Mehdi Dadfarnia wins ISR undergraduate award

Mehdi Dadfarnia is the winner of the 2013 ISR Outstanding Systems Engineering Undergraduate Student Award.

Dadfarnia’s accomplishments, contributions and maturity are outstanding for a person at his stage of professional development. He is a creative, diligent and hardworking researcher who was selected for a National Institute of Standards and Technology internship in systems engineering starting in summer 2011. He has continued his internship with NIST since then and became one of the first UMD students to be named a member of the select “UMD Cyber-Physical Systems Scholars at NIST” group. This spring, he started as a graduate student in the ISR Master of Science in Systems Engineering (MSSE) program, where he is advised by Professor John Baras (ECE/ISR).

Dadfarnia’s undergraduate research at NIST supported the National Ambulance Specification project, a joint effort of NIST and the Department of Homeland Security. Providing emergency care services in the confined space of the patient compartment of a moving ambulance has proven a hazardous activity. He applied systems engineering approaches to analyze requirements and develop design guidance that will improve Emergency Medical Services workers' safety while optimizing patient care.

Dadfarnia’s research on this project has resulted in four publications. He recently presented one of these papers at a special seminar to NIST’s Systems Integration Division within its Engineering Laboratory. His presentation and results were very well received.

Dadfarnia’s MSSE focus application area will be various aspects of body area networks, in collaboration with Dr. Kamran Sayrafian of NIST. Dadfarnia is very hard working and focused, and is an independent thinker and researcher. He is an excellent writer and presenter with excellent leadership capabilities.

Published May 9, 2013