The Madison College Honors Program presented its honors competition last month. Many promising students demonstrated their research by writing books, creating businesses, designing computer games or conducting experiments. This year, proud participants demonstrated their hard work and research by presenting their ideas to judges. 

The program started in 2014, giving students the chance to earn degree credits and gain workplace skills to become more competitive for scholarships, internships, jobs and transfer colleges. Additionally, it motivates students to remain in school by offering something substantial to showcase their academic interests. 

The following are the Madison College Honors Program Competition Winners of Fall 2023:  

Grace Zongo, 1st Place 

Computer Design: 8-Bit CPU, Part II 

Program or Discipline: Electrical Engineering  

Honors Supervising Faculty Member: Jacob Eapen 

This project is the design completion and implementation stage of an 8-Bit  

computer using an Alter FPGA D2 board and an exploration of applications 

of the setup.   

Akanksha Denduluri, 2nd Place

Effects of Plant Hormones 

Honors Supervising Faculty Member: Armila Aeilts 

This project is an investigation of the current literature on plant hormones and 

their impact on ecosystems and domestic crops, and a proposed experiment to test  

select hormones. 

Barkewende (Flore) Nikiema, 3rd Place

Dual Axis Solar Tracker 

Honors Supervising Faculty Member: Jacob Eapen 

This project focused on optimizing the tilt and angle of solar panels by motorizing 

them with appropriate electronics and sensors in order to more effectively  

capture the sun’s rays.