OREANDA-NEWS. October 04, 2016.  Twenty-two undergraduate students at Indiana University have been named inaugural Schnabel Scholars in the IU School of Informatics and Computing in Bloomington.

The students were recognized Sept. 30 during a pinning ceremony at the University Club in the Indiana Memorial Union on the IU Bloomington campus.

This is the first year for the scholarships, which were established by the IU School of Informatics and Computing’s Dean’s Advisory Council to support undergraduate students at the school. The scholarship program is named in honor of Bobby Schnabel, who served as dean of the IU School of Informatics and Computing from 2007 to 2015, steering the school through a period of unprecedented growth.

A portion of the scholarships will specifically support undergraduate students pursuing degrees from the school’s intelligent systems engineering program, the first engineering program in IU's history, and students representing underrepresented populations, including financially challenged students and students with diverse cultural experiences. The majority hail from Indiana.

"The Schnabel Scholars program provides an opportunity for both students and SOIC to grow," said Raj Acharya, dean of the School of Informatics and Computing. "Their wide variety of interests and backgrounds will only add to the diversity we already enjoy in our school, and it’s especially exciting to see our intelligent systems engineering program with such talented students."

"It is wonderful to see so many students earn opportunities they might otherwise not have had," Schnabel added. "Opportunity is the spirit the school was founded upon, and it is apparent that the inaugural group of Schnabel Scholars embodies that spirit."

Several students are named under specific scholarships within the Schnabel Scholars Program: the Hatfield Scholarship, which supports undergraduate students majoring in engineering; and the Robert C. and Mariol B. Luddy Scholarship, which supports students who have demonstrated a strong history and commitment to community.

Speakers at the Sept. 30 ceremony included Acharya and Esfandiar Haghverdi, associate dean for academic programs at the school. Schnabel and Luddy were also present to deliver comments and present a pin to each of the 22 scholars.

This year's Schnabel Scholars and their hometowns are:

Schnabel-Hatfield Scholars

  • Cameron Gebben of Fenton, Mo.
  • Jaclyn Youngs of Granger, Ind.

Schnabel-Luddy Scholars

  • Grace Bastin of Greenwood, Ind.
  • Jesse Devaney of Westfield, Ind.
  • Anne Effron of Newburgh, Ind.
  • James Kacius of Indianapolis
  • Holly Zhang of Bloomington, Ind.

Schnabel Scholars:

  • Nikita Bandreddy of Hyderabad, India
  • Andrew Carrico of Bedford, Ind.
  • Michael Doheny of Louisville, Ky.
  • Alexander Dollar of Greenwood, Ind.
  • Alexander Groves of Newburgh, Ind. 
  • Jena Hanes of Bloomington, Ind.
  • Raven Hedden of Bloomington, Ind.
  • Hunter Johnson of Portage, Ind.
  • Matthew Kunin of Mission Hills, Kan.
  • Andrew Wang of Carmel, Ind.
  • Runqi Wang of Centerville, Ohio
  • Run Wei Wang of Centerville, Ohio
  • Kasey Wargel of Evansville, Ind.
  • Connor Williams of Evansville, Ind.
  • Nick Wonder of Bloomington, Ind.

The Hatfield Scholarship is named in honor of Mike and Deborah Hatfield. An IU graduate, Mike Hatfield is the founder and CEO of Calex, a communications systems company. The Luddy scholarship is named in honor of Robert C. and Mariol B. Luddy. Both are IU graduates and the parents of former IU student Fred Luddy, founder and CEO of ServiceNow, cloud-based IT services provider. IU's Luddy Hall, which is scheduled to open in December 2017, is also named in honor of the Luddy family.

The Schnabel Scholarship program will continue to grow next year with three additional scholarships named in honor of Anand and Sonali Deshpande, Scott and Erin Dorsey, and Mary and Michael Delaney. Anand Deshpande, a graduate of the IU School of Informatics and Computing, is the founder of Persistent Systems, a technology services company. Scott Dorsey, an IU graduate, is the founder of ExactTarget and CEO and co-founder and managing partner at High Alpha. Mary Delaney, an IU graduate, is president of Onboarding Solutions at CareerBuilder and chair of the board of Aurico, a CareerBuilder company.

The IU School of Informatics and Computing’s Dean's Advisory Council is composed of 36 prominent business and community leaders from across the country with strong connections to the school and its mission. The exact amount of these annual scholarships and number of recipients is determined by the scholarship committee of the IU School of Informatics and Computing.

Schnabel is currently executive director and CEO of the Association for Computing Machinery.

Some of the inaugural Schnabel Scholars with Bobby Schnabel, center, emeritus dean of the IU School of Informatics and Computing. | Photo by Indiana University