On Jan. 14, two Tech students were officially recognized as part of the 2024 class of Astronaut Scholars by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. Ryan Rodriguez, fourth-year ISyE and Matthew Fernandez, fourth-year ME, were the chosen recipients from the Institute. The scholarship was presented by a former astronaut and Tech alumni, Shane Kimbrough.
Kimbrough graduated from Tech in 1998 with his Master’s of Science in Operations Research. He has since completed nine spacewalks and was also the commander of two space missions. Kimbrough was the fourth person to complete space missions on three different aircraft.
Once a student decides to apply to the scholarship, they will be notified between February and March whether they have been selected, and a national announcement will be sent out between April and May. In January of the following year, the students will be presented with their award by a member of the Astronaut Foundation.
Rodriguez, one of this year’s recipients, co-developed a project that estimates traffic congestion between two points. “His interests are primarily about transportation and how people get from, say, the MARTA station to Georgia Tech’s campus: the ‘last mile problem,’” said Georgia Brunner, a Prestigious Fellowships Advisor at the Institute who helped Rodriguez and Fernandez apply for the award.
When asked how he felt about winning this scholarship, Rodriguez said he was “incredibly excited. Who wouldn’t be thrilled about speaking at NASA? I was also deeply grateful for the guidance of fellowships advisors, mentors and friends along the way.”
Fernandez, the other recipient of this year’s scholarship, also worked on an innovative project.
“He’s fundamentally a builder and likes to figure out problems that I would never think about,” said Brunner about Fernandez. “He’s really interested in effectively building aquatic robots, so he’s got different projects going on.”
In one of these projects, Fernandez confronted the problem of determining how an aquatic robot would move along the ocean floor and discovered it uses a snake-like motion.
The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation has continued the tradition of choosing exemplary students for this scholarship since the fellowship was created by Mercury-7 astronauts in 1984. Each year, Tech selects two undergraduates who have decided to pursue careers in STEM.
Brunner explained why events like this one are important for students. “I think it’s important for us to promote opportunities like this for students, not only for the monetary reward, but also to learn how to write grants, communicate their goals, and it also helps [them] to find their goals,” said Brunner.
They also shed some light on the award selection process. “You must be a junior in order to get [the award], and you must be in a STEM-related field,” Brunner said. “We are looking for students who are interested in using science for the public good — whether that be human health or environmental health.”
Being honored with this award not only grants the student up to $15,000 in scholarship money, it also gives them access to a network of people including members of the Astronaut Foundation, such as Kimbrough, and Astronaut Scholarship Foundation alumni.
Rodriguez provided some advice to aspiring scholarship awardees. “What differentiates [this program] from other research-based scholarships is their emphasis on story. Research experience and publications are great, but pulling everything together into a cohesive narrative is most important. It’s not just what you have, but also how you sell it,” Rodriguez said.
Most scholarship winners go on to graduate schools in order to continue working on their projects. The Astronaut Scholarship — and opportunities like it — allow Jackets, including Rodriguez and Fernandez, to keep growing and achieve their goals.