Professional Development Scholarship Winners for Fall 2024
Avery Rambur
Avery is a current Master’s student in his final academic year, studying Mechanical Engineering. He is a DoD SMART Scholar and is slated to begin a professional tenure with the Missile Defense Agency upon completion of his degree. His research with the Burke Combustion Lab focuses on ammonium perchlorate combustion modeling, seeking to improve existing simulation techniques using generative kinetic modeling. He has previous research experience at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab, the Idaho National Laboratory and the Air Force Research Lab. In his free time, Avery is an avid sports fan and fisherman.
Aymen Kallala
I'm a Tunisian/French master's student in Computer Science, focusing on NLP. My passion for AI’s societal impact led me to collaborate with Columbia’s NLP lab and the business school on an LLM-based negotiation coaching system, which provided expert-level feedback using data from MBA student negotiations. Recently, I’ve shifted my focus to AI in genomics, building large-scale DNA models. Overall, I’m excited about the potential of AI to advance language understanding, personalized education, drug development, and treatments for genetic diseases.
Srihari Balaji
Srihari (Hari) is a Master's student in Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University. Hari obtained his BS in Mechanical Engineering with a Minor in Aerospace Engineering from Union College. Throughout his undergrad, Hari conducted extensive research in Planetary Science, Aerospace Engineering, and Astrophysics. Most notably, he served as a Lead Researcher of a collegiate team at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. In this capacity, he helped develop the novel Plasma Rapid Oxidation Technique for Extending Component Tenability which demonstrated a 92% increase in the corrosion potential of titanium alloys used in rocket thrusters, enabling reusability of rockets. At Columbia, he is a Research Assistant in the Schuck Lab, working on the fabrication and optical characterization of van der Waals low-dimensional crystals.
Venkat Subramanian Ramakrishnen
Hello and Vanakkam! I am Venkat, a Master’s student pursuing Management Science and Engineering. Having worked in the consulting space for a good 2 years, I understand the language of “circling back” and “low-hanging fruits” quite well. In an attempt to extend my expertise beyond strategy, I am deep-diving into all things money, and I believe I have started my finance journey at the perfect place—closest to Wall Street—at Columbia. This transformative journey has taught me to treat every setback and success equally, and receiving the right recognition at the right time can be a significant stepping stone in anyone’s career. I’m grateful to Columbia SEAS and EGSC for trusting in my candidacy and appreciating my work. So, dear reader, thank you for taking the time to read my bio—I hope to meet you again as a banker very soon!
Jason Milionis
Jason is a 4th year Ph.D. candidate in the Computer Science Department at Columbia University, advised by Prof. Christos Papadimitriou and Prof. Tim Roughgarden. His research interests span the intersection of Algorithmic Game Theory and Economics with emerging areas of computation, especially blockchains and machine learning. On the former, Jason studies blockchains and their applications (especially in decentralized finance) as innovative frameworks that pose unique incentive alignment challenges. Jason previously graduated with the highest honors from the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) in Electrical and Computer Engineering, majoring in Computer Science, advised by Prof. Dimitris Fotakis.
Alexandra Crookshanks
Alex Crookshanks is a first year Master student in Columbia’s Earth and Environmental Engineering program. She earned her B.S in Environmental Science from Indiana University and has spent the past several years working as a research technician in the IU Forest Ecophysiology and Biometeorology Lab. At Columbia, Alex aims to expand her research using modeling and machine learning methods. Her interests focus on ecohydrology, soil science, and Nature-Based Climate Solutions.
Minghao Chen
Minghao Chen is a Ph.D. student at Columbia University advised by Prof. Andrew Smyth. He is also co-advised by Prof. Max Li from University of Michigan. He received dual M.S. degrees from the Industrial and Operations Engineering and the Intelligent System Engineering at University of Michigan. His main research interests are in developing data-driven optimization-based sensing, planning, and routing methods to improve safety and efficiency of autonomous systems in cities, especially for unmanned aerial vehicles and urban air mobility. He is also a fan of powerlifting, basketball, football, photography, movies and music.
Benjami Yang
Ben Yang is a second year CS PhD student working with Professor Steven Feiner at the Computer Graphics and User Interfaces Lab. He is currently researching novel user experiences for humans to perform remote telerobotic assembly. He is also interested in user interfaces for immersive programming and debugging in extended reality, gaze tracking for intent detection in augmented reality, and multi-user task precueing. He has worked on interdisciplinary applications of virtual reality in fields such as glaciology and rock climbing. In his free time, he likes reading and playing volleyball.
Yuan Li
Yuan (Kevin) Li is a Ph.D. student in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Columbia University. Yuan graduated with a M.S. in BME from the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State University and a B.S. in BME from University of Florida. During his time in North Carolina, Yuan developed minimally invasive therapeutics that enabled heart repair using a pig model of myocardial infarction. He also worked on soft bioelectronics for sensing and therapeutic purposes targeting the heart. Currently, Yuan is exploring the role of exosomes in cardiac repair.
