Three Brown students were named Barry Goldwater Scholars, an intended to support college sophomores and juniors with promising futures as researchers in the sciences, mathematics and engineering. Awardees receive a scholarship of $7,500 per year.
This year, 438 winners were chosen to receive the award among a pool of over 5,000 applicants, according to the Goldwater Scholarship鈥檚 .
The Herald spoke with the three Brown awardees about their work 鈥� ranging from prosthetic development to cancer therapeutics 鈥� as well as reactions to winning the scholarship.
Elizabeth Polydefkis 鈥�25: A bioengineer working towards a more accessible world
As a young child, Elizabeth Polydefkis 鈥�25 knew she wanted to be an engineer while watching her father adapt to life with a progressive neurological condition.
鈥淪eeing the creative adaptations my father has made to his laboratory instruments, gardening tools and sports equipment so that he could work and enjoy his passions was a huge reason why I wanted to become an engineer in the first place,鈥� Polydefkis told The Herald.
Polydefkis grew up watching her father struggle with devices designed without adequate input from customers. Now, Polydefkis studies biomedical engineering in hopes of 鈥渆nhancing accessibility and independence for individuals with physical disabilities.鈥�
Her research interests led her to work in Johns Hopkins University鈥檚 Haptics and Medical Robotics Laboratory over the summer of 2023. Her work focused on improving 3D-printed upper limb prosthetics by adding haptic feedback systems, which allow users to decide the needed amount of force to perform a certain action.
鈥淧ersons without tactile sensation or impaired tactile sensation lack the dexterity required to complete daily activities efficiently and accurately,鈥� Polydefkis explained. 鈥淭he mental energy expended using a prosthesis is exhausting for limb-absent individuals and reduces functionality.鈥�
To address this issue, she investigated 鈥渁ccurate mapping of haptic feedback鈥� for 3D-printed prosthetics.
Polydefkis credited the Brown community with fostering her love for research.
鈥淎t Brown, I am surrounded by people conducting amazing research on top of their extracurriculars and academic commitments, so I genuinely was not expecting to win when I applied,鈥� she said.
Clara Tandar 鈥�25: A future physician-scientist engineering better cancer therapeutics
As a bioengineering and International and Public Affairs double concentrator, Clara Tandar 鈥�25 hopes not only to develop new therapeutics but also to translate that research into effective policy action.
鈥淚 ultimately want to be a physician-scientist and focus a lot on the therapeutic and patient side of things,鈥� Tandar told The Herald. 鈥淏ut that doesn鈥檛 exist in a vacuum. I want to be able to communicate my work to not only experts in the field but also a general audience as well.鈥�
For Tandar, winning the Goldwater was an important affirmation of the path she had chosen to take.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a nice reminder that what I鈥檓 doing can have an impact on patients someday,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut within the grand scheme of things, it just inspires me to keep pursuing a broad interdisciplinary approach.鈥�
Tandar credited Brown鈥檚 environment for encouraging her to take a wide variety of classes, ranging from sociology to a history capstone. 鈥淚 truly think that I have incorporated all of those classes into how I approach my research interests, even if it鈥檚 not so directly obvious or related,鈥� she said.
Tandar鈥檚 research merges her interests in cancer biology, nano- and micro-engineering. As a member of Associate Professor of Medical Science, Engineering and Orthopaedics Eric Darling鈥檚 lab, she has worked to improve microfluidic devices, which are used to detect cancer from blood samples.
鈥淭hese devices are really great, but we actually need calibration particles for them,鈥� she explained. 鈥淎nd currently, what we have are polystyrene particles 鈥� but they actually don鈥檛 mimic the right density, size or stiffness of biological cells.鈥�
Tandar鈥檚 research focused on addressing this gap by fabricating microparticles and nanoparticles with more biologically relevant traits. Now, she is working on a new drug development project that uses these microparticles to deliver drugs and eliminate toxins.
Jennifer Wang 鈥�25: A computer scientist integrating ethics into computing
Jennifer Wang 鈥�25 鈥� a double concentrator in computer science and International and Public Affairs 鈥� believes computing and policy are inextricably linked.
鈥淚 see computing as a tool to reveal the limitations of policy,鈥� she told The Herald. 鈥淭echnological advancements are breaking the assumptions that our policy is hinged on.鈥�
In particular, Wang highlighted the rapid development of AI technology as one example of the need for policy intervention. She worked at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in fall 2023 to research 鈥渄omestic and international AI policies that uphold our values of equity, as well as legislation that enhances privacy protections,鈥� she said.
Wang told The Herald that 鈥渢he Goldwater has been a huge affirmation to the value of research at this intersection of policy and tech, especially when academia has traditionally valued depth over breadth.鈥�
Wang worries that the fast pace of technological development will ultimately infringe upon people鈥檚 rights.
鈥淚ncreasingly, there鈥檚 been an undermining of our fundamental rights in the digital space because a model is now making a decision instead of a human,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut that shouldn鈥檛 be the case 鈥� we need to embed our societal values into technical systems from the very formulation.鈥�
For her Goldwater application, Wang focused on her work in the Reinforcement Learning and Behavior Lab. There, Wang worked on a project that allowed users without a substantial computing background to program robots more easily.
Wang drew on her own childhood experience of learning to code using Scratch, a block-based and highly visual programming language intended for children and other beginner programmers. Inspired by Scratch, Wang built a visual interface that allowed users to build programs for their robots, unburdened by the technical aspects that professional programmers often wrestle with.
Through projects like this, Wang discovered an unparalleled love for research, solidifying her desire to pursue higher education and research jobs.
鈥淭hrough seemingly insurmountable challenges, research made me confront the limits of my knowledge and taught me that failure is part of the journey of discovery,鈥� she wrote in her Goldwater application. 鈥淚 cannot imagine a time when I would not relish the thrill of finding a foothold in uncertainty and the joy of making my vision a reality.鈥�
Irene is a freshman from the Washington, D.C. area concentrating in Applied Math and International and Public Affairs. In her free time, she enjoys trying fun new snacks and exploring Providence's parks and shops.
