NK – Testimonials

Undergraduate Research Students Testimonials

Before working with Dr. Kashou, there were two things I never thought I would enjoy: medical imaging and research. I had a different idea of what I wanted to be when I chose biomedical engineering as a major. After taking classes and doing research with Dr. Kashou, that all changed, not just because of the opportunities he provided, but the respect he had for all of his students. I owe a lot of my inspiration and success to him as his passion for his work was never limited to what benefited his career but more importantly, how he could shape his students in the best they could be.

As a research adviser from day one Dr. Kashou has forced active learning in his lab. I now appreciate not being “spoon fed” how to conduct a research project. ​My communication skills have improved for oral presentations as well as in written form. My confidence has also improved with the knowledge depth I have gained in DTI of INS. While still being extremely busy, Dr. Kashou still makes time to meet one on one and have fairly quick responses through email. Working in his lab has given me opportunities I may not have received anywhere else such as presenting at the BMES Annual Meeting. Dr. Kashou has also given great advice on what I can do with this research experience based on my work ethic and career goals. I’m looking forward to completing my Master’s thesis with him as my research adviser.

As an undergraduate student with no previous research experience, Dr. Kashou was extremely helpful in introducing me to the field of imaging research.  He provided me with a number of interesting projects to work on, and he was always very willing to give thoughtful advice and guidance.  His availability was excellent, and his dedication to helping the students in his lab was exceedingly evident.  I am very grateful to Dr. Kashou for giving me the chance to engage in research in his lab and for all of the guidance he has given me.

Dr. Kashou is knowledgeable in his field and willing to go that extra mile to help his students succeed. Even as a freshman, I was able to get involved in his research laboratory, and in the time I have known him, he has been very supportive of me in both my academics and research.  As a research adviser, he has demonstrated a thorough passion for excellence that will help in any capacity in which he serves.

I like that Dr. Kashou organizes research group meetings with a student presentation weekly because it exposes us to different research topics and areas within medical imaging. It also provides an opportunity to gain presentation skills and the evaluations are good to have for areas that can be improved in a presentation. Also, Dr. Kashou’s biweekly progress reports are great because it keeps the student in check with where they are with their research. It shows that he is invested in the success of his students because he can share his thoughts with them on their progress and he is always available to help when it is needed.

During my time doing research projects with Dr. Kashou, he helped me establish connections with experts and provided guidance that helped me prioritize project tasks. With Dr. Kashou’s guidance, I was able to identify and complete the projects at hand in a timely manner. It was always a pleasure working with Dr. Kashou and I can only hope to have co-workers as helpful and polite.

Dr. Kashou sets realistic expectations that are fueled by his desire to see his students succeed. Help is willingly given and never detracts from the students responsibilities.

Dr. Kashou has been an excellent research adviser and mentor throughout my undergraduate years. He cares greatly about his students and is always pushing us to try for new opportunities.

In regards to Dr. Kashou as a research adviser I feel that he is someone who brings the best out of his students through his teaching methods. He does this by exposing them to different ways of learning a topic as well as preparing them for their future careers whether those careers’ are in the area of academia or industry.

Dr. Kashou has been a significant mentor in my undergraduate career. Not only did he guide his students to succeed academically, he cares about each one. He has a knack for getting undergraduate students interested and passionate about research. I believe he is a valuable engineering professor as his first devotion is to his students.

Dr. Nasser Kashou was my undergraduate engineering advisor and mentor all four years as well as m research advisor from 2012 to 2015. For both semesters of my independent study course as an Honors student I chose to work in Dr. Kashou’s BioMedical Imaging Lab. I also had Dr. Kashou as a professor in Introductions to Computations for Biomedical Engineers and Advanced Medical Imaging. He was very professional and provided undivided attention to all his students’ work because he truly cares about striving for success.

Dr. Kashou focused on improving students’ professional weaknesses, such as their oral and written presentation skills, and challenged them to be confident in their research. This is a positive reflection on his character and values as a professor and advisor. For instance. he prepared me to present my work at multiple conferences across the country. He invested his time for the success of his students as a reflection of his professional accomplishments.

