Prestigious NSF Graduate Fellowships offered to Three Mechanical Engineering students and one Alumnus

Jessica Allen, Rachel Gerver and Cassandra Telenko, all ME first year Ph.D. students, received National Science Foundation research grants.

AUSTIN, TEXAS—July 18, 2008

Four University of Texas at Austin Mechanical Engineering students received the prestigious National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship for 2008. Each year the program offers about 1,000 fellowships nationwide to provide graduate students with up to $40,000 annual support for three years.

Jessica Allen is completing her first year mechanical engineering doctoral student in the Neuromuscular Biomechanics Lab. She is currently studying the compensatory mechanisms used by post-stroke hemiparetic patients and how they change over the course of rehabilitation. By analyzing experimental data from clinical trials and computer simulations of hemiparetic gait, she hopes to advance the development of individualized rehabilitation programs. Her supervising professor is Dr. Rick Neptune, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the George and Dawn L. Coleman Centennial Fellow in Engineering.

Rachel Gerver is finishing her first year as a doctoral student in the materials area of mechanical engineering. She has a strong interest in both energy policy and electrochemical energy systems, including batteries and fuel cells. A member of Assistant Professor Jeremy Meyers' research group, she is currently working to develop better computer models of lithium ion batteries.

Cassandra Telenko is completing her first year as a doctoral student in mechanical engineering. She is a member of both the Product, Process, and Materials Design Lab and the Webber Energy Group. Her research is in early stage, environmentally conscious product design, discovering and validating green design principles through life cycle assessment. Her advisors are Dr. Carolyn Seepersad and Dr. Michael Webber, assistant professors of Mechanical Engineering.

Michael Mueller, a doctoral student at Stanford University in mechanical engineering and former UTME alumnus, received the fellowship to research the fundamental formation of soot (particulate matter) with applications to combustion devices such as reciprocating engines and gas turbines. His research will improve predictions of the formation of soot so devices can be designed to minimize this pollutant.

This article is excerpted from a press release issued by the Cockrell School of Engineering on June 3, 2008. Read the full story.