Oden Institute Awards 2026 Undergraduate Scholarships

Each spring, the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences awards two undergraduate scholarships recognizing exceptional student researchers. This year's recipients, Soohyun Ahn and Mohammed Dawood, bring that tradition to a new class of problems: from simulating the atomic behavior of materials that could one day produce clean hydrogen fuel, to validating the guidance systems that will navigate spacecraft to the surface of the Moon.

Graham F. Carey Computational Science Scholarship

Soohyun Ahn, a junior computer science and physics double major at UT, has been awarded the 2026 Graham F. Carey Computational Science Scholarship by the Oden Institute.

The award honors Professor Carey's revolutionary contributions to computational sciences. The $3,500 scholarship is awarded annually, giving preference to undergraduates inthe Computational Engineering and Sciences Certificate program, as well as those who participate in the Oden Institute's Moncrief Summer Internship.

Ahn's research, conducted under the mentorship of Wennie Wang, affiliated faculty and GSC faculty member at the Oden Institute and professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, focuses on using computational simulations to study how certain materials can harness sunlight to split water into hydrogen fuel. Working at the atomic scale, she investigates how structural imperfections in these materials influence the process and whether they might actually improve efficiency. The goal is to identify the right material recipe for producing clean, carbon-free hydrogen using only water and sunlight, a fuel source with broad applications in long-distance transportation and industrial processes.

For Ahn, the work represents a natural meeting point between her two fields of study. "For a long time, CS and physics felt like two random paths in my life," she said. "I discovered that computational science can serve as the bridge that connects them."  Her mentorship at the Oden Institute has deepened that perspective. "Dr. Wang has really encouraged me to think independently about the big picture and to explore the questions I want answered myself," Ahn said. "She's always encouraged me to be curious, to not be afraid of making mistakes, and to always look at a problem from multiple angles."

After graduation, Ahn plans to pursue a Ph.D. in a computational field related to materials simulation, continuing her focus on technologies that contribute to a cleaner energy future. Of the scholarship, she said: "It's incredibly encouraging to have the Oden Institute support my journey. It gives me the extra boost of confidence I need to keep tackling difficult questions."

Ivo and Renata Babuška Scholarship

Mohammed Dawood, an undergraduate aerospace engineering student at UT Austin, has been awarded the 2026 Ivo and Renata Babuška Scholarship in Computational Science and Engineering by the Oden Institute. This award is funded through the Ivo and Renata Babuška Endowed Excellence Fund at the Oden Institute, honoring their lifelong commitment to encouraging and supporting the next generation of scientists and engineers. The $1,500 award recognizes and supports exceptional senior-level undergraduate students at UT who are participating in research at the Oden Institute.

This year's ceremony carried special significance. In a first for the award, Vit Babuška, son of Ivo Babuška, attended alongside his wife to personally present the scholarship to Dawood. In doing so, he welcomed the newest recipient into a tradition that stretches across decades of computational science, telling Dawood: "You are now part of the Babuška academic legacy tree."

Dawood's research, conducted under the supervision of Brandon A. Jones, affiliated faculty member at the Oden Institute, associate professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics, and a member of the Jah Decision Intelligence Group, along with graduate student Quinn Moon, focuses on validating a constrained optimal control guidance law for the lunar descent phase of spacecraft landing missions. 

The problem is a demanding one. As a lander descends from orbit to the surface, it must navigate uncertain terrain, noisy sensor data, and engine imperfections, all while minimizing fuel use and staying within a prescribed trajectory corridor. Dawood models these real-world error sources computationally, building a state estimation framework that simulates the spacecraft's onboard navigation system and stress-testing the guidance law under realistic conditions. "We can't flight test a lunar lander a hundred times," he said, "but we can simulate it thousands of times on a computer instead."

Jones helped him define the scope of the problem and advocated for him throughout the process. Quinn Moon took a more hands-on approach, building a curriculum tailored to the theory underlying Dawood's work and walking him through it from the perspective of someone who had learned the same material not long before. "He didn't just hand me textbooks and tell me to figure it all out on my own," Dawood said.

Dawood plans to pursue a Ph.D. in aerospace engineering with a focus on Guidance, Navigation, and Control, a field he sees as central to the future of autonomous systems. "The world is moving toward systems that need to operate independently in environments where human intervention isn't always possible," he said. "I want to be part of pushing that forward." He added that receiving the Babuška scholarship,was a meaningful affirmation of that path. 

Soohyun Ahn and Mohammed Dawood were recognized at the Oden Institute Awards Ceremony on April 21, 2026.

Gift donations to supplement the Carey Scholarship and the Ivo and Renata Babuška Scholarship, both established scholarships at the Oden Institute, may be made online here.