2026 Trident Scholars
MIDN 1/C OLIVIA R. ACHENBACH (35th Company)
Major: Astrophysics
Advisor: Professor Christopher Morgan – Physics
Advisor: Assistant Professor Dana Anderson – Physics
External Collaborator: Dr. Kristina Nyland – US Naval Observatory
Title: Analyzing Host Galaxies of Quasars with Young Radio Jets to Determine Jet-Triggering Conditions and the Impact on Galaxy Evolution
MIDN 1/C NICHOLAS T. CIACCIO (29th Company)
Major: Political Science
Advisor: Assistant Professor Cullen Nutt – Political Science
Advisor: Assistant Professor Alexis Lerner – Political Science
Title: One-Way Attacks Against Surface Ships: Learning from World War II and the Russo-Ukrainian War
MIDN 1/C MARGO Z. CICERO (3rd Company)
Major: Nuclear Engineering
Advisor: LCDR Joseph Latta, USN – Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering
Advisor: Professor Peter Joyce – Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering
Advisor: Assistant Professor Megan Mohadjer Beromi – Chemistry
Title: Additive Manufacturing of Photopolymerizable Lithium-6 Doped Organic Plastic Scintillators
MIDN 1/C WILLIAM G. HARDAWAY (6th Company)
Major: Aerospace Engineering
Advisor: CAPT Michael Sanders, USN – Aerospace Engineering
Advisor: Professor Charles Nelson – Electrical and Computer Engineering
Title: Integrating Power Beaming and Communication with Laser Diode Modulation and Multi-Junction Photovoltaic Cells
MIDN 1/C THOMAS J. KELLY (26th Company)
Major: Aerospace Engineering
Advisor: Professor Svetlana Avramov-Zamurovic – Weapons, Robotics, and Control Engineering
Advisor: Professor Charles Nelson – Electrical and Computer Engineering
Advisor: Professor Robert Niewoehner – Aerospace Engineering
External Collaborator: Dr. Nathaniel Ferlic – Naval Air Warfare Center
External Collaborator: Professor Andrew Forbes – University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)
Title: Experimental Invariance of Degree of Polarization in Vector Vortex Beams Through Underwater Optical Turbulence
MIDN 1/C RYAN J. McKEE (21st Company)
Major: Electrical Engineering
Advisor: Professor Charles Nelson – Electrical and Computer Engineering
Advisor: Professor John Burkhardt – Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering
Advisor: Professor Cody Brownell – Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering
Title: Feature Engineering for Generalizing Near-Maritime Atmospheric Optical Turbulence Machine Learning Models
MIDN 1/C JACKSON A. ROTH (28th Company)
Major: Quantitative Economics
Advisor: Professor Katherine Smith – Economics
Advisor: Professor Michael Insler – Economics
Advisor: Associate Professor James Harrison – Economics
Title: Physical Adversity and the Development of Human Capital
MIDN 1/C AAYUSH SHARMA (23rd Company)
Major: Data Science
Advisor: Professor Nate Chambers - Computer Science
Title: Reading Between the Lines: A Machine Learning Approach
MIDN 1/C RORY M. SMITH (2nd Company)
Major: Robotics and Control Engineering (Honors)
Advisor: Professor Richard O'Brien – Weapons, Robotics, and Control Engineering
Advisor: Associate Professor Paola Jaramillo Cienfuegos – Weapons, Robotics, and Control Engineering
External Collaborator: Dr. Eileen Tatum – Naval Medical Center, San Diego
Title: Using Machine Learning to Identify the Sensitive Parameters of an FDA-Approved Dynamic Type 2 Diabetes Model
MIDN 1/C MOLLIE A. STRACENSKY (29th Company)
Major: Aerospace Engineering
Advisor: Associate Professor Ondrej Juhasz – Aerospace Engineering
External Collaborator: Dr. Jean-Paul Reddinger – Army Research Laboratory
Title: System Identification and Model Validation of a Blown-Wing Tailsitter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
MIDN 1/C DAISY ZAMORA (28th Company)
Major: Astrophysics
Advisor: Professor Jeffrey Larsen – Physics
External Collaborator: Dr. Kristina Nyland – US Naval Observatory
External Collaborator: Dr. Jordan Stone – Naval Research Laboratory
Title: Zooming In on Dual and Binary Supermassive Black Holes with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) using Aperture Masking Interferometry (AMI)
