Show-Me State Times

Saint Louis University (SLU) student Pascal Sikorski has been awarded a Goldwater Scholarship. Sikorski, a junior majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Philosophy, received this award after participating in a rigorous interview process. The Goldwater Scholarship is a national undergraduate award aimed at students in the STEM fields who plan to pursue research careers following their graduation.

Sikorski aspires to earn a doctorate in computer science and pursue a career as a professor. His research ambition focuses on enhancing "the interaction between intent-driven assistive robotics and humans through perception and dexterous manipulation."

During the previous summer, Sikorski conducted research at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as a WAVE Fellow in the Advanced Mechanical Bipedal Experimental Robotics Lab (AMBER Lab), where he worked on developing safety filters for robotic movements in uncertain environments. His upcoming research in 2025 will be undertaken at Oregon State University's Intelligent Machines and Materials Lab (IMML), where he will focus on creating a robotic manipulation workflow to operate alongside humans in environmental settings.

The Goldwater Scholarship provides recipients with $7,500 towards tuition and fees. Over the past 30 years, thousands of undergraduates have received Goldwater Scholarships, with many later winning other notable awards that support their graduate school endeavors, such as the National Science Foundation's Graduate Fellowship, Rhodes Scholarship, Churchill Scholarship, and the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship.

In 2025, the Goldwater Foundation awarded 441 new scholarships.