Richard E. Merwin Student Scholarship

IEEE Computer Society offers $40,000 in student scholarships to recognize and reward active student volunteers in IEEE Student Branches or IEEE Computer Society Student Branch Chapters who show promise in their academic and professional efforts. Students are eligible for up to US $1,000.

Created in honor of the late Richard E. Merwin, past president of the IEEE Computer Society, to recognize and reward student leadership.

Winners serve as IEEE Computer Society Student Ambassadors for one year serving as a liaison between the IEEE Computer Society leadership and student members in their region.

Eligibility

Undergraduate and graduate students in electrical or computer engineering, computer science, or a well-defined computer related field of engineering who are active members  of the Computer  Society. Undergraduate students must be in the final two years of an undergraduate program.

IEEE Computer Society membership for at least three (3) months prior to the application deadline is required.  Students applying should have a minimum one year in which to complete their degree, or be considering or enrolled to immediately start further study upon completion.

Applicants are required to have a minimum grade point average of 2.5 / 4.0 (or exam marks of at least 60%), and be a full-time student as defined by his or her academic institution during the course of the award. Recipients of the Computer Society’s Richard Merwin or UPE/CS award for the previous year (13 months) are not eligible.

Criteria

Evaluation criteria include participation in student IEEE branch/chapter activities (30%), academic achievement (30%), extracurricular activities (10%), letter of recommendation from student branch/chapter advisor (20%), and quality of Student Ambassador vision statement (10%).

Transcripts

A minimum GPA of 2.5 / 4.0 is required. GPA’s  based on percentages and NOT a 4.0 grading scale, must include mark sheets to notate how the GPA was calculated

• Transcripts must be issued by the official organization for issuing academic records (typically the Registrar’s office).
• Transcripts should be of your entire current degree track (Bachelors,  Masters or PhD)
• Transcripts must include grades through the most recent term completed prior to the application deadline (usually November/December for the 30 April deadline, and May/June for the 30 September deadline).
• If transcripts do not include grades through the most recent term completed prior to the application deadline, the application must include a letter from the Registrar’s office (or the official organization at your school for academic records) explaining why the grades are not yet available.
• Upon acceptance you will have to provide a Letter of Full-time Enrollment certificate for duration of Ambassador tenure with school seal on certificate

Letter of Recommendation(s)

Students should get a letter from their Student Branch Chapter Adviser or Student Branch Counselor. If this is not feasible they can substitute a letter from the Section Computer Society Chapter Chair. The option of a letter from the Section Computer Society Chapter Chair is intended to allow a letter of support in cases where a student’s activities occur outside their Student Chapter, for example Graduate Student Members whose primary volunteering is serving on the Section Chapter committee. These letters should come from the faculty advisors associated with the student branch or chapter; officers of any associated professional chapter or section should not be involved in vetting, reviewing or approving these references. Students may also submit a 2nd letter of reference, which may come from anyone else familiar with your efforts in an IEEE context. If you have questions about this or other aspects of the application process you can submit a query to chapters@computer.org.