Final yr marked the twenty fifth anniversary of the IEEE Presidents’ Scholarship. Since its inception, the distinguished US $10,000 award has been given yearly to at least one distinctive highschool scholar taking part within the Regeneron (formerly Intel) International Science and Engineering Fair. The ISEF is the world’s largest worldwide STEM analysis competitors for highschool college students.
Finalists for the scholarship are chosen by a staff of IEEE volunteer judges. The scholarship is funded by the IEEE Foundation and administered by IEEE Educational Activities.
To commemorate the scholarship’s anniversary, I requested previous winners how the award impacted their life and profession, and what they’re doing right this moment.
Harvard educator and a movie producer
Elena Glassman obtained the scholarship in 2004 for her Brain-Computer Interface for the Muscularly Disabled undertaking.Elena Glassman
Elena Glassman obtained the scholarship in 2004 for her Brain-Computer Interface for the Muscularly Disabled undertaking. She wrote code to gather EEG wavelets that predicted her personal proper or left arm motion with an accuracy charge of 73 p.c.
Immediately Glassman is an assistant professor of pc science at Harvard, the place she teaches human-computer interaction. 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 obtained.
“When your undertaking 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 undertaking 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 beneficial in tackling all kinds of initiatives.
Adam Sidmanobtained the 2005 scholarship for Camera Stabilization: Take Two. His undertaking centered across the growth of a handheld servo-based device. 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 world wide.”
Sidman is chief government of Timur Bekmambetov’s manufacturing firm, Bazelevs, the place he has overseen a wide range of movies together with The Current War, Hardcore Henry,Searching, 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 yr he collaborated with ISEF organizers to determine a brand new class of initiatives, Technology 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, obtained the scholarship in 2007. His startup, Taro, helps software engineers navigate the skilled world, offering recommendation on job looking out, negotiation, promotions, and management. The platform boasts greater than 100,000 customers. Pandey is a author for IEEE’s Careers 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 undertaking, A Microwave Metamaterial Lens With Negative Index of Refraction, targeted 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.
“Once I heard my title referred to as, I couldn’t cease smiling,” he remembers, “as a result of a company like IEEE believed in me.”
Pandey advises highschool college students that “the world is your oyster, when you have curiosity. You don’t have to attend till you are feeling prepared.”
Harikrishna “Hari” Rallapalli, the 2008 scholarship recipient, is a analysis fellow on the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, in Bethesda, Md.
Rallapalli says he plans to analysis methods that allow gene expression imaging in people, a technique that permits for the visualization and quantification of the exercise of particular genes.
His successful undertaking, Low-Cost Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy, targeted on constructing a microscope for lecture rooms, each for demonstrations and student-level analysis.
The scholarship helped help his training on the University of California, Davis, the place he earned a bachelor’s diploma in biomedical engineering.
“It felt superb 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’d reduce it as a scientist.”
Software program engineer and a Forbes 30 Beneath 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 data acquisition (SCADA) system for one of many firm’s factories. The system collects information from tools and creates analytics dashboards and stories.
Richeri’s successful entry, Autonomous Robotic Vehicle: Saving Lives, Preventing Accidents, One at a Time, centered on constructing a automobile and software program to help it. Finally, she says, her design and its use of sensors and software program might be included into automobiles 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 onerous work I put into my undertaking,” she says.
A yr after receiving the scholarship, she was invited to the California Capitol, in Sacramento, to current her undertaking and focus on selling STEM fields along with her U.S. consultant.
The cash supported her training at California Baptist University, in Riverside, the place she earned a bachelor’s diploma in electrical and computer engineering.
“Profitable the scholarship gave me confidence that my engineering ardour might turn 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 may be difficult, however the sense of accomplishment and the impression you’ll make on this planet are greater than well worth the effort.”
The 2014 scholarship recipient, George Morgan,introduced A Multi-Architectural Approach to the Development of Embedded Software. His goal, he says, was to make {hardware} and software development extra accessible. He reworked his undertaking into a collection of growth instruments for embedded-systems engineers to expedite operations.
