As part of a $100,000 grant to the Engineering School, Lockheed Martin is awarding up to five $3,000 scholarships to undergraduate students or groups to work on high-value, sustainability-oriented engineering design projects.
"Lockheed Martin has donated $15,000 for grants specifically to fund sustainable research in the Engineering School," former Rodman Council Co-President Ian Czekala said. "They're going to be awarded to teams or individuals in the Engineering School and want to pursue sustainability research. We're really trying to promote [undergraduate] research."
What makes this grant unique, Czekala noted, is that unlike many other similar grants, these are available for groups both at the University and abroad.
"Most grants are not open to teams within the Engineering School," Czekala said. "It's designed to be open-ended, and we're hoping to be able to fund unique sustainability research projects."
Czekala added that the grant is the product of a continued and thriving relationship between the Engineering School and Lockheed Martin.
"Lockheed Martin and the Engineering School have a great relationship," he said. "The Rodman Scholars have been trying to launch a grant program for about a year or so, and the two happen to meet in the form of this grant. We're hoping this will be an ongoing partnership."
The grants will be awarded through an application process reviewed by a balanced committee comprised of both faculty and students, said Dana Elzey, director of the Rodman Scholars and the Engineering School's international programs.
"We're looking for creative and innovative projects that are going to bring sustainability home in a new and interesting way while allowing students to explore the resources at the University," Czekala said. "It'll be based on the character or merit of the student and their proposal - whether their idea is novel, unique, transformative, and whether the student has the resources to follow through with this."
Although the grants will be administered by the Rodman Council, everyone in the Engineering School is eligible to apply, and even non-Engineering students can participate in research projects if the principal researcher is an Engineering student. Elzey added that the Rodman Council will not be involved directly in the selection process.
Elzey also said that although Lockeed Martin provided funding for only one year, he hopes the program will continue to grow in the future.
"Hopefully we'll be able to develop this," Czekala said. "This is the first year [for the project] so we're really trying to get this off the ground."
Chris Belyea, also a former Rodman Council co-president, noted that research experience is an invaluable opportunity for undergraduates.
"We also conducted a survey of the population of engineers, and over 60 percent of Engineering students are involved in research in some form or capacity, so we know the need is there," Belyea said. "We want this to encourage students to do quality research."
Belyea also said the broad theme of sustainability opens up the floor to research performed in a wide variety of engineering disciplines.
"We're trying to get a variety of projects under the umbrella of sustainability - which can be a computer science project to biomedical [engineering] to systems [engineering]," he said.
Additionally, Elzey noted that although the new grants have similar benefits compared to many others, these hopefully will encourage collaboration between different engineering disciplines and added that recipients are encouraged to participate in a research symposium at the end of the school year.
"This is very much like other grants, such as the Harrison Grant," Elzey said. "We hope this will encourage cross-disciplinary design - specifically sustainability-driven ones."
Belyea explained that the Engineering School also hopes to culture its research community by compiling the research from participants' presentations. "That way it will serve as an educational tool to show Engineering schools ... what is going on at U.Va in terms of engineering research," he said.
All those involved agreed that the grant is meant to encourage Engineering students in endeavors that would not otherwise be possible.
"It's about empowering a U.Va. engineer to do a project of his or her choosing who wouldn't otherwise have such an opportunity," Czekala said.
Applications are available online at the Rodman Scholars' Web site and are due Dec. 4 at 5 p.m. Winners will be announced later that month.
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