Alumni

Alumnus Wins NSF Fellowship

A Valparaiso University engineering graduate has been selected to receive a prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.

Michael Steffen, who graduated from Valparaiso last year and is from Springfield, Ill., has won a fellowship that will cover the costs of his studies in computer and mechanical engineering at Iowa State University. Valparaiso graduates Amy Stark of Saint John and Kimberly Christman of Bloomington, Ill., won honorable mentions in the national competition.

The NSF is the premier funding agency for student and faculty academic support in the country. Its Graduate Research Fellowships fund three years of study – up to $121,500 – in master’s or doctoral programs focusing on research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This year there were 913 students nationwide who received fellowship awards.

Steffen was one of five computer engineering students in the country to win an NSF Fellowship. He previously participated in research through Valparaiso’s virtual reality laboratory in which he helped develop software used to operate a farm vehicle located in Japan from Valparaiso’s campus. He participated in real-time testing last year that demonstrated the system’s feasibility.

He is pursuing research in computer graphics architecture at Iowa State, with a focus on developing architectures to improve the performance of ray-tracing, which is one rendering method used for photo-realistic rendering.

“My goal for my research in computer graphics architecture is to make contributions and improve the realism of real-time computer graphics by moving away from current rendering methods,” Steffen said.

Stark, who graduated from Valparaiso in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and political science, is pursuing graduate studies in human genetics at the University of Chicago. She graduated as a Christ College Scholar and served in numerous leadership roles as a student, including co-chair of Valparaiso’s 2006 MLK Day Planning Committee and chair of the Campus Community Policy Committee.

Christman is pursuing graduate studies in mechanical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute after earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Valparaiso in 2006. During her studies at Valparaiso, she participated in research involving high temperature solar electrolysis and the design and testing of solar fuel cells. Christman graduate work focuses on energy conversion and thermal fluids.