Science and Engineering Scholarships and Fellowships Blog

Electrical engineering grad students earn prestigious NASA fellowships

David Hoffman and Amin Nehrir, master’s students in electrical engineering, both received $30,000 fellowships through NASA’s Graduate Student Researchers Program. In addition to the money, which covers educational expenses, Hoffman and Nehrir will each spend a portion of the coming year as interns at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., one of the oldest and most famed aviation and space laboratories in the world.
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Hoffman and Nehrir work with lidar, which stands for light detection and ranging. Their work involves sending a pulse of laser light into the sky and letting it bounce off the particles suspended in the air. By measuring the amount of light that bounces back, how that light is scattered and the time it takes to return, scientists can learn about the composition of the lower atmosphere.
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“These connections we’re making in NASA are really nice steps to take because it allows us to take our expertise in instrument development and get outside help in moving into this atmospheric science,” he said, noting that the connection to NASA began through the Montana Space Grant Consortium, which funded the initial projects and provided student support.

NASA is particularly interested in the small, 2-by-4-by-4-foot lidar assemblies MSU is building. By comparison, some lidars are large enough to fill an entire 40-foot cargo container, Repasky said. He added that MSU’s lidars are also relatively inexpensive, costing less than $100,000. Larger and more complicated assemblies cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Photo, by Kelly Gorham, shows Amin Nehrir (left) and David Hoffman in front of a green laser beam they are using to study the composition of earth’s atmosphere.

Related: NSF Research Fellowship for Two Montana State Students - Science Fellowship Directory - Carnegie Mellon Engineering Students Win NDSEG Fellowships

UA Students Earn NSF Fellowships

José Manuel Álvarez (in photo) and Joshua Holst, both anthropology students, along with linguistics student, Kara Hawthorne, have received the prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship…

With his grant, Álvarez wil examine multicrafting within households by analyzing the variability in flaked stone tools from floor and trash mound contexts at the Marana Mound site in the Tortolita Mountains. The project will contribute to the understanding of the Marana Mound site and Hohokam prehistory and shed light on the relationship between domestic and external trade activities.
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The NSF fellowship will enable Holst to conduct an ethnography on the “resource curse,” a phenomenon where countries that are exporting primary commodities face an increased risk of armed conflict. He will collaborate with the Jungle Quichua communities inhabiting the Ecuadorian-Colombian border to do a dual ethnology. During his research, he will work with decision-makers within the petroleum industry impacting the region.
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Hawthorne, a doctoral degree candidate, will conduct three research projects to study language acquisition in children between the ages of 2 and 7.

“It’s quite an honor, and it has motivated me to get an early start to my research career,” Hawthorse said. “Research in language acquisition is a crucial step in understanding normal development, so that we are better able to help those with developmental problems.”

Related: Arizona State Students Receive NSF Fellowship - NSF Fellow: Ekaterina Hristova Spriggs

NC State Students Receive Fellowships:

Brandon [Cochenour - in photo] is currently an Electrical Engineer with the Department of Defense, and has been employed by the Navy at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station since 2004. There, he has been involved in the research and development of next generation laser-radar systems using novel RF-photonic techniques for laser imaging and communication systems underwater. In 2006, he was awarded first place in the graduate student poster/paper competition at the IEEE Ocean Engineering Society conference for his work in underwater optical communications. He was awarded as a Top Navy Scientist and Engineer of the Year in the Emerging Investigator category, which was presented by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for R&D in 2007.

Under the SMART fellowship, Brandon will pursue PhD studies in Electrical Engineering this Fall at North Carolina State University, where he plans to focus on optical communications and RF-photonics. He received the B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Lafayette College in Easton, PA (2003), and the M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD (2008).
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William Cox has been awarded the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Electrical Engineering at NC State University under the direction of Dr. John Muth, in the area of underwater freespace optical communications. He is a founding member of the Underwater Robotics Club and writes about robotics at GoRobotics.net.

Related: Jennifer Robinson, North Carolina State NSF GRF

Recently ASEE had the opportunity to visit The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) to talk about the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. While there ASEE meet with a hundred or so students who are part of an REU opportunity called (SURF) Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship funded by the National Science Foundation. Our guide explained that the SURF program was the brain child of scientists at NIST who wanted to reach out to undergraduate students involved in research. SURF provides an opportunity for students to work directly with scientists in their field. Researchers at NIST are very passionate about the program and thrilled to work with the students, who do not necessarily have to have 4.0 to be part of the fellowship. SURF is about careful guidance taking place in a unique environment and giving students a chance to be part of some really cool research.

The research students do at NIST depend on the student’s field but are inline with NIST’s mission statement, which often revolves around the testing and standardization of common things used by scientist or consumers. NIST is responsible for things like developing, maintaining and advancing the nation’s chemical measurement system to testing the life of house paint under varies environmental conditions. Past work credited to NIST is particularly remarkable, like the discovery of the super conductor or atomic clock.

Other fascinating things, a graft of Newton’s original apple tree in their courtyard, an award winning library, cafeteria and museum located on the research facility.

