Engineering Student Awarded Fellowship for Medical Robotics

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http://www.tuskegee.edu/Global/story.asp?S=2082091

TUSKEGEE UNIVERSITY, Ala. – (July 23, 2004) – When Tuskegee graduate student Ndubuisi Ekekwe first arrived at the University, his focus was developing robotic systems that could be used in medical research.

This spring, he became one of nine students out of 600 applicants in the country to be granted a prestigious fellowship from the Engineering Research Center and Whiting School of Engineering of Johns Hopkins University. He also is the only student in Alabama to receive the fellowship this year.

Other fellowship recipients were selected from schools such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Oxford University, Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University and others. All will receive two to three all-expense-paid years of postgraduate study and research at Johns Hopkins University. This is a total monetary value of about $54,000.

Ekekwe came to the United States from Nigeria after completing his undergraduate degree in electronics engineering and master’s degree in computer science from Federal University of Technology in Nigeria. Entering Tuskegee in 2003 to pursue a master’s degree in electrical engineering, Ekekwe knew that his education and work experience as a system administrator at Diamond Bank in Nigeria had prepared him for this next stage in life.

“I knew I was going to have to work hard here at Tuskegee,” Ekekwe remembers. “The good thing about Tuskegee is that it doesn’t matter where you come from; you will be trained and become prepared for the future here.”

He quickly excelled academically and managed to maintain a 4.0 GPA throughout his tenure at Tuskegee. He is slated for graduation this summer.

Ekekwe applied that same focus and methodology to his research in medical robotics. He also feels that he has greatly benefited from inclusiveness of his environment. He said that this is a promising area of research, as well as a way to give back to the community.

“I will use this fellowship to continue medical robotics research with a focus on surgical procedure,” stated Ekekwe.

Ekekwe applied for the fellowship back in January and then traveled to Maryland to give a grant presentation.

“During the process, the election committee was enriched,” said Ekekwe. “They were very impressed because of the subject of my research. But the most interesting thing is not the research or the fellowship.” Rather, he said, it is that his selection represents Tuskegee University’s much-deserved recognition as a top producer of engineering talent.