Five Swanson School Students Named NSF Graduate Research Fellows
Five students from the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering are recipients of the National Science Foundation’s prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) awards this year.
“The GRFP is a highly competitive award, and we are extremely proud of our winners and honorable mentions this year,” said Michele V. Manuel, U. S. Steel Dean of Engineering at Pitt. “This funding will provide critical financial support for these students to expand their research that benefits all of us.”
The NSF also recognized two members of the Swanson School community with honorable mentions: Jack Hall, a graduate student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Sead Nikšić (BS ECE ’23). Four alumni, Dalia Fantini (BS BIOE '23), Kelly Larson (BS IE ‘18), Frederick Laudati (BS ECE '25), and Paul Walter (BE MEMS ’20) also received fellowships this year.
This year’s Swanson School awardees are:
Casey Cargill
Cargill is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Bioengineering, where she specializes in the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (TERM) track. Advised by Jonathan Vande Geest in the Soft Tissue Biomechanics Laboratory, Cargill’s research focuses on addressing vision loss caused by conditions such as age-related macular degeneration.
Cargill collaborates with vision scientists and clinicians to develop patient-specific, 3D bioengineered models of the eye’s vascular system. By replicating the complex blood vessel networks and fluid dynamics within the eye, her work seeks to better understand how vascular disruptions contribute to blindness and to support the development of more personalized therapeutic strategies. Cargill is also a member of the Graduate Women in Engineering Network, the Black Graduate Student Alliance, and the Graduate Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) chapter.
“My Jamaican heritage instilled in me, ‘Labor for learning before you grow old; for learning is better than silver or gold. Silver and gold will vanish away, but a good education will never decay.’ Cargill said. This fellowship supports my research as well as my personal values, allowing me to keep investing in academic growth and using it to benefit others.”
Sophia Freemyer
Freemyer is a senior undergraduate student in the department of Civil and Environmental Engineering pursuing a minor in geology and a certificate in public communication of science and technology through the Frederick Honors College. Freemyer began research in Sarah Haig’s INHALE Lab, followed by a summer internship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory through the Department of Energy’s Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship program, where she worked on a materials science crystallization project. Freemyer later served as an ORISE Fellow at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).
“My research interests are centered around critical mineral extraction from unconventional sources, specifically waste streams such as acid mine drainage, coal refuse, and produced water from oil production.” Freemyer said. “This area of research not only strengthens our domestic supply of these important materials but also utilizes streams that would end up as pollution in our environment.”
Freemyer is also an active member of the Pitt Band, where she served as a squad leader during her sophomore and junior years and as piccolo section leader her senior year. She also held leadership roles within the Varsity Marching Band Council and Kappa Kappa Psi, the national honorary band fraternity, and is a member of the Society of Women Engineers and Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society. After graduation, Freemyer’s NSF fellowship will fund her PhD studies at Columbia University's Earth and Environmental Engineering Department in the lab of Ngai Yin Yip.
“I am beyond excited to win this award.” Freemyer said. “Having my application accepted is extremely validating for my future goals of becoming a researcher, with expert reviewers agreeing that I have enough promise as a future scientist to fund my graduate studies.”
Aragya Goyal
Goyal is a senior undergraduate student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, focusing on autonomous systems. His research centers on field robotics, with a particular interest in underwater and space exploration technologies. Since his freshman year, Goyal has collaborated with researchers at Carnegie Mellon University under the guidance of Howie Choset and David Wettergreen, contributing to projects such as the underwater snake robot “HUMRS” and the “Zoë 2” rover, which investigates passive steering mechanisms for planetary exploration. Looking ahead, he is interested in advancing multi-robot collaboration in complex field environments, including coordinated swarms of autonomous underwater vehicles.
Goyal has also been actively involved in the Robotics and Automation Society, where he has developed both technical and professional skills while contributing to a strong engineering community. Goyal applied for the NSF GRFP with the goal of strengthening his research proposal on multi-robot coordination, initially viewing the process as a learning opportunity. With guidance from mentor Geordan Gutow and strong recommendations from his research advisors, however, he successfully refined his application and was awarded the fellowship. This award removes a significant financial barrier to pursuing graduate studies, enabling him to focus fully on advancing robotics research.
“I feel extremely excited and grateful to have been granted this opportunity. My parents and I moved to the United States in 2013 and became citizens in 2021. It was likely one of the best opportunities for my family and had allowed me to apply for this fellowship and receive it.” Goyal said. “Not only that, but my decision to come to Pitt has been equally valuable, and I am glad I made that decision as it provided me with a hub and network of highly technical people who are always ready to help and teach you. The Pitt ECE faculty is excellent, and my peers are brilliant, and it is because of the community surrounding me that I was able to win this award.”
Ritesh Shrivastav
Shrivastav is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Bioengineering, on the neural engineering track under the mentorship of Helen Schwerdt. In the Schwerdt lab, his work centers on developing minimally invasive tools to measure dopamine in the human brain with high spatial and temporal resolution.
Shrivastav's research aims to elucidate how pathological dopamine fluctuations in the brain manifest as motor dysfunction in Parkinson’s patients. According to Shrivastav, this is essential foundational science for the future development of adaptive treatment technologies that could be personalized to each patient’s unique brain state.
“Post-graduation, I would love to continue to build upon my research by developing treatments for Parkinson’s disease such as using dopamine as a biomarker for adaptive deep brain stimulation." Shrivastav said. "In the long term, I hope to translate this work into a startup focused on bringing these technologies from the lab to the clinic. This fellowship would provide critical support for the validation research that I will conduct during my PhD, laying a foundation for future commercialization and real-world impact.”
Vanshika Singh
Vanshika Singh is a first-year PhD student in the Department of Bioengineering pursuing the neural engineering track. They conduct their research in the B.I.O.N.I.C. Lab under the mentorship of Takashi (TK) Kozai.
Singh’s research explores how non-neuronal cells in the brain, specifically microglia, contribute to inflammation and metabolic stress across neurological disease states. Their recent work has focused on how microglial calcium dynamics change in response to electrode-induced injury, and I’m interested in extending this work to explore how these signaling changes manifest in the context of Alzheimer’s disease. Singh is also interested in investigating ultrasound as a neuromodulatory tool, particularly its mechanistic targets and how it may influence microglial activity and calcium signaling.
Beyond the lab, Singh is actively engaged in mentorship and scholarly service, spending the past two summers mentoring high school students through the Hillman Academy and recently as a reviewer for Ingenium, an undergraduate research journal at the Swanson School of Engineering. Singh also presented their research on microglial responses to electrode insertion injury at the Society for Neuroscience Conference 2025.
“It is an incredible honor to be an NSF GRFP Fellow.” Singh said. “The three years of support will give me the freedom to pursue curiosity-driven research and take intellectual risks that might otherwise be difficult. Beyond funding, this fellowship marks a meaningful milestone in my path toward a career in academic research."