David R. Swanson Memorial Fund
Friends, colleagues and former students contributed to and created the David R. Swanson Memorial Fund. This fund was designed to positively impact students associated with the Holland Computing Center and further David’s vision of outreach and education.
To facilitate the wishes of the donors, the Holland Computing Center (HCC) will administer the annual awards from the David R. Swanson Memorial Fund. The awards are to be given to deserving students, either graduate or undergraduate, in the form of a) stipend for work carried out under the oversight of HCC, b) travel awards to events related to their work with or using HCC or c) awarded to a deserving participant of the annual HCC symposium or some combination thereof. The criteria and awarding of the David R. Swanson Memorial awards will fall to the director of HCC.
The pool of candidates for the award will not be limited to the Lincoln campus nor to the University of Nebraska in general. If a candidate has a compelling reason to work with HCC, a history of using HCC/OSG resources or is strongly recommended by a collaborator of HCC they may be considered for the award. Again, this award is at the discretion of the HCC director with an eye towards honoring the donor’s wishes.
The travel stipend will go to a student attending an HPC/HTC related event such as the OSG (Open Science Grid) all-hands meeting or the Supercomputing conference. It could also be awarded to a student presenting at a conference within their field of study. This would be particularly desirable if the student is presenting work done with HCC/OSG resources.
In 2023 four travel stipends were awarded for students to travel to various conferences.
- Haoran Zhao, Physics and Astronomy, attended Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science (Oct 2023) (https://www.frontiersinoptics.com/home/about-fio-ls). “My research area is learning about molecular dynamics and molecular imaging with ultra-fast laser pulses. The people presented many interesting topics and fascinating laser applications at the conference. The travel expanded my knowledge.” -- Haoran Zhao
- Ahatsham Hayat, Electrical and Computer Engineering, attended NeurIPS '23 Workshop on Generative AI for Education (GAIED) (https://neurips.cc/virtual/2023/workshop/66547). “I am very thankful to the committee for selecting me as the recipient of the Dave Swanson Memorial Travel Award. I am truly honored and appreciative of the support you have provided... I am delighted to inform you that I have successfully presented my work at the NeurIPS '23 Workshop on Generative AI for Education (GAIED).” -- Ahatsham Hayat
- Sunandini Sharma, Pathology and Microbiology, UNMC, attended PEARC ‘23 (https://pearc.acm.org/pearc23). “I have a deep passion for engaging with people from diverse technical backgrounds. Presenting my research would help me to represent UNMC at the horizon of biomedical research specifically in the Cancer field.” -- Sunandini Sharma
- Kai Huang, Physics and Astronomy, attended Magnetism and Magnetic Materials Conference (https://2023.magnetism.org). “The Holland Computing Center is an exceptional research resource that greatly benefits numerous researchers across the university. I heavily rely on it for my atomic and magnetic simulations, and my research projects would simply be unattainable without the support of the HCC” -- Kai Huang