Undergrad Jennifer Roberts wins two prestigious awards

Graduating senior Jennifer Roberts has won both the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Award and the Hertz Foundation award for her upcoming graduate engineering study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. These awards will fully support her graduate education through the Ph.D. level.

The Hertz Foundation award was granted to only 19 graduating seniors nationwide this year. It focuses on engineering and physical sciences. Jennifer notes that it is oriented towards students who are "interested in applied research that will help humanity within the next 50 years." Hertz is also interested in students who are public-service minded and want to give back to the community. The Hertz award is a five year fellowship that fully covers tuition and includes a student stipend.

The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Award covers three years of graduate expenses and can be used over a five-year period. It is awarded to about 900 students a year.

As an undergrad in electrical and computer engineering, Jennifer worked in Professor Shihab Shamma's (ECE/ISR) Neural Systems Lab, learning about neural engineering. She also has worked with Professor John S. Baras (ECE/ISR), taking the honor section of ENEE 322 with him; and has taken classes with Professor André Tits (ECE/ISR). Jennifer is keeping her options open for what research area to focus on in graduate school.

—April 2004

Published April 6, 2004