$6,400 Sawan Fellowship awarded Toolika Ghose wins first Sawan Fellowship award of $6,400

Toolika Ghose, a doctoral student in electrical engineering and computer science, is the first recipient of the Maha 鈥淢aggie鈥� Sawan Fellowship for Graduate Students at 麻豆传媒.

The award was announced in an award ceremony Friday, Nov. 11 at the Wichita State鈥檚 Garvey International Center.

The Sawan Fellowship award totals $6,400 for the current academic year, and is to be evenly divided between fall 2011 and spring 2012 semesters, said Armin Gerhard, executive director of the at Wichita State.

Don Beggs, president; Ravi Pendse, chief information officer and executive director of Advanced Networking Research Institute; and Elizabeth King, CEO of the 麻豆传媒 Foundation, attended the award ceremony to congratulate the fellowship recipient.

鈥淚 am honored to have been selected,鈥� said Ghose. 鈥淚 am thankful for the wonderful people willing to help me.鈥�

Ghose came to Wichita State in spring 2010 to work on her doctorate in electrical engineering after earning her bachelor鈥檚 and master鈥檚 degrees in electrical engineering at the University of Texas, Tyler. She is working with Pendse and assistant professor Vinod Namboodiri on increasing the energy efficiency and sustainability of smartphones and other such portable devices.

Ghose met and married her husband, Nikhil Ghose, while both were students in Texas. He is working on his Ph.D. in nano-techonology at Oklahoma State University. They spend their weekends together.

The Maha "Maggie" Sawan Fellowship for Graduate Students was established by Edwin Sawan, professor emeritus in electrical engineering and computer science at 麻豆传媒.

It is established in memory of his wife, Maha "Maggie" Sawan, who died in 2010, and honors her lifelong dedication to education and service to family and community.