It’s not every day that two students from the same university department receive the same highly competitive research fellowships. It’s even rarer when those two students are siblings.
Michael and Maria Cardei, graduate students in the UVA Department of Computer Science, have both been awarded the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) award. This prestigious fellowship supports outstanding graduate students in STEM fields and is known for its rigorous selection process.
Maria, who is pursuing research in Human-Computer Interaction, is advised by Professor Afsaneh Doryab in the UVA Human-AI Technology Lab. Her research interests also include computational behavior modeling and AI for health. Michael is focused on Natural Language Processing, working under the guidance of Professor Ferdinando Fioretto. As a member of the RAISE lab at UVA, his research is focused on Responsible Generative AI and Generative AI for Scientific Applications.
The NSF GRFP provides three years of financial support over a five-year period, including an annual stipend of $37,000. Beyond the funding, the fellowship is a recognition of the recipients’ potential to contribute significantly to their fields.
The program actively encourages applications from all corners of the country and across all backgrounds—making the Cardei siblings’ dual selection a testament to both their individual excellence and the strength of UVA’s graduate programs.
Congratulations to Michael and Maria on this incredible achievement!