Buckeye engineers receive 2017 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Six Buckeye engineers have been named by The National Science Foundation (NSF) as 2017 award recipients of its Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). GRFP offers fellowships to applicants selected through a national competition.

The Ohio State University College of Engineering is represented by two alumni and four current graduate students. The following awardees were selected from more than 13,000 applicants.

Alumni

• Jillian Grace Yuricich, aeronautical and aerospace engineering, is developing framework for an autonomous controller to use on-board satellites and spacecraft, solving long-term scheduling and planning problems while optimizing the craft’s controls and dynamics.
• Hannah Christine Zierden, chemical engineering, is developing nanotechnology-based tools for the characterization and prevention of preterm birth.

Graduate Students

• Richard Hickey, biomedical engineering, is developing a commercially viable blood substitute that could potentially save a person's life until a blood transfusion can be performed.
• Neil Stanley Ramirez, mechanical engineering, proposed a plan to further the knowledge of using nanoscale transport systems with flow control which are essential to many applications including new types of drug delivery and water desalination.
• Andrej Simeunovic, mechanical engineering, is developing an endoscopic surgical robotics-based additive manufacturing tissue engineering device (picture a Da Vinci surgical robot that 3D prints synthetic tissue constructs inside the body).
• Maria Anida Stang, materials science and engineering, proposed an electrochemical sensing system that can detect multiple pathogens simultaneously, allowing for easy monitoring of the purity and safety of drinking water.

“This unique program has nurtured economic innovation and leadership in the U.S. continuously since 1952—by recruiting and supporting outstanding students with high potential in science, technology, engineering and mathematics very early in their graduate training,” said Jim Lewis, NSF acting assistant director for education and human resources. “These talented individuals have gone on to make important discoveries, win Nobel Prizes, train many generations of American scientists and engineers and create inventions that improve our lives.”

GRFP provides three years of financial support within a five-year fellowship period ($34,000 annual stipend and $12,000 cost-of-education allowance to the graduate institution). That support is for graduate study that leads to a research-based master's or doctoral degree in S&E. A high priority for NSF and GRFP is increasing the diversity of the S&E workforce, including geographic distribution, and the participation of women, underrepresented minorities, persons with disabilities and veterans.

A complete list of those offered the fellowship for 2017 is available on FastLane. For general information about the program, visit NSF's GRFP website.