Electrical and computer engineering graduate student Brian Thibodeau, ENG ’14, has been awarded a two-year Science, Mathematics and Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship, which is part of the National Defense Education Program.

Established by the Department of Defense to support undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines, the program aims to increase the number of civilian scientists and engineers working at Department of Defense laboratories and facilities.

Through the SMART Scholarship, Thibodeau, who is pursuing his master’s degree, will receive full tuition at Temple, a $33,000 annual stipend, paid summer internships, $2,200 per year for health insurance and books, mentoring, and employment placement following graduation. He interviewed for the scholarship with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, where he interned last summer, but is being sponsored by Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, where he will do his remaining summer internships and work once he receives his master’s.

“I was shocked when I received notification that I had been awarded the scholarship,” said Thibodeau, who received his bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Temple last May. “I thought it would go to someone at MIT, Stanford or Berkeley.”

Thibodeau believes that his background in the United States Air Force may have helped him secure the scholarship.

“In high school, I wanted to do engineering because my father [Jerry L. Thibodeau, ENG ’78 ] received a civil engineering degree from Temple, so it seemed like the logical thing to do,” he said. But after what he referred to as “two wasted years in community college,” Thibodeau enlisted in the United States Air Force.

While in the Air Force, Thibodeau saw a physics documentary and read a book on Albert Einstein, which reignited his desire to pursue a career in engineering.

“That was my transformative moment, where I realized I really wanted to do engineering, and the fact that I was an electronics technician [in the Air Force] steered me toward electrical engineering,” he said. “When I was discharged from the Air Force, I wanted to complete my degree, so I figured why not go back home, and enrolling at Temple was the logical choice.”

Thibodeau, a native of Churchville, Pennsylvania, said that because of his military background he wants to conduct applied engineering research that has applications for the military. “I don’t want to work in industry,” he said.

His current research at Temple focuses on information and data fusion.

“The idea is how do you take a wide array of different information from a variety of sensors and sources and combine it together in a manner that makes decision-making easier for a human,” said Thibodeau. “For example, fighter pilots, traveling at the speed of sound, have to make split-second decisions. If you can transfer some of that decision-making to the aircraft’s various electronics systems, it could reduce some the pilot’s responsibilities at crucial moments.”