“I keep in mind strolling on stage and feeling the thrill of being acknowledged for my undertaking,” Morgan says. “In that immediate, all my onerous work felt validated, and I knew somebody understood the extent of issue and dedication required to succeed in that time.”
The scholarship supported his training on the Rochester Institute of Technology, 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 staff, coping with the software program and {hardware} that powers the electrical automobiles’ autopilot.
Lately named amongstForbes’ 30 Under 30 in AI, he based Symbolica, a research-focused startup that develops foundational AI models and alternate options to the transformer structure utilized in ChatGPT.
Spaceflight engineer and a crash-prevention-system designer
Alex Tacescu obtained the 2015 scholarship for Project Maverick (now generally known as Mavdrive). The undertaking let customers stand upright while moving around on a wheeled, motorized 0.6- by 0.6-meter platform. It’s much like a Segway however extra secure, with 4 wheels as an alternative 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 vision.
“Profitable the scholarship gave me confidence that my engineering ardour might turn 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 referred to 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 Space is now on Netflix.
After almost three years at SpaceX, Tacescu joined Inversion Space as a flight software program engineer. The startup is concentrated on creating re-entry automobiles.
He advises highschool seniors to “discover their ardour and preserve at it. It’s going to be onerous, and there will probably 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 undertaking targeted on a system to assist stop underride automotive crashes, which happen when a automobile collides with the rear or facet of a giant truck and will get caught below it.Kerem Bayhan
Kerem Bayhan, the 2021 scholarship recipient, gained for a undertaking targeted on a system to help prevent underride car crashes, which happen when a automobile collides with the rear or facet of a giant truck and will get caught below it.
Pushed by a want to make an impression on human lives, Bayhan says, he shifted his focus from engineering to drugs. He’s at present a scholar at Hacettepe University, in Ankara, Türkiye.
“Profitable the IEEE Presidents’ Scholarship award was an unimaginable and sudden honor,” he says. “To have my undertaking acknowledged by IEEE, one of many largest and most prestigious organizations in engineering, was immensely rewarding.”
He says he believes engineering skills 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 comply with.”
Climate balloons, a glaucoma-detection machine, and drones
Amon Schumann was the 2022 scholarship recipient based mostly on his Small Radiosondes on a Great Mission undertaking, a sustainable weather balloon that’s eco-friendly, cost-effective, and stays within the air longer than conventional ones. Now he’s learning 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 undertaking 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 information 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 undertaking and confirmed its potential for broad impression.
“Receiving the scholarship gave me the chance to turn 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 High School in Marietta, Ga. For his successful undertaking, he developed EyePal, a reasonable instrument for early glaucoma detection.
After receiving the scholarship, he continued to refine his undertaking, enhancing its performance.
“I open-sourced the elements, so if anybody needs to construct on my machine, they will,” Kalia says.
He was honored to obtain the award, he says, understanding that previous scholarship winners had made such artistic initiatives.
“I actually loved the dialog with my interviewers,” he says. “We mentioned the technical points of doable options and their trade-offs.”
He advises highschool college students to “preserve an open thoughts” about their pursuits.
“Be interested by many various issues,” he suggests, “as they join in fascinating methods. When you discover a matter you’ll be able to’t cease fascinated by, begin a undertaking 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 yr’s scholarship recipient. She is a highschool senior on the Bishop’s School in La Jolla, Calif., the place she is president of the All Girls 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 review electrical engineering at MIT.
Kim gained the scholarship for her Autonomous Scout and Rescue UAVs for Ocean Safety. She developed a drone that might survey the shoreline, taking pictures and analyzing them to establish rip currents.
To proceed her work associated to the undertaking, she is chief government of AngelTech, a startup devoted to enhancing public safety via modern applied sciences.
“By 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 reinforce public security, she says, together with a synchronized show created via a number of machine screens. She holds a patent for the invention.
She says she was thrilled to obtain the scholarship as a result of she knew it will assist her develop invaluable contacts inside IEEE and supply help for her future analysis.
“I hope to make use of the connections I’ve made via 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 yr’s recipient is scheduled to be revealed in The Institute in August.
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