IEEE Jax State Student Branch and Computer Science Students Earn Multiple Awards at IEEE SoutheastCon 2026
03/19/2026
Students from Jacksonville State University (Jax State) delivered an impressive performance at the IEEE SoutheastCon 2026 Conference, held March 13–15 in Huntsville, Alabama, earning multiple awards in highly competitive student competitions and continuing to improve their results each year at the conference.
Under the mentorship of Dr. Arup Ghosh, Associate Professor of Computer Science and advisor of the IEEE Jax State Student Branch, members of the student branch participated in several competitions and conference activities. Students participating this year included Oluwapamilerin Agbekorode, Sabin Banjara, Prashant Basyal, Aashish Bista, Nala Caldwell, Rodney Hicks, Luke Joplin, Savannah Jones, Katty Juarez, Anuska Pandey, Sakib Hossen Rajon, Greesh Sah, Utsav Shrestha, Utsav Singh, and Ralph Wheeler.
All students are active members of the IEEE Jax State Student Branch, which provides opportunities for professional development, technical competitions, and leadership within the global IEEE community. Despite being a relatively new student branch—established in 2023 in the Department of Mathematical, Computing, and Information Sciences (MCIS) at Jax State—the group has already demonstrated strong performance in regional IEEE competitions.
The Jax State team achieved several notable results at the conference. The Software Competition (Open Category) team—Oluwapamilerin Agbekorode, Prashant Basyal, Aashish Bista, and Utsav Shrestha—earned first place. In the Website Competition, Prashant Basyal and Sakib Hossen Rajon secured third place, while the Promotional Design (T-Shirt) Competition team of Nala Caldwell, Savannah Jones, and Katty Juarez earned second place.
In addition to these awards, the Jax State team ranked 7th among 39 university teams in the qualifying round of the Hardware Competition, demonstrating improvement from last year’s performance and achieving a strong result in another highly competitive category.
Jax State students also participated in several other events, including the Ethics Competition, Circuit Design Competition, and Student Presentation Competition, where they performed well and gained valuable experience competing with teams from across the region.
Graduate students Sabin Banjara and Utsav Singh, members of Dr. Ghosh’s research lab, also presented their research at the conference. Their work examines distributed computing and peer-to-peer network architectures for improving online safety for teenagers and older adults. The paper has been accepted for publication and is scheduled to appear in IEEE Xplore.
IEEE SoutheastCon is one of the region’s premier engineering and computing conferences, bringing together about 1,000 students, researchers, and professionals for technical competitions, presentations, and networking opportunities.
“This achievement reflects the dedication, teamwork, and technical talent of our students,” said Dr. Ghosh. “Competing against strong universities and bringing home multiple awards is a great accomplishment for our students. During the conference awards banquet, our university’s name was announced multiple times, and it was wonderful to see Jax State recognized among so many institutions.”
In addition to mentoring the student teams, Dr. Ghosh participated in several IEEE Region 3 meetings during the conference and delivered a presentation on Southeast Region industry engagement in his new role as the IEEE Region 3 Industry Engagement Coordinator. In this role, he is working to establish an Industry Engagement Committee and foster stronger connections between professionals and companies across IEEE Region 3, helping create communities where industry and engineers can collaborate and advance technology for the benefit of humanity.
In addition to the student accomplishments, the IEEE Alabama Section also received the IEEE Exemplary Section Award, recognizing outstanding leadership and service to IEEE members and communities across the region. Dr. Ghosh, who has been serving as Chair of the IEEE Alabama Section since last year, received the award on behalf of the section for its achievements in 2025.
This trip was made possible through the generous support of the IEEE Jax State Student Branch, IEEE Alabama Section, IEEE Region 3, the NSF S-STEM Program, Jacksonville State University’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Sciences, and the Department of Mathematical, Computing, and Information Sciences (MCIS).