Award Recognition
Jaffe Prize
Yunus Kovankaya is a graduating senior involved as a TA for Engineering for Community Development (CIEE3260), undergraduate researcher at the Columbia Water Center, co-program manager for Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Ghana, and E-board member of the Muslim Students Association. He was raised in a Turkish-Taiwanese immigrant household in Tallahassee, FL. His research, influenced by his experiences in North Florida, focuses on improving access to wastewater treatment in the Deep South. Additionally, his work for EWB has centered around increasing awareness of domestic water problems, by starting a project in rural California, and learning problem solving techniques from Ghanaian engineers, professors, and development practitioners. Going forward he hopes to keep learning about water issues in the U.S. and abroad through a policy and engineering lens.
Elhamdulillah, Elhamdulillah, Elhamdulillah. I would like to thank my family, especially my mother Pi-Ching and older brother Irfan for always being there for me; my friends for helping me get through the past four years; Dr. Lall, Dr. Kawashima, Dr. Schwetschenau, and Mr. Samuel Gamson for being great engineering mentors; and Ustadaha Amina Darwish, Dr. Mikhayle Deveaux, and the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood in Harlem for shaping my values as a human being.