Final 12 months marked the twenty fifth anniversary of the IEEE Presidents’ Scholarship. Since its inception, the celebrated US $10,000 award has been given yearly to 1 distinctive highschool scholar collaborating within the Regeneron (previously Intel) Worldwide Science and Engineering Honest. The ISEF is the world’s largest worldwide STEM analysis competitors for highschool college students.
Finalists for the scholarship are chosen by a crew of IEEE volunteer judges. The scholarship is funded by the IEEE Basis and administered by IEEE Academic Actions.
To commemorate the scholarship’s anniversary, I requested previous winners how the award impacted their life and profession, and what they’re doing as we speak.
Harvard educator and a movie producer
Elena Glassman acquired the scholarship in 2004 for her Mind-Pc Interface for the Muscularly Disabled venture.Elena Glassman
Elena Glassman acquired the scholarship in 2004 for her Mind-Pc Interface for the Muscularly Disabled venture. She wrote code to gather EEG wavelets that predicted her personal proper or left arm motion with an accuracy fee of 73 %.
At the moment Glassman is an assistant professor of pc science at Harvard, the place she teaches human-computer interplay. She can be a brand new mom. The scholarship supported her training at MIT, the place she earned a bachelor’s diploma in electrical engineering. She says the scholarship was among the many most memorable awards she acquired.
“When your venture is being evaluated by IEEE judges who perceive the work,” she says, “that’s what was so significant about receiving the award.” With encouragement from her father, a lifelong IEEE member, she submitted a paper about her venture to IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, which revealed it.
In her present work, she says, she enjoys specializing in the “human facet of programming.” She provides that her electrical engineering background is helpful in tackling all types of tasks.
Adam Sidmanacquired the 2005 scholarship for Digital camera Stabilization: Take Two. His venture centered across the growth of a handheld servo-based gadget. The movie and TV producer in Los Angeles says his invention is a “go-to on a regular basis know-how for filmmakers on units all over the world.”
Sidman is chief govt of Timur Bekmambetov’s manufacturing firm, Bazelevs, the place he has overseen a wide range of films together with The Present Struggle, Hardcore Henry,Looking out, and Unfriended.
Receiving the scholarship was “an incredible honor,” he says, “validating my ardour to mix the humanities and sciences.” He graduated from Harvard with a bachelor’s diploma in mechanical engineering and visible and environmental research.
Final 12 months he collaborated with ISEF organizers to ascertain a brand new class of tasks, Know-how Enhances the Arts, and he continues to function a choose.
An entrepreneur and a gene researcher
Rahul Kumar Pandey, a software program engineer-turned-entrepreneur, acquired the scholarship in 2007. His startup, Taro, helps software program engineers navigate the skilled world, offering recommendation on job looking, negotiation, promotions, and management. The platform boasts greater than 100,000 customers. Pandey is a author for IEEE’s Careers e-newsletter.
The scholarship supported his diploma in pc science at Stanford.
He credit his science-fair expertise with giving him the boldness to innovate and advance the sector.
His successful venture, A Microwave Metamaterial Lens With Detrimental Index of Refraction, centered on constructing a lens array to transmit microwave indicators, and it examined their conduct when it comes to how the lens affected the propagation of electromagnetic waves.
“After I heard my title known as, I couldn’t cease smiling,” he recollects, “as a result of a company like IEEE believed in me.”
Pandey advises highschool college students that “the world is your oyster, you probably have curiosity. You don’t have to attend till you’re feeling prepared.”
Harikrishna “Hari” Rallapalli, the 2008 scholarship recipient, is a analysis fellow on the U.S. Nationwide Institute of Neurological Problems and Stroke, in Bethesda, Md.
Rallapalli says he plans to analysis strategies that allow gene expression imaging in people, a way that permits for the visualization and quantification of the exercise of particular genes.
His successful venture, Low-Price Complete Inner Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy, centered on constructing a microscope for school rooms, each for demonstrations and student-level analysis.
The scholarship helped assist his training on the College of California, Davis, the place he earned a bachelor’s diploma in biomedical engineering.
