Diya Bandyopadhyay received an Outstanding Graduate Student Research Award at The University of Akron Student Innovation Symposium held April 12, 2012. She was recognized for her research on the effect of functional nanoparticles on the stability of multi-component polymer thin films. One of her major contributions has been to develop a novel approach to process stable and robust polymer thin films for a host of high tech applications via addition of nanofillers. She has interpreted three regimes due to a portioning of nanoparticles to the polymer-polymer interface versus the polymer substrate interface, as well as a percolation threshold for transition from one to the other. This fundamental scientific problem, in fact, pertains to various important technological applications such as organic photovoltaics and electronics. Bandyopadhyay is completing her Ph.D. with Dr. Alamgir Karim.