1. May 15, 2015
Dear SMART Scholarship Committee:
I am writing to support Scott Glenn’s application for the SMART Scholarship for Service Program.
I am an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Technology of
Wentworth Institute of Technology (WIT). In fall 2014, Scott took one course from me, the
Introduction to Robotic Systems. Though Scott only took one course from me, I got to know him
very well since this course requires intensive amount of time to implement the algorithms and
mathematics we discussed in class to make them happen on the robots. Each week the students
spent five hours with me, during which time I gained a clear picture of the student’s performance
in class, in lab sessions, how they work within a group, and how they interact with students in
other groups.
In a group consisting of both juniors and fifth-year students, Scott, currently a junior student, took
the lead of the whole group. Scott has actively led his group through the whole process of defining
the task, mechanical design of the robot, sensor selections, software programming, testing,
debugging, and redesign. Scott made major contributions to his project. He spent hours and hours
working with the robot, debugging, testing, improving, using even his own spare time outside of
the scheduled lab sessions. Scott has very serious attitude towards learning. He is highly motivated
and extremely independent. Different from other students who still turn to me for help if something
does not work as expected, Scott chose to investigate the problem and resolve the issue on his own.
Scott has a very nice personality. He works very well along his group members. Often I saw him
offering help to other groups with what he has just learned and figured out. Scott is also very
reliable and organized. He has outstanding communication skills in terms of writing, speaking,
and presenting his results and ideas. Overall speaking, Scott has demonstrated the level of
mathematics, engineering insights, maturity and capability that ranks him 5% among his peers.
I would like to recommend that Scott Glenn be granted the SMART scholarship. If you have any
further questions, please feel free to contact me.
Sincerely,
Lili Ma, Associate Professor
Department of Electrical Engineering and Technology
Wentworth Institute of Technology
550 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115
Phone: (617) 989-4123; Email: mal@wit.edu