Data Science Student and Chapman Engineering Faculty Receive IEEE Best Paper Award for Their Faculty-Mentored Research “I gained skills that I believe can only be taught through working on complex long-term projects like this.” - Maha Bhatti (Data Science ‘26)
October 6, 2025
Chapman University and the Fowler School of Engineering offer numerous opportunities for undergraduate students to pursue research. With faculty experienced in various engineering fields, students can choose to research photonics, machine learning, and so much more.
Faculty-mentored research provides opportunities for students, facilitating growth not only in their research skills but also in their professional careers. Undergraduate research students have the chance to apply their hands-on experiences to pursue diverse paths, whether in academia, where they can further their studies and contribute to scholarly work, or in industry, where they can leverage their technical skills and innovative thinking.
Pursuing Successful Research Beyond the Classroom
For data science student Maha Bhatti, pursuing research with engineering faculty had award-winning benefits. “I was interested in pursuing research because I wanted to do something different and more meaningful than just in-class projects. Specifically with Dr. Arasteh, I’ve been given the opportunity to work with the best of both worlds, software and hardware,” shared Bhatti.
Dr. Emad Arasteh is a notable researcher and valuable member of the faculty who involves students in advanced research. Dr. Arasteh and undergraduate research student Bhatti received the Best Paper Award at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) COINS 2025 in UW-Madison for their recent publication, Performance Prediction of SystemC TLM-2.0 Contention-Aware DNN Models.
Dr. Emad Arasteh accepting the Best Paper Award on behalf of Maha Bhatti ’26 and himself.
“This international conference particularly focuses on the intersection of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). This research addresses a critical bottleneck in embedded system design, namely investing hundreds of hours in simulation to find an optimal design for the best performance. The paper proposed a novel framework to predict the performance of deep neural networks using transaction-level models,” shared Dr. Arasteh.
Bhatti’s contribution to the research included “setting up simulations, conducting statistical analysis, and creating visualizations that allowed the team to predict system-level model performance without extensive simulations,” said Bhatti.
This award signifies milestones for Dr. Arasteh, Bhatti, and the Fowler School of Engineering as leaders in fostering groundbreaking research and education in engineering disciplines. Their paper was selected from 182 global submissions, including those from top-ranked institutions and industry leaders.
“One of my biggest takeaways from this experience has been learning the lifecycle of research in general, and how to get through barriers. I have learned to work around problems, think creatively to find solutions, and to embrace the difficulties and power through,” shared Bhatti.
Congratulations to Dr. Emad Arasteh and Maha Bhatti! Such recognition represents the successful mentorship that every Chapman engineering and computer science student can experience and demonstrates how research at Chapman exceeds expectations.
To learn more about the Chapman engineering faculty and their research, visit the Engineering Faculty Research page.