Maison Clouatre, a graduate student in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Texas A&M University, has received two prestigious awards, the 2022 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship and the 2022 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships Program (GRFP). Clouatre selected the NDSEG Fellowship, which is awarded annually to students in recognition of their academic excellence and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) achievements. Awardees receive full tuition and coverage for all mandatory fees for up to three years at any accredited U.S. college or university that provides advanced degrees in science and engineering, as well as a monthly stipend of $3,400.
Clouatre, a Ph.D. student, graduated in May 2022 with a double major in electrical engineering and mathematics from Mercer University. He is both a Goldwater Scholar and Stamps Scholar, and previously held visiting research positions in the Electronic Systems (ELSYS) Laboratory at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) and the Laboratory for Information & Decision Systems (LIDS) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Clouatre is co-advised by professor John Valasek in the aerospace engineering department, and professor Mark Balas in the mechanical engineering department. He first experienced engineering at Texas A&M University as an NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) student in 2019, working with Valasek in the Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory (VSCL). Clouatre says “It is an overwhelming honor to receive the support of both NSF GRFP and DoD NDSEG. However, without Professor Valasek, who has persistently invested in me since I was a freshman in college, these awards would not be possible. His most recent investment was introducing me to Professor Balas—a kind mentor and truly keen mind. After carefully considering both awards, I zealously look forward to using the NDSEG fellowship to innovate alongside Valasek and Balas as a graduate student at Texas A&M University.”
Clouatre’s research interests lie at the intersection of control theory, optimization, and learning, and he ventures to use these techniques to engineer advanced quantum information devices. His NDSEG application identified a major hurdle for moving beyond Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum (NISQ) devices: quantum bits which are strongly coupled with their environment. In such regimes, a quantum bit dissipates quantum information into its environment and limits the lifetime of data stored in the qubit’s state. Clouatre will use the NDSEG fellowship to work with Professors Valasek and Balas to develop new quantum control schemes which mitigate environmental couplings and lead to more robust quantum information units.
Valasek says that Clouatre “Maison is an exceptional person, and student, that personifies ‘hard work really does pay off’. He brings tremendous energy and enthusiasm to learning and research, and especially elevates the experience of everyone around him. I enjoyed working with him very much during REU, and now that he is attending TAMU for his doctorate I get to work with him every day. We are very fortunate to have him in the Vehicle Systems & Control Laboratory.”