Leonardo Villalobos-Arias, Computer Science, “Bad Apple: Risk-Aware Reinforcement Learning,” July 27, 2026, 11:30 a.m. Major Professor: Dr. Arnav Jhala.

Tonya Greene, Community College Leadership, “From Industry Expertise to Teaching Practice: A Qualitative Case Study of CTE Facultly Professional Learning in a North Carolina Community College”, July 27, 2026, 1:00 p.m., Remote, Major Professor: Dr. Makena Stewart.

Ece Ari Akdemir, Civil Engineering, “Planning for Disruption: Exploring the Vulnerability of Liquid Biofuel Supply Chains and Power Grids to Drought,” July 27, 2026, 1:00 p.m., Virtual. Major Professor: Dr. Jordan Kern.

Margot Ruffieux, Genetics and Genomics, “Diversity and Domestication of Saccharomyces cerevisiae in Sourdough,” July 27, 2026, 2 p.m., David Clark Labs, Rm. 123. Major Professor: Dr. Caiti Smukowski Heil.

Saifur Rahman, Agricultural Education and Human Sciences, “The Adoption and Diffusion of Generative Artificial Intelligence among North Carolina Extension Agents,” July 29, 2026, 9:00 a.m., 220 Ricks Hall. Major Professor: Dr. Joseph Donaldson.

Kimberly Charron, Comparative Biomedical Science, “Neurodevelopmental Roles of Cyfip2 in Zebrafish Sensorimotor Circuit Assembly,” July 29, 2026, 10:00 a.m., 3503 Stephens Room/Thomas Hall. Major Professor: Dr. Kurt Marsden.

Nirwan Tandukar, Genetics and Genomics, “Genomic and Metabolic Signatures of Environmental Adaptation and Nutrient Utilization in Grass Crops”, July 29, 2026, 10:30 a.m., Plant Science Building Room 4152, Major Professor: Dr. Rubén Rellán Álvarez.

Anil Gurses, Electrical Engineering, “Wireless Digital Twins for UAV Communications and Networking,” July 30, 2026, 9:30 a.m., EBII-3110. Major Professor: Dr. Mihail L. Sichitiu.

Yesid Ricardo Garavito Duarte, Animal Science, “Nutritional strategies to support intestinal health in nursery pigs: roles of functional feed additives and amino acid nutrition,” July 31, 2026, 9:00 a.m., 125 Polk Hall. Major Professor: Dr. Sung Woo Kim.

Kira Lindelof, Plant Biology, “Ecology, genetics, and taxonomy of Houstonia: an integrated approach to conservation,” July 31, 2026, 1:00 p.m., 2321 Gardner Hall. Major Professor: Dr. Alexander Krings.

Omar Othman, Civil Engineering, “Enhancing Balanced Mix Design Procedures using Fundamental Asphalt Mixture Characterization,” July 31, 2026, 1:00 p.m., Remote. Major Professor: Dr. Shane Underwood.

Felipe Sanchez, Geospatial Analytics, “Geospatial distribution and dynamics of swine disease in the United States”, July 31, 2026, 1:30 a.m., Jordan Hall 5103, Major Professors: Dr. Gustavo Machado and Dr. Chris Jones.

Gianni Absillis, Mechanical Engineering, “Development and Implementation of Moving Discontinuous Galerkin Methods with Interface Condition Enforcement for Compressible and Viscous Flows,” August 3, 2026, 2:00 p.m., EBIII-3115. Major Professor: Dr. Hong Luo.

Anindya Samya Saha, Civil Engineering, “Assessment of the Shear Response and Residual Capacity of Bridge Elements Using Detailed Displacement Field Measurements,” August 4, 2026, 12:00 p.m., FWH 3301. Major Professor: Dr. Giorgio Proestos.

Mesbah Ahmad, Chemical Engineering, “Novel biodegradable and stretchable biopolymer films for soft electronics “ August 5, 2026, 10:00 a.m., Remote. Major Professor: Dr. Orlin D. Velev.

