Richard Noh, a senior computer science and computational physics student at The University of Texas at Austin's College of Natural Science, has been awarded the 2023 Ivo & Renata Babuska Scholarship in Computational Science and Engineering.
This $1,000 award was established to recognize and support the studies of exceptional senior-level undergraduate students at the university who are undertaking research at the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences.
The scholarship is financed by the Ivo & Renata Babuška Endowed Excellence Fund, in keeping with their lifelong interest in encouraging the next generation of scientists and engineers.
“I love incorporating mathematics into simulations and computational techniques into physics,” said Noh. “The field of computational science is far more rewarding to me than computer science, physics, and mathematics alone.”
Noh’s interest in this field was sparked when the first-ever image of a black hole went viral on April 10, 2019. In the same year, Deepmind developed an AI that can defeat most players in one of the most challenging real-time strategy eSports games of all time.
“Since then, I have been fascinated with computational physics and machine learning,” he explained.
In pursuit of this fascination, Noh declared a double major in computer science and computational physics and was accepted into the CSEM Integrated Masters program at the Institute, later joining Dr. Berkin Dortdivanlioglu’s Computational Mechanics of Soft Materials Lab as an undergraduate research assistant. Through this opportunity, Noh has engaged in researching new ways of modeling surface tension with the Material Point Method, and utilizing machine learning in multiscale physics.
“I would like to thank Dr. Berkin for writing my letter of recommendation for the Babuška Scholarship and just helping me explore this field of research. It's been really interesting to me.”
In the future, Noh hopes to earn his PhD and conduct computational research at a national laboratory or an R&D department in the industry. Through his work, he aims to support his family while pursuing his passions.
“My mom has been working pretty hard to take care of my grandmother who is 99-years-old and having to deal with all these health complications along with dealing with doctors and insurance. On top of that, my mom is dealing with her own health problems. So, I just want to help out and make money less of an issue.”
The late Ivo Babuška, who passed away on April 12 of this year, would undoubtedly have been glad to see the scholarship bearing his name be awarded to such a worthy recipient.
“I would have loved to have met Dr. Babuška, and I am excited to see how this scholarship will open new opportunities for me,” said Noh.
Donations to supplement the Ivo and Renata Babuška Excellence Fund for additional student scholarships may be made online here.