Rice University, Electrical and Computer Engineering students Samantha Fuentes and Nicholas Glaze were announced as this year's ECE Chevron Scholarship winners.
The award is granted to undergraduate students pursuing a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Nominated by university faculty, the winners are selected because of their ECE scholastic achievements and their interest in the energy industry.
Samantha Fuentes, a junior electrical and computer engineering student, said of the announcement, "I am greatly honored to receive this recognition as it supports my goal of having a career in the energy industry. Fuentes' parents both work within the oil and gas industry. "They have always inspired me to pursue opportunities in which my passion for engineering could generate real-world change. This award by Chevron is an opportunity to apply the skills I am developing in my undergraduate degree towards efforts to support sustainability and clean energy within the industry."
During her time at Rice, Fuentes has been inspired by Professor Don Johnson. "My experience as a student and as a course assistant has challenged me to expand my problem solving and engineering design skills. His dedication to teaching inspired me to pursue a career that aligns with my passions."
Samantha, who previously interned with Chevron, is looking forward to completing a data engineering internship at Chevron this coming summer.
Nicholas Glaze was equally thrilled with the recognition. "I'm really grateful for this scholarship because it not only validates the hard work I've been doing as an ELEC major over the past couple of years, but it also helps ease the burden of paying for tuition on my family."
During his time at Rice, Glaze has worked closely with Professor Santiago Segarra, who invited him to work in his research group at the beginning of his sophomore year. Glaze said of his time in the research group, "It offered me valuable exposure to the world of deep learning research and helped me develop theoretical and practical research skills that I know will benefit me throughout my career."
Nicholas has previously held a Chevron internship, which introduced him to data science within the energy industry. "Interning at Chevron prepared me to contribute to energy research in the future. The energy industry currently has an abundance of untapped data streams, so I hope that in the coming years, we can begin to apply modern data science/machine learning methods to extract new insights from this data."
Glaze looks forward to publishing his research with Prof. Segarra's group in the coming months and interning at Microsoft this summer in their Cloud+AI group. Once campus activities fully resume, he plans to play in Rice's Campanile Orchestra and resume matches with Rice's club tennis team.
To learn more about the Chevron Scholarship and the department of ECE visit: https://engineering.rice.edu/academics/student-awards-scholarships/undergraduate-awards-scholarships#chevron