Because Aggies Planned, I Can...

...Create Better Prosthetics for Amputees. 

While on a volunteer mission in Jordan, Woolim Hong ’17 ’22 encountered a Syrian refugee who lost his arm in a bombing. His challenges inspired Hong to investigate new prosthetics that could improve the lives of amputees from all walks of life. 

“At my undergraduate school in South Korea, we highly valued helping people, so when I saw the spirit of Texas A&M, it immediately felt like home,” Hong emphasized. “I had no background in prosthetics, but everyone here supported my passions and made my research possible.” 

After receiving his master’s from Texas A&M, Hong began his doctoral work supported by the Byron Anderson ’54 Fellowship. He is developing robotic prostheses that could provide more synchronized motion for transfemoral amputees who have lost both their knee and ankle joints. “I’m doing what I want to do—helping people,” Hong said. “Thanks to the generous donor who planned this fellowship, I can try to make the world a better place.” 

...Build Virtual Foundations for Architecture. 

The future of architecture is immersive for Zohreh Shaghaghian ’19. Growing up in Iran, she was inspired to study design by the culturally significant buildings that surrounded her. “Experiencing the historic architectural monuments was interesting because those structures have served as gathering places for hundreds of years, building up a community and making the foundations of society,” Shaghaghian shared. 

For her, architecture is all about exploring spaces through spatial experience, so Shaghaghian decided to leverage technology and spatial design in a project funded in part by the Jonathan King Memorial Student Research Endowment. By combining geometry and augmented reality (AR), she hopes to create an interactive digital learning space through immersive AR for future architects to better understand the environments they design. 
 

...Design More Sustainable Communities. 

Garrett Hairston ’20 ’22 wants to leave nothing behind. As an engineer passionate about carbon footprint reduction, Hairston has his eyes set on crafting a net-zero community fully dependent on renewable energy and water recycling. “I’ve always loved spending time in nature, so when I realized the environmental issues our world faces, I was driven to alleviate those problems any way I can,” he enthused.  

Supported by the Byron Anderson ’54 Fellowship, Hairston studies nature’s sustainable networks, such as food webs, to uncover more efficient modes of human resource consumption. He is also researching reliable renewable energy and identifying solutions to prevent energy crises like the Texas power grid failure during the February 2021 winter storm.  

“I’ve been a little unsure of myself sometimes, but knowing that someone put their trust in me through this fellowship is hugely motivating,” Hairston said. “I hope that my sustainable systems research can one day make actual change regarding environmental issues.”