THE DIGITALGLOBE FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP IS COMMITTED TO PROVIDING RECOGNITION AND FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO OUTSTANDING UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS in the field of Geography, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Remote Sensing, Spatial Analysis, Cartography, Aerospace Engineering, etc. The award recipients won on a variety of factors, including merit, motivation, involvement in campus or community activities, as geospatial sciences.
Eric Ong
GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
Eric Ong
Eric will be a junior at George Mason University, majoring in Geography with dual minors in Intelligence Analysis and GIS. Eric has made the Dean’s List mul- tiple semesters. After graduation in May 2015, he plans on a career in geospatial intelligence. Eric graduated from Westfield High School in 2011 and concurrently completed courses through Chantilly Academy, where he took classes in GIS and Engineering. Eric is a certified lifeguard and emergency first aid responder and has extensive experience working at municipal and university aquatic facilities. In August 2014, Eric will be traveling abroad as a scholarship recipient to Beijing where he will participate in the 2014 International Agro-Geoinformatics Conference.
Patrick Wittick
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
Patrick Wittick
Patrick, from Downingtown, Penn., is a Schreyer Scholar, and will be a senior in Aerospace Engineering this fall. He is working on an Honors thesis developing a computer simulation to model the dynamics and control of a spacecraft following the capture of an uncooperative asteroid. Patrick is a member of Sigma Gamma Tau, and has been involved as a member of Penn State’s Lunar Lion XPrize team on the Guidance, Navigation, and Controls subsystem for the past two semesters. He worked as an engineering tutor during his junior year and currently does vibration analysis work as an intern for KCF Technologies, Inc. in State College. He plans to attend graduate school to obtain a Masters degree following graduation.
Chris Tombasco
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
Chris is from Sugarloaf, Penn., and is also a Schreyer Scholar. He will be a senior in Aerospace Engineering this fall. For his Honors thesis, he is determining the minimum mass of an asteroid needed for a gravity assist to have a significant effect on the velocity and trajectory of a spacecraft. He is looking at how many asteroids of adequate mass exist, primarily in the asteroid belt, and how often they are in the proper place to be of use in a gravity assist. Chris has been chapter president of his fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon, is a member of Sigma Gamma Tau and has been involved in THON through Finance Committees for the past two years.
Ken Eggering
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO
Ken has a dual background in Geography and Geology. He has undertaken ambitious projects in his classes, has a research internship at a campus research center, and studies in three of the award’s cognate areas: GIS, remote sensing and cartography. Three of Ken’s projects for class include his work with the City of Leadville, Colorado, to use GIS to assess sidewalk safety for school children; his GIS programming project to relate gun violence with demographic characteristics; and his remote sensing/cartography internship project for INSTAAR (Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research) modeling sediment plumes on the Greenland ice sheet. He plans to use his award funding to undertake geospatial field work in Peru this summer in support of indigenous communities. After completing his degree this fall, Ken wants to work as a GIS analyst in Colorado.
