The College of Engineering & Computing recognizes the outstanding graduates of Summer 2026, selected for academic excellence, research impact, entrepreneurial achievement, national recognition and perseverance through exceptional challenges.
Graduates are honored each semester at the college's Induction to the Profession Ceremony, where they are inducted into the Order of the Engineer, Constructor and Computing Professional, upholding devotion to the standards and dignity of their profession.
Outstanding Bachelor's Graduate Award Recipients
Catherine Alexander, Biomedical Engineering
Alexander graduated with a 3.97 GPA and served as a Learning Assistant for physics courses supporting more than 80 students at a time. She conducted pancreatic cancer drug-response research at the Translational Genomics Research Institute and spent nearly two years in FIU's Vascular Physiology and Biotransport Laboratory, presenting her findings at the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) conference in San Diego.
Jimena Cohello Prado, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Originally from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, Cohello Prado moved to the United States alone to follow in her father's footsteps as a civil engineer. She maintained a 3.81 GPA, captained FIU's American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) GeoWall competition team and worked as a field engineer intern while earning multiple ASCE scholarships.
Zayn Nishad Latchman, Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences
Latchman graduated with a 3.83 GPA and a focus on cybersecurity, earning five industry certifications and interning at the Security Operations Center of Jackson Memorial Hospital. He conducted digital forensics research through VICEROY, FIU's Virtual Institute for Cyber and Electromagnetic Spectrum Research, and published an undergraduate paper on vulnerabilities in deep learning models.
Maria Montero, Moss School of Construction
Montero came to construction management by way of architecture, art and design. After immigrating to the United States, she balanced work and school while maintaining her Bright Futures scholarship. She helped her team place first out of 13 in the Fall 2025 Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Region 2 Preconstruction Competition and now works as a project engineer on the Waldorf Astoria Miami with John Moriarty & Associates.
Yaroslav Petrashko, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Petrashko rebuilt his academic career at FIU after fleeing the war in Ukraine. He contributed to HyperNeuro, a Gordon Bell Prize-nominated brain-inspired computing project, as the only undergraduate on the team, and co-founded Agora Lab, a global AI research community with more than 15,000 members. He heads to Columbia University this fall to pursue a master's in computer science.
Rafael Alvarez Jaidar, Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Raised in Torreón, Mexico, Alvarez Jaidar co-authored published research in the International Journal of Fatigue applying machine learning to predict material behavior. As controls lead on NAVIA, a smart walker designed to help visually impaired users move independently, he helped build technology meant to directly improve people's safety. He heads to Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany this winter to pursue a master's in medical engineering.
Outstanding Master's Graduate Award
Gabriel Alvarez, Computer Engineering
Alvarez finished his FIU undergraduate degree remotely while supporting himself in Gainesville before a research assistantship brought him back to campus and into graduate school. His thesis on neural network behavior at the hardware level produced a patent filing, a publication in Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Access and a first-authored paper in Springer Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering (LNICST).
Outstanding Doctoral Graduate Award
Daniel Adeniranye, Engineering & Computing Education
Adeniranye pursued his Ph.D. while grieving the loss of both parents, relocating from Dubai to the United States along the way. He graduated with a 3.95 GPA, authored more than 20 scholarly works and introduced two original theoretical frameworks to his field. This fall, he joins the faculty of The Ohio State University's Department of Engineering Education.