ARCS Foundation announces that Carol Young has been selected as one of the 2015-2016 ARCS Scholars. Young was awarded the Cooley Award from the Cooley Family Foundation during the ARCS Atlanta Chapter Scholar Awards Luncheon. Young has received the Cooley Award consecutively for four years.

ARCS Scholars are selected annually by qualifying departments of science, engineering and medical research within ARCS Foundation’s 53 academic partner universities. An ARCS Scholar must be enrolled full-time, majoring in fields of science, engineering or medical research, be a US citizen, and have a GPA of 3.5 or higher.

Young is currently a Ph.D. candidate working under Dr. Fumin Zhang at Georgia Institute of Technology. She is pursuing a degree in Robotic Engineering with the hope of applying her degree to sea or space exploration. Young is minoring in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

Young’s current research goals include creating a framework for Autonomous Water Vehicles to interact in a close and safe manor with human swimmers. To achieve this goal, she has focused her research on reinforcement learning, which would allow robots to autonomously adapt to various types of interactions.

Young is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Cum Laude Society and the National Honor Society. She obtained her undergraduate degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Japanese. Young graduated Magna Cum Laude.

Young grew up in Savannah, Georgia and graduated from Savannah Country Day School in 2006.