[{"id":9387,"date":"2026-06-25T22:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T03:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9387"},"modified":"2026-06-25T22:27:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T03:27:13","slug":"casiah-evans-masters-thesis-defense-friday-july-3-2026-1000-am-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/casiah-evans-masters-thesis-defense-friday-july-3-2026-1000-am-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Casiah Evans Master\u2019s Thesis Defense, Friday, July 3, 2026 @ 10:00 am Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Temilola Salami<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: FAITH IN THE STRUGGLE: RELIGIOUS COPING AS A MODERATOR BETWEEN RACE-RELATED STRESS AND WELL-BEING IN BLACK COLLEGE STUDENTS<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT: <\/strong>The current study explored the relationship between race-related stress and psychological well-being among Black college students moderated by religious coping. By examining these processes within a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) setting, this study extends prior research by linking race-related stress to negative psychological outcomes among an HBCU sample (Odafe et al., 2017; Utsey & Ponterotto, 1996). HBCUs embody educational environments that are culturally affirming while simultaneously shaping a students\u2019 experience and response to race-related stress, therefore, making this setting ideal for understanding coping mechanisms that are culturally grounded. This study employed a moderation analysis to assess whether religious coping decreases the association between race-related stress and two forms of well-being (eudaimonic and hedonic). Participants\u2019 ages ranged from 18 to 51 years. The sample consisted of 42 males and 201 females. Results revealed that race-related stress was significantly associated with hedonic well-being, such that higher levels of race-related stress were associated with lower levels of hedonic well-being. Although race-related stress was positively correlated with eudaimonic well-being, was not significantly associated with eudaimonic well-being in the final regression model. Religious coping did not significantly moderate the association between race-related stress and meaning in life or hedonic well-being. Collectively the results underscore the multifaceted relationship between race-related stress and well-being while emphasizing the significance of exploring the experiences for this underserved population, Black college students.<\/p>\n

Keywords: <\/strong>Race-related stress, religious coping, Black college students, well-being, eudaimonic, hedonic, HBCU<\/p>\n

Location Online:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zoom Link: <\/strong>https:\/\/teams.microsoft.com\/meet\/264674752840021?p=AIk8W4pKREV6w0wuZg<\/a>
\nMeeting ID<\/strong>: 264 674 752 840 021
\nPasscode<\/strong>: CG6cg3ek<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9388,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-9387","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9387"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9385,"date":"2026-06-25T22:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T03:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9385"},"modified":"2026-06-25T22:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T03:24:09","slug":"april-white-masters-thesis-defense-thursday-july-2-2026-1000-am-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/april-white-masters-thesis-defense-thursday-july-2-2026-1000-am-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"April White Master\u2019s Thesis Defense, Thursday, July 2, 2026 @ 10:00 am Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Temilola Salami<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: PARASOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS AND COMPLEX TRAUMA AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF INTERPERSONAL FACTORS<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT: <\/strong>Exposure to repeated traumatic events, specifically interpersonal in nature, can increase both the need for interpersonal relationships and the challenges that arise within these relationships. Individuals who have experienced complex trauma can develop a dysfunctional interpersonal schema, leading to increased anxiety, decreased trust, and feelings of rejection in close relationships. Paradoxically, complex trauma increases the need for social relationships. Supportive social relationships can buffer the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms. However, those who experience complex trauma are less likely to develop healthy, satisfying, and supportive interpersonal relationships. As Black college students are at an increased risk of complex trauma exposure and inadequate social support, they may seek alternative means to meet their social support needs. Parasocial relationships are the pseudo-relationships people develop with preferred media characters. The influx of technology has created a media-rich environment that fosters attachment between media personae and viewers. Though this concept has been examined in communication studies, particularly with TV viewership, there is an increased need to study these relationships at an individual level, particularly given the rise in social media influencers. This study examined parasocial relationship development among college students, attending a Historically Black University (HBCU), who have experienced complex trauma. Due to interpersonal problems and the need for social support, it was hypothesized that individuals who have experienced complex trauma would show an increase in parasocial relationships. The Social Surrogacy theory was used to explain these concepts related to parasocial relationship development. Specifically, the following hypotheses were assessed: HBCU college students who have experienced complex trauma are more likely to have interpersonal problems and have less perceived social support. Interpersonal problems and lack of perceived social support are associated with parasocial relationship engagement, and the association between complex trauma and parasocial relationship engagement are mediated by both interpersonal problems and perceived social support. Survey data was collected from a sample of 120 HBCU students (90 women, 26 men, and 4 unidentified gender). Participants completed a series of surveys including the Complex Trauma Exposure Screen, Audience Persona Interaction (API) scale, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), and Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IPP). The results highlight the relationship between complex trauma exposure and unsatisfactory social support and an increase in interpersonal problems. However, results demonstrated that neither complex trauma, interpersonal problems nor perceived social support predicted increased engagement in parasocial relationships. These findings highlight the complex nature of parasocial relationship development and use among this student population.<\/p>\n

