Achievements

Ph.D. Students

Pallab Kumar Sarkar

1. Business Plan Competition – “Best Students’ Choice Award” (May 2024)
2. Student Government Scholarship (2024, $1,000)
3. “Run-to-R1” Research Scholarship (2023-2026, $5000)
4. The Graduate College Thesis Research Support Fellowship (2023, $2000)
5. The Graduate College Scholarship in (2022, $1000)
6. Bangladesh Sweden Trust Fund Scholarship in (2022, 20,000 BDT)

Ayesha Tasnim

1. Samsung Scholarship (2024, $2000)
2. Graduate College Scholarship (Fall 2025, $1000)
3. “Run-to-R1” Research Scholarship (2023-2026, $5000)

Ron Saha

1. “Run-to-R1” Research Scholarship (2023-2026, $5000)

Saif Al Arafin Taqy

1. Doctoral Merit Fellowship (Fall 2023 – Summer 2024, $9000), nominated and awarded by the department as a new doctoral student having outstanding quality
2. Dorothy Coker Research Fellowship (Fall 2025-Spring 2026, $1200)
3. Graduate College Scholarship (4 times, Fall 2023 – Fall 2025, $4000)
4. Student Government Scholarship (Fall 2023 – Fall 2024), $2000, August 2023  
5. Bobcat Innovation Challenge 3rd place (Spring 2025, $1500, CIE TXST)

Maria Sultana

1. President, MSEC student club (2025-2026)
2. P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship (two times, 2023-2024, and 2025-2026, total $25,000)
3. Winner at the 11^th annual Texas State Three Minute Thesis (3MT) (2024)
4. Finalist of the three-minute thesis competition at Conference of Southern Graduate Schools (March 2025)
5. Merrick Graduate Merit Fellowship (Texas State University, 2022-2023, $3000)
6. Graduate College Scholarship (Texas State University, 2023, 2024, and 2025, total $4000)
7. Student Government Scholarship (Texas State University, 2023, $1000)
8. Ingram School of Engineering Industrial Advisory Board graduate student award (Texas State University, December 2024)
9. Panel member at the “Rising Doctoral Institute workshop” for upcoming doctoral students (Fall 2025)
10. Panel member at “International Student Orientation (ISO)” organized by ISSS and the Graduate College (Spring 2025)
11. Panel member at “Academic Success for International Graduate Students (ASGIS)” organized by ISSS and the Graduate College (Fall 2023)
12. Panel member at “Letters of Ourselves” event organized by The Graduate College (Spring 2023)
13. Bangladesh Sweden Trust Fund Scholarship in (2023, 20,000 BDT)

MS Students

Mahfuz Ahmed Azmain

1. Graduate Merit Fellowship (2023-2024, $4500)
2. Graduate College Scholarship (2024, $1000)
3. Student Government Scholarship (2024, $650)

Adedayo Alaga

1. Graduate Research Fellowship (2025, $2000) 
2. 1^st place winner of Innovation Cut Competition (Graduate) (July 2025)
3. Regional I-Corps Cohort (2024, $1000 ), Award given for October 2024 participation
4. Nominated for National I-Corps Cohort (2025), Nomination received for October 2025 
5. Graduate College Scholarship (2025, $1000), Award given for Fall 2025
6. Graduate College Scholarship (2025, $1000), Award given for Spring 2025  
7. Bobcat Innovation Challenge (2024, $1500), 3rd place winner with Saif Taqy  

Fardeen Md Toushique

1. Presented a poster at Arkansas INBRE Research Conference 2024 
2. Graduate Merit Fellowship (2024-2025) 
3. Participated and made it to second round in Battle of Minds 2021 organized by British American Tobacco  
4. Participated in Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on December 16-19, 2019. The Bootcamp was conducted under the guidance of the mentors following 24 steps of Disciplined Entrepreneurship, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) 