Nicholas Mecham, Nuclear Engineering, “Developing Foundational Modeling Capabilities for Industry-Relevant, Interface-Resolved Boiling Simulations,” August 5, 2026, 10:00 a.m., BU 1121. Major Professor: Dr. Igor Bolotnov.

Lisa Metzger, Microbiology, “Investigating the Role of Upstream Stimulatory Factor as a Stress-Dependent Transcriptional Regulatory in B Lymphocytes,” August 6, 2026, 10:00 a.m., Thomas 3503. Major Professor: Dr. Michael Sikes.

Rylan Paye, Nuclear Engineering, “Space-Time Discretization Schemes with Reconstruction for the Boltzmann Transport Equation,” August 6, 2026, 10:00 a.m., BU-1121. Major Professor: Dr. Dmitriy Anistratov.

Gavin Gaynor, Forest Biomaterials, “Development of butanol/water-based biorefinery for the valorization of miscanthus: Process optimization, solvent recovery, and modeling”, August 7, 2026, 9:00 a.m., Jordan Hall Room 1214, Major Professor: Dr. Lucian Lucia.

Rachel Hammer, Microbiology, “From Assembly to Function: Plant-Microbiome Interactions and Fungal-Mediated Nutrient Acquisition,” August 7, 2026, 9:30 a.m., TH3503. Major Professor: Dr. Christine Hawkes.

Yaqin Si, Bioinformatics, “Statistical and Computational Methods for Structural Variant Association Analysis in Whole-Genome Sequencing Studies,” August 7, 2026, 10 a.m., Ricks 336. Major Professors: Dr. Jung-Ying Tzeng and Dr. Wenbin Lu.

Victoria Yarmey, Biomedical Engineering, “Stop and Smell the RO’s: Investigating the Neuronal Role in the C. elegans Oxidative Stress Response,” August 7, 2026, 10:00 a.m., EBIII, 4142. Major Professors: Dr. Adriana San Miguel/Dr. Michael Gamcsik.

Ermek Belekov, Electrical Engineering, “Application of Multifrequency CMUT and Hybrid Piezoelectric-CMUT Arrays in Acoustic Angiography and Photoacoustic Imaging,” August 7, 2026, 11:00 a.m., EBII-3110. Major Professor: Dr. Omer Oralkan.

Taylor Grubbs, Nuclear Engineering, “A Novel Bubble Coalescenece Control Methodology for Multiphase Flows Using Interface Capturing Simulation,” August 10, 2026, 9:30 a.m., BU-1121. Major Professor: Dr. Igor Bolotnov.

Adara Bacon, Chemistry, “Small-Molecule Aptamer Isolation and Sensor Development,” August 10, 2026, 10 a.m., D.H. Hill Library, 2312N. Major Professor: Dr. Yi Xiao.

Katherine Hochenberger, Adult & Community College Education, “A Phenomenological Study Exploring Student Veterans Academic Advising Lived Experiences at the Community College”, August 11, 2026, 10:00 a.m., Remote, Major Professor: Dr. Diane Chapman.

Kevin Joy, Mathematics, “Computations of Mixed Segre Zeta Functions,” August 11, 2026, 11 a.m., Remote. Major Professor: Dr. Yairon Cid Ruiz.

Yujing Gao, Statistics, “Semiparametric Methods for Clinical Trial Design and Inference with External Controls and Irregular Assessments,” August 11, 2026, 12 p.m., Remote. Major Professor: Dr. Shu Yang.

Jimmy Nguyen, Chemical Engineering, “Engineering the For Factor of UIO-66-NH2 for Chemical Protection: From Nanocrysteis to Macrosystem,” August 11, 2026, 2:30 p.m., FWH 2331. Major Professor: Dr. Gregory N. Parsons.

