NH EPSCoR Sponsors Student Travel Grant

Giulia Siccardo, a sophomore economics and environmental studies major at Dartmouth College, received a travel grant from NH EPSCoR to present a poster at the 36th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH) in New Orleans this past August. As a Women in Science Project student, Siccardo works as a research assistant for GreenLite Dartmouth, an innovative approach to real-time energy feedback aimed at motivating students to conserve energy through behavioral changes. The GreenLite system combines computer graphics and behavioral psychology to turn real-time energy use data into an interactive display. Students using the GreenLite system report that they are more aware of their daily behavior and feel more engaged in conservation efforts. Forty percent of students with access to a GreenLite system in their dorm reported a shift toward conservation and the environment. Energy reductions at Dartmouth have ranged from 14-22%. Siccardo is also developing a Dartmouth student carbon footprint calculator. As a result of Siccardo’s efforts, Dartmouth now has a wide body of research in the area of information visualization, real-time feedback and sustainability and behavior-related energy efficiency data.

Siccardo said of her experience at the conference, “Attending SIGGRAPH 2009 was a phenomenal experience for me and served as the perfect culmination of the research I completed this year. Presenting GreenLite Dartmouth to fellow students, professionals and industry specialists during the ACM Student Research Poster Competition gave me the opportunity to gain ideas and feedback. Furthermore, presenting the project deepened my interest as a result of the positive reactions the poster and presentation received. The poster I designed won a cash prize and was one of the only undergraduate projects to reach the semifinalist round, which consisted of a live evaluation by three international judges...In addition to giving me this powerful encouragement, attending SIGGRAPH opened my eyes to the depth of the graphics and digital animation field. Although my area of study has largely been economics and environmental science, this experience has sparked my interest for computer science, and I plan to take a few courses in digital arts in the future. I would like to extend my most sincere thanks to EPSCoR for providing me with the opportunity to attend SIGGRAPH.”

A limited number of travel awards of up to $500 are available through NH EPSCoR for students, accompanied by an adviser, who are presenting papers or poster sessions on undergraduate research in the physical sciences, mathematics, computer science and engineering at professional meetings and conferences. Awards are based on the merit, integrity of the research and financial need as determined by the student’s home institution. Students in degree programs at two-year and four-year colleges in NH are eligible. An application and guidelines are available online.

The NH EPSCoR program is supported by the National Science Foundation
under Grant No. EPS-0701730.

Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the
author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

NH EPSCoR, University of New Hampshire, 35 Colovos Rd., Gregg Hall, Durham, NH 03824

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