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16 students receive NCSA’s Fiddler Innovation Fellowships


From using supercomputers to peer into gun violence and mental health to simulating black hole mergers, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at Illinois has a long-standing history of transcending the borders of academic research. In line with this tradition, NCSA interns and student members from our SPIN, REU-INCLUSION and Design for America programs are offered the opportunity to participate in the Fiddler Innovation Undergraduate Fellowship.

This year’s class of undergraduate Fiddler Fellows includes 14 students from a variety of disciplines, 13 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and one from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. Fiddler Innovation Graduate Student Fellowship Awards were also presented to two graduate students, and the Fiddler Innovation Faculty Fellowship was awarded to two faculty members.

The undergraduate award, which consists of a $1,000 stipend, was given to students whose research at NCSA crossed over into multiple disciplines, encouraging exploration of new topics and innovation. Awardees from this year studied everything from tracking race in video games to sound design and music composition on supercomputers.

“Often times, research challenges cannot fit within the scope of a single discipline,” said Donna Cox, Director of NCSA’s Advanced Visualization Lab. “To have an award that explicitly provides resources for students to transcend traditional discipline borders is priceless, and we are incredibly thankful to Jerry Fiddler and Melissa Alden for their generous contribution.”

The Fiddler Fellowship is part of a $2 million endowment from Jerry Fiddler and Melissa Alden to the University of Illinois in support of the Emerging Digital Research and Education in Arts Media (eDream) Institute at NCSA. The eDream Institute’s explicit goal is to combine art and technology to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges by looking at them with a frame of mind that is not inhibited by disciplinary constraints.

In turn, this institute supports faculty and students who choose to step outside of disciplinary boundaries, pursuing innovative and interdisciplinary research at all levels. The students received their awards from Fiddler himself, and had an opportunity to share their research with him and other award recipients at the Fiddler Student and Faculty award luncheon on October 2.

While the Fiddler Fellowship is a vital component of NCSA’s reputation as an interdisciplinary research hub, the financial award also encourages students to experiment, offering funding for this type of abstract thinking that could eventually change the world of research, a very rare opportunity.

“As a first generation student, attending college would not be possible without the financial support I receive from scholarships and awards like these,” said award recipient Erica Pereira

A full list of undergraduate fellows and their projects can be found below:

  • Erica Pereira (DePauw University), Computer ScienceVisualizing and Preserving Environmental Data for Improved Governance
  • Nicole Pontaza (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Computer ScienceEye Tracking Race and Cultural Difference in Video Games
  • Craig Santo (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Computer SciencePutting Virtual Director (Back) in Virtual Reality
  • Jasmine Shih (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Computer ScienceWeb Programming and Real-Time Scientific Visualization Research
  • Rishabh Rajagopalan (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Computer ScienceMusic Composition and Sound Design on High-Performance Computers
  • Adhithya Bhaskar (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Mechanical EngineeringReplicability and Reproducibility in Computational Physics
  • Thuong Ha (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Actuarial ScienceVisual Analytics for Precision Medicine
  • Chuhan Yu (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Learning and EducationDeveloping a Support Tool for Optimising the Presentation Format of a Biofeedback Training Program Used in Stress Management
  • Hannah Kim (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Elementary EducationDeveloping a Support Tool for Optimising the Presentation Format of a Biofeedback Training Program Used in Stress Management
  • Nick Zhaoyuan Su (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), ArchitectureDeveloping a Support Tool for Optimising the Presentation Format of a Biofeedback Training Program Used in Stress Management
  • Xun Lin (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Mathematics and Computer ScienceVirtual Reality and Ray Tracing for Computational Materials Science
  • Jinlin Xu (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Computer ScienceVirtual Reality and Ray Tracing for Computational Materials Science
  • Jake Pisarski (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), CommunicationDevelopment of an Interactive Game Show Style Activity to Inform Local Seniors on the Risks of Financial Scams
  • Angela Chan (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Systems Engineering and DesignDevelopment of an Interactive Game Show Style Activity to Inform Local Seniors on the Risks of Financial Scams

Fiddler Innovation Graduate Student Fellowship awardees include:

  • Colter Wehmeier (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Architecture
  • Kyungho Lee (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Illinois Informatics Society

Fiddler Innovation Faculty Fellowship awardees include:

  • Anita Chan, University of Illinois College of Media
  • John Toenjes, University of Illinois Dance program

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