Seniors win Prestigious NSF Fellowships
College of Engineering seniors Sarah Brown and Dana Peck have been awarded coveted Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation. The fellowship program recognizes and supports outstanding students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited U.S. institutions.
Two other ECE students, Ryan Whelan and Anthony DiPasquale, received honorable mention.
Sarah Brown, a native of Nashua, N.H., will begin studies toward a PhD in electrical engineering at Northeastern this fall. She will work with ECE professors Jennifer Dy and Deniz Erdogmus, as well with as advisors at Draper Laboratory, which awarded her a Draper Laboratory Fellowship. Her research will focus on improving diagnosis of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder. Chief among Sarah’s undergraduate research experiences was the opportunity to work with ECE Professor Carey Rappaport at the Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (Gordon-CenSSIS) – first on modeling electromagnetic fields in MRI, and then on modeling wave behavior in tissue.
Dana Peck, a resident of Longmeadow, Mass., will enter the Green Design program at Carnegie Mellon University this fall to pursue a master’s degree and, ultimately, a PhD. Her research will focus on energy-aware smart facilities, with an aim to create a system for monitoring and adjusting energy consumption, and possibly using alternative energy sources such as wind and solar. Dana’s interest in alternative energy grew from her research on the effects of wind-borne debris on tall buildings with CEE Assistant Professor Luca Caracoglia.
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship recipients receive three years of support, including a $30,000 annual stipend, a $10,500 cost-of-education allowance, international research and professional development opportunities, and TeraGrid Supercomputer access.
“I received the e-mail from NSF on my way to class, and I’m not quite sure what happened in class that day since I was so excited and distracted,” says Sarah. “I’ve been involved with other NSF-funded projects before, and I’ve always been interested in how NSF holds applicants and recipients to both intellectual merit and the ‘broader impacts’ of their research.”
“I’m still a little bit in shock,” admits Dana, as the program is highly competitive. “I’ve been doing research all along, so that helped a lot. And, I’ve had great professors guiding me.”
Sarah’s first co-op was as a research assistant in the Division of Breast Imaging Research at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she worked with data and study management, and quantifying image artifacts. Subsequent co-ops were at BAE Systems, where she was a part of a group developing detection and localization of various wireless technologies; and at Draper Lab, where she worked with an interdisciplinary team on a suite of physiological signals to better understand what information is conveyed though these measurements.
Dana’s co-ops included a geotechnological research co-op with CEE Professor Thomas Sheahan. She began with two months of research and preparation in NU labs, followed by four months of work at the Center for Offshore Foundation Systems at the University of Western Australia in Perth. Just before starting that co-op, Dana spent several weeks in six European countries doing water quality testing through a Dialogue of Civilizations course led by CEE Associate Professor Ferdi Hellweger. Her other co-ops were at the civil engineering firm Tetra Tech Rizzo, where she was involved in water/wastewater projects, and at Kleinfelder S E A, where she participated in site inspections of MBTA garages needing major structural work.
“We are enormously proud of Sarah and Dana – not only for being selected for these NSF fellowships, but also for all that they have achieved and contributed to the college and the University over the past five years,” says COE Dean David E. Luzzi. “They truly epitomize our hopes for all of our students – committed to their education, engaged in the campus community and the world beyond, extraordinarily curious, and passionate about their research and tackling some of the greatest challenges facing society.”