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GSA Announces Competition Winners

May 30, 2017

GSA Announces Competition Winners

The Graduate Students' Association at ECE has announced the six winners of its Second Annual Student Paper Competition.

The competition was split into two parts: Journal and Conference entrees. The judges chose winners from papers that were submitted to technical journals and papers that were submitted for upcoming conferences. Approximately 25 papers were submitted in both categories.

In the Journal category, the 2017 winners are: Xuyuan Pan (First Place $750); Anees Abrol (Second Place $500); and Hamide Seidfaraji (Third Place $250).

In the Conference category, the 2017 winners are: Jonathan West (First Place $500); Firas Ayoub (Second Place $300); and Mustafa Salman (Third Place $200).

Papers were considered for this award even if they were not accepted by a journal or a conference.

"It was our belief that if a scholarly work is submitted to a professional journal and was co-authored by a faculty member, then the work is probably "good enough" for a student paper competition," said GSA Vice President Brian MacKie-Mason.

Unlike many similar competitions, the ECE/GSA team did not actually spend much time reading the papers.

"We delegated this task to volunteer faculty members who were experts in their fields," said MacKie-Mason.

The GSA at ECE has been reaching out to its students in a very public way during the last year in an attempt to become more inclusive.

"We want to remind students that ECE GSA serves as an advocacy group for students issues, and that in addition to hosting professional development events we are interested in helping students deal with the complex political system of UNM," said MacKie-Mason.