Brown Engineering Graduate Student Wins NASA Jenkins Fellowship

Eduardo Almeida ScM’10, a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering at Brown University, has been selected to receive a 2011 NASA Harriett G. Jenkins Pre-doctoral Fellowship Project (JPFP) award. The JPFP is sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and administered by the UNCF Special Programs Corporation (UNCFSP).

As a NASA JPFP fellow, Almeida will receive up to three years of stipend and tuition offset support as he pursues his graduate education. Ph.D. level fellows receive annual stipends of $24,000.

He has been assigned to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and his tenure will begin on September 1, 2011, under the supervision of his NASA mentor, Curtis Padgett. Almeida will also be required to spend 10 weeks each summer working with Padgett at JPL during the fellowship.

Almeida is currently pursuing a Ph.D. degree in the School of Engineering at Brown University under the supervision of Professor David Cooper. During the course of his graduate studies, he received a dual master of science degree in engineering and applied mathematics in 2010. His interests are computer vision, machine learning and pattern recognition. His research at Brown involves 3D surface reconstruction, probabilistic 3D scene understanding and automatic change detection from arbitrary viewpoints and under arbitrary illumination.

In addition, Almeida worked in collaboration with NASA through summer internships at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in 2009 and 2010. The center develops and manages spacecrafts for interplanetary exploration, such as the Mars Rovers. At NASA/JPL, the group Almeida worked on conducts research and development of algorithms for automatic data interpretation from a variety of imaging sensors. Almeida worked on two projects: i) developing an automated 3D terrain generation process from aerial images (summer 2009); ii) performing refinement of zoom lens camera calibration with unknown and time varying internal camera parameters (summer 2010). The summer internships efforts resulted in a software award and a certificate of recognition from NASA Inventions and Contributions Board.

In addition to his NASA Jenkins Fellowship (JPFP 2011), Almeida was a NASA Rhode Island Space Grant Fellow (RISG 2009-10), and is a member of the IEEE.  The RISG fellowship was a key element supporting the pursuit of his goals of combining engineering and applied mathematics skills in solving real-world problems through JPL. As a RISG fellow and JPL intern, Almeida had the opportunity to network with NASA scientists and to develop tools that helped the engineers on proposed missions. Furthermore, he has shared his experiences with local RI elementary and middle schools through community outreach motivating young scientists to also pursue their dreams.

Before coming to Brown, Almeida graduated magna cum laude from Federal University of Ceara (Brazil) in 2004 with bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering and was a master’s student at Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil) where he took several graduate level courses with focus on signal processing. At that time, Almeida’s studies were sponsored by the Brazilian National Research Council, CNPq.

Brown Engineering Alumnus to Live Tweet NASA Shuttle Launch

Shareef Jackson '02, a Brown Engineering alumnus, is one of 150 tweeps chosen from more than 4,000 applicants scheduled to live tweet during the launch of the space shuttle Endeavor. You can follow him on Twitter @ShareefJackson.   

While looking back on his childhood, thirty-year-old Shareef Jackson always wanted to enjoy a summer at space camp while growing up, but he just never made it.

“I’ve always been a sciency-person. I loved it as a kid, I did engineering in colleges, took a lot of astronomy classes,” he says.

His passion for astronomy continues to develop through his adult life, and in February, he started a space and technology blog from his home in West Philadelphia.

While he still wishes he could go back to his childhood and pretend to be walking on the moon at camp, he never could have imagined winning something even more out of this world: a pass to the shuttle launch of the Endeavor in Florida.

“It’s a good example of government engaging with citizens, trying to really engage in society,” he says.

Jackson is among 149 other tweeps who were randomly selected of approximately 4,000 applicants to live tweet during the launch, as well as “with the opportunity to tour the center, view the shuttle launch and speak with NASA managers, astronauts, shuttle technicians and engineers. The event also will provide participants the opportunity to meet fellow tweeps and NASA’s social media team,” according to NASA’s website.

The chosen tweeps must pay for their own travel expenses and accommodations, but he says it’s totally worth it.

“When I first started my blog, my first post was called, Lift Off. I wrote that I would go to a shuttle launch someday, but I really didn’t expect it to be this soon.”

Space Shuttle Endeavour is slated to launch on April 29th. Be sure to follow Jackson on Twitterhere, and Philly Weekly here.

- courtesy of Matthew Petrillo/PhillyNow (originally published 4/5/11)