2018-19 Scholarship and Fellowship Winners

The Thornton Tomasetti Foundation has awarded six college students — Bowen Plogmann, Sophie Sisson, Joanna Zou, Fei Ding, Longxi Luo and Catherine Wolfe — with scholarships and research fellowships for use during the 2018-19 academic year.

This year marks the introduction of the Technical Literacy Fellowship, an award given to students graduating from a U.S. university or college who are either entering or currently enrolled in a master’s or Ph.D. program. The fellowship offers funding for specific projects that further the technical literacy of the public at large, especially regarding extreme loading events, wind performance, risk, reliability and the engineering processes that provide the foundation for all structures in the built environment.

7th Annual National Scholarship

Plogmann, Sisson and Zou are the recipients of the TTF National Scholarship. Each will receive $10,000 to pursue graduate studies in building engineering, design or technology.

Students were nominated by a dean or department chair. TTF received submissions from 16 universities, which were reviewed by a Thornton Tomasetti jury of Peter DiMaggio, Robert Sinn, Derya Thompson, Wayne Stocks and Peggy Van Eepoel. Winners were chosen based on academic achievements and an interest in the integration of engineering and architecture.

Plogmann graduated summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in May 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and a 3.98 GPA. He will start graduate courses in engineering at Lehigh University. Plogmann was a member of the Notre Dame Marching Band, was a teaching assistant for a course on reinforced concrete design and held internships at the Ohio Department of Transportation and Messer Construction.

Sisson received a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and completed the Architectural Engineering and Design Certificate and the ISEN Undergraduate Certificate from Northwestern University. After graduating with a 3.7 GPA, she will pursue a master’s degree in structural engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Sisson was the Measured Contest Captain for House by Northwestern, an entry to the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon.

Zou graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and 3.99 GPA in May 2018. She will continue her research on the junction of architecture and engineering while pursuing a master’s degree at Stanford University this fall. Zou was president of the Columbia University Chapter of the ASCE, a student-athlete with the Columbia Tennis Club, and secretary of Engineers Without Borders. This summer, Zou is interning with the technology and research team in Arup’s San Francisco office.

3rd Annual Student Innovation Fellowship

As winners of the Student Innovation Fellowship, Ding and Luo will each receive a $5,000 award to fund specific projects that further innovation in the structural engineering and applied mechanics practice.

Students were nominated by a dean or department chair. The Thornton Tomasetti Foundation received submissions from eight universities, which were reviewed by a Thornton Tomasetti jury of Raymond Daddazio, Elisabeth Malsch and Heather Reed.

Ding’s research will focus on the CFD-enabled aerodynamic shape optimization of structures under winds. Her proposal, titled “Autonomous Morphing of Structural Profile Under Winds,” focuses on the design of tall structures in complex wind environments. She is pursuing her Ph.D. in civil engineering at the University of Notre Dame, maintaining a 4.0 GPA, and holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, as well as a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Zhejiang University in China.

Luo plans to use the funding to investigate autonomous Bayesian updating of a frame structure using vision-based displacement measurements. He received his master’s degree from Columbia in 2014 and is pursing his Ph.D. at the university. Luo holds a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Science and Technology in Beijing, China.

Technical Literacy Fellowship

Wolfe, as the recipient of the first annual Technical Literacy Fellowship, will receive a $5,000 fellowship to pursue research in building engineering design or technology.

Students were nominated by a dean or department chair. The Thornton Tomasetti Foundation received submissions from eight universities, which were reviewed by a Thornton Tomasetti jury of Raymond Daddazio, Elisabeth Malsch and Heather Reed.

Wolfe is pursuing a master’s degree in civil engineering from The Cooper Union, from which she graduated in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering. She is currently a structural engineer for the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

With the fellowship funds, Wolfe hopes to clarify to non-engineering audiences two concepts in the context of designing resilient infrastructure; designing a building to satisfy code requirements and exploring the role of uncertainty in performance-based earthquake engineering.

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About The Thornton Tomasetti Foundation

The Thornton Tomasetti Foundation, a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization established in February 2008, is focused on funding fellowships, scholarships and internships for undergraduate students and those planning to pursue graduate studies in building engineering, design or technology. It also provides financial support for individuals and organizations pursuing philanthropic activities related to building engineering, design or technology. Key elements of the program are college scholarships, traveling internships and grants to and partnerships with nonprofit organizations.

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