Keywords: <\/strong>Parasocial relationship, complex trauma, social support, social media<\/p>\n

Location Online:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zoom Link:
\n<\/strong>https:\/\/pvpanther.zoom.us\/j\/4218392943?pwd=ek9Tb0VMdk1wZTJIYXJ0ZDBIeUVUUT09&omn=91683950466<\/a><\/p>\n

Meeting ID<\/strong>: 421 839 2943
\nPasscode<\/strong>: 264359<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9386,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-9385","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9385"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9375,"date":"2026-06-23T00:10:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9375"},"modified":"2026-06-23T00:10:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T05:10:56","slug":"natalie-anderson-doctoral-project-defense-tuesday-june-30-2026-1100-am-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/natalie-anderson-doctoral-project-defense-tuesday-june-30-2026-1100-am-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Natalie Anderson Doctoral Project Defense, Tuesday, June 30, 2026 @ 11:00 am Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Chloe Gaines<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: IMPROVING HOT DEBRIEF COMPLETION RATES AFTER RAPID RESPONSE TEAM EVENTS THROUGH QR CODE ACCESS AND DIGITAL REMINDERS: A QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROJECT<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT: <\/strong>Background: Childhood obesity is a significant public health concern associated with metabolic, cardiovascular, and psychosocial complications. Despite evidence-based recommendations, adherence to pediatric obesity management guidelines remains inconsistent in primary care settings. Purpose: The purpose of this evidence-based quality improvement project was to determine whether provider education on the 2023 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Clinical Practice Guideline for the Evaluation and Treatment of Children and Adolescents with Obesity, combined with implementation of an electronic health record (EHR) clinical decision support prompt, improved provider knowledge and adherence to guideline-recommended obesity management practices. Methods: A quasi-experimental pre-post design was conducted in a privately owned pediatric primary care clinic in Northwest Houston, Texas. The intervention consisted of a provider education session and implementation of an EHR prompt that activated when a patient’s body mass index (BMI) was at or above the 95th percentile. Provider knowledge was assessed using pre- and post-test surveys. Adherence was evaluated through retrospective chart reviews comparing pre-intervention and post-intervention outcomes for pediatric patients with obesity. Results: Provider knowledge improved following the educational intervention. Mean knowledge scores increased from 7.33 on the pre-test to 9.00 on the post-test, with a mean difference of 1.67 points and a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 1.29). Adherence among patients aged 10 years and older increased from 7.7% (3\/39) during the pre-intervention period to 12.5% (4\/32) during the post-intervention period. Adherence among patients younger than 10 years remained 0.0% during both periods. Although adherence increased following implementation, Fisher’s exact test indicated no statistically significant association between time period and adherence to AAP guideline recommendations (p = .701). Cohen’s h was 0.119, indicating a small effect size. Conclusion: Provider education combined with EHR clinical decision support improved provider knowledge and was associated with a very small increase in adherence to evidence-based pediatric obesity management guidelines. Although statistically significant improvements in adherence were not observed during the three-month implementation period, the intervention demonstrated feasibility within a pediatric primary care setting and showed potential to support guideline-concordant obesity management. Continued implementation and ongoing monitoring may further improve adherence and support sustainable practice change.<\/p>\n

Keywords: <\/strong>Childhood obesity management, provider education, electronic health record prompt, guideline adherence<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Location Online:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Zoom Link<\/strong>: https:\/\/pvpanther.zoom.us\/j\/93479828577?pwd=inkUMW0Ajr8tuCmjFE4fxzWVVlU2T6.1<\/p>\n