Conrad Worley, Community College Leadership, “Exploring Faculty Advisor Readiness and Roles During the Community College Registration Process: A Basic Qualitative Study”, August 12, 2026, 9:00 a.m., Remote, Major Professor: Dr. Makena Stewart.

Zhansen Akhmetov, Electrical Engineering, “Comprehensive Modeling and Analysis of a Split Litz Wire-Based Open Bifilar Coil,” August 12, 2026, 10:30 a.m., Energy Board Room/Keystone Science Center. Major Professor: Dr. Pantic.

William Hurley Martin, Civil Engineering, “Structural Behavior and Self-healing of Fiber-reinforced Polymer Composites via Inductive Heating,” August 12, 2026, 1:00 p.m., FWH 3301. Major Professor: Dr. Jason F. Patrick.

Sergei Rigin, Material Science & Engineering, “Tailoring Advanced Surfaces for Sustainable Material Solutions,” August 13, 2026, 9:00 a.m., EBI – Room 3018. Major Professor: Dr. Yaroslava Yingling.

Clayson Shumway, Economics, “Essays on the Causes and Effects of Pollution and Temperature”, August 14, 2026, 10:00 a.m., Remote, Major Professors: Dr. Roger von Haefen and Dr. Harrison Fell.

Jack Turicek, Mechanical Engineering, “Multifunctional Fiber reinforced Polymer Composites with Bioinspired Damage sensing, Self healing, and Thermal regulation,” August 19. 2026, FWH 3301. Major Professor: Dr. Jason F. Patrick.

Ayesha Awan, Comparative Biomedical Science, “Metaproteomic Investigations of Dietary Protein Sources and their Interactions with the Host and Gut Microbioma,” August 25, 2026, 9:30 a.m., 3503 Thomas Hall. Major Professor: Dr. Manuel Kleiner.

Vincenzo Musico, Material Science & Engineering, August 25, 2026, 11:00 a.m., EBI – 3018. Major Professor: Dr. Veronica Augustyn.

Nicholas Sengstaken, ELPHD, “Financial Resilience and Institutional Adaption in U.S. Higher Education”, September 2, 2026, 2:00 p.m., Remote, Major Professor: Dr. Paul Umbach.

Patrick Haughey, Mathematics, “Data-Adaptive, Robustness-Preserving, and Efficiency-Improving Methodology for Causal Effect Estimation,” September 8, 2026, 9:30 a.m., SAS 3282. Major Professor: Dr. Semyon Tsynkov.

Swarna Chowdhury, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, “Improved Understanding of Hydro-Morphodynamics in Rapidly Changing Coastal Environments with Application to Habitat Vulnerability,” September 21, 2026, 9:00 a.m., DSW-101-BAE. Major Professor: Dr. Celso Castro-Bolinaga.

Yi Liu, Statistics, “Data-Adaptive, Robustness-Preserving, and Efficiency-Improving Methodology for Causal Effect Estimation,” September 21, 2026, 11 a.m., SAS 5202. Major Professor: Dr. Shu Yang.

Mahe Rukh, Chemical Engineering, “Perovskite Oxides as Redox-Activated CO2 Sorbents for Sorption-Enhanced Oxidative Gasification/Reforming Reactions,” October 1, 2026, 3:00 p.m., EBI-1005. Major Professor: Dr. Fanxing Li.

Leticia Santos, Biological & Agricultural Engineering, “Advancing crop residue cover mapping through machine learning and satellite imagery,” October 16, 2026, 1:00 p.m., PSB 3158. Major Professors: Dr. Daniela Jones and Dr. Chris Reberg-Horton.

Gene Deese, Adult & Lifelong Education, “Examining Baccalaureate Completion Outcomes for AAS Transfer Students at Minority-Serving Institutions Using Propensity Score Matching”, October 20, 2026, 1:00 p.m., Remote, Major Professors: Dr. Audrey Jaeger and Dr. Bobbie Frye.