Vade Shah: NSF GRFP Fellowship

Ten students associated with UC Santa Barbara’s College of Engineering (COE) have received prestigious five-year graduate research fellowships from the NSF. Fellows selected for the GRFP will receive three years of financial support, totaling $159,000 in the form of an annual $37,000 stipend and an annual cost-of-education allowance of $16,000 paid to the graduate degree-granting institution for tuition and fees. Fellows also receive opportunities for international research and professional development. This year, 2,037 students nationwide were offered fellowships, including eight current UCSB PhD students with ties to the COE, and two recent UCSB graduates. 

As part of his NSF-funded research, Vade Shah, a second-year electrical and computer engineering (ECE) PhD student who is advised by ECE professor Jason Marden, will design online algorithms for matching markets, a well-studied model of how members of two groups form partnerships, or matches. Historically, he explains, these tools have been applied to identify desirable matches between residents and hospitals or organ donors and recipients. The algorithms in his work, however, will be designed to find matches in large, fast-paced online marketplaces, like Google Search, with a strong focus on maintaining privacy.

“On an academic level, receiving the GRFP encourages me to continue exploring my research interests and further supports my decision to pursue a career in academia,” said Shah, who received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science from UC Berkeley. “On a personal level, I feel grateful for those who supported me academically and emotionally en route to this award.”