RIT student’s co-op, coursework lead to prestigious scholarship

Aiden Morris, an undergraduate at Rochester Institute of Technology, is aiming for a career with the U.S. Department of Defense, and with classes, an international co-op and a SMART Scholarship, he’s on target to meet that goal.

The fourth-year electrical engineering student in RIT’s Kate Gleason College of Engineering, returned to campus in September from a 3-month co-op in Japan at the robotics company HIBOT. He also started his fall semester knowing he received a prestigious Science, Mathematics, and Research Transformation (SMART) Scholarship-for-Service Program award. It is given to students at U.S. universities to ensure the defense industry has a highly skilled STEM workforce to advance national security and maintain the country’s technological edge.

“I always wanted to go into defense, to be able to support the Army,” said Morris, who is from Clarence, N.Y. “It’s a split between being lucky and also what I’ve been doing. I knew that eventually I would get enough experiences on my resume to be able to apply to a big defense company. I just was extremely lucky to get these opportunities right off the bat.”

Morris’s mother Kristen served in the Army Reserve, and in high school, he became interested in different military armament, such as a new rail gun, a high-powered cannon, being built by the military.  He knew if he wanted to build a cannon that requires electrodynamics, he’d need grounding in electronics and physics.

He chose RIT’s electrical engineering program as a way to catapult that career.

Coursework helped position him with co-ops in several electrical companies, including MSA Safety, located in Pennsylvania, where he did battery equipment testing, and learned how companies construct power systems, from wiring and battery capacity to coordinating electrical networks.

His SMART scholarship was earned through these co-op experiences including with HIBOT, an industrial robotics company in Shinagawa, a district of southern Tokyo. Morris applied through the Asia Internship Program, a partner of RIT’s Career Services and Co-op.

SMART Scholars receive full scholarships, monthly stipends, and the opportunity to participate in an internship at a selected installation. Upon graduation, awardees are employed at that installation for the length of time of their scholarships. After graduation, Morris will work at the U.S. Army DEVCOM Armaments Center at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey.

He found out about the scholarship during a class and was so excited he nearly jumped out of his seat, he said.

“This pretty much changed my life,” he said. “They say this opportunity in the defense department is a pretty good gig. Picatinny is such a huge base and there are many opportunities there and around the world.”