Alumnae Receive NSF Fellowships

CS alumnae and former CERIAS students, Carrie Price Black and Erika Shehan are 2005 recipients of NSF Graduate Fellowships. An NSF Fellowship is a prestigious endowment given to individuals who can contribute significantly to research, teaching, and innovations in science and engineering. NSF chooses recipients who will be key to advancing technology, national security and economic well-being of the nation.

Carrie is currently pursuing her masters degree in Information Security Technology at Carnegie Mellon University. Her thesis emphasis is on Binary Software Analysis for Security Vulnerabilities. Carrie, originally from Goshen, Indiana, graduated Purdue in 2003 with a Bachelor's degree in CS with Honors and Distinctions and a minor in Math. She interned at Sandia National Laboratories from May 2001 to December 2003 and then accepted employment at Sandia National Laboratories in January 2004 in the area of information assurance for national security. While at Purdue, Carrie was a mentor for the Women in Science Program, President of the Computer Science Women's Network (CSWN) in 2001 and Vice President in 2000. She was a member of the Homelessness Prevention Network Team in Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS), and a speaker at Purdue CS Scholarship Day. She received the Lucent Merit Scholarship in 2002, and the Sandia National Laboratories National Security Scholarship and Lockheed Martin Merit Scholarship in 2001.

Erika attended the Indiana Academy of Arts and Science her junior and senior year of high school. She graduated from Purdue with honors in 2004. Her Bachelor's degree is in CS with a minor in Math and History. Erika is currently working on her PhD in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech. During her undergraduate work, Erika received an Honorable Mention in the 2004 Outstanding Undergraduate Award Program of the Computer Research Association (CRA). She was named the outstanding incoming student in 2000, and studied abroad in Australia in 2002. She was a member of the CS Undergraduate Student Board, Science Ambassadors, and the Juggling and Unicycle Club. Erika interned for Schlumberger Sema at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002, Motorola the summer of 2003, and Sandia National Laboratories in the summer of 2004. In 2001 she received the GRUB scholarship for an incoming, Indiana freshman and the Tivoli/IBM T.J. Watson Scholarship. She received the Lockheed Martin scholarship in 2001 & 2003, and the Harris Corporation scholarship in 2002.

Students interested in applying for an NSF Fellowship should visit the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program web site at http://www.nsf.gov/grfp.

Great work Carrie and Erika!