Nasser prepares students for their career rather than to simply pass a few college classes. For example. he promoted all of his research students to be a member of the Institute for Electronics and Electrical Engineering (IEEE) in order to build our networking and resume. Dr. Kashou encouraged me to further my education because he saw potential in my abilities as an undergraduate. He listened to my career goals, met with me every few weeks to discuss research progress in his office, and provided a great mentorship voluntarily. He was welcoming of help and advice to any students no matter how busy a schedule.

Dr. Kashou values a strong work ethic amongst his students and is proof of what it can get you in your career. He is one of the most selfless and genuine research advisors I have worked with.

Dr. Kashou was a pleasure to work for and I hope the best for him. With his success in research, awards as an educator, and leadership in biomedical and electrical engineering professional societies, Dr. Kashou is still an inspirational figure in my professional life to this day. He is exactly what the university needs to encourage students and promote the future in biomedical engineering.

I am a former student under Dr. Nasser Kashou. Through my years studying under him—2015 to 2017—I have grown a lot as both a student researcher and as a person. Overall, Dr. Kashou has been most supportive to me. Being in his lab motivated me to be my best, to make greater goals, and to always move forward in my education and career.

Dr. Kashou has much knowledge in the field of neuroimaging. As one of several students in his lab, I found that I have interest in neuroscience and have learned a lot about functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as an innovative neuroimaging technique. Most of my knowledge regarding the human brain comes from being part of his research group, and I have since submerged myself in fNIRS and neuroscience news to keep up-to-date.

His lab is a nice and comfortable place to be in many aspects. Other students are friendly and helpful, and it is a nice place to do research, work on homework for other classes, or to just take a short break. Dr. Kashou is not only an excellent professor and advisor; he is also a nice and approachable person. I find this essential in order to create an environment where I, as a student, can talk to my advisor without feeling intimidated or scared to ask a silly question.

During my enrollment he (Nasser Kashou) was not only a great educator but also a great mentor. I had the pleasure of being instructed by him during Fall Semester. The following year I participated as a member of his research team as a student studying independent research. As one of the students on his research team he provided additional mentorship that further helped me develop my research skills. In addition, Dr. Kashou also assisted me by helping me better prepare for life after college. As a student, I went on to continue my education and pursued my Master’s degree. While pursuing it Dr. Kashou was there for me again to assist me with my thesis by being a member of my thesis committee. He provided helpful insight that has still attributed to the success I have today.

Graduate Research Students Testimonials

Dr. Kashou has always been a great example for me and only shown me kindness and guidance to get through the hard trials that are included with pursuing a higher education degree in engineering. He has also been a great support system for me while I was student. He has shown me what kindness looks like with his continued efforts for international support with his many trips overseas where he brought students to assist other countries that were in dire need of support. Dr. Kashou has given me helpful advice when it came to improving my overall health, well-being and just being an overall good support system. I believe any institute would be lucky to have a caring and supportive person who I have known to not only be a great educator but also a great mentor.

Conducting research with Dr. Kashou has been one of the highlights of my time. Although the research experience I’ve gotten in my master program had been invaluable, and I have learned so much, I still have to say that the benefits I have received through the research projects pale in comparison to the benefits of having such a phenomenal resource as Dr. Kashou. My research skills have grown in a way that I know exactly where to look for academic articles. I had an opportunity to publish two papers in peer-review journals with him. These papers earned me distinction in the major. He has always made a point to help me in any way possible, and I have enjoyed the two years of my master program working with him immensely and I greatly look forward to working with him again.

Dr. Kashou is someone who would not impose his ideas or knowledge but would encourage you to come up with something of your own. He is so approachable and welcoming that you won’t think twice if you need to go and talk to him about anything. To sum up: Under the guidance of Dr. Kashou, you would not only grow as a researcher but also as a person.

As my advisor, Dr.Kashou has strong background knowledge in my research area. He always has some noticeable comments and recommendations on my works. In our lab, the work progress is weekly checked by him and individual meeting is great to have his feedback on our work. In addition of all above, he is really professional in his job. His calm and nice characteristic let the students to rely on him. They all are supported with him in any issues they may encounter in their research works.

Dr. Kashou is a great professor to work under. He keeps you motivated by recognizing every bit of effort you put in research. His best quality that makes him different from other advisors is that he is not only concerned about the subject material of research, but also works with his students in advising them as to how they should present it.

