Three students recognized with NSF GRFP honorable mentions
Doctoral students Drew Hidalgo, Harrison Sims and Jennifer Zamudio, have been given honorable mentions for the 2025 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.
Three PhD candidates from the University of Michigan (U-M) Industrial and Operations Engineering (IOE) department, Drew Hidalgo, Harrison Sims and Jennifer Zamudio, have been given honorable mentions for the 2025 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP).
The NSF GRFP is one of the most prestigious awards available to graduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. While not selected for the fellowship itself, honorable mention status is a significant recognition of these students’ academic excellence and potential for future contributions to research and leadership. This year, eight students who applied for industrial engineering were selected as honorable mentions.
The honorable mention acknowledges applicants whose research proposals and academic achievements are highly regarded by the NSF review panels. It serves as a formal recognition of their potential for success and impact in their respective fields.
More about Drew Hidalgo
Hidalgo’s work focuses on Multi-Operator Multi-Agent (MOMA) teaming, which examines how humans and AI systems can collaborate effectively across teams and organizations. This research aims to improve coordination and decision-making in high-stakes, complex environments such as disaster response or national defense. Hidalgo’s research is conducted in partnership with his faculty advisor, U-M IOE associate professor X. Jessie Yang.
“I’m honored to receive an honorable mention in such a highly competitive year,” said Hidalgo. “It’s a meaningful recognition of my potential and hard work. This accolade gives me the momentum and confidence to continue pushing forward with my research and academic goals.”
More about Harrison Sims
Sims received his honorable mention for a research proposal aimed at developing a unified model of team cognition, specifically, how human-human and human-robot teams think and make decisions together. His proposed work integrates existing theories of individual cognition, information sharing, perspective sharing and team structures to build a more accurate computational representation of team dynamics. By predicting team performance and optimizing interactions, this research could benefit fields such as healthcare, robotics and occupational ergonomics. Sims’ research is conducted in partnership with his faculty advisor and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Yili Liu.
“I am honored to have received this award,” said Sims. “Winning this award reaffirms the importance of this work and the positive impact it can have in the field of industrial engineering.”
More about Jennifer Zamudio
Zamudio was recognized for her work in healthcare human factors, analyzing patient-provider interactions. Her research focuses on understanding, measuring and quantifying patient-provider connectedness by using a combination of psychometric and computational modeling methods. The goal of this work is to enhance patient safety and promote physician well-being by informing interventions to improve patient-provider interactions in healthcare settings. Zamudio’s work is conducted in partnership with her faculty advisor and U-M IOE associate professor X. Jessie Yang, and chief of medicine at the Ann Arbor VA Healthcare System, Sanjay Saint.
“This honor gives me confidence in my potential to become a future leader in STEM and the broader healthcare system,” said Zamudio.