Five students in ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering were awarded support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) to pursue their graduate and doctoral research.
The NSF GRFP aims to foster and promote excellence in STEM by recognizing talent from across the U.S. Fellows receive three years of financial support that takes the form of a $34,000 annual stipend and a $12,000 education cost allowance to their university.
The GRFP winners are individuals who demonstrate their potential for significant research achievements and will propel future innovations and economic growth.
Samantha Janko
Engineering graduate student Samantha Janko’s work with on energy systems with energy engineering Assistant Professor Nathan Johnson addresses important issues affecting the U.S. and the world.
“My work focuses on developing technology to supply power to rural areas, as well as advanced intelligent distributed control of micro-grids. This type of control will assist with the transition of integrating renewable technology into our existing power grid,” Janko says.
To apply for the fellowship, students must prepare a detailed application that includes proposals that explain the value of their research.
Janko believes that completing her undergraduate degree with the Fulton Schools gave her unique advantages.
“I had hands-on experience through my project classes and research experience through the Fulton Undergraduate Research Initiative (FURI) prior to applying,” Janko says. “I was able to discuss those experiences in my application and use them to explain my interest in my chosen field of research. I also described how those experiences shaped my perspective on engineering and fueled my passion for learning and teaching.”
She plans on pursuing a doctorate in systems engineering at the Polytechnic School beginning in Fall 2016.
Other Fulton Schools graduate student recipients are Andrew Barkan, mechanical engineering; Jorge Cardenas, electrical engineering; Alexandria Lam, biomedical engineering; and Anjali Mulchandani, environmental engineering.
In 2016, 17,000 students across the nation applied and 2,000 students were awarded the fellowship. Since 1952 the NSF has funded nearly 50,000 Graduate Research Fellows out of more than 500,000 applicants.
