Graham Buchanan and Luke McCombs have received the 2024 Bodenheimer Fellowships in the Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS).
Bodenheimer Fellowships, valued at $12,000 per year per person, are combined with GTA/GRA positions and bring the total package to more than $52,000 per year. Fellowships are awarded to superior or deserving EECS graduates from UT to encourage them to stay on for graduate school at UT. These students often have GPAs of 3.8 or above and are being recruited with similar offers from other graduate programs in the country. These fellowships allow UT to make them competitive offers.
Each student may receive the fellowship for up to five semesters while pursuing their MS degree and an additional 10 semesters when pursuing their PhD degree on a full-time basis.
Buchanan will be pursuing his master’s degree in electrical engineering and will work under Professor and Associate Department Head Garrett Rose in neuromorphic computing and analog design. He also plans on attaining a PhD in electrical engineering and continuing to learn and develop new concepts.
“The fellowship both encourages me to continue my pursuits and excites me to see what we can accomplish,” Buchanan said. “This will allow me to allocate more of my time towards research. Thank you to Dr. Bodenheimer and the EECS Department. I will do my best to honor this opportunity.”
McCombs is currently pursuing his master’s degree in computer science. Afterwards, he will pursue his PhD in computer science while working under Assistant Professor Katie Schuman. His goal is to be a research scientist either in industry or for a national lab. He aims to study multiple and diverse objective optimization approaches.
“Receiving the Bodenheimer Fellowship is very affirming of my chosen career path. It proves to me that I can stand proudly among my fellow graduate students and pushes me to strive for excellence befitting the advantages I have been given,” McCombs said. “The fellowship will provide crucial financial support, allowing me to focus on my studies and research with considerably reduced financial burdens.”
About the Fellowship
The Bodenheimer Fellowships were established in honor of Robert E. Bodenheimer, who taught ECE courses at UT for nearly forty years prior to his retirement. The primary benefactor has been one of his students, Michael C. Crabtree, who received his BS in 1973 and MS in 1975 from UT, both in electrical engineering. Crabtree was one of the founders of CTI (Siemens) Molecular Imaging, Inc.
Contact
Lilly Tran (tce@utk.edu)