Summer 2009

Ed Steager - September 3 at 10:00am in the Curtis Building, Room 162

• Research Topic: Actuation and Control of Microfabricated Structures Using Flagellated Bacteria
• Advisor: Dr. Alan Lau
• Major Area: Mechanical Engineering
• Examining Committee: Dr. Dr. Min Jun Kim, Dr. Wei Sun, Dr. Ani Hsieh, Dr. Emin Kumbar, and Dr. Gail Rosen

Shun LI - August 27 at 9:00am in the Curtis Building, Room 273

• Research Topic: A Model-Based Fault Detection and Diagnostic Methodology for Secondary HVAC Systems
• Advisor: Dr. Grace Hsuan
• Major Area: Civil Engineering
• Examining Committee: Dr. Jin Wen, Dr. Patrick Gurian, Dr. Mira Stone Olson, Dr. Xiaohua Hu, and Dr. Peng Xu

Ruth AnnKiefer - August 27 at 5:30pm in the Bellet Building, Room 209

• Research Topic: The Effect of Social Support on Functional Recovery and Well-Being in Post Joint Arthroplasty Older Adults
• Advisor: Dr. H. Michael Dreher
• Major Area: Nursing
• Examining Committee: Dr. Linda Wilson, Dr. Alice Poyss, Dr. Diane Breckenridge, Dr. Christina Calamaro, and Dr. Steven Levin

Ehsan Minaie - August 26 at 2:00pm in the LeBow Building, Hill Conference Room

• Research Topic: Seismic Behavior of Reinforced Masonry Shear Walls
• Advisor: Grace Hsuan
• Major Area: Civil and Architectural Engineering
• Examining Committee: Dr. Franklin Moon, Dr. Ahmad Hamid, Dr. Amin Aktan, Dr. Joseph Wartman, and Dr. Alan Lau

Mark Weir - August 25 at 1:00pm in the Curtis Building, CAEE Conference Room

• Research Topic: Development of Physiologically Based Pathogen Transport and Kinetics Model for Inhalation of Bacillus Anthracis Spores
• Advisor: Grace Hsuan
• Major Area: Civil and Architectural Engineering
• Examining Committee: Dr. Charles Haas, Dr. Patrick Gurion, Dr. Jin Wern, Dr. Richard Rest, and Dr. Hernando Perez

Christopher Coughenour- August 20th at 1:00pm in Disque Building, Room 109

• Research Topic: An Analysis of Cyclic Tidal Deposits
• Advisor: Dr. Kenneth Lacovara
• Major Area: Biology
• Examining Committee: Dr. James Spotila, Dr. Kenneth Lacovara, Dr. Michael O'Connor, Dr. Walter Bien, Dr. Stephen Greb, Dr. Edward Doheny, and Dr. Hermann Pfefferkorn

Yuan Li - August 17th at 1:30pm in Pearlstein Building, Room 403

• Research Topic: Market Structure in Banking and the Bank Lending Channel: Evidence from Bank - Level Data in Asian and Latin American Countries
• Advisor: Dr. Paul Jensen
• Major Area: Economics
• Examining Committee: Dr. Jeon Bang Nam, Dr. Olivero Maria, Dr. Madan Vibhas, Dr. Harrison Teresa, and Dr. Szewczyk Samuel

Gabor Kovacs - August 14th at 9:00am in BossoneBuilding, Room 709

• Research Topic: Optical Domain Time Delay Self-Heterodyne Microwave Subcarrier Generation and Modulation
• Advisor: Dr. Kapil Dandekar
• Major Area: Electrical Engineering
• Examining Committee: Dr. Mohana Shankar, Dr. Tibor Berceli, Dr. Peter Herczfeld, Dr. Yifei Li, Dr. Arye Rosen, and Dr. Gary Friedman

Quincy Brown - August 14 at 1:30pm in the University Crossing Building

• Research Topic: Mobile Intelligent Tutoring System: Moving Intelligent Tutoring Systems Off the Desktop
• Advisor: Dr. Ali Shokoufandeh
• Major Area: Computer Science
• Examining Committee: Dr. Jason Silverman (SoE), Dr. Dario Salvucci, Dr. Frank Lee, Dr. Suzanne Alejandre, and Dr. Vincent Aleven