Meeting ID<\/strong>: 934 7982 8577<\/p>\n

Passcode<\/strong>: 955076<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":7549,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-9375","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9375"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9374,"date":"2026-06-22T20:39:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T01:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9374"},"modified":"2026-06-22T20:39:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T01:39:39","slug":"parthiv-debnath-masters-thesis-defense-tuesday-july-7-2026-1100-am-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/parthiv-debnath-masters-thesis-defense-tuesday-july-7-2026-1100-am-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Parthiv Debnath Master\u2019s Thesis Defense, Tuesday, July 7, 2026 @ 11:00 am Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Lin Gong<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: DISTRIBUTED COORDINATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF UTILITY-SCALE BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS VIA MULTI-AGENT REINFORCEMENT LEARNING<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT: <\/strong>The increasing integration of renewable energies into modern power systems has created significant operational challenges, including transmission congestion, renewable energy curtailment, and increased real-time supply-demand variability, which makes effective coordination and optimization of multiple distributed Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) across power systems a critical problem, a useful solution, yet an unresolved challenge. Existing centralized optimization methods require perfect future information and are incompatible with the confidentiality constraints of deregulated electricity markets, while rule-based approaches fail to capture the multi-objective complexity of real-world power grid operations. This thesis proposes a Multi-Agent Proximal Policy Optimization (MAPPO) framework with Centralized Training and Decentralized Execution (CTDE) to coordinate multiple utility-scale BESS agents placed at strategic locations across large-scale power systems. The proposed framework is trained using an enhanced eighteen-dimensional observation space and an eight-component reward function that simultaneously captures price arbitrage, congestion relief, curtailment mitigation, and battery degradation objectives, while a Gurobi-based Mixed-Integer Quadratic Program (MIQP) solver with perfect foresight about the future electricity market and operating information serves as a benchmark to establish a theoretical performance upper bound. During training, the CTDE approach employs a centralized critic that observes the complete global state of all agents, enabling accurate advantage estimation and stable multi-agent learning, while each actor operates fully independently at deployment using only local information with no inter-agent communication. The synthetic Texas 2000-bus grid is studied as a representative of the Independent System Operator (ISO)-level power systems to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed methods. Experimental results show that the proposed MAPPO framework achieves 80.5% of the Gurobi-based optimal benchmark performance with a Sharpe ratio of 5.53 compared to 2.19 for the best rule-based baseline, with the remaining 19.4% optimality gap representing the fundamental value attributable to the perfect foresight of future LMP trajectories and system-wide operating states that the conventional optimization solver exploits but no real-time policy can really achieve. The numerical studies demonstrate that the proposed MAPPO framework can achieve high-quality and computationally efficient BESS coordination while maintaining full operational feasibility, which outperforms the conventional optimization approach and the evaluated rule-based baseline methods.<\/p>\n

Keywords: <\/strong>Power System Operations, Battery Energy Storage Systems, Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning, Distributed Optimization<\/p>\n

Room Location: <\/strong>Electrical Engineering Conference Room 315D<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":7636,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-9374","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9374"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":9371,"date":"2026-06-22T11:12:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T16:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=9371"},"modified":"2026-06-22T11:12:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T16:12:36","slug":"nana-rasmata-masters-thesis-defense-monday-july-6-2026-200-pm-central-time","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/nana-rasmata-masters-thesis-defense-monday-july-6-2026-200-pm-central-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Nana Rasmata Master\u2019s Thesis Defense, Monday, July 6, 2026 @ 2:00 pm Central Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

COMMITTEE CHAIR<\/strong>: Dr. Cajetan Akujuobi<\/p>\n

TITLE<\/strong>: DESIGN AND HARDWARE VALIDATION OF A 5G NR OFDM TRANSMITTER ON THE INTEL DE10-NANO FPGA<\/p>\n

ABSTRACT: <\/strong>Fifth generation (5G) wireless networks have made Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) the backbone of modern physical-layer communication, enabling high spectral efficiency, resilience to multipath fading, and support for everything from smartphones to industrial sensors. Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are a natural choice for prototyping these systems: they are reconfigurable, support massive parallelism, and behave predictably in real time. Even so, moving from a clean floating-point Simulink simulation to a working, fixed-point FPGA implementation is far harder than it looks, and that gap is poorly documented in the existing literature. This thesis walks through the full journey. Starting from a behavioral MATLAB\/Simulink model of a 5G NR OFDM transmitter, the work covers fixed-point optimization, VHDL code generation using MATLAB HDL Coder, synthesis and compilation in Intel Quartus Prime, deployment onto the Intel DE10-Nano development board, and real-time hardware verification using Intel SignalTap Logic Analyzer. The transmitter implements 16-point Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (16-QAM) symbol mapping via a 2-D Lookup Table (LUT), a FIFO-based streaming buffer, and a 64-point radix-2\u00b2 Streaming Delay-Feedback IFFT core with approximately 118 cycles of pipeline latency, all wrapped in an Advanced eXtensible Interface 4-Stream (AXI4-Stream)-compatible handshake interface. Using 4-bit symbol inputs and 8-bit data paths throughout, the design achieved zero DSP block utilization and consumed approximately 3% of all available Cyclone V resources: 1,095 of 41,910 Adaptive Logic Modules (ALMs), 2,892 registers, and 78,144 block memory bits. Timing analysis confirmed a positive setup slack of 9.429 ns at 50 MHz across worst-case temperature corners. SignalTap captured live waveforms from 12 internal pipeline nodes, including FIFO occupancy, QAM-mapped symbol data, IFFT input and output, and twiddle factor phase sequencing, and all 12 verification criteria passed. BER simulation in MATLAB confirmed error-free operation at SNR values above 18 dB for 16-QAM over an Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel. This thesis makes five original contributions, each grounded in implementation methodology and hardware evidence rather than algorithmic novelty: a hardware-verified VHDL implementation of a 5G NR-inspired OFDM transmitter baseband subsystem on the DE10-Nano; a fixed-point optimization strategy that eliminates DSP block usage entirely while preserving correct BER performance; to the best of the author’s knowledge, one of the few documented applications of SignalTap to verify an HDL Coder-generated 5G NR Physical Layer (PHY) design; a practical debugging methodology for the HDL Coder-to-Quartus Prime workflow; and concrete evidence that 5G NR physical layer prototyping is achievable on low-cost, accessible hardware using freely available tools.<\/p>\n

