Engineering Students Receive NSF Grad Fellowships

:52 p.m., May 25, 2010----Four engineering students at the University of Delaware have been awarded prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships. Autumn Kidwell is working on a master's degree in UD's Center for Applied Coastal Research, Scott Crown and Vassili Vorotnikov are doctoral students in chemical engineering, and Marco Bedolla is an Honors Program senior who will be going to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the fall to work towards a doctorate in chemical engineering.

The NSF Fellowships are highly competitive, with only about 2,000 students nationwide, across all fields, receiving them. The grants are for three years of advanced study and include tuition, a stipend, and an allowance for international travel.

Advised by Jack Puleo, associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Kidwell is conducting a detailed laboratory study of the horizontal pressure gradients throughout the swash zone -- the area near the shoreline where waves wash up and down the beach face. The research includes sensor and laboratory testing, laboratory and field studies of swash-zone sediment transport, and numerical model validation.

The results will be used to increase understanding of the relationship between the horizontal pressure gradient and swash-zone sediment transport. This will enable improved predictions of erosion caused by storms and climate change and potentially lead to improved methods of mitigation.

Kidwell earned a bachelor's degree in ocean engineering at Texas A&M University in 2009. Her goal is to continue on for a doctorate in ocean and coastal engineering, with research focusing on sediment transport and related applications such as beach nourishment projects.

“Ocean engineering incorporates knowledge of the oceanic domain and an extensive background in math and physics in order to engineer solutions that meet the needs of the world's population in a manner that is as environmentally sustainable as possible,” Kidwell says.