Students in electrical and computer engineering in the Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering at University of Kentucky (UK) have enjoyed much success over the years with the IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) Plus Initiative Scholarship program. For the current academic year, 2024-2025, UK is the school with the most students (5) awarded as PES Scholars, out of the total of 84 high-achieving undergraduates in electrical engineering, who have been selected from 55 universities across the USA, Canada & Puerto Rico. The students receive a financial award for up to $10,000 over 3 years towards education expenses, while they are still enrolled in the BS program and continue to explore a career path in electric power and energy. The UK students are supported this year as Hoveida Scholars. Applications for the upcoming academic year are highly encouraged and should be made before the deadline, which has been substantially brought forward to the end of April for the upcoming academic year edition.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) is headquartered in New York City and is the world's largest association of technical professionals with more than 400,000 members. The Power and Energy Society (PES) is the oldest and one of the largest societies within the IEEE with approximately 40,000 members. At UK, there is an active student chapter of IEEE PES, which is jointly organized with the IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS). The PES Scholarship Plus Initiative provides scholarships and real-world experience to undergraduates who are interested in power and energy engineering careers.
The current UK student recipients of the IEEE PES Plus Scholarship in alphabetical order: Grant Fischer, Lucas A. Gastineau, Spencer M. Goode-Kulchar, Sam H. Lowe II, and David R. Stewart are featured in the photo, together with past recipients and PhD students: Rosemary E. Alden, Donovin D. Lewis, and Steven Poore, who served as graduate student mentors. All the current awardees have been pursuing the undergraduate certificate in power and energy at UK, and are conducting their research in the SPARK Lab within the PEIK Institute and the ECE Department. Spencer and Sam are juniors. Lucas, David, and Grant are already registered with the USP/AMP program at UK and scheduled to continue here for PhD.
The student awards reflect the continued success of the electric power engineering program at UK with at least one scholarship recipient in 13 of the 14 years the scholarship has been offered. The undergraduate program at UK includes the Power and Energy Certificate, which is one of the largest within the Stanley and Karen Pigman College and Engineering and UK, and is directly supported by ECE and PEIK professors, in alphabetical order: Aaron Cramer, Larry Holloway, Dan M. Ionel, Yuan Liao, and Joe Sottile. The students also received financial support from UK, including from the E.On for PEIK Scholarship and the L. Stanley Pigman Chair in Power Endowment.
