Shushma Koneti, a master's student in civil engineering, studied 100 intersections in Clark County and found that those that allow left-turning vehicles to cross the intersection on yellow flashing lights resulted in higher crash outcomes.

"There are a lot of flashing yellow left turns in Clark County right now," Koneti said. "It is definitely a quicker way to get out of the signal, but is it safer? No, not all the time at least from what I researched."

Green arrows for left-turning vehicles, she said, are the way to go to increase safety on Clark County roads.

She recently presented her research to a panel of industry judges, along with nearly 70 other graduate researchers, at the College of Engineering's annual graduate symposium.

Down the hallway, computer science master’s student Elakiya Reajendran Sathiyamoorthi, presented her project — MoodBeatz — to the judging panel.

Her project captures real-time facial emotions to help users find the music that best matches their mood.

“We are deeply connected with music in our day-to-day life,” Sathiyamoorthi said. “What if that music understands our emotions and adapts based on that?”

MoodBeatz captured the judges’ attention and won second place in the computer science category. Several other researchers were recognized with first- and second-place prizes at an awards luncheon one week later.

The following students were honored for their research excellence:

Electrical and Computer Engineering

• First Place: Evan Chrisney
• Second Place: Luis Rendon

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction

• First Place: Unmesa Ray
• Second Place: Morteza Nazaripour

Computer Science

• First Place: Farshid Khouzani
• Second Place: Elakiya Reajendran Sathiyamoorthi

Mechanical Engineering

• First Place: Isaac Berk
• Second Place: Sunjeet Saha

Popular Choice

• Sampson Bendor 

Competition Overall

• Second Place: Ahmadreza Khatamgooya
• Grand Prize: Daniel Fisher