My ESL: meet the ESL Student Committee
When asked to describe their favorite aspect of Ohio State’s ElectroScience Laboratory, you’ll often find students, faculty, and researchers, alike, start by highlighting the state-of-the-art facility and longstanding tradition of innovation.
But don’t be surprised if the topic of ESL’s close-knit community also comes up.
After all, ESL is a place where collaboration is celebrated alongside discovery. It’s a place where world-class faculty and research scientists are connecting to solve problems and challenge what’s possible.
And it’s where the next generation of experts are honing their skills.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll introduce you to current members of the ESL Student Committee. That way you can get to know these difference makers — in their own words.
Meet Joe
Joe Vinci
Graduate Research Associate
ElectroScience Laboratory
Where are you from?
“Dublin, Ohio”
What's your favorite thing about ESL?
“Everyone at ESL is doing something interesting and cool.”
How do you think ESL will help you in achieving your goals?
“ESL makes it so easy to connect with prestigious opportunities — in my case NASA. No dream job is inaccessible.”
Tell us about the work you're conducting at ESL.
“Currently, I am working 50/50 on cognitive radar and remote sensing/propagation. Cognitive radar involves the development of algorithms to make in-situ optimizations to radar parameters when observing a target whereas the objective of my remote sensing work is to model atmospheric ducting to predict waveform propagation behavior.”
What qualities do you look for in a friend?
“Courtesy, open-mindedness, confidence”
Has someone had a particular impact on you during your time at ESL?
“The other graduate students at ESL. Their GPAs, fellowships, and number of papers submitted really make me competitive, which forces me to do better.”
What motivates you?
“The goal of landing my dream job and understanding that success at ESL is the best way to get there.”
Meet Aaron
Aaron Brandewie
Graduate Research Associate
ElectroScience Laboratory
Where are you from?
"Minster, Ohio"
What’s your favorite thing about ESL?
“The friendly and always helpful ESL community.”
How do you think ESL will help you in achieving your goals?
“ESL has strong industry connections. I have had multiple internships where employees frequently speak highly of ESL”
Tell us about the work you're conducting at ESL.
“My research focus is radar imaging. Currently, I am looking into combining multiple low-resolution inverse synthetic aperture (ISAR) images to create higher resolution images. The ISAR images are created from a passive radar system that measures scattering of HD television transmission waves.”
What motivates you?
“The fact that there is always something new to learn.”
What’s something you wish you knew during the grad recruitment process that you know now?
“Make sure to reach out to professors that are doing research you are interested in.”
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
“Watching movies, camping, and hanging out with friends”
What qualities do you look for in a friend?
“Humor and trust”
Where is the best spot to study on campus?
“Thompson Library’s grand reading room, if I’m on main campus. Otherwise, I usually study at my desk at ESL.”
What would you sing at Karaoke night?
“Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival”
Meet Wei Jian
Wei Jian Foo
Graduate Research Associate
ElectroScience Laboratory
What do you love about Ohio State?
“The classes are excellent.”
Tell us about the work you’re conducting at ESL.
“I’m working on the design of wideband antenna arrays for 5G mobile applications, and research on a novel beam steering technique.”
Has someone had a particular impact on you during your time at ESL?
“Yes, Dr. Kubilay Sertel. He’s my adviser and often steers me in the right direction during my study.”
What motivates you?
“My adviser, Dr. Sertel. He’s very knowledgable about a large range of topics and is well versed in both theory and practice. I want to become an engineer like him.”
Where is the best spot to study on campus?
“The library at ESL. It’s convenient, and the chairs are fantastic. There’s also no restriction on discussions and doesn’t require any reservation. There’s a large window that you can stare out of and reflect when you’re stuck in your work.”
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
“Spending time with my wife. We typically go out for walks, carry out household chores, and watch Netflix together.”
What’s your favorite thing about ESL?
“The lobby, offices, and break room are very clean and bright. It seems very simple, but it makes working at ESL an enjoyable experience.”
Katrina Guido
NDSEG Fellowship Recipient
ElectroScience Laboratory
Where are you from?
“Macungie, Pennsylvania”
What's your favorite Ohio State tradition?
"The whole concept of crossing out all of the 'M's' on campus still boggles my mind. Ohio State is, if anything, dedicated to the rivalry.”
Tell us about the work you're conducting at ESL.
“My focus area is electromagnetics with bioengineering as my secondary area. In my first year, I worked on a wireless brain implant that functioned kind of like a passive RFID device to record neural signals. I'm now working on applying the principles of radiometry to monitor human health indicators.”
What's your favorite thing about ESL?
“The community”’
How do you think ESL will help you in achieving your goals?
“Brand recognition. ESL is well respected by a wide range of employers.”
What are three words that describe you?
“Determined, old-soul, and direct”
Where is your favorite place to eat on campus?
“I haven't actually ever eaten on campus, but Brassica, which has a location super close to ESL (and in the Short North), is always a really good option.”
What's something you wish you knew during the grad recruitment process that you know now?
“Reach out to professors outside of these events (the earlier, the better). The sooner you can make contact and start a conversation, the sooner you can have an ally at that university. Not really something I learned after the fact, but I did it, and thus far, it's worked out well.”
Where is the best spot to study on campus?
“Your desk at ESL - there's usually someone around who can help, and it's pretty quiet most of the time.”
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
“Hiking (sadly not much in Ohio), baking, cooking, reading, biking (both road and mountain), yoga, lifting, playing tennis, and spending time with family”
What qualities do you look for in a friend?
“Someone who's different from me and is willing to put up with my nonsense and have a good time.”
Daniel Ospina Acero
Graduate Research Associate
ElectroScience Laboratory
Where are you from?
“Colombia”
What do you love about Ohio State?
“Firstly, I have always been impressed by the infrastructure and the great number of resources dedicated to doing world-class research. Secondly, due to its size, I have always seen as a great strength that at Ohio State, you can find all branches of knowledge, essentially, with experts in almost any field of science.”
Tell us about the work you're conducting at ESL.
“I primarily work on image reconstruction in Electrical Capacitance Tomography, which essentially corresponds to forming images of the material distribution in the region of interest from capacitance measurements.”
What's your favorite thing about ESL?
“The great facilities and the easy access that it offers to all the things that you may need to carry out research successfully.”
Where is your favorite place to eat on campus?
“The place is not technically ‘on campus,’ but it's in the campus area. It’s a (nonambitious) Chinese restaurant on High St. and Woodruff Ave. called Joy's Village.”
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
“Playing guitar, watching Youtube videos, watching movies, playing soccer, playing table tennis”
What qualities do you look for in a friend?
“Honesty, humility, open-mindedness, and the ability to think critically and deeply"
What's your go-to Karaoke song?
"It's 'Turn the Page' by Bob Seger"
