MechSE students among NSF Fellowship winners

 

Out of the 36 University of Illinois students who won the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, two were from the MechSE department. 

 

Noel Naughton, a graduate student, and Patrick Slade, an undergraduate, won the three-year annual stipend and tuition and fees. The fellowship is in place to support students who want to work toward research-based masters and doctoral degrees in their fields. 

 

About 17,000 people nation-wide applied for the fellowship and 2,000 received the award. The fellowship typically goes to students who show promise in their future of research, and use previous research and experiences to help society. 

 

Slade was one of only five undergraduates at Illinois to be awarded the fellowship. 

 

“The fellowship has shown that other researchers and professionals have confidence in my potential to have an impact in research, which is encouraging and a unique kind of support that makes me excited to continue my work,” Slade said. 

 

So far, his research has focused on assistive robotic devices. Throughout his undergraduate career, Slade has worked in Aerospace Engineering Professor Tim Bretl’s research group, where he has applied his work on sensory feedback and mechanical design to low-cost prosthetic hands for patients in developing nations. 

 

Last summer, Slade worked in the Harvard Biodesign Lab helping to develop an active knee exosuit that will help older and injured people walk up and down inclines. 

 

After completing his undergraduate degree in May, he is headed to Stanford University for graduate work in robotics and controls. 

 

As for Naughton, he is approaching the end of his journey toward a master’s degree. He studies fluids and heat transfer and how mechanical science principles can gain new insights into human physiology. 

 

“I have been looking at creating a computational model of how the cellular structure of skeletal muscle affects diffusion and how that effect can be measured with diffusion-weighted MRI,” Naughton said. He is unsure of his particular plans for the future, but he plans to pursue a PhD in the same topic. 

 

“I am very honored and humbled to have been selected by the NSF for this award,” Naughton said. “The fellowship will allow me to continue my research in an exciting interdisciplinary area and free me up to explore these questions without having to worry about funding for the rest of my time at Illinois.” 

 

Christopher Peterson, a graduate student in electrical and computer engineering who works in MechSE assistant professor Gaurav Bahl’s lab, was also given the award.

 

Additionally, six MechSE students received honorable mentions from the committee: Andrew Bell, Olivia Carey-De La Torre, Joseph Gaudio, Alex Kahn, Malia Kawamura, and Tracy Ling.