Mines grad student receives DoD SMART fellowship

Lodewijk "Lou" Brand, a doctoral student in computer science at Colorado School of Mines, has been awarded a fellowship from the U.S. Department of Defense.

The highly competitive Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship-for-Service Program fellowship aims to increase the number of civilian scientists and engineers working in DoD laboratories. After graduation, Brand will join the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SCC) Atlantic as a full-time employee in Charleston, South Carolina.

Brand's proposed project, "Data-Enabled Additive Manufacturing" with the Alliance for the Development of Additive Processing Technologies (ADAPT), is designed to support rapid prototyping and production of 3D-printed components through the application and development of novel machine-learning algorithms.

"In the first year of my PhD program, I have started to develop novel machine-learning algorithms that are able to accurately diagnose Alzheimer's disease in patients based on MRI brain scans and genetic information. These new algorithms are designed to incorporate a key clinical observation - an effective model must discover relationships in information gathered over time from a variety of data sources," Brand said. "Through funding provided by the SMART Scholarship-for-Service Program, I plan to apply similar data-driven algorithms to improve the reliability and predictability of components produced using additive manufacturing processes."

Brand holds bachelor's degrees in computer science and computational chemistry from Colorado College. He worked in industry for two years at Northrop Grumman prior to coming to Mines. His advisor is Computer Science Associate Professor Hua Wang.

CONTACT
Emilie Rusch, Public Information Specialist, Communications and Marketing | 303-273-3361 | erusch@mines.edu
Mark Ramirez, Managing Editor, Communications and Marketing | 303-273-3088 | ramirez@mines.edu