BU student wins highly selective NSF fellowship

An undergraduate student at Binghamton University has been awarded this year’s National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP).

The NSF GRFP is a selective student award that is given out by the NSF, according to Alex Nikulin, an associate professor and undergraduate director of geological sciences and environmental studies. The fellowship’s purpose is to provide “quality, vitality and diversity” of both the scientific and engineering workforce across the United States, which includes three years of financial assistance by the means of $37,000 each year. It is meant to likewise increase the participation of underrepresented groups, including women, minorities, the disabled and veterans in science and engineering. This year’s recipient is Madison Tuohy, a senior majoring in geology.

Michael Jacobson, the director at the Office of Strategic Research Initiatives, described the prestige of the award.

“The NSF GRFP Program is NSF’s way of recognizing who they see as potential leaders within STEM,” Jacobson said. “There’s a lot of notable researchers who have received this fellowship in the past and have moved onto great things.

One of the co-founders of Google is a GRFP recipient.”

Tuohy has been doing research in humanitarian demining geophysics, or landmine detection. She explained that there are over 100 million explosive remnants of war (ERW) that are hidden throughout the world in nations with past conflicts, carrying massive risks with them.

Tuohy said current detection methods for this ERW are handheld magnetometers that are inefficient and pose a danger to the operator, which her research aims to avoid.

“The recent miniaturization of geophysical instruments has allowed for successful mounting upon unpiloted aerial vehicles (UAVs), which have proven to increase detection efficiency and safety,” Tuohy wrote in an email. “One of these sensors, called hyperspectral imaging (HSI), is a camera that can spectrally quantify any type of material. By mounting HSI onto UAVs, we were able to identify a massive amount of landmines that have evaded remote detection in the past.”

The results of this research will have life-saving effects for demining teams as well as citizens across the globe that live in these impacted areas, according to Tuohy. The images produced using the hyper-spectral camera captured various types of ERW for the first time ever, as a result of UAV-based data. These image datasets can also be added to a machine algorithm that is being created by some of Tuohy’s colleagues in order to “automate the detection of ERW.”

Tuohy’s hope is that by adding more datasets, or channels, to the machine learning algorithm, they can improve the overall efficiency of ERW detection.

Tuohy expressed “disbelief” toward receiving the award, as the only undergraduate student to receive it.

“This fellowship allowed me to really focus on what I wanted out of a graduate program, including where I wanted to attend and what project I’d like to focus on,” Tuohy wrote in an email. “I’m looking forward to pursuing this important research in my Ph.D. studies and am lucky the NSF GRFP will be funding me throughout this endeavor.”

Tuohy also wished to thank her many advisors in the Geophysics and Remote Sensing Laboratory, who helped her to learn and grow during her time as an undergraduate student and provided her with opportunities to prove herself as a capable researcher.

Kanthimathinathan Ramasubramanian, a firstyear master’s student studying information systems, spoke on the importance of demining research.

“Landmines are the most dangerous thing when it is in an area where people are non-densely populated too,” Ramasubramanian said. “Undecorated landmines are hard to spot with naked eyes.”

Julian Ortiz, a freshman majoring in computer science, shared her thoughts on the importance of grants that encourage student research at BU.

“I think research is really important to the University,” Ortiz said. “It allows students to see what’s really out there and what might be possible in graduate studies. It’s a great thing to do, and it’s a great way to learn.”