Announcing the Recipients of the Fall 2024 Architecture Awards

B.Arch & M.Arch Student Award
The Burdett Assistantship is open to students pursuing their first professional degree in architecture and is intended to support projects and activities that will enhance the winning student’s future work.

Awardee: Grace Kolosek, B.Arch ’25
Proposal: Function + Necessity : Mothering Through Architecture + Artifact
Award: $3,000
Jury Comment: The funds will support Grace in advancing her thesis project based in Prague, Czech Republic, covering travel expenses, site documentation through film photography, and the purchase of local materials for her thesis exhibition. The committee was impressed by the proposal’s expression of her deep personal connection to the project through her heritage, along with the well-defined research scope, schedule and budget.

Awardee: Patrick Zheng, B.Arch ’26
Proposal: Rethinking Bamboo Tectonics with Digital Fabrication
Award: $3,000
Jury Comment: The funds will support Patrick’s ongoing research into the design and fabrication of bamboo structures, specifically aiding in the construction of full-scale mockups and prototypes of various architectural assemblies for his thesis project. The committee appreciated the proposal’s clear outline of both the design scope and the production schedule.

Awardee: Sanjana Bandaru, M.Arch ’26
Proposal: Documentation of Architectural Exhibitions and Curatorial Strategies
Award: $3,000
Jury Comment: The funds will support Sanjana's proposal to investigate spatial curation and architectural exhibitions by creating an analytical catalog, which will become a valuable publicly accessible resource.

Undergraduate, Master's & PhD Student Award
The Alwin Cassens, Jr. Memorial Fund in Architecture provides financial support to students to attend conferences or other events in support of their academic pursuits in the area of public interest design.

Awardee: Vanshika Bhaiya, B.Arch ’25
Proposal: Urban Intelligence at the Biennale Architettura; Venice, 2025
Award: $2,000
Jury Comment: The funds will support Vanshika’s exploration of water management infrastructure in informal settlements, which is a key focus of her thesis. Her application highlighted how this research would benefit from insights gained at the Venice Biennale, particularly through its curatorial exhibits, tours and workshops that address climate change challenges through the integration of architecture, urban design and technology.

Awardee: Sohyun Jin, MSCD ’25
Proposal: Presenting co-authored paper “A Minimal Fabrication Grammar for Friction-Based 3D Lattice Structures” at CAADRIA Conference; Tokyo, 2025
Award: $2,000
Jury Comment: The award is granted to support Sohyun’s travel to Tokyo, where she will present a co-authored paper with Prof. Daniel Cardoso Llach at the CAADRIA Conference. Her proposal was exceptional, not only as a model of how research at CMU can advance scholarly contributions, but also for its clear vision of how this research and public engagement will shape her future work, including her thesis and potential collaborations.

Awardee: Ronishka Sabu Nalpathil, PhD-Arch
Proposal: Attending 113th Annual ACSA Meeting: REPAIR; New Orleans, 2025
Award: $2,000
Jury Comment: The award will support Ronishka’s participation in the ACSA Annual Conference, where she will engage in discussions that resonate strongly with her PhD research on reimagining design as an ethical response to historical damage. Her application highlighted a meaningful alignment with this year’s conference theme, REPAIR, and outlined plans to synthesize findings to guide her next research steps in preparation for next year’s ACSA Annual Conference.

Undergraduate Student Award
The Measuring & Monitoring Services, Inc. Internship Fund provides financial support to undergraduate students who wish to undertake a summer internship or related program under the guidance of established professionals during the summer preceding their final year of undergraduate study.

Awardee: Charlie Hymowitz, B.Arch ’26
Internship: ARUP BIM Intern; Chicago, 2025
Award: $1,500
Jury Comment: The fund will support Charlie’s internship as a BIM intern at ARUP’s Chicago office in the summer of 2025. His application demonstrated a strong alignment between his professional goals and academic training as a Bachelor of Architecture and MS in Civil Engineering student.

Undergraduate & Master's Student Award
The Ralph H. Burt Jr. and Alva L. Hill Scholarship provides financial support to students whose work focuses on sustainable environments, performance-based design, and systems integration throughout the design process in alignment with the legacy of the work of Burt Hill.

