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Xu Han, a PhD student in Information Science and Technology, has won a Commonwealth of Virginia Engineering and Science (COVES) Fellowship.
The COVES Fellowship is a 12-week program that matches graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to a legislative, executive agency, or policy office within Virginia. COVES Fellows are generally STEM graduate students or postdoctoral fellows from participating universities across the state. Criteria to be selected include career interests, a desire to learn, and scientific integrity.
As part of his PhD dissertation, Han is working on an innovative and exciting topic: How to democratize innovation by allowing entrepreneurs without design and manufacturing expertise to bring their ideas to markets quickly, thus enabling true cloud manufacturing. The idea is to develop markets of virtual things – parameterized products and services that can be searched, composed, and optimized.
Han will serve his 12-week fellowship at the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. He says he is interested in how modern information technologies impact human lives, how we can mitigate the issues with socially, economically, and technically sound solutions, and advancement of human-centered technological development and usage.
“Xu has a unique comprehensive background,” says Professor Alex Brodsky, Han’s advisor. “This includes business administration and the mathematical and computing expertise necessary for developing enabling decision guidance systems.”
The first COVES fellowships were awarded in 2020 and Han is the first College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) student to receive one. His stipend is funded by CEC and the Office of the Provost. During his fellowship, Han will receive training and mentorship from the Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine
Learn more about the COVES Fellowship