Jennifer Zamudio and X. Jessie Yang awarded PACE Fellowship

Jennifer Zamudio, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering (IOE) at the University of Michigan (U-M), and her faculty mentor, U-M IOE Associate Professor X. Jessie Yang, have been awarded a Rackham Partnerships for Access, Community and Excellence (PACE) Fellowship for graduate student-faculty mentor pairs. This fellowship honors doctoral students and their faculty mentors who foster a positive program climate and support student success.

“I am incredibly honored to receive this fellowship alongside my amazing advisor,” Zamudio said. “Enhancing student climate and community in U-M IOE and across campus is deeply meaningful to me. This fellowship and award will give me the opportunity to focus on these efforts alongside making progress on my research.”

Awardees receive a one-term fellowship and monetary prize, while their mentors receive research funding. Zamudio and Yang will be celebrated at a fall reception.

More about Zamudio and Yang

Jennifer (Jen) Zamudio is a Ph.D. candidate in the Interaction & Collaboration Research (ICRL) Lab. Her research in healthcare human factors has earned her several honors and awards, including an honorable mention from the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Zamudio is an officer in the HFES student chapter and aspires to become a professor, partnering with healthcare practitioners to improve safety and efficiency across clinical systems.

Associate Professor Xi Jessie Yang joined the faculty in 2016 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT. She earned a Ph.D. and a M.Eng. in Human Factors Engineering and a B.Eng. from Electrical and Electronic Engineering, all from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Yang’s research is focused on the interactions between human-human, human-autonomy and human-robot. She wants to understand and propose design solutions to the mechanisms that govern their interactions.