitoring of EV Charging Stations Using 5G SCADA and Simulation." The project explored the basics and communication and security of EV chargers.
Students Aliya Ali, Logan Hendrix, and Ava Walker, under the leadership of Dr. Carl Herickoff, presented "Transcranial 3D Ultrasound & Functional Image Acquisition," studying transcranial ultrasounds and microbubble tracking 2D-3D.
Dr. Chysanthe Preza's students, David Adaway, Gerrell Dabbs, Mohammad Hossain, and Isaac Kimathi, and graduate assistants Arash Atibi, Sina Layazali and Priyanka Mann, presented their project "Making the invisible visible with computational imaging." The group compared processing methods for 3D structured illumination microscopy and researched deconvolution microscopy with ImageJ as well as hyperspectral imaging analysis. Several members of the group received the Outstanding Paper Award for journal articles in QuaesitUM. Adaway and Dabbs presented their research at NCUR and ASEE-SE. Adaway presented his research at the Tennessee State Capitol and finished second place at the University of Memphis Student Research Forum. Adaway, Dabbs and Hossain all received Honors Summer Research Fellowships.
Dr. Stephanie Ivey's students, Daniel Wade, Holly Hoffman, and Jacob Borden, presented "Accelerate Memphis: Project Delivery Research" and studied the Accelerate Memphis initiative—a unique data set for comparing the traditional Design-Bid-Build baseline against Construction Manager at Risk.
Finally, Dr. Eddie Jacob's students Kevin M. Friedl, S. Parisa Dajkhosh, Peter Le, Jumana Tuffaha, and Lucas Poloni presented "StreamEye: Multi-UAS Visual Stream Assessment." In cooperation with the Center of Applied Earth Science and Engineering Research, the group used a SICK Lidar sensor and a drone to create a more efficient and cost-effective method of stream analysis.
The faculty members leading each team defined the teams' projects. Those teams are made up students of varied experience, ranging from freshmen to seniors, and of different disciplines.