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Valparaiso University Engineering in the News

Student wins national defense fellowship

4-17-08

Valparaiso University engineering student Josh Wood of Reynolds, Ill., has won a highly competitive graduate fellowship from the Department of Defense to pursue research that could have important implications for national defense.

Wood is one of 200 undergraduate students in the country selected to receive a 2008 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship. More than 3,400 applications were reviewed by the research offices of the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Army from individuals pursuing graduate work in science and engineering disciplines of military importance.

The fellowship will cover Wood's tuition and required fees, along with a yearly stipend starting at $30,500, for the next three years as he pursues an advanced degree.

The computer engineering major plans to continue his research in nanotechnology and currently is finalizing his choice of which graduate school to attend after earning his bachelor's degree from Valparaiso this spring.

“Certainly my work could be used in national defense applications, though my interest up to now has predominantly focused on the numerous private sector applications involving nanotechnology,” Wood said. Fellowship winners incur no military or service obligation.

Earlier this semester, Wood became the third Valparaiso engineering student in four years to be named to the All-USA College Academic Team, selected by USA Today to recognize the nation's most outstanding undergraduate students. USA Today named Wood to its Third Team in part because of his research in nanocomputer technology, including determining how to do matrix multiplication using quantum computing techniques.

This winter, Wood was one of only a handful of undergraduate students invited to two professional conferences – the International Semiconductor Device Research Symposium and the Applied Power Electronics Conference – to present research that could lead to improvements in the performance of microprocessors, which provide the brainpower for computers and an increasing array of consumer electronic devices such as iPods.

Wood also studies in Valparaiso's interdisciplinary honors college (Christ College) and has presented his research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, the largest and most prestigious undergraduate research conference in the United States.

Dr. Kraig Olejniczak, dean of Valparaiso's College of Engineering , said Wood's experience at Valparaiso shows the value of undergraduate students being able to work one-on-one and build close personal and professional relationships with faculty members.

“Josh has been an outstanding student and I believe he and the rest of our students learn a great deal from the opportunities at Valparaiso to collaborate with engineering faculty on nationally competitive research projects,” Dr. Olejniczak said.