Two ECE students win 2022-23 Graduate Program Awards

The College of Engineering recognized two ECE students in the 2022-23 Graduate Program Awards. Ashwini Ganesh won COE Doctoral Scholar of the Year in Citizenship and Service, and Mihir Khara won COE Master Scholar of the Year in Scholarly Achievement.

Read the original article by Danielle Herman here.

The College of Engineering Graduate Programs Awards recognized six outstanding NC State engineering graduate students for their academic achievements, research, leadership and service.

Two of the recognized students are in ECE and are going above and beyond in our department. Ashwini Ganesh won COE Doctoral Scholar of the Year in Citizenship and Service, and Mihir Khara won COE Master Scholar of the Year in Scholarly Achievement.

To be eligible, graduate students had to submit a resume and receive a nomination from a faculty member. Twenty-five nominations were submitted in total.

COE Doctoral Scholar of the Year — Citizenship and Service: Ashwini Pondeycherry Ganesh, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)

Ashwini Pondeycherry Ganesh has been involved in many different kinds of initiatives to improve student well-being at NC State. She was nominated by Paul Franzon, Cirrus Logic Distinguished Professor and director of graduate programs in ECE, who said NC State’s campus is “undeniably a better place because of her actions.”

Ganesh was the first woman to be president of the ECE Graduate Student Association in nearly a decade since the organization was formed in 2013. She is also involved with the Women in ECE chapter and mentored other graduate students. Ganesh led, assisted with and organized several events that helped bring ECE students together, including a luncheon with professors, which was the first in-person event on campus after returning from online classes during COVID-19; the ECE Graduate Research Symposium; TEDx with Analog Devices; a Thanksgiving dinner for master’s and Ph.D. students who were not traveling home for the holiday; and a soccer tournament, which is a highlight for many graduate students.

CoE Master Scholar of the Year — Scholarly Achievement: Mihir Khara, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)

Mihir Khara is an accomplished student who just finished the first year of his M.S. program at NC State. He was nominated by Donna Ginger Yu, teaching professor and assistant director of graduate programs for ECE, who said his performance was a “significant accomplishment for a first-semester graduate student.”

In ECE 564 (ASIC and FPGPA Design With Verilog), Khara submitted a project that had a design that was ranked #1 in terms of performance per unit area for the given spec implementation. He received an A+ in all of the classes he was enrolled in during the fall 2022 semester, while successfully auditing two other classes.

Congratulations to our outstanding graduate students, we are so thankful for all your work in our department!