Tamara Lambert - August 13 at 10:30am in the Pearlstein Building, Room 403

• Research Topic: Closing Review Notes: The Effect of Reviewer Delay and Review Timeliness on Audit Workpaper Preparers Effort and Performance
• Advisor: Dr. Paul Jensen
• Major Area: Accounting
• Examining Committee: Dr. Christopher Agoglia, Dr. George Tsakumis, Dr. Anna Cianci, Dr. John Schaubroeck, Dr. Arnold Wright, and Dr. Nandini Chandar

Sriraj Srinivasan - August 7 at 10:00am in Chemical and Biological Engineering Conference Room

• Research Topic: Computational and Experimental Study of Spontaneous Thermal Polymerization of Alkyl Acrylates
• Major Area: Chemical and Biological Engineering
• Examining Committee: Dr. Masoud Soroush, Dr. Giuseppe Palmese, Dr. Cameron Abrams, Dr. Andrew Rappe (University of Pennsylvania), and Dr. Michael Grady (DuPont)

James Waters - August 10th at 2:00pm in Rush Building, Room 014

• Research Topic: Engagement, Role-Behaviors and Thought-Leaders. An Analysis of Student Behavior in Asyncrhonous Online Learning Environments
• Advisor: Susan Wiedenbeck
• Major Area: Information Science and Technology
• Examining Committee: Dr. Susan Wiedenbeck, Dr. Gery Stahl, Dr. Robert Allen, Dr. Caroline Haythornthwaite, and Dr. Wesley Shumar

Brett Myers - August 5th at 1:00pm in Pearlstein Building, Room 405

• Research Topic: Analysis of an Inventory System with Product Perishability and Demand Substitution: A Simulation-Optimization Approach
• Advisor: Paul Jensen
• Major Area: Decision Science
• Examining Committee: Dr. Avijit Banerjee, Dr. Seung Kim, Dr. Merrill Liechty, Dr. Thomas Hindelang, and Dr. Maria Rieders

Anna Fox - July 30 at 9:30am in Bossone Building, Room 302

• Research Topic: Polymer Liquid Crystal Nanostructured Composites for Photolithography Applications
• Advisor: Kapil Dandekar
• Major Area: Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Examining Committee: Dr. Tim Kurzweg, Dr. Adam Fontecchio, Dr. Gary Friedman, Dr. Alisa Morss-Clyne, and Dr. Moses Noh

Emek Kose - July 21 at 11:00am in Korman Building, Room 247

• Research Topic: Catadioptric Sensors
• Advisor: Robert Hicks
• Major Area: Mathematics
• Examining Committee: Dr. Shari Moskow, Dr. Ron Perline, Dr. David Ambrose, Dr. Robert Boyer, and Dr. Tim Kurzweg

Halim Ayan - July 20 at 2:00pm in Curtis Building, Room 162

• Research Topic: Uniform Dielectric Barrier Discharge With Nanosecond Pulse Excitation for Biomedical Applications
• Advisor: Dr. Alan Lau
• Major Area: Mechanical Engineering
• Examining Committee: Dr. Gary Friedman, Dr. Alexander Fridman, Dr. Wei Sun, Dr. Young Cho, Dr. Adam Fontecchio, and Dr. Alexander Rabinovich

Nicholas Kirsch - June 30 in Bossone Building, Room 303

• Research Topic: Experimental Analysis of Power Control and Element Spacing for Unobtrusive MIMO Antenna Systems
• Advisor: Kapil Dandekar
• Major Area: Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Examining Committee: Dr. Timothy Kurzweg, Dr. Kapil Dandekar, Dr. Moshe Kam, Dr. Steven Weber, and Dr. Anthony Triolo

Andrea Japzon - June 30 at 12:00pm in Rush Building, Room 213

• Research Topic: Personal Digital Information Preservation
• Advisor: Susan Wiedenbeck
• Major Area: Information Science and Technology
• Examining Committee: Dr. Denise Agosto, Dr. Eileen Abels, Dr. Greg Hislop, Dr. Lisl Zach, and Dr. DeBorah Burreale

Anne K. Galgon - June 29 at 9:00am in Bellet Building, Room 209

• Research Topic: Postural Learning During Practice of a Serial Reaching Task
• Advisor: Susan Smith
• Major Area: Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences
• Examining Committee: Dr. Patricia A. Shewokis, Dr. Sheri Silfies, Dr. Richard Lauer, Dr. Carol Tucker, and Dr. David Solomon