“It felt wonderful to have my work acknowledged by anybody, not to mention a company as prestigious as IEEE,” he says. “It was an early indication that I would reduce it as a scientist.”
Software program engineer and a Forbes 30 Underneath 30 candidate
Jessica Richeri,the 2011 recipient, is a software program design engineer at Fluke in Everett, Wash. She is designing and creating a supervisory management and knowledge acquisition (SCADA) system for one of many firm’s factories. The system collects knowledge from gear and creates analytics dashboards and experiences.
Richeri’s successful entry, Autonomous Robotic Automobile: Saving Lives, Stopping Accidents, One at a Time, centered on constructing a car and software program to assist it. Finally, she says, her design and its use of sensors and software program could possibly be included into autos to forestall visitors accidents.
“The scholarship meant the world [to me]. I felt so honored that I used to be chosen to obtain the award for all of the arduous work I put into my venture,” she says.
A 12 months after receiving the scholarship, she was invited to the California Capitol, in Sacramento, to current her venture and focus on selling STEM fields along with her U.S. consultant.
The cash supported her training at California Baptist College, in Riverside, the place she earned a bachelor’s diploma in electrical and pc engineering.
“Profitable the scholarship gave me confidence that my engineering ardour may change into a profession. It was the beginning of my extremely enjoyable and thrilling skilled journey.” —2015 winner Alex Tacescu
She advises aspiring engineers that “the journey could be difficult, however the sense of accomplishment and the affect you’ll make on the planet are greater than definitely worth the effort.”
The 2014 scholarship recipient, George Morgan,introduced A Multi-Architectural Strategy to the Improvement of Embedded Software program. His goal, he says, was to make {hardware} and software program growth extra accessible. He reworked his venture into a set of growth instruments for embedded-systems engineers to expedite operations.
“I keep in mind strolling on stage and feeling the joy of being acknowledged for my venture,” Morgan says. “In that instantaneous, all my arduous work felt validated, and I knew somebody understood the extent of problem and dedication required to achieve that time.”
The scholarship supported his training on the Rochester Institute of Know-how, in New York, the place he graduated with a bachelor’s diploma in pc engineering in 2017.
He started working at Tesla in 2018 on the AI crew, coping with the software program and {hardware} that powers the electrical autos’ autopilot.
Just lately named amongstForbes’ 30 Underneath 30 in AI, he based Symbolica, a research-focused startup that develops foundational AI fashions and alternate options to the transformer structure utilized in ChatGPT.
Spaceflight engineer and a crash-prevention-system designer
Alex Tacescu acquired the 2015 scholarship for Venture Maverick (now often called Mavdrive). The venture let customers stand upright whereas transferring round on a wheeled, motorized 0.6- by 0.6-meter platform. It’s just like a Segway however extra secure, with 4 wheels as a substitute of two, and every powered by independently managed motors. He says it serves as a pathway to be taught new applied sciences together with management engineering, robotic autonomy, simulation, and AI-powered machine imaginative and prescient.
“Profitable the scholarship gave me confidence that my engineering ardour may change into a profession,” Tacescu says. “It was the beginning of my extremely enjoyable and thrilling skilled journey. I’ll always remember the second I used to be known as up on that stage.”
He earned a bachelor’s diploma in science and robotics engineering and a grasp’s diploma in robotics engineering, each from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, in Massachusetts. He joined SpaceX as a Falcon flight software program engineer and contributed to 2 groundbreaking missions. DART was the primary human-made merchandise to measurably transfer a celestial physique, and Inspiration4 was the primary all-civilian mission to orbit. Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Area is now on Netflix.
After practically three years at SpaceX, Tacescu joined Inversion Area as a flight software program engineer. The startup is targeted on creating re-entry autos.
He advises highschool seniors to “discover their ardour and hold at it. It’s going to be arduous, and there shall be very tough moments, however having it a part of your ardour makes it a lot extra enjoyable, particularly when these accomplishments begin coming in.”
College scholar Kerem Bayhan, the 2021 scholarship recipient, gained for a venture centered on a system to assist stop underride automotive crashes, which happen when a car collides with the rear or facet of a big truck and will get caught below it.Kerem Bayhan
Kerem Bayhan, the 2021 scholarship recipient, gained for a venture centered on a system to assist stop underride automotive crashes, which happen when a car collides with the rear or facet of a big truck and will get caught below it.
