Three from MechSE receive NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Twenty-one graduate students, five undergraduates, and one alumnus from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have been offered Graduate Research Fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The MechSE Department was well represented with four fellowship winners:

• William Cartwright Drennan (Taher Saif’s lab)
• Valeria Saro-Cortes (Aimy Wissa’s lab)  
• Reid Dukes Smith (Andrew Alleyne’s lab)

MechSE graduate student Frank Andujar Lugo (Alleyne’s lab) and MechSE senior Andrew Robert Klingberg were among 23 students receiving Honorable Mention recognition from NSF.

The NSF-GRF is one of the nation's premiere fellowships for graduate students. Fellowships support students pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in the sciences, engineering, and social sciences. The three-year fellowship provides a stipend, a cost-of-education allowance, international research opportunities, internships with federal agencies, and access to supercomputing facilities.

The GRF provides three years of funding, which can be distributed over five years. Applications are evaluated according to NSF's two evaluation criteria: Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts.