Thirty-one Penn State graduate students earned awards at the 2026 Graduate Exhibition — the premier annual community showcase for graduate student research, scholarship and creative activity across the University — hosted by the J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox Graduate School on Friday, March 27, on the University Park campus.
In his job as a quality manager, Pavlo Mrdjenovic specializes in making improvements, from reducing aerosol can production costs to optimizing his skills by continuing his education. As a Penn State graduate student, for his engineering management capstone project, he analyzed production data to create an optimized model for manufacturing aerosol can components. Mrdjenovic said the model provided a useful tool to factor in changes to material costs and determine the most favorable outcomes.
The Nittany AI Challenge announced the winners of the "Prototype Phase" of the competition. Fifteen student teams will move on to the "Minimum Viable Product Phase."
This fall, more than 500 Pennsylvania residents graduated with degrees they earned online through Penn State World Campus. These graduates are fueling the state's economy with future-ready skills without leaving their communities.
Knowing how competitive summer internships could be, graduate student Faizan Raza submitted hundreds of applications even before he began his master’s degree in data analytics at Penn State. Out of 14,000 applicants, he landed one of 30 internship spots at cybersecurity firm Zscaler and built an AI-powered service that automated 90% of data processing tasks for his team.
What can technologists do to help artificial intelligence (AI) comply with ethical values for the public good? A team, including researchers from Penn State, explored ways that blockchain — the technology behind cryptocurrency — could help enforce ethical boundaries for AI systems.
When Bharat Sharma was accepted to Penn State Great Valley’s Master of Data Analytics program, he said he remembered feeling joy that gave way to uncertainty about how he would afford graduate school. A scholarship fueled his studies and his research, helping him use technology to make people’s jobs easier.
For his master's degree in artificial intelligence (AI), Nicholas Gahman explored new frontiers in technology, such as integrating machine learning into cybersecurity as part of his capstone project. He said he is looking forward to using his skills in his new job as an AI research engineer at Lockheed Martin.
Data analytics alum Rahul Vemuri honed his skills in organizing large datasets predictive modeling to make sound business decisions. He showcased his skills during an industry partnership project and internship with PQ LLC. His talent in uncovering patterns and insights from the data impressed PQ’s leadership, leading to a full-time position as a data engineer specializing in market forecasting.
