Hulka Fellowship

Engineering students with a UMD faculty sponsor are encouraged to submit proposals for a $20,000 one-year full-time graduate fellowship applied to the student’s annual stipend. One fellowship award will be granted starting in the summer of 2024 and going through the end of the 2025 spring semester. In addition, $4,000 would be provided for research materials and/or conference travel. This fellowship is intended to assist faculty in covering the stipend costs of their research assistants and therefore is not in addition to student’s graduate stipend.  

The proposed research must not fall exclusively under the objectives of a currently funded research project although supplemental research efforts to existing projects will be considered. A prerequisite to receiving this fellowship is that the graduate student will receive the rest of their regular support during the academic year and summer from their advisor/department. The assistantship can have no additional work requirement during the summer months to allow the Hulka Fellow time to focus full-time on her/his proposed research effort during that time period.

It is expected that each fellow will present his/her research results at a technical conference, and/or submit a scholarly publication. Fellows will be required to submit an end of the year progress report to the MEI2 director. The intent of the fellowship is to initiate new research directions, so there will be a new competition each year, subject to availability of funds.

Click here for the full proposal.

Proposal Format: The proposal narrative must be no more than a three-page description of the student’s research and must identify how it addresses some aspect of a forward-looking solution in their area of research. The proposal must include the following, all within the three-page limit:

• a one-paragraph abstract summarizing the research plan,
• a brief description of the problem and relevant background,
• a proposed plan of research,
• a paragraph describing plans to present the results and efforts to further fund the research.

Bios of the student and the advising faculty member, each not to exceed two pages in length, should be appended to the proposal narrative. In addition, current and pending support of the faculty advisor should be provided (research title, sponsor, duration, and funding amount).

Proposals should be emailed as a single PDF document to Cathy Stephens (csteph5@umd.edu) no later than 5:00 PM February 9, 2024. The advising faculty member is expected to email to Cathy Stephens a separate signed reference letter, which provides an assessment of the student and his/her applicability for the fellowship.

Previous Recipients

2023 - Apurva Anand

2022 - Funke D. Okunrinboye, ChBE

2021 - Amy Chen, MSE

2020 - Lu Liu,  ChBE

2019 - Kiran Burra, ME

2018 - Daniel Lugar, ChBE

2017 - Elizabeth Tennyson, MSE

2015 - Yiqing Wu, ChBE

2014 - Alexander Pearse, MSE

2013 - Andrew Quinn, ChBE