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