Purdue ECE students selected for NSF Graduate Research Fellowships
Three students from Purdue University’s Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering have been selected for the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP). Swagat Bhattacharyya, Scott Kenning, and Jacqueline Malayter are part of the 2022 class of GRFP Fellows. The program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at accredited United States institutions.
Fellowships provide the student with a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees (paid to the institution), as well as access to opportunities for professional development available to NSF-supported graduate students. Fellowships may only be used for an eligible graduate degree program at an academic institution accredited in, and having a campus located in, the US, its territories, possessions, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. NSF Fellows are anticipated to become knowledge experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching, and innovations in science and engineering.
Swagat Bhattacharyya
Swagat Bhattacharyya majored in Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, and Mathematics at Purdue, and will pursue his PhD in Electrical Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. He says he feels fortunate and honored to receive the NSF GRF.
“I credit this fellowship to the guidance of my research mentors: Prof. David Graham (West Virginia University), Prof. Pedro Irazoqui (formerly Purdue ECE, now at Johns Hopkins University), and Dr. Jay Shah (Neurava LLC) as well as my teachers, family, and friends,” he says.
Bhattacharyya’s multidisciplinary research leverages the physics of electronic devices for computation and sensing in resource-constrained scenarios like wearables and implants. He is also currently researching scattering phenomena under Kevin Webb, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue.
Scott Kenning
Scott Kenning works on optical force research with Purdue ECE Prof. Kevin Webb’s group and integrated photonics research with the research group of Andrew M. Weiner, Scifres Family Distinguished Professor of ECE. He says working with both groups greatly shaped his interest in optical and mechanical effects in integrated photonic systems.
Kenning says it is a great honor to receive this fellowship.
“I feel extremely fortunate for the mentorship of Professors Andrew Weiner, Kevin Webb, and Saeed Mohammadi,” he says. “The faculty support I received that made this possible means a lot to me, alongside the support of fellow research group members, family, and friends.”
Kenning will be pursuing a PhD in Electrical Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
Jacqueline Malayter
Jackie Malayter did her undergraduate in ECE at Purdue and is currently pursuing her PhD in ECE at Purdue under David Love, Nick Trbovich Professor of ECE. She says she is grateful for the mentorship she has at Purdue that has made it possible for her to be awarded this fellowship.
“Thank you to Professor David Love, Professor Allen Garner (nuclear), Professor Jim Krogmeier, Professor Adam Watkins (Honors), and countless others who I have had the pleasure to learn from inside and outside the ECE department,” says Malayter. “I hope in the future I will be able to recommend my own students for this fellowship."
Malayter researches wireless communications and focuses on decreasing latency in multiple antenna relay systems to benefit wireless rural broadband and internet of things (IoT) mission-critical applications.