Awardee: Alexandra Wang, B.Arch ’25
Award: $2,000
Jury Comment: Alexandra’s work demonstrates a strong understanding of system integration through whole-building simulation and performance-based feedback, aligning with sustainable design excellence. Her engagement with materiality at a real-world scale and her interest in creating community-centered environments add valuable dimensions to sustainable built form.

Awardee: Khevna Modi, MSSD ’25
Award: $2,000
Jury Comment: Khevna’s work addresses sustainability on a holistic level, thoughtfully engaging with materiality and large-scale ecology to prioritize both community well-being and ecological health. The committee was impressed by her commitment to material mindfulness and her approach to sustainability, which adapts scientific frameworks to a deeply personal and thoughtful design process.

Undergraduate & Master’s Student Award
The Gindroz Prize for Summer Travel and Study in Europe was established to enrich lives and enhance education through travel and the study of traditional architecture, urbanism and music in Europe.

Awardee: Tai Le, M.Arch ’26
Proposal: Local Architecture Reflections in Venice, Grado and Camargue Laguna
Award: $10,000
Jury Comment: This proposal builds on the student's 2022 undergraduate graduation project by investigating lagunas in Venice, Grado and Camargue. The student prepared an excellent travel schedule, and the jury appreciated the sketchbook format and outstanding character of drawings submitted as that is the manner in which the work will be conducted during the travel. It is important that the drawings address the subject at multiple scales, from the general to the detail, all of which will be key in addressing the proposed subject. The proposal and portfolio communicated incredible technical sensibilities interwoven with a narrative to study architecture beyond cataloging and studying buildings and landscapes that are visible, tangible and fixed in place.

Undergraduate, Master's & PhD Student Awards
The Luther S. Lashmit and Louis F. Valentour Traveling Scholarships support international travel and research under the guidance of a faculty advisor for students with one or more years remaining in their degree program.

Awardee: Xian Li, B.Arch ’28
Proposal: Post-Industrial Cityscapes in Northeast China: Urban adaptations to Paradigm Shift
Award: $6,000
Jury Comment: This project will investigate post-industrial cityscapes in northeast China. The student proposed five to seven day visits each to seven different cities that will be analyzed via ethnography, photography, photomontage, sketching and historical research. They also plan to share their findings through an exhibit and in print. The jury found their submitted photo montage samples compelling and is excited to see how this work might shed light on other post-industrial cities like Pittsburgh.

Awardee: Jerry Xu, B.Arch ’26
Proposal: Defying Urbanization: The Resilience of China’s Nail Houses
Award: $5,500
Jury Comment: This is an incredibly compelling proposal to document China's "dingzihu," or nail houses. By weaving together collage, drawing and oral storytelling, the proposal addresses significant themes of preservation, individual resilience and how ordinary narratives of these communities remain as forms of resistance to modern urban planning. This research has substantial potential to deepen the ongoing research of large-scale urbanization projects in the Global South and challenge how architects and urban designers approach frameworks in sustainability, reparations and ethics.

Awardee: Waku Ken-Opurum, PhD-AECM
Proposal: Visualising the Breath of a Region: Exploring the Nexus of Air Quality, Health, and Community Engagement in the Niger Delta Through Art
Award: $6,500
Jury Comment: In this compelling proposal, travel is the precondition of an exhibition and community engagement project. The student’s design of a virtual reality installation about air pollution will be tested with the local communities of two Nigerian cities most affected by it. The award intervenes at a key moment, supporting the effort to connect measuring and visualizing air-pollution to the lived experience of it on the ground and to gather feedback that will inform the research's future trajectory.

Awardee: Ifrah Asif, PhD-Arch
Proposal: Travel for PhD Research Investigating the Impact of Climate Change on Built Heritage in Pakistan
Award: $2,500
Jury Comment: This travel award will partially support the student's attendance at the International Conference on Heritage Tourism and Cultural Heritage Assessment in Islamabad, Pakistan and provide an opportunity to gather preliminary data for their PhD dissertation on the impact of climate change on built heritage in Pakistan. The student proposes initial interviews, collecting regional climate data, and visiting potential case study sites in Islamabad and Lahore. The jury appreciates this student's detailed itinerary and reasonable budget.

