Two UAH Modeling & Simulation students get prestigious scholarships

Daniel A. O’Neil

Mitchell J. Bott

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Aug. 5, 2014) - Two students in The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) Modeling & Simulation graduate program have each been selected to receive a $10,000 scholarship to support their doctoral studies.

Mitchell J. Bott and Daniel A. O'Neil are recipients of the Rear Adm. Fred Lewis Postgraduate Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC) Scholarship.

"Only once before in the 26-year history of the scholarship have both awards in a single year gone to students at the same university," said the students' advisor, Dr. Mikel D. Petty, who is director of UAH's Center for Modeling, Simulation and Analysis and coordinator for UAH's Modeling & Simulation degree program. "Normally, the annual awards go to one M.S. and one Ph.D. student, although there have been two awards at the same level in the same year previously."

The scholarship has been awarded annually since 1989 by the National Training and Simulation Association (NTSA) to graduate students in disciplines related to modeling and simulation. NTSA organizes the annual I/ITSEC Conference, which is by far the largest conference of the year in modeling and simulation. Last year's conference had 14,000 people in attendance.

The I/ITSEC scholarship is highly prestigious and sought after in the defense modeling and simulation community. The awardees are selected from among the applicants each year by a panel of modeling and simulation experts and leaders assembled by NTSA, and they receive their awards in a ceremony at the conference.

Previous annual awards have gone to students from Old Dominion University, the University of Central Florida, Texas A&M University, Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Southern California and Iowa State University.

Both of the UAH awardees are nearing the end of their graduate coursework and preparing to begin their dissertation research. Mitchell Bott is employed by Northrup Grumman and Daniel O'Neil works at NASA.