Columbia Engineering Announces Graduate Student Award Recipients

Each year, one graduate student at Columbia Engineering is chosen as the Graduate Class Day Speaker, and two students are honored with the Graduate Student Life Leadership Award for enhancing the spirit of campus life, and creating a more purposeful, caring, and celebrative community. 

For the 2025 Class Day Graduate Ceremony on May 19, 2025, Raman Odgers, a master’s student in computer science, will address his fellow students on the South Lawn at Columbia’s Morningside campus. Graduate Student Life Leadership Award winners Xiaolong Wu, a PhD candidate in earth and environmental engineering, and Kimberly Kroupa, a PhD student in mechanical engineering, will also be honored at Class Day. 

Building up community and entrepreneurship 

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Kim Kroupa is graduating with a PhD in mechanical engineering from the Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Lab. Her research investigates the mechanisms by which osteoarthritis progresses, and how they can be reversed. Kim joined the Engineering Graduate Student Council (EGSC) as a department representative in 2019 and served as Career & Alumni chair in 2022. In the following year, she became EGSC president. During her time as president, she focused on empowering student-led initiatives and encouraging collaboration across organizations. Beyond student government, Kim served as a senior fellow at Columbia Technology Ventures from 2021 to 2025 and taught a semesterly seminar for the first-year “Art of Engineering” course, introducing undergraduates to research and funding opportunities on campus.

Pursuing carbon neutrality and cross-cultural harmony 

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Xiaolong Wu is a graduating PhD student in earth and environmental engineering who studies the development of Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS). He now has a new job with a CCUS company to help achieve the global carbon neutrality goal.
In addition to his research, Xiaolong blended leadership and service to enrich Columbia University’s community. Beyond spearheading the annual Chinese New Year Spring Gala, career fair, and organizing airport welcome teams for incoming students, he demonstrated extraordinary compassion during the pandemic by distributing masks, medical suits, and food to Columbia students and young students attending nearby elementary and middle schools, while donating 100 medical gowns to New York-Presbyterian Queens’ ICU. His leadership greatly expands student support systems and fosters global-minded collaboration. 

Advancing AI and connections across Columbia 

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Raman Odgers is a 2025 Columbia Engineering graduate with a Master of Science degree in computer science (CS), concentrating on machine learning. He has been conducting research to understand the internal behaviors of black-box AI models and improve their ability to adapt to new tasks while retaining their previous skills.

Raman has served as an elected department representative on the interschool committee of the EGSC to foster closer collaboration between Columbia's graduate schools. He supported the launch of the Engineering Quality of Life Survey and promoted the Columbia Entrepreneurship and Venture Society as one of the most active student groups in graduate engineering. As club fellow, treasurer, and then president, he hosted on-campus events with alumni startup founders and venture capitalists, including a 150-person shark tank competition that led to formal investments. Raman has also worked closely with the Graduate Career Placement Office, Engineering Student Affairs, and the CS department, speaking on multiple student panels throughout his time at Columbia

Lead Photo Caption: Left to right: Xiaolong Wu, Kimberly Kroupa, and Raman Odgers