Emil Laftchiev, Ph.D. student in electrical engineering, advised by Constantino Lagoa, won the Lagoa, Ray, and Monkowski Graduate Award for Best Paper at the 11th annual College of Engineering Research Symposium. The paper is titled “Multi-Attribute Data Dynamics Discontinuity Identification: An Over-Bounding Approach Using One-Dimensional Probabilistic Constraints.” The paper focuses on creating lookup databases of data features that are then used in vehicle localization. In particular, this paper focuses on the identification of significant data features across the output of multiple sensors. Using multiple time series significantly increases the accuracy of vehicle localization and the robustness of the localization process to noise.

Laftchiev, who will graduate in the fall of 2014, plans on pursuing a career in research focusing on big data issues such as feature identification, database structuring, and robustness of data processing algorithms with respect to noise.