Pushed by a want to make an affect on human lives, Bayhan says, he shifted his focus from engineering to drugs. He’s at the moment a scholar at Hacettepe College, in Ankara, Türkiye.
“Profitable the IEEE Presidents’ Scholarship award was an unbelievable and sudden honor,” he says. “To have my venture acknowledged by IEEE, one of many largest and most prestigious organizations in engineering, was immensely rewarding.”
He says he believes engineering expertise are invaluable throughout many fields: “The analytical considering, problem-solving talents, and creativity on the core of engineering can set people aside, it doesn’t matter what path they select to observe.”
Climate balloons, a glaucoma-detection gadget, and drones
Amon Schumann was the 2022 scholarship recipient primarily based on his Small Radiosondes on a Nice Mission venture, a sustainable climate balloon that’s eco-friendly, cost-effective, and stays within the air longer than conventional ones. Now he’s finding out electrical engineering at Technische Universität Berlin, the place he has found an curiosity in high-frequency know-how and circuit design.
After receiving the scholarship, Schumann enhanced his ISEF venture by including a live-streaming digital camera and extra sensors.
“My system initially allowed for flights lasting a couple of weeks,” he says. “I’ve since refined it to allow the balloons to gather knowledge within the stratosphere for a number of months.”
Profitable the scholarship was a big motivator, he says, because it validated the potential of his basement-developed venture and confirmed its potential for broad affect.
“Receiving the scholarship gave me the chance to change into deeply concerned with IEEE,” he says, “opening doorways to attach with key decision-makers in science and know-how and resulting in my scholar researcher position” at a Berlin-based analysis institute specializing in high-frequency electronics.
Rohan Kalia, the 2023 scholarship recipient, is a senior at Wheeler Excessive College in Marietta, Ga. For his successful venture, he developed EyePal, a cheap instrument for early glaucoma detection.
After receiving the scholarship, he continued to refine his venture, enhancing its performance.
“I open-sourced the components, so if anybody needs to construct on my gadget, they’ll,” Kalia says.
He was honored to obtain the award, he says, understanding that previous scholarship winners had made such artistic tasks.
“I actually loved the dialog with my interviewers,” he says. “We mentioned the technical points of attainable options and their trade-offs.”
He advises highschool college students to “hold an open thoughts” about their pursuits.
“Be interested by many alternative issues,” he suggests, “as they join in fascinating methods. When you discover a subject you possibly can’t cease occupied with, begin a venture to discover it.”
Highschool senior Angelina Kim was the 2024 scholarship recipient for her Autonomous Scout and Rescue UAVs for Ocean Security.Angelina Kim
Angelina Kim was final 12 months’s scholarship recipient. She is a highschool senior on the Bishop’s College in La Jolla, Calif., the place she is president of the All Ladies STEM Society, a nonprofit, student-led group that holds free month-to-month workshops for ladies in grades 3 to eight throughout San Diego. She plans to check electrical engineering at MIT.
Kim gained the scholarship for her Autonomous Scout and Rescue UAVs for Ocean Security. She developed a drone that might survey the shoreline, taking images and analyzing them to determine rip currents.
To proceed her work associated to the venture, she is chief govt of AngelTech, a startup devoted to enhancing public security by means of revolutionary applied sciences.
“By way of AngelTech, I’m partnering with native lifeguards to deploy my lifeguard scout and rescue drones on close by seashores,” she says.
She is also creating new applied sciences to boost public security, she says, together with a synchronized show created by means of a number of gadget screens. She holds a patent for the invention.
She says she was thrilled to obtain the scholarship as a result of she knew it could assist her develop worthwhile contacts inside IEEE and supply assist for her future analysis.
“I hope to make use of the connections I’ve made by means of the scholarship to share my analysis and networking experiences with fellow engineers and corporations, and to function a mentor for younger ladies who’ve restricted entry to STEM sources,” she says.
An article about this 12 months’s recipient is scheduled to be revealed in The Institute in August.
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