Ms. Avia Bar received her bachelor’s degree from the Department of Polymer Materials Engineering 4 years ago and started her doctoral studies, in a direct track, as part of the Shenkar-UMass Lowell agreement for a joint Ph.D. program under the sponsorship of the Pernick Foundation.

Avia, who will submit her thesis in a few weeks, was notified last week of her selection as the outstanding graduate student for her academic achievements at the Plastics Engineering Department at UMass Lowell, from among the 2021 graduating class.

In her thesis, Avia is researching and developing a new generation of electrical conductive materials based on carbon nanotube fibers with an elongation capacity of over 200%, while maintaining constant electrical conductivity for applications of wearable computing and soft robotics.

Her thesis supervisors are professor Joey Mead from UMass Lowell and professors Hanna Dodiuk and Shmuel Kenig from Shenkar.