The Fulbright Alumni Association Houston/Southeast Chapter and the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at Rice University (GPS) hosted the Fulbright Spring Soirée on Thursday, May 23, in the Welcome Center at Rice University. Welcoming remarks were delivered by Anthony Potoczniak, Chapter President. Jennifer Hunter, Assistant Dean of GPS and the Fulbright convener of programming at Rice University, introduced Dean Seiichi Matsuda and the evening’s presenters.
The soirée highlighted the breadth of research conducted by current Fulbright graduate students and scholars at Rice University. The evening’s highlights included presentations where these scholars shared their ongoing research projects. The presenters included:
- Antonio Mendoza (Bolivia): Deep learning approaches for predicting candidacy for advanced heart failure support devices from physiological signals and clinical features.
- Juan Donoso (Ecuador): Towards the complete mineralization of PFOA with a pilot-scale UV-light, boron-nitride–based recirculating reactor unit.
- Gladys Zubiria (Colombia): More than a Woman: Gender and Corruption Perceptions in Post-Conflict Scenarios.
- Aneela Sultana (Pakistan): Uncovering Lived Experiences of Women Coping with Unintended Pregnancies: A Comparative Analysis.
- Gagan Sharma (India): A Flexible Na-ion Supercapacitor/Battery Hybrid Device.
After each presentation, members of the audience shared questions and comments, which provided for lively discussion afterwards.