Rebecca Brown Receives AAUW Scholarship

by George Zamora

SOCORRO, N.M, March 23, 2000. -- Rebecca Lynn Brown, a native of Grants who is now a senior at New Mexico Tech, recently was selected as the recipient of this year's Socorro Chapter of the Association of American University Women (AAUW) Scholarship.

Brown, a graduate of Grants High School, is the daughter of Kenneth and Judy Brown of Grants.

She was selected for the prestigious award from a field of several top female engineering students at New Mexico Tech by a local committee of AAUW members.

Brown, a Tech Scholar, has been named to New Mexico Tech's honor roll for four straight years, is ranked academically in the top fifth of her senior class, and is majoring in both mathematics and electrical engineering at the state-supported research university.

As part of a required design course in her electrical engineering curriculum, Brown is a member of one of several robotics teams at New Mexico Tech--teams which currently are busy designing and building "fire-fighting" robots as part of their course work.

The autonomous robots are programmed to move through a small-scale model of a single floor of a house, detect a lit candle in one of the rooms, and then extinguish the flame.

"We're hoping to have our team's robot compete next month in the 7th Annual Trinity College Fire-Fighting Home Robot Contest in Hartford, Conn.," Brown says.

Brown also plans to pursue her avid research interests in robotics later this summer, working as an intern with the robotics department at Sandia National Laboratories.

In addition to her studies and research activities at New Mexico Tech, Brown currently serves as chapter president of the Tau Beta Pi national engineering honor society and also lists active memberships in the Society of Women Engineers and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).

She also is a member of the New Mexico Tech Golf Club, is an amateur radio operator, and occasionally volunteers her time on weekends as a member of Tech's "Adopt-a-Highway" team.

"New Mexico Tech provides a high-quality education that is challenging and very useful in a real work environment," Brown relates. "As Tech students, we get the best education available on new technologies, as well as hands-on experiences in the more technical fields."

AAUW is a national organization dedicated to encouraging higher education for women. The Socorro Branch of AAUW has awarded scholarships annually since 1966 to academically outstanding female students at New Mexico Tech.

Proceeds for the Socorro Branch of AAUW Scholarship are largely garnered each December through community support of the branch's annual Visitas de Navidad.