The Office of Undergraduate Research at the U recently celebrated their 2025 Outstanding Researcher Awards. This event is held to foster a health research culture and recognize both the undergraduates doing research and the mentors helping make it possible.
This year, Dr Haohan Zhang from our department received an Outstanding Undergraduate Mentor award. From our undergrad researchers, Jae Woong Lee (advised by Dr Pai Wang) received the Dee Scholarship and Catherine Davey (advised by Dr Edoardo Battaglia) receiving the Parent Fund Scholarship. Congratulations to all three!
Dr Zhang is an assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering with a research focus in robotics. He believes that mentoring undergraduate students in research helps prepare them to succeed in grad school.
“My mentorship provides a guided research experience,” said Dr Zhang, “which helps bridge the gap between knowledge learned in the traditional classroom and what is learned in independent research. This prepares students for the future in a way nothing else does.”
Lee received the Dee Scholarship, which supports undergraduate research whose research contributes to the well-being of the residents of northern Utah. His research is on “Customizing Dispersion Bands of Phonic Crystals through Asymmetric Stiffness.” He is working to create mathematical formulas that will turn target dispersion relations into a footprint for creating corresponding crystals.
“The techniques to manipulate mechanical waves precisely can help people in a lot of ways,” said Lee. “It can improve the resolution of Ultrasound imaging devices, help design macroscopic structures to prevent or minimize damage to infrastructures from earthquakes or avalanches, and even contribute to economic growth by providing a foundation for new technologies.”
Davey received the Parent Fund scholarship, which exists to provide students with exceptional opportunities inside and outside the classroom. This scholarship helps support a third semester of research with a faculty member. Her research is looking at fidget toys and specifically creating a haptic experience that provides the proper amount of stimulation to help focus, but not become a distraction.
“I’m performing user students while they are engaged in a cognitive demanding task and interacting with a variety of existing fidget toys,” said Davey. “I’ll evaluate potential effects on attention and gain insight into how to model the effect of specific haptic interactions.”
You can learn more about the OUR Awards and view the entire program on their website.