Keywords: <\/strong>5G NR, OFDM, FPGA, DE10-Nano, Cyclone V, HDL Coder, Simulink, Fixed-Point, SignalTap, 16-QAM, IFFT, Hardware Verification<\/p>\n

Room Location: <\/strong>Electrical Engineering Conference Room 315D<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":9372,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-9371","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/9371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9371"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=9371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":8762,"date":"2026-05-19T11:04:42","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=8762"},"modified":"2026-05-19T11:04:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:04:50","slug":"commencement","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/commencement\/","title":{"rendered":"COMMENCEMENT"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":8107,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-8762","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/8762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/8762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8762"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=8762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":8761,"date":"2026-05-19T11:02:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=8761"},"modified":"2026-05-19T11:03:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:03:34","slug":"deadline-for-submission-of-fully-edited-thesis-dissertation-doctoral-project-to-the-graduate-school-gs-2","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/deadline-for-submission-of-fully-edited-thesis-dissertation-doctoral-project-to-the-graduate-school-gs-2\/","title":{"rendered":"DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF FULLY EDITED THESIS\/DISSERTATION\/DOCTORAL PROJECT TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL (GS)"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":7551,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-8761","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/8761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/8761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8761"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=8761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":8760,"date":"2026-05-19T10:58:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=8760"},"modified":"2026-05-19T10:59:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:59:44","slug":"final-deadline-for-final-defense-of-thesis-dissertation-doctoral-project-5","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/final-deadline-for-final-defense-of-thesis-dissertation-doctoral-project-5\/","title":{"rendered":"FINAL DAY TO APPLY FOR DEGREE CONFERRAL ONLY SUMMER 2026 GRADUATION (NO CEREMONY PARTICIPATION OR NAME LISTED IN THE PROGRAM)"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":7551,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-8760","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/8760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/8760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8760"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=8760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":8758,"date":"2026-05-19T10:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=8758"},"modified":"2026-05-19T10:55:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:55:34","slug":"final-deadline-for-final-defense-of-thesis-dissertation-doctoral-project-4","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/final-deadline-for-final-defense-of-thesis-dissertation-doctoral-project-4\/","title":{"rendered":"FINAL DEADLINE FOR FINAL DEFENSE OF THESIS\/DISSERTATION \/DOCTORAL PROJECT"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":7551,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-8758","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/8758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/8758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8758"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=8758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":8757,"date":"2026-05-19T10:51:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/?post_type=tribe_events&p=8757"},"modified":"2026-05-19T10:51:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T15:51:40","slug":"suggested-deadline-for-final-defense-of-thesis-dissertation-doctoral-project-2","status":"publish","type":"tribe_events","link":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/event\/suggested-deadline-for-final-defense-of-thesis-dissertation-doctoral-project-2\/","title":{"rendered":"SUGGESTED DEADLINE FOR FINAL DEFENSE OF THESIS\/DISSERTATION \/DOCTORAL PROJECT"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":432,"featured_media":7551,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":"","_tribe_events_is_hybrid":"","_tribe_events_is_virtual":"","_tribe_events_virtual_video_source":"","_tribe_events_virtual_embed_video":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button_text":"","_tribe_events_virtual_linked_button":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_at":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_embed_to":[],"_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_event":"","_tribe_events_virtual_show_on_views":"","_tribe_events_virtual_url":"","footnotes":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[1296],"class_list":["post-8757","tribe_events","type-tribe_events","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tribe_events_cat-main-events","cat_main-events"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/8757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/8757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8757"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pvamu.edu\/graduateschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=8757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}]