Awardee: Ronishka Sabu Nalpathil, PhD-Arch
Proposal: Disrupted Lineages: Colonial Dispossessions, Erasure and the Unmaking of Kerala’s Matrilineal Taravads
Award: $5,500
Jury Comment: This was an especially strong proposal about grappling with colonial disruptions of Indigenous matrilineal practices and communal households in the State of Kerala in Southwest India. The proposal includes archival research that traces legal histories and their effects on urban morphology and hopes to establish paths to repair pre-colonial ways of living. The jury was impressed with the level of background work this student has already completed, the clarity of their methodology, and their detailed schedule and budget. 

Faculty Award
The Ferguson Jacobs Prize in Architecture was established to promote the continuity of traditional architecture and building techniques in contemporary architectural practice. The prize supports projects and travel experiences that explore traditional architecture and building techniques as vital knowledge to an architect’s education, practice and scholarship.

Awardee: Vicky Achnani, Associate Studio Professor
Proposal: Carbon and Craft_Joints of Circular Design: Design for Disassembly in the Construction Techniques of Traditional Japanese Architecture
Award: $6,500
Jury Comment: For this well-framed project, Vicky seeks to study and revisit Japanese traditional architectural joinery systems to explore reversible construction methods that align well with both the mission of the Ferguson Jacobs prize and the School. The jury was impressed with a very thorough proposal that seeks insights from traditional cultures to inform contemporary sustainable architecture. Traditional Japanese architecture, he hypothesizes, may help designers develop new design-for-disassembly approaches that can significantly enhance modern practices, such as alternative connection systems for CLT (cross laminated timber) that reduce reliance on screws, bolts and chemical bonding. This proposal is part of a sustained interest in bamboo that Vicky began in India and has brought to CMU and our students. The funds will support the development of a new course, an exhibition and his travel to conduct research in Japan.

Awardee: Laura Garófalo, Associate Professor
Proposal: Exploring the Manufacturing and Construction Traditions of Architectural Ceramics in China
Award: $6,500
Jury Comment: For this proposal, the funds will support travel, field documentation, interviews and representation of the findings in a book chapter Laura has been invited to contribute. This is part of her long-term research into architectural ceramics and terra-cotta. Terra-cotta is both an ancient, traditional material used since antiquity throughout the world (including a rich heritage in China), and a material of renewed interest in cutting-edge architecture as designers seek more sustainable and long-lived construction materials. Although her interest in China is new, this prize will help Laura expand her understanding of how the material was, and continues to be, used in Asia and other parts of the globe.

Faculty Award
The Isabel Sophia Liceaga Discretionary Fund was established to support faculty-led projects that critically engage students and advance the mission and reputation of the School.

Awardee: Vicky Achnani, Associate Studio Professor
Proposal: Resilience: Enhancing Bamboo building system - Sankofa Community Green House _A Design Build Project led by students and Faculty
Award: $3,000
Jury Comment: The funds will help support an ongoing project to retool a bamboo pavilion designed for CMU Spring Carnival and install it at the Sankofa Community Garden in Pittsburgh's Homewood neighborhood. The jury noted that the project is ambitious, fits well with the School's mission, and has a proven track record of success in engaging students, faculty and the community. In order to be effective, these kinds of projects require ongoing commitment and funding over a longer period of time that does not easily match the semester schedule or the busy lives of our students. We appreciate Vicky's dedication and passion to realizing this important work.

Undergraduate Student Award
The Andrew Carnegie Society (ACS) Scholars Program recognizes undergraduate seniors who embody CMU’s high standards of academic excellence, volunteerism, leadership and involvement in student organizations, athletics or the arts. They are selected each year by their deans and department heads to represent their class in service and leadership. Scholars receive a monetary award, funded by ACS members, to support their academic and personal growth, and participate in an annual giveback event with $5,000 to support student-led projects, campus organizations or the campus community.

Awardee: Jackie Yu, B.Arch ’25

Undergraduate Student Award
The AIA Pennsylvania Architectural Excellence Student Award recognizes the exceptional scholastic achievement and future promise of a student in their upcoming graduating class. The student shall have proven to be proficient in both academics and design, and ready to take on the challenges and responsibilities of the work environment in an architecture firm. The student is nominated by the faculty.

Awardee: Brody Ploeger, B.Arch ’25