LSU Electrical Engineering PhD Student Awarded Prestigious DoD Scholarship
April 23, 2020
BATON ROUGE, LA – LSU Electrical Engineering PhD student Rory Hector recently became only the fourth LSU student ever to receive the Department of Defense’s SMART Scholarship, which was established as a concentrated effort to enhance the DoD’s workforce with “talented, innovative, and brilliant scientists, engineers, and researchers.”
As a result, Hector will receive full tuition, a monthly stipend, health insurance, a book allowance and a summer internship that will last between eight and 12 weeks.
“It’s fantastic,” said Hector, a native of Monterey, La. “I get financially supported for the remainder of my PhD, valuable experience and mentorship through internships while still in school, and I get a rewarding job once I finish the PhD. It’s a great award and that makes it quite competitive, so I’m honored to be selected for it.
“Knowing that the work I’m doing can be used to benefit the armed forces makes me even more excited about it.”
After completing his PhD—which includes a focus on parallel and distributed computing, particularly as it applies to coordination problems for robot swarms—Hector will work in a civilian position with his sponsoring facility, the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Panama City, Fla.
“I chose them as one of my top three preferred sponsoring facilities when applying for the scholarship because they’re working on autonomous underwater vehicles that may have limited communication abilities, an area of research I have focused on during my PhD,” Hector said.
About the SMART Scholarship Program
The SMART—Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation—Scholarship-for-Service Program is an opportunity for students pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree in STEM disciplines to receive a full scholarship and guaranteed civilian employment with the DoD upon degree completion. Learn more about the SMART Scholarship Program.
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