NVIDIA Invests In Computing’s Future With Awards To Top PhD Students

by Marco Chiappetta — Sunday, April 18, 2010, 12:35 PM EDT

NVIDIA Invests In Computing’s Future With Awards To Top PhD Students

-- NVIDIA Awards $250,000 in Grants to Students Engaged in GPU Computing Research --

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- NVIDIA announced that it is awarding $250,000 to 10 top Ph.D. students to help solve complex visual and parallel computing challenges. Each student will receive $25,000, as well as engineering and technical support, to further their advanced research in these fields.

Participants in the NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship Program were selected from 268 applications from 28 countries. Sponsored projects involve a variety of technical challenges, including light-transport simulation, computer vision using neuroscience, and programmability and optimization for heterogeneous systems.

“NVIDIA’s commitment to funding research is producing exciting breakthroughs in science and computing,” said NVIDIA Chief Scientist Bill Dally, who headed the selection committee. “The NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship Program facilitates research by supporting some of the best and brightest minds with resources and technical support. Their work will help define the future of computing.”

Recipients of the 2010 NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship Program include:

Albert Sidelnik, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Anjul Patney, University of California, Davis
Debapriya Chatterjee, University of Michigan
Duane Merrill, University of Virginia
Henry Cook, University of California, Berkeley
Huy T.Vo, University of Utah
Jonathan Ragan-Kelley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Michael Bauer, Stanford University
Nicolas Pinto, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Toshiya Hachisuka, University of California, San Diego

The NVIDIA Academic Research Programs have invested more than $3.2 million over the past three years in computing research that has benefited the fields of science, medicine, transportation and technology. Research conducted by past recipients of the NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship Program has produced important breakthroughs in graphics, computer vision and GPU computing. NVIDIA’s total Graduate Fellowship Awards investment now tops $2 million.

The NVIDIA Graduate Fellowship Program is open to applicants worldwide. Eligibility criteria includes completion of the first year of Ph.D. level studies in the areas of computer science, computer engineering, system architecture, electrical engineering or a related area. In addition, the student must hold a current membership on an active research team.

Tags: Nvidia, award, PHD

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com