Local Student Wins Prestigious Power Systems Award

A local student was among five Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) sophomores who won a prestigious engineereing award recently.

Jordyn Rombola was awarded an inaugural IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiative™ Award. These awards were given by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Power & Energy Society (PES) to undergraduate electrical engineering students who have committed to exploring the power and energy fields.

The competition for this funding was rigorous; winners were selected by industry and academic representatives based primarily upon their academic preparation, their potential for a successful power and energy engineering careers, and their extracurricular activities and leadership. In order to be eligible for this scholarship, students had to be full-time electrical engineering majors at a U.S. university that offers undergraduate courses in power engineering; they also had to demonstrate a GPA of 3.0 or higher (on a 4.0 scale - or its equivalent). Only 93 scholarships were awarded nationwide.

Jordyn, a 2010 graduate of St. Paul Catholic High School in Bristol, and the five other WPI students will receive three years of financial support totaling $7,000; $2,000 in the first and second years and $3,000 in the third year. They are also provided opportunities to gain career experience through internships and co-op work and are required to have one "significant" career experience each year in order to renew their scholarships.

“Meeting the global demand for power and energy is a critical issue,” said Fred Looft, Head of WPI’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.  “This need continues to grow with each generation, as do the implications of finding the right sources of power; these students will need to find solutions that not only provide energy, but also respect the earth and all of its citizens.  We are proud of these scholarship winners for their dedication to this important mission, and we are grateful to IEEE for supporting their studies.”

The goal of the IEEE PES Scholarship Plus Initiative is to encourage undergraduate students to pursue careers in power and energy engineering and the mission of PES is to be the leading provider of scientific and engineering information on electric power and energy for the betterment of society.

WPI’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) is known for its innovative approach. Its hands-on, project-based method of teaching is particularly suited to produce tomorrow's leaders of thedynamic, complex, and competitive field of electrical and computer engineering. Students in the ECE department work alongside world-renowned professors and researchers in state-of-the-art facilities on meaningful, life-changing projects that tackle some of the world’s most pressing problems.

Founded in 1865 in Worcester, Mass., WPI was one of the nation's first engineering and technology universities. Its 14 academic departments offer more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology, business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts, leading to bachelor’s, master’s and PhD degrees.