CSC News

Shores Receives Prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Lucy Shores, a Master’s Degree candidate in the Computer Science Department at NC State University, has been awarded the prestigious and highly competitive National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship.

Shores works on the Crystal Island game-based learning environments project under the direction of Dr. James Lester, professor of computer science.  She will be completing her MS this year and beginning work on her Ph.D. in educational psychology in the fall under the direction of Dr. John Nietfeld, associate professor in the department of Curriculum, Instruction & Counselor Education, one of the collaborators on the Crystal Island project.

The purpose of the NSF’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program is to ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science and engineering in the United States and to reinforce its diversity.  As the oldest graduate fellowship if its kind, the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship has a long history of selecting recipients who achieve high levels of success in their future academic and professional careers. 

Fellows benefit from three years of funding (approximately $122,500) for research-focused degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.

NSF Fellows are anticipated to become knowledge experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching, and innovations in science and engineering. These individuals are crucial to maintaining and advancing the nation's technological infrastructure and national security as well as contributing to the economic wellbeing of society at large.

Since 1952, NSF has funded 42,000 Graduate Research Fellowships out of more than 500,000 applicants.  More than twenty have gone on to become Nobel laureates.  In addition, the Graduate Research Fellowship Program has a high rate of doctorate degree completion, with more than 70 percent of students completing their doctorates within 11 years.

Please join us in congratulating Lucy on this wonderful honor.

~coates~