The award is given on the basis of involvement in long-term research projects, participation in conferences, published research papers, displayed leadership within the research environment, and unique contributions to the field. 

Hellrigel is a second-year electrical engineering student and works as an undergraduate researcher on the CEREBRAL MURI project, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense and led by Alan Doolittle, a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). Hellrigel was recognized for developing an interface circuit that allows testing of various neuromorphic components and synaptic networks. 

He designed a circuit that creates from software, 81 high resolution analog inputs and exposes these time variable stimuli to neural arrays that graduate student researchers are developing in the CEREBRAL MURI program. The synaptic network processes the signals, and Hellrigel’s circuit then reads 15 network outputs and feeds back error correction signals to the network. He transformed his design to a circuit board, which included hundreds of state-of-the-art components and debugged the rather elaborate assembly, manually correcting some trouble points identified as manufacturing errors. 

Hellrigel then wrote custom software to interface and program the board's operation via an onboard microcontroller. He is now adapting that software interface to implement community standard, down sampled machine learning datasets.

Doolittle said that he has been consistently impressed with Hellrigel’s technical abilities and his personal character. “Andrew has been essentially doing graduate-level work in circuits and design,” said Doolittle, who holds the Joseph M. Pettit Professorship in ECE. “He quickly proved himself to be more than capable of complex circuit design, circuit fabrication, and assembly, as well as possessing remarkable software interface skills far beyond his years. We are very fortunate to have Andrew on our team.”