Mahamudul Hassan Fuad

1. Graduate Merit Fellowship, Texas State University, (Fall 2025 & Spring 2026, $3,200) 
2. “Dean’s List Award” for academic excellence at all levels of undergraduate study, AUST (2019–2023) 
3. “University Merit Scholarships” for academic excellence during undergraduate study, AUST (2019–2023) 
4. Grand Finalist, “VLSI Design Competition 2022”, sponsored by Department of EEE BUET &  Neural Semiconductor (Dec 2022) 
5. Semi-finalist, “VLSITHON 1.0”, organized by ULKASEMI & United International University (UIU) (Sep 2022) 
6. Participant, “EEE Day 2023 VLSI Competition”, organized by ULKASEMI & Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET)  (Feb 2023) 
7. Participant, “AUST MINDSPARK Competition” (Mar 2020) 

Md. Rafiqul Islam Rafi

1. Graduate Merit Fellowship (2025-2026) 

Joya Rani Debnath

1. Graduate Merit Fellowship (2025-2026)

Andrew Alexander

1. Graduate Merit Fellowship (2025-2026)

Undergraduate Students

Pujan Lamsal

1. 1^st place winner of Innovation Cut Competition (Undergraduate category, July 2025)
2. Brian Wong Endowed Electrical Engineering Scholarship (June 2025)
3. Arca Continental Coca-Cola Southwest Beverage First-Generation Scholarship (June 2025) 
4. Quanta Services Fellowship (April 2025) 

Jonah Hartley

1. Accepted to the NASA L’SPACE Mission Concept Academy (Fall 2025) 
2. Presented at the 2025 STEM Conference
3. Presented at 2024 Mathematical association of America
4. Placed 3rd amongst 20 schools at the calculus bowl for the math conference
5. Placed 2nd in best prototype at the Texas Space Consortium Design Challenge

Alumni

Advisee and Co-advisee Alumni (MS)

Abdul Hamid

1. Graduate College Scholarship (2023-2024, $1000)

Istiaq Firoz Shiam

1. Student government scholarship (2023-2024, $800 per semester)
2. Finalist of Texas State Three Minute Thesis (3MT)

Injamamul Hoque Emu

1. Graduate College Scholarship (2023-2024, $1000)

Undergraduate Students

Anna Collingwood

1. LBJ Outstanding Senior Award, 2025
2. Ingram School of Engineering Industrial Advisory Board graduate student award (Texas State University, March 2025)
3. Oral presentation at the 59^th Annual Meeting of the Texas Society for Microscopy conference (March 2025)
4. Quanta Services Fellowship (April 2024) 
5. TXST Engineering Advisory Council Meeting (December 2024)

Bibek pokharel

1. Quanta Services Fellowship (April 2025) 

Thesis titles of graduated students from UWBG lab

• Abdul Hamid Thesis title: Magnesium gallate thin films for application in high power electronics. Defended: MAY 2024
• Injamamul Hoque Emu Thesis Title: Growth and Characterization of CuGa2O4 Thin Film by Pulsed Laser Deposition. Defended: July 2024.
• Istiaq Firoz Shiam Thesis title: Pulsed Laser Annealing to Optimize Structural Properties of GaN Buffer Layer in GaN/AlGaN HEMTs. Defended: July 2024.
• Maria Sultana Thesis title: Band offset measurements of (InₓGa₁₋ₓ)₂O₃ and (AlᵧGa₁₋ᵧ)N heterojunction using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Defended: August 2024.
• Pallab Kumar Sarkar MS Thesis title: Fabrication of carbon structures on Ultra-wide bandgap oxides. Defended: May 2023.
• Imteaz Rahaman MS Thesis title: Optimization of Seeding Parameters for Growing Large-Scale Polycrystalline Diamond on β-Ga2O3​. Defended: July 2023.
• Saif Al Arafin Taqy MS Thesis title: Investigation of the growth parameters and Electronic structure of Q-carbon and its integration with GaN. Defended: July 2023.
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