Trevor Dunt, a student in the University of Wisconsin-Madison nuclear engineering and engineering physics master’s program, has received a U.S. Department of Defense SMART program scholarship.
The Science, Mathematics, and Research for Transformation (SMART) scholarship-for-service program provides a combined education and career opportunity for students to gain technical skills in critical STEM fields and support the national security mission of the Department of Defense.
SMART scholarship recipients receive full tuition, an annual stipend and allowance for books, health insurance, and additional support payments for living expenses during the summer internships.
“Receiving the SMART scholarship will allow me to pursue a more personalized research path and focus more on classes and development without the need to secure funding from other sources,” Dunt says. “It also provides a jumpstart to my career with the Department of Defense/U.S. Navy and will allow me to align my current research goals with my future there.”
As part of the program, Dunt, who is advised by Engineering Physics Assistant Professor Jennifer Franck, will be performing internships at the Naval Underwater Warfare Center in Newport, Rhode Island (NUWC-Newport) over summers, and he will be hired by NUWC-Newport for a full-time position after he graduates.
Dunt will work on applying aspects of computational fluid dynamics and machine learning research performed at UW-Madison to applications of interest to the Navy.
“I’m excited to be able to work with the Navy and my sponsoring facility specifically,” Dunt says. “It’s very rewarding to be a part of solving real problems the fleet faces. In my experience so far, the culture at NUWC-Newport is excellent, and I’m looking forward to finding my own niche there. There is a huge array of knowledge and specialties present there and each person I worked with was passionate about their work.”