Ewer awarded first ECE alumni-sponsored Hilldale Undergraduate Research Fellowship

At the 2025 Chancellor’s Undergraduate Awards Ceremony, held April 28 in Varsity Hall at Union South, junior Ethan Ewer was honored with a prestigious Wisconsin Hilldale Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Ewer, who is studying electrical engineering and music, was among 101 students recognized for their commitment to undergraduate research. The fellowship will support Ewer’s independent research, recognizing both his academic excellence and intellectual curiosity.

This is the first time this particular Hilldale Fellowship has been awarded. The fellowship is sponsored by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, with support from the J & H Wang Family Fund. ECE alumnus Junjue “Jay” Wang, now a senior machine learning engineer at Apple, traces his own research journey back to UW–Madison, where his undergraduate experience, including a Hilldale Fellowship, sparked his passion for innovation. Wang hopes to inspire future ECE students to explore the research process and connect with faculty mentors early in their academic careers, just as he once did.

Hilldale Fellowships provide $4,000 to each undergraduate student and $1,000 to their faculty advisor to support their research efforts. Ewer’s project, Draft Model for Online LLM Hyperparameter Selection, is conducted under the guidance of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s Dugald C. Jackson Assistant Professor Kangwook Lee and exemplifies the department’s emphasis on hands-on, high-impact learning experiences.

At the ceremony, UW–Madison Provost Charles Isbell highlighted the significance of the occasion, saying, “You’ve reminded us all that amazing things can happen when talent meets opportunity.”

In addition to Ewer, two other ECE students received Hilldale Fellowships, which are supported by the Provost’s Office and the Hilldale Fund. Aleksandr Kralovec, a junior studying electrical engineering and advised by Biomedical Engineering Professor Melissa Skala, earned the fellowship for his project, Investigating CF Neutrophil Metabolism and Differentiation with Optical Metabolic Imaging. Colin Maggard, a junior majoring in computer engineering, computer sciences, and data science, received the award for his project, Optimizing Message Features for Automated Participant Messaging and Support Systems, under the mentorship of Professor John Curtin from the Department of Psychology.

ECE sophomores Linda Hao and Hao Zhou received Sophomore Research Fellowships, which provide $3,000 to support a research project under the guidance of UW–Madison faculty or staff. Linda Hao, an electrical engineering student advised by ECE Assistant Professor Eric Tervo, earned the fellowship for her project, Impacts of Gridline Scattering and Reflectance on Thermophotovoltaic Cell Performance. And Zhou, a computer engineering student advised by ECE Assistant Professor Robert Jacobberger, received the award for the project, Growth of Large-Scale Single-Crystal 2D Materials on Commercial Copper Foils.

A version of this story was originally published by UW–Madison News.

Top photo submitted by Ewer: Provost Isbell (left) with Ewer (right).