EE Undergraduate Wins Goldwater Scholarship

Kristina Monakhova, an electrical engineering major from Liverpool, NY, will receive a Goldwater scholarship, a prestigious national honor that supports undergraduates studying science, mathematics or engineering.  

She is among 260 award winners chosen by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program from a nationwide pool of 1,206 sophomores and juniors. Congress established the program in 1986 to honor Barry Goldwater, a five-term senator from Arizona. 

Monakhova was not at UB when she was notified via email that she won a Goldwater scholarship. She wasn’t even in the country.  She is studying abroad this semester in France at the National School of Electronics and its Applications (ENSEA).

“UB’s electrical engineering department has a very nice exchange program set up with ENSEA, where I can take the equivalent junior year spring courses in France – a rare opportunity with such strict course requirements in engineering,” she wrote in an email.

The semester abroad is one of numerous interesting projects that Monakhova has tackled as a UB student. Among them:

• GLADOS (Glint Analyzing Data Observation Satellite), a U.S. Air Force-funded project designed to track space debris that orbits the Earth threatening satellites and future space missions.
• An internship with NASA’s Robotics Academy at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.
• Working with four UB students to develop a radar system for unmanned aerial vehicles. The project is funded by UB’s Center for Undergraduate Research & Creative Activities (CURCA).

Monakhova plans to earn a PhD in electrical engineering and research advanced concepts in space systems while leading a multidisciplinary space systems research laboratory.