UA Students Earn Hollings Scholarships

Note: Story was updated June 15, 2022, to reflect the addition of Anika Cho.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – University of Alabama students Anika Cho, of Beaverton, Oregon, and Kittson Hamill, of Huntsville, are the recipients of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship.

The Hollings Scholarship Program provides successful undergraduate applicants with awards that include academic assistance up to $9,500 per year for two years of full-time study and a 10-week, full-time paid internship at a NOAA facility during the summer. Thirty-eight UA students have received the scholarship since the program’s inception in 2005.

Cho is a UA Honors College student majoring in electrical engineering and physics with minors in marine science and mathematics. As an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Aijun Song’s lab, she studies wireless digital communications for aquatic mobile platforms. This summer, she is working with Dr. Kelly Dorgan at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab to develop instrumentation for measuring the physical properties of ocean sediments.

Cho is president of the University Amateur Radio Club and vice president of the UA Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-Eta Kappa Nu honor society. She also mentors the underwater robotics team at Northridge High School in Tuscaloosa.

Hamill is a Randall Research Scholar and UA Honors College student majoring in computer science and physics, and minoring in Chinese and art. She conducts research on explainable artificial intelligence for modulating and decoding neuroplasticity in the Sensor-Accelerated Intelligent Learning, or SAIL, research lab under Dr. Jiaqi Gong.

Outside of research, Hamill is president of the UA Association for Computing Machinery. She has previously received university honors including being named an Outstanding Freshman and receiving a computer science departmental award.

The UA Office of External Scholarships and Fellowships assists students in the pursuit of national and international awards including the Hollings, Goldwater, Rhodes and Boren, among others. Students interested in applying for awards that require an institutional endorsement can learn more on the External Scholarships and Fellowships website.