Travel Fund Helps Y Members Attend Academic Conferences: Awardees Honored at Patrick Hummel - Harry

On April 13, we had our fourth Annual Hummel - Gray Travel Fund luncheon with our student awardees, Lily Kitagawa, Johanna Karras, Kai Klocke, and Laura Hu, together with Doctors Paul and Carla Hummel, and Professors Harry and Shirley Gray.

Lily Kitagawa (’21) will be attending the Ninteenth Annual Conference of the Vision Science Society in May 2019 in St. Pete Beach, Florida. She will be attending the conference with the Shimojo lab (for which she was a SURF fellow and which she continues to work in) and is excited about learning the newest developments in unconscious visual perception, which is her field of research.

Johanna Karras (‘21) will be attending The Grace Hopper Celebration conference in October 2019 in Orlando, Florida. Johanna plans to network with leaders, fellow students, and companies in technology and is excited to attend lectures on cutting-edge new developments, research, and training seminars in computer science that she would not otherwise have the opportunity to hear.

Kai Klocke (‘19) attended the American Physical Society's March Meeting in Boston. Kai presented his work, entitled "Exploring self-organized criticality in driven cold gases." This paper describes the results from efficient numerical simulations of a system of cold Rydberg atoms which has been physically realized in recent experiments in Germany. In addition to exposure to ongoing research and the opportunity to interact with research professionals, Kai attended several workshops for undergraduates aimed at improving professional skills.

Laura Hu (‘21) will be attending the European Women in Tech event in November 2019 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. As a computer science major, she is excited to connect both personally and professionally with women in tech from all around the world. She would like to grow as a leader and will attend leadership-focused workshops to learn from the real experiences of female professionals who were once in her place.

The Patrick Hummel and Harry Gray Travel Fund supports undergraduate travels to academic conferences and provides leadership development opportunities for our students. Thank you to Patrick Hummel (who couldn't be here with us), Paul and Carla Hummel, Harry and Shirley Gray for their continuous support of our students!