Seven students from the Tickle College of Engineering have been selected for the 2026 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), one of the nation’s most prestigious awards supporting graduate research in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
NSF awarded 2,500 graduate research fellowships for the 2026–2027 academic year to outstanding graduate students across the United States who are pursuing research-based degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
The fellowship program provides each student with a three-year annual stipend of $37,000 and a $16,000 allowance, over five years, for tuition and fees paid to the institution.
The TCE students who received the award for their field of study are:
Avery Stubbings
Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS)
“It is an honor to win this award,” Stubbings said. “It will give me the support and freedom to explore research areas I am interested in, with the hopes of bringing customizable and private AI applications to everyday people on extremely affordable and resource efficient hardware.”
Alexa Andershock
Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS)
The Franklin, Tennessee native will graduate this spring with a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
“This award is a testament to the support and mentorship I have received from my engineering peers and professors at UT over the last four years,” Andershock said. “The fellowship will help fund my PhD studies in engineering education, where I will be researching the influences on student persistence in undergraduate engineering programs.”
Ethan Naugle
Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS)
The Knoxville native earned his bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from UT in 2025. The fellowship will support his research, which involves creating building blocks for biologically inspired computer architectures.
“I am very grateful and honored to receive this award. This is a wonderful opportunity thatgives me the freedom to fully focus on research topics that I am most passionate about,” Naugle said. “Some of those topics include artificial intelligence hardware, neuromorphic computing, cryogenic device physics, and quantum computing.”
Jocelyn Hess
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
The Seymour, Tennessee native will graduate this spring with a bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering.
“I am thrilled to be chosen for this recognition,” Hess said. “I am so thankful to everyone who has stood by my side over the last four years because I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Daniel Perkins
Bredesen Center
The Knoxville native is a graduate student in data science and engineering.
“For my research, I am developing an AI-powered evacuation system for active shooter scenarios,” Perkins said. “The system combines computer vision, graph neural networks, and deep reinforcement learning to track threats in real time and guide evacuees along the safest and fastest routes.”
Ella Williams
Bredesen Center
The Knoxville native is graduate student studying energy science and engineering.
“I am honored to receive this fellowship supporting my research on energy-dense solid-state batteries through the advancement of lithium metal anodes,” Williams said. “This fellowship will support standardization and optimization of these critical materials through collaboration with leading researchers and world-class facilities, under the guidance of Dr. Guang Yang in the Energy Storage and Conversion Group at ORNL.”
David Levy
Bredesen Center
The Westport, Connecticut native is a first-year graduate student studying energy science and engineering. The fellowship will support his research on the characterization of color center defects in diamonds under various environmental conditions to engineer better sensors.
“I am extremely thankful to my adviser and former professors who wrote letters of recommendation and to my peers who helped proofread my application,” Levy said.
About the NSF Graduate Research Fellowships
NSF GFRP recipients were selected from a highly competitive pool of nearly 14,000 applicants nationwide, representing all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, based on their intellectual merit and broader impacts, including their potential to contribute to scientific innovation.
Since its inception in 1952, GRFP has supported over 70,000 graduate research fellows, many of whom have gone on to become leaders in research and innovation. By recruiting and supporting outstanding students with exceptional potential for leadership in STEM, the program has spurred scientific breakthroughs and economically significant innovations, with more than 40 former fellows having received Nobel Prizes.
Contact
Rhiannon Potkey ([email protected])