By: Danielle Hamra

On May 22, 2013, MHI Ph.D. Scholars Moh Amer, Kartik Audhkhasi, Osonde Osoba and Hao Huang hosted an informative luncheon to explain the MHI Ph.D. Scholar Program. Over 35 electricalengineering Ph.D. students attended the luncheon to learn about the application process and scholar program, first-hand from scholars. Each scholar shared their personal experience and answered questions about the program and benefits.

Osonde spoke about how faculty mentoring gave him the opportunity to collaborate face-to-face and ask questions that can help him in his own career path. Hao utilized his travel funding to visit Italy and gave talks at Integrated Research Center for Photonic Networks Technologies. He spoke about the benefit of the travel grant because it gave him the opportunity to travel abroad and communicate with researchers outside of USC. Moh Amer also used his travel funding to give talks at a conference on the east coast. He said that this helped him gain exposure to a broader audience and build his career network. Kartik spoke about the importance of gaining leadership experience by organizing student events. Kartik took the lead on filming student presentations at the Ph.D. student seminar series and explained how this helped him learn about research outside of his field and build connections with students other than those in his group – something that may not have happened if he did not become a scholar.

Attending meetings and managing the program at annual department events also offers a chance for scholars to build a network among each other. One example that Kartik expressed, was that he has been collaborating with Osonde and they are currently working on a research project together. If you have questions that you would like to ask a scholar directly, send them an e-mail. They are more than willing to answer questions – current scholars.

The Ming Hsieh Institute provides the below benefits to scholars:
• a cash award ($3,000 each)
• mentorship and recommendations from department faculty (eg. one-on-one faculty lunch meetings)
• research presentation critiquing and filming – view scholar research videos
• funding for travel to give talks at other institutions where they can develop collaborations, increase visibility and receive feedback on their work
• funding to develop and organize a workshop/project to encourage student collaboration, initiate innovative ideas and demonstrate remarkable research

2012-13 Scholar workshop funding was used for the Ph.D. Student Seminar Series.