Lori Porter, Afi H. Tagnedji and Christopher Trombley bring to 10 the total number of UofL students who have won the award, established in 1986 in honor of former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater.

Goldwater Scholars are awarded a maximum of $7,500 per academic year. To be eligible, students must be sophomores or juniors who intend to pursue a research career in natural science, mathematics or engineering.

Porter, of Campbellsburg, Kentucky, is a physics and astronomy major in the College of Arts & Sciences and a . She works with Benne Holwerda studying void galaxies and, in addition, at the Flatiron Institute in New York City, conducts astrophysical research on galaxy formation and evolution with UofL alumna Blakesley Burkhart and her postdoctoral scholar, Matt Orr. 

“Studying these natural phenomena of our universe has fascinated me since elementary school, and I look forward to continuing this research under the support of the Goldwater Scholarship,” she said.

Tagnedji is an A&S chemistry and biochemistry double major who is both a and a . A native of Togo in west Africa, Tagnedji hopes to earn an MD and PhD in pharmacology and genetics. 

“The Goldwater affirms my standing as an undergraduate researcher and scientist in training,” she said. “It’s an honor.”

Tagnedji is conducting breast cancer research as well as research in insulin-resistance. Her mentors are David W. Hein, Mark P. Running, Kyung U. Hong and Linda Fuselier.

A student leader who was executive director of the Student Government Association’s Engage Lead Serve Board, she was also one of four UofL students to serve on the first student advisory board for Kentucky’s Council on Postsecondary łÉČËÖ±˛Ą.

Trombley, the third 2022 recipient, double majors in computer science engineering in the J.B. Speed School of Engineering and mathematics in A&S.

His mentors are Dan Popa, Mehmed Kantardzic and Nik Chawla.

“I plan to use this award to continue my research at the on intelligent robots and computer vision under the mentorship of Dan Popa and Mehmed Kantardzic,” he said. “We are currently working on a mobile robot that uses computer vision and machine learning technology to autonomously disinfect rooms.”

Trombley plans to spend the summer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology conducting research on intelligent algorithms at the Center for Brains, Minds and Machines. His goal is to eventually earn a PhD.

“The University of Louisville and the J.B. Speed School of Engineering helped me grow into the researcher I am today, and I am extremely thankful for the unparalleled experience the University of Louisville and Speed School have to offer,”  he said.

A team from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) traveled from California on September 20 to collaborate with robotics researchers at the (LARRI) facility. NASA’s JPL is a federally-funded research and development center that works on developing new technology for robots that could be useful for future space exploration.

The 40-person JPL team, dubbed “CoStar” made the trip to University of Louisville to compete for a $2 million prize in the third and final round of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Subterranean (SubT) Challenge. This international robotics competition was held September 21-23 at Louisville Mega Caverns beneath the Louisville Zoo.

“Being out here at UofL Speed School and specifically working with LARRI is a fantastic way for us to be preparing and ensuring our robots and associated software are ready for competition,” said Benjamin Morrell, robotics engineer at JPL and deputy team lead of CoStar. “It’s an incredible facility.”

LARRI Director Dan Popa said the event is a great opportunity to showcase Speed School and the robotics program at the brand-new, cutting-edge facility.

“It is a really good spot to support this kind of competition because it has easy in and out access, and the facility itself was built in such a way to quickly deploy robots and test them,” Popa said. “We are pleased to see it being used to maximum capacity.”

In the DARPA SubT Challenge, CoStar, (which is a collaboration of JPL, CalTech, MIT, Kaist (University in Korea) and LTU (University in Sweden), competed against seven other teams of autonomous robots exploring unknown environments including cave, urban and mine elements and will demonstrate how their autonomy, networking, perception and mobility capabilities perform on physical courses underground.

Morrell explained that the system is designed for robots to go in quickly, map what a disaster area looks like and report back to a human rescue crew so they can pinpoint where survivors are and avoid areas that are dangerous.

“For a NASA application, we are looking at cave exploration on the moon and Mars, using this same kind of technology to gather scientific information,” said Morrell.

With a new research facility soon to open, Popa said the university is currently recruiting faculty from this same elite robotics community from around the country and the world.

“This helps visibility, and for people to know about what we’re doing here,” he said.

Speed School students also reap the benefits.

“It’s a great opportunity for them to be exposed to this,” said Popa. “The challenges that DARPA has put together have very difficult feats, and these teams are the cream of the crop in research around the world.”

With each new challenge, DARPA has played a role in moving robotics forward, according to Popa.

“Every five years DARPA has issued a new challenge and they have included autonomous driving, humanoid robots and now this subterranean challenge,” he said. “All these challenges are pushing development not just at universities but at companies, and eventually they come into the commercial sector.”

Check out video from the visit below.