Honorific fellowships go to top grad students

Amal Ahmed and Jeffrey Davis each received a George Van Ness Lothrop Fellowship in Engineering. Iddo Geltner received the Wallace Memorial Fellowship in Engineering.

Ms. Ahmed is a fourth-year graduate student in the Department of Computer Science. She received her bachelor's degree in computer science and economics from Brown University. In addition, she earned a master's degree in computer science from Stanford University, where she specialized in databases. Her research interests are programming languages: type systems, logics and security, especially as they relate to proof-carrying code, a technology for mechanically verifying that a program is safe to execute.

Mr. Davis is from Ludlow, Mass. He earned his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is studying in the Department of Chemical Engineering under the guidance of Professor Sandra Troian. Mr. Davis is interested in fluid mechanics and applied mathematics, with specific emphasis on transport phenomena in and the hydrodynamic stability of free-surface liquid films.

In his leisure time, Mr. Davis enjoys skiing, playing tennis, working out, playing the clarinet, listening to classical music, and discussing politics and history (especially the beginnings of republicanism and the revolutionary origins of American government).

The George Van Ness Lothrop Fellowship in Engineering was founded in 1970 by a bequest of Marion Lewis Lothrop, widow of George B. Lothrop, A.B. 1908 and E.E. 1910. This fellowship is one of the highest awards conferrable in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and provides a stipend plus full tuition.

Mr. Geltner, who is from Rehovot, Israel, is studying in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He received his bachelor's degree in physics and computer science from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. At Princeton, Mr. Geltner is working on laser-plasma interaction, soft X-ray lasers, ultrasoft laser pulses, and semiconductor plasma.

The Wallace Memorial Fellowship in Engineering was founded in 1930 by the bequest of Bonnie Wallace LeClear, and reconstituted in 1963 as one of the highest awards conferrable in the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Team wins robot competition

This computer-generated image demonstrates the cooperation of the driller and transport rovers for Martian subsurface water collection that was designed by a team of Princeton engineers.

A   team of Princeton students was selected as one of three winners at the Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts Academic Linkage (RASC-AL): 2002 Advanced Concept Design Presentation held in November.

Team members Kristina Alemany '03, Kristen Bethke '03, Niraj Bhatt '03, Brent Bollman '03, and Jonathan Viventi '04 designed an integrated, autonomous robotic team that will traverse the Martian soil to detect, extract, and transport ice.

"The extraction and transport of this water would enable human habitation and exploration on Mars...A team of small robots can perform this collection task more efficiently and more reliably than one large, multitask robot," wrote team members in their paper "Integrated Robotic Team for Martian Water Collection."

Representatives from 10 university teams presented student research design projects at this year's forum held in Cocoa Beach, Fla. Each team submitted a written report in addition to their oral presentation.

Kristina and Kristen are in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Niraj, Brent, and Jonathan are in the Department of Electrical Engineering (EE). They were advised by EE Professor Stephen Lyon and MAE Professors Daniel Nosenchuck and Michael Littman.

The two other finalists were the University of California at Berkeley and Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.

The RASC-AL was sponsored by the Lunar and Planetary Institute in collaboration with the Universities Space Research Association's ICASE Institute through the NASA Langley Research Center.