Patricia F. Waller Scholarship
Scholarships empower students to explore innovative ideas and contribute meaningful solutions to their field of study.
The Patricia F. Waller Scholarship was created to honor Dr. Waller and is intended to fund scholarships for U-M graduate students and senior undergraduate students who elect a thesis, dissertation, or special project that addresses the human aspect of transportation policy or practice. Students may apply from all U-M departments and schools, including UM-Dearborn and UM-Flint.
Details
- Applications will be accepted for two deadlines: July 31, 2025 and November 30, 2025.
- Multiple awards are possible depending on application funding needs.
- Send completed application to: UMTRI-Waller.Scholarship@umich.edu.
- Scholarship questions can be addressed to Dr. Colleen Peterson (cmpete@umich.edu).
Requirements
- Applicant must be a U-M graduate student or senior undergraduate student, who will complete the research/activity while they are still enrolled as a student.
- Applicant must have a faculty supervisor who will oversee the research/activity and the expenditures for the scholarship funds.
- Applicant must agree to provide the PFW Scholarship Committee with a final report that documents the research/activity and give permission for their likeness to be used in reporting on and promoting the PFW Scholarship program.
- If possible, the student must present on the project/activity at UMTRI’s Student Research Symposium.
Acceptable Use of Funds
- Funds can be used for direct expenses connected with the project, such as subject payment, copying, computational services, etc.
- Travel can be funded to support presentation of project outcomes.
- Funds can be used to cover the student’s employment.
- Funds can be used for tuition support.
- Funds cannot be used for faculty salary.
- Other expenses may be covered outside of the above categories, but must be reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the PFW Scholarship Committee.
Dr. Waller had a distinguished career as a leading research scientist and advocate for policy reform in the area of transportation safety and injury control.
She worked tirelessly to ensure that research findings were implemented through legislative and administrative measures, and to ensure that injury control and the health and human dimensions were incorporated into the national transportation agenda. Dr. Waller was also devoted to nurturing and encouraging students who showed an interest in applying their scientific training and skill to improve the safety of the transportation environment.
In 1989, Dr. Waller was appointed director of the Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan, where she also held academic appointments in the Schools of Medicine and Public Health and the Department of Psychology. She retired from the University of Michigan in 1999, but continued to be actively engaged in research projects around the world, authoring publications until shortly before her death on August 15, 2003.
Prior to coming to Michigan, Dr. Waller served as Associate Director for Driver Studies at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center (HSRC), and she was a faculty member of the UNC School of Public Health. In 1987, she became the founding director of the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center, a center of excellence funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She joined the HSRC in 1967 after practicing and conducting research as a clinical psychologist.
Recent Scholarship Recipients
2025 Winter Semester Recipient
U-M Taubman College
Reevaluating Travel Time Costs: A Use-Value Framework for Assessing the Impacts of Long Travel Times on Physical and Social Well-Being
Supervisor: Jonathan Levine
2024 Fall Semester Recipient
U-M LSA, Computer Science
Development of a Customizable Mobile App to Gather Participant Data In-the-Wild
Supervisors: Dr. Kathleen Klinich, Dr. Monica Jones
2024 Fall Semester Recipient
U-M Mechanical Engineering, Integrative Systems + Design
Exploring Advanced Restraint Technologies for Improving Safety Equity for Rear-Seat Occupants Using Diverse Human Body Models
Supervisor: Dr. Jingwen Hu
2024 Fall Semester Recipient
U-M Biomedical Engineering
Exploring Wheelchair Users’ Perception of WC19 Wheelchairs
Supervisor: Dr. Kathleen Klinich
Past Recipients
2023 Collin Brennan-Carey; U-M Data Science Engineering; Supervisor: Dr. Paul A. Green.
This project will enhance the development of an easy-to-implement method to assess the extent to which driver interfaces compromise driver safety. Consistent with UMTRI’s vision and values, this research is being supported by a multidisciplinary team (Data Science, Industrial and Operations Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering). Also consistent with UMTRI’s Strategic Plan, this innovative research will enhance UMTRI’s role as a leader in distraction research.
2023 Shubhayan Ukil, U-M Urban and Regional Planning; Supervisor: Dr. Jonathan Levine, U-M Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
This project will enhance the development of an easy-to-implement method to assess the extent to which driver interfaces compromise driver safety. Consistent with UMTRI’s vision and values, this research is being supported by a multidisciplinary team (Data Science, Industrial and Operations Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering). Also consistent with UMTRI’s Strategic Plan, this innovative research will enhance UMTRI’s role as a leader in distraction research.
2023 Saumya Sharma, U-M Integrative Systems and Design; Supervisor: Byoung-Keon “Daniel” Park, UMTRI.
This project’s primary objective is to design an online modeling tool for manual and powered wheelchairs. By creating an accessible and user-friendly platform, this tool will facilitate the development of safe and ergonomic wheelchair designs, ultimately enhancing the mobility and safety of wheelchair users.
2022 Jiacheng Liu, U-M Industrial and Operations Engineering; Supervisors: Jingwen Hu, UMTRI, and Judy Jin, I&OE.
This project aims to achieve safety equity by considering human variations in design policy optimization for vehicle restraint systems, which fits the mission of UMTRI to conduct research to advance safe, equitable, and efficient mobility. Bayesian Optimization approach, which is widely used in machine learning algorithms, will be used to predict the injury responses of the computer simulation runs, and informative new samples will be introduced efficiently through Bayesian Optimization to optimize the design policy. This multidisciplinary study will improve the existing injury prediction and address the one-model-fits-all issue of the current vehicle design strategy by theoretical and numerical approach.
2021 Ekim Koca, Mechanical Engineering, U-M Mechanical Engineering; Supervisor: Paul A. Green, UMTRI.
This project will begin with a review of publications, guidelines, and standards that discuss in-vehicle lighting, its measurement, and its effects on driving in all situations. Subsequently, pending on COVID-19 restrictions, the plan is to conduct an experiment using a driver interface simulator. The task simulated will be a nighttime drive, in which subjects avoid obstacles. Across trials, the interior lighting conditions will be varied and measured. In addition to standard driving performance measures, eye tracking hardware and software will be used to record where drivers look and when, and potentially measure pupil dilation and eye fixation. Given time and funding, the sample size will be small, potentially 12 subjects (6 young, 6 old). The project deliverable will be a paper and potential presentation.
2018 Victor Le, Mechanical Engineering
2018 Aritra Suha, Statistics
2017 Ke Liu, Industrial and Operations Engineering
2013 Alana LeBron, School of Public Health
2012 Rebecca Mandell, School of Public Health, Health Behavior & Health Education
2010 Andi Eisman, School of Public Health, Health Behavior & Education
2007 Nancy Gallagher, School of Nursing