Cornell graduate students Shuang Zhao and Mark Cianchetti have each received a Ph.D. Fellowship Award from Intel Corp. The award, which recognizes the recipients' potential as future technology leaders, includes tuition for the 2009-10 academic year, a stipend, an opportunity to connect with an Intel mentor and a travel grant.

Zhao, a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science, works with associate professor of computer science Kavita Bala on synthesizing photo-realistic images. He interned for two years with the Internet Graphics Group of Microsoft Research Asia, where he worked on appearance modeling and realistic rendering. In 2005 Zhao's team earned the World Championship title at the Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest.

Cianchetti is a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Cornell's Computer Systems Laboratory. Working with David Albonesi, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, Cianchetti examines how integrated photonics can be used in future generation multi-core processors. In the future, Cianchetti hopes to address the development of cost-effective technologies in developing countries and for those underserved by modern technology.

The highly competitive fellowship program requires students first to be selected by their universities to apply. This year, a total of 26 fellowships were awarded to outstanding Ph.D. students across the country.

For more information: http://techresearch.intel.com/articles/Top-Links/1814.htm.