Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards

Each year, ECE provides hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships, fellowships, and award money to outstanding students. These awards are made possible by generous donations from alumni and corporate partners. Almost all of these awards are made on the basis of grades and extracurricular activities at Illinois.

• Undergraduate scholarships and awards
• Graduate fellowships
• Graduate awards

While many of ECE’s scholarships and awards are given to current students, ECE and the College of Engineering also provide merit- and need-based scholarships to incoming freshmen and transfer students.

* Denotes a scholarship or award for which you must be nominated.

Note: All scholarships and awards listed on this page are given exclusively to students registered at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Graduate Fellowships

Entering Fellowships

To be considered for an entering fellowship, it is not necessary to submit a financial aid application. Applicants are automatically considered for fellowships based on their Application for Admission and supporting documents.

• Illinois Distinguished Fellowships
• ECE Distinguished Fellowships
• Dilip and Sandhya Sarwate Graduate Fellowships
• John Bardeen Fellowship in ECE
• SURGE Fellowships

Fellowships for Current Students

The Department and College of Engineering have a number of endowed fellowships which are awarded to students based on merit. These are smaller fellowships intended to supplement assistantships. Applications are solicited from students and faculty and the Department's Graduate Fellowship Committee makes selects the recipient. These fellowships are for one year.

• A.R. "Buck" Knight Fellowship
• Dan Vivoli Endowed Fellowship
• Dr. Ok Kyun Kim Fellowship
• E. A. Reid Fellowship
• ECE Distinguished Research Fellowship
• Harriett and Robert Perry Fellowship Award
• Hong, McCully, and Allen Fellowship
• James M. Henderson Fellowship
• Joan and Lalit Bahl Fellowship
• Linda Su-Nan Chang Sah Doctoral Fellowship
• Nick and Katherine Holonyak, Jr. Graduate Student Fellowship
• Professor Kung Chie Yeh Endowed Fellowship
• Rambus Computer Engineering Fellowship
• Sundaram Seshu International Student Fellowship

Outside Fellowships

These are fellowships awarded to graduate students by outside groups, usually in a national competition. The Department encourages its own students to apply for these prestigious fellowships. Most of them cover three to five years of graduate work.

• Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF)
• Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowships for Minorities
• Fulbright Scholar
• Hertz Foundation Fellowships
• IBM
• Intel
• National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowships
• National Physical Science Consortium
• National Science Foundation Fellowships

Graduate College Resources

• Graduate College Fellowships
• Fellowship Office

Graduate Awards

Electrical and Computer Engineering Awards

• Andrew T. Yang Research and Entrepreneurship Award
• Elsa and Floyd Dunn Award
• Grainger Power Engineering Award
• Gregory Stillman Semiconductor Research Award
• Harold L. Olesen Undergraduate Teaching Award*
• James W. Beauchamp Award for Interdisciplinary Research
• John Bardeen Memorial Graduate Research Award
• Lieutenant General Thomas M. Rienzi Graduate Award
• M.E. Van Valkenburg Graduate Research Award
• Nick and Katherine Holonyak, Jr. Graduate Student Award
• Paul D. Coleman Outstanding Research Award
• Raj Mittra Outstanding Research Award
• Robert T. Chien Memorial Award
• Shun Lien Chuang Memorial Award for Excellence in Graduate Education
• Yi-Min Wang and Pi-Yu Chung Research Award
• Yuen T. Lo Outstanding Research Award

College of Engineering Awards

Ross J. Martin Memorial Award - This award was established by the college to recognize outstanding research achievement by a graduate student in the College of Engineering as a memorial to Ross J. Martin, associate dean of the college, who served as director of the Engineering Experiment Station for 26 years, until his death in 1984. During his tenure as director, the engineering research budget grew eightfold. Dean Martin realized how essential research is to a sound graduate engineering education and was instrumental in making this college one of the foremost research institutions in the world. This award is a tribute to his guidance and to the outstanding research conducted in this college.