Four UMSI PhD students earn 2026 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships

Four University of Michigan School of Information doctoral students have been awarded 2026 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships. The NSF GRFP program is one of the nation's most prestigious honors for early-career researchers. 

The fellowship recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students pursuing research degrees in STEM fields. Each award provides three years of funding, offering recipients the flexibility to pursue ambitious, high-impact research. 

All four UMSI recipients are first-year PhD students. Their work explores areas of computing education, workplace accessibility, sociotechnical systems and the impacts of generative AI. 

For Seth Bernstein, the fellowship is an opportunity to critically examine how computing is taught and experienced by students. Advised by UMSI associate professor Barbara Ericson, Bernstein studies personalization in computing education, asking whether connecting coursework to students’ interests and lived experiences can improve learning. 

“I’m looking forward to the freedom to follow the questions I care about,” he says. “ I want to produce research that actually helps students learn, and the GRFP gives me the space to do that carefully.”

Bernstein’s path to UMSI began at Temple University, where he studied computer science and conducted research in the HCI Lab, exploring topics like the potential harms and benefits of generative AI. 

Veronica Pimenova, who is advised by UMSI assistant professor Venkatesh Potluri and computer science assistant professor Dhruv Jain, will pursue research on human factors of software engineering, focusing on developers  with ADHD. More broadly, Pimenova’s work focuses on how software engineers communicate and collaborate in workplace settings in ways that promote both their productivity and well-being.

“I'm excited to receive this grant because it lets me be more flexible with my research goals and interests, especially as my interests could change or deviate over time,” she says. 

Andrew Balch, advised by UMSI assistant professor Ben Green, will explore how communities resist and organize against harmful AI systems and infrastructure. His research centers on the broader structural injustices that shape sociotechnical systems and explores pathways toward dismantling them. 

“The grant provides three years of fellowship funding, which means I won't have the work obligations of teaching or being a research assistant, freeing me up to focus more on my personal milestone research,” he says. “I'm most excited that this funding provides me the opportunity to pursue more reflective and community-engaged research, which traditional funding models disincentivize.” 

Ashlyn Campbell, advised by UMSI associate professor Barbara Ericson, studies how students’ adoption of generative AI is reshaping the social dynamics of computing learning environments. She focuses on how generative AI introduces contested notions of competency that shape students’ identities and redefine what it means to be a “real programmer.”

Before joining UMSI, Campbell earned degrees in computer science and sociology from Georgia State University, where she founded RISE in Computing Stars, a program supporting first-year Black women in computing. 

“I am excited to now be in community with other scholars and to be recognized by the NSF for my interests in the STEM education & artificial intelligence field of study, one of only two awarded,” she says. 

RELATED 

Check out UMSI’s PhD in Information program!