Dr. Kashou holds group and focused meetings to make sure the research group knows what everybody else is doing, and to make sure that everybody gets the support they need. He also is able to make sure everybody is on track to finish their work in the fastest time. He is knowledgeable about the advancements of medical imaging, which allows the group to know what the most effective techniques and methods are.

I have been a graduate student of Dr. Kashou for more than a year and I am blessed to be working with him as I have learned a lot from him over the course of my graduate curriculum. My background was not in bio-medical imaging but Dr. Kashou helped me to make a smooth transition into bio-medical imaging. He is very helpful to all his students and makes sure his students complete all the tasks in a timely and professional manner not just in academics but in other aspects of life as well. He meets with his students on a weekly basis and makes sure to help them with their research, projects and classes. He also monitors students’ progress of research and classes by making it mandatory for all his students to send weekly progress reports. In this progress report, his students make weekly and long term goals and whether they are able to achieve them in a timely manner. This shows that Dr. Kashou really cares about his students and this trait of him sets him apart from his peers.   Apart from this, he is very approachable after his office hours and is very knowledgeable in his field.

Dr. Kashou listens constructively, attempting to hear all aspects of students’ problem. He sets aside enough regularly scheduled time to adequately meet the advising needs of students. He also attempts to understand student concerns from a student point of view. He is always looking around to find a solution for student’s problems. Dr. Kashou has a strong background and knowledge in my research area. He is obviously professional in his job, his nice and calm personality allows the students to talk and trust him easily without stress. He is truly the best advisor ever.

Dr. Nasser was my research adviser. With him I worked on the simulation of NIR traveling inside the human head. When I first contacted him, I was asking for a summer project, I had no idea about optical imaging. I learned a lot from him through our weekly meeting. We discuss and plan for the following week. I felt he was always available for his research group members (fast replying to their emails). Additionally, we used to have a weekly group meeting. I saw it helping all the group members in two ways: sharing the knowledge and connecting ideas with each other’s research. Now, I am doing my PhD in optical imaging.

As a professor, Dr. Kashou valued the success of his students. In engineering, the most important thing about what is learned in the classroom is how it can be applied in the real world. Dr. Kashou’s courses were always designed to teach us not only the content but why it was important for our chosen careers. His style of teaching was interactive and made the class material easy to understand.

Dr. Kashou cared about each of his students and made himself available whenever anyone needed help. He was always kind and it was clear that he appreciated his work and his students. One of the classes I took with him was an image processing class that involved a semester project with heavy programming. Some of the students in the class were not as skilled in programming as others but that did not hinder their ability to perform because of Dr. Kashou’s guidance and teaching. He always provided us with just enough of the tools we needed to succeed so that we could explore and learn different ways problems could be solved. Our learning experiences were never focused on just getting an A in the course but what could we do with the information in the real world.

In addition to teaching, Dr. Kashou was an even more skilled adviser. During my undergraduate years when I was trying to decide what area of biomedical engineering I wanted to pursue after graduation, Dr. Kashou gave me advice to try out research projects so that I could get a better idea of the different fields there were. I took his advice and it was one of the best decisions I made. I joined Dr. Kashou’s research group and was exposed to the different uses of medical imaging from the engineering perspective.

Dr. Kashou was dedicated to his research group. Each student had a project to work on and he provided the opportunity for all of us to learn from each other through our weekly research meetings. During these meetings, we worked on our professional development by presenting our research. Dr. Kashou was at every meeting and gave helpful tips on style, technique, content, and areas that could be further explored to whoever was presenting. I, along with the rest of the group, valued these meetings because of the benefit we had by having our adviser be there and give us his thoughts firsthand on our progress.

Some professors have the tendency to not give younger students engaging projects because of their inexperience but that never was the case for Dr. Kashou. He provided me and others early on in our education with projects that would challenge us and in the end, made us better researchers.

Throughout my time, I considered Dr. Kashou as a mentor and as a friend who could listen to issues I was having and provide help. He provided professional and educational advice that has been very helpful in my career as a researcher. When discussing with my colleagues, every one of them said that they wanted to join Dr. Kashou’s lab because of what kind of person he was. He was someone that cared for his students and insured that they had proper support and fundamentals to help them in their next stage of life after college.