The Provost's Office has received 70 applications for six new graduate student fellowships that each pay $6,000 for interdisciplinary projects.
The fellowships are a joint venture between the Provost's Office and the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, each of which is paying for half of the fellowship funding.
All graduate students were invited to apply for the GAPSA-Provost's Award for Interdisciplinary Innovation. Applicants are required to do work that spans disciplines in Penn's 12 graduate schools.
"I think for the first year and the first endeavor of this type that 70 applications is a great number," said GAPSA Chairwoman and Communication graduate student Lela Jacobsohn.
The fellowship was announced in March but had been in the works since last summer. Jacobsohn took the idea to Provost Ron Daniels out of frustration at the lack of summer funding for graduate students.
She said the amount of applications received confirms that graduate students are in need of summer funding.
"I think it says that there is definitely demand for this kind of support for projects and individual student work," she said.
Application proposals range from individual projects to work by students from various schools.
Architecture graduate student Ravi Srinivasan and Computer Science graduate student Nuria Pelechano applied for the award, proposing to create a virtual reality program to simulate emergency evacuations of buildings.
Srinivasan said he was surprised that 70 groups applied for the award but said he wasn't worried about his chances.
Srinivasan said he applied for the award because he was glad to see the University finally give graduate students the chance to secure summer funding.
Daniels said that a selection committee has been set up and that it will begin reviewing the 70 applications this week.
The winners will be announced on May 12 and work on the projects will begin by June.
-- Ross Avila
