Arik Slepyan, a graduate student in electrical engineering at the Whiting School of Engineering, is a recipient of the Metropolitan Washington Chapter of the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation’s Scholar Award for the 2024-2025 academic year. The $15,000 award recognizes Slepyan’s exceptional potential to contribute to breakthrough technologies and discoveries in science, technology, engineering, and medical research.
The award supports outstanding students whose work aligns with the foundation’s mission of advancing the United States’ global competitiveness in STEM fields. Slepyan’s research was selected from a pool of top nominees and focuses on developing advanced tactile sensing systems that mimic the sensitivity of human skin, improving robotic grasping, object manipulation, and touch-based interactions. His work has been published in Sensors and presented at BioCAS and BioROB conferences, leading to several invention disclosures and securing grants from Space@Hopkins and TEDCO’s MII.
Since its founding in 1968, the ARCS/MWC has fostered scientific advancement through financial support for talented students. The chapter has awarded more than $1.7 million to Johns Hopkins University since 1978, with this latest award continuing a legacy of significant contributions to the university’s graduate programs.