The purpose of the Information and Telecommunication Technology Center (ITTC) Graduate Fellowship is to recruit highly qualified individuals into doctoral research programs at the University of Kansas. This award amounts to $2,500 each year for a period of two years. The recipient of this award will also be eligible for a graduate research assistantship.
The successful applicant must have research interests that correlate with the Center's focus areas.
Fellowship Application
As a senior software engineer for the Cerner Corporation, Russell Webb developed important tracking and monitoring systems for improved patient care. He is continuing this line of research, using technology to advance health care, in his postgraduate studies in EECS. The first year doctoral student has been awarded the ITTC Graduate and KU Madison and Lila Self Graduate fellowships.
Webb says technology could greatly improve patient care and streamline the health care industry. The paper-based records’ system does not allow an efficient exchange of information between various medical personnel and patients. For example, timely access to medical histories may not be available, or handwritten chart orders may be misunderstood. According to the federal government, as much as $300 billion is spent annually on unnecessary, inappropriate, inefficient, or ineffective health care.
The application of intelligent systems to medical problems could save lives and money. Webb is interested in robotics, specifically how they can aid in rehabilitation or in surgery. He is also examining the creation of a system of metrics that would grade hospitals and doctors based upon clinical data. The “quality of care” assessment would help potential patients choose the best medical personnel and facilities for them.
Both the ITTC Graduate and Self fellowships help recruit highly qualified students. The ITTC honor, which is awarded for two years, includes yearly funding of $2,500 for the 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 academic terms. The four-year Self Graduate Fellowship consists of an annual $23,000 stipend, full tuition and fees, and a development program.
Webb received his undergraduate degree in computer engineering, graduating with departmental honors from KU in 2001.
The lifelong New
Yorker had originally intended to stay closer to home for graduate school, but a campus visit to the University of Kansas changed Justin
Rohrer's mind. While at KU, Rohrer met ITTC investigators and was impressed by the Center's faculty and research projects. ITTC faculty
and staff were also impressed with Rohrer who earned the ITTC Graduate Fellowship. Rohrer receives $2,500 annually for the 2004-2005 and
2005-2006 academic terms.
Rohrer is planning to complete the required coursework for a master's degree as well as the Ph.D. requirements at KU. He graduated in May 2004 with a bachelor's degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. His major was electrical engineering, with concentrations in microelectronics and networking and a minor in economics.
His work at ITTC includes designing and implementing a number of collaborative environments for installation at research centers across the state of Kansas. Each environment will include software and hardware tools to facilitate the sharing of research in bioinformatics with collaborators around the world, and will feature automatic archival of the information shared. He has created a project website which will be updated as things progress.
John Paden, a first
year doctoral student in electrical engineering, was chosen as the first recipient of the ITTC Graduate Fellowship. He received $2,500
annually for two years.
Paden, who was completing his master's thesis, had begun working on his doctoral degree in electrical engineering. He received his bachelor's in computer science and earned his master's degree in electrical engineering, both from the University of Kansas. He worked as an undergraduate research assistant on such projects as the Rapidly Deployable Radio Network (RDRN) Phase 1 and Phase 2 and the Unified Network Informatics for Education (UNITE) project. He continues work at ITTC as a graduate researcher on the Polar Research for Ice Sheet Measurements (PRISM) project.
Prior to receiving the ITTC Graduate Fellowship, Paden earned one of only 52 NASA Earth System Science Graduate Fellowships. He has used the funding to help develop a radar to measure ice thickness and determine bedrock conditions below the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica with the PRISM project.
"We are very pleased to have John Paden as the first Ph.D. Fellow," said Victor Frost, director of ITTC and Dan F. Servey distinguished professor of electrical engineering and computer science. "His recent NASA fellowship is a clear indicator of his ability to contribute to the state-of-the-art research in his field."
To learn more about Paden, please log on to his Web page at http://www.ittc.ku.edu/~paden.
To apply for the ITTC Graduate Fellowship please submit the information listed below to:
Dr. Victor Frost, ITTC Director
The Information & Telecommunication Technology Center
2335 Irving Hill Road
Lawrence, KS 66045-7612
Admission to a Ph.D. program at the University of Kansas will be required before the award is issued. The ITTC Core Management Team
will review applications and select the award winner.
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