Five Grinnell College Graduates Awarded NSF GRFP

The five Grinnell graduates named NSF Fellows include:

* Adam Booth ‘04, with a major in physics, is pursuing graduate study in geology at the University of Oregon.
* Natalie Funk ‘07, with majors in biological chemistry and French, is studying molecular biology at Harvard University.
* Amber Jolly ‘06, with a major in biological chemistry, is pursuing graduate study in cell biology at Northwestern University.
* Katherine Lewin ‘05, with a major in biology, is studying neurosciences at Duke University.
* Elizabeth Pekarek ‘05, with a major in biology, is pursuing graduate study in evolutionary biology at Duke University.

Each of these NSF Fellows conducted undergraduate research while at Grinnell. Eight other alumni were named to honorable mention by the fellows program.

Grinnell, where approximately one-third of students major in science, ranks high nationally in the matriculation of graduates who later complete Ph.D.s in chemistry (6th nationally); biological sciences (9th); psychology (9th); and physics (20th).

Jumie Yuventi is a 2008 NSF GRF recipient in Electrical Engineering. Jumie plans to use the fellowship to continue his work in Engineering Education, Micro-architecture and circuitry at Stanford University beginning in fall 2008.

Before graduating in December 2007, Jumie Yuventi had completed over two years of undergraduate research at his alma Mater, The City College of New York. The majority of his research endeavors have been through the New York City Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Research Program (NYC LSAMP), funded by the NSF.

After obtaining his Bachelor’s Degree Jumie has continued to work as a web developer for the NYC LSAMP on ProjectSTEM.net, an endeavor that seeks to promote and facilitate collaborative research via the Internet.

He attributes a lot of his more recent success to Dr. Claude Brathwaite, the director of the NYC LSAMP. Dr. Brathwaite encouraged Jumie to get involved in different research projects and also informed him of the NSF Graduate Fellowship award.

Prestigious NSF Graduate Fellowships offered to Cockrell School engineering students

Current graduate students who received fellowships include Jessica Allen, Patrick Doody, Rachel Gerver, Daniel Miller and Cassandra Telenko.

Allen is a first year mechanical engineering doctoral student in the Neuromuscular Biomechanics Lab. She is currently studying the compensatory mechanisms used by post-stroke hemiparetic patients and how they change over the course of rehabilitation. By analyzing experimental data from clinical trials and computer simulations of hemiparetic gait, she hopes to advance the development of individualized rehabilitation programs.
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Doody is a second-year master’s degree student in the energy systems area of electrical engineering. His research focuses on defining a set of metrics to quantify the degree of inter- and intra-hour wind power variability and intermittency. Such metrics are expected to help grid planners and operators integrate and manage large wind power plants.
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Four university graduates received the fellowships to attend universities across the nation to pursue graduate degrees.
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Five university alumni already pursuing graduate degrees around the United States also received the fellowships.

Kyle Osberg a doctoral student in materials science and engineering at Northwestern University is researching the development of novel one-dimensional nanomaterials for applications in electronics and chemical and biological detection.

Edwina Lai a doctoral student in chemical engineering at Stanford University, will focus on using collagen as a tissue scaffold to directionally guide the growth of cells. This research will have potential applications in tissue regeneration.

University of Virginia Graduate Students Secure Esteemed NSF Fellowships

Justin Henriques, David Hondula and Isabelle Stanton are among a select group of 913 students nationwide who were awarded financial support through the NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
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Justin Henriques, Systems and Information Engineering (Adviser: Garrick Louis)

Henriques, a master’s student in systems and information engineering, is working to create a decision support model to assist developing communities in determining appropriate and sustainable technologies to ensure safe drinking water and sanitation services. Henriques’ research will build on Capacity Factor Analysis, a systems analysis technique developed by his advisor, associate professor Garrick Louis. Since 1.1 billion people lack access to safe water, and over 2.4 billion lack access to safe sanitation services, this is a significant global challenge.
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• David Hondula, Environmental Sciences (Adviser: Robert Davis)

Hondula, a master’s student in atmospheric science in the Department of Environmental Sciences, is investigating the impacts of weather and climate on the respiratory health of residents of Washington, D.C. “I think one of the strengths of David’s proposal is that declining respiratory health is an emerging environmental problem,” said professor Robert Davis, Hondula’s adviser.

Hondula will examine the interrelationships between the many environmental causes of respiratory distress, including weather, pollution and pollen. “This is an important project because conditions like asthma and bronchitis are related to a wide variety of both indoor and outdoor factors,”
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• Isabelle Stanton, Computer Science (Adviser: Nina Mishra)

Doctoral candidate Isabelle Stanton’s computer science research is working to address privacy challenges brought on by online social networking - including interactions through instant messaging, e-mails, and Web sites like Facebook.

She is developing algorithms that allow representations, or social graphs, of who interacts with who to be released while still preserving user privacy. Stanton’s findings may have tremendous practical value in a wide variety of fields, from sociology to marketing.