EVL is proud to announce that Cristian Luciano is one of four recipiants of the 2004 Link Foundation Fellowship. He is the first student in the State of Illinois to be awarded the Foundation's fellowship.

The Awardees for 2003-2004

Cristian Luciano - University of Illinois – Chicago
Jernej Barbic - Carnegie Mellon University
Cali Fidopiastis - University of Central Florida
Yiping Guo - University of Central Florida

The Link Foundation awards up to five fellowships to qualified doctoral students in academic institutions per year, with each grant totaling $25,000. This program, in place since 1990, has awarded more than 60 fellowships—approximately $1.2 million—to qualifying doctoral students studying in the simulation and training field at U.S. universities.

The Link Trainer, invented by Mr. Link in 1929, was the first successful flight simulator and truly a pioneer engineering effort that started a whole new field of endeavor. Simulation is on the brink of further major developments in many new fields where operators use complex systems.

The Advanced Simulation & Training Program was put in place by the foundation in 1990 and the first awards made in 1991. Grants of $25,000 are awarded by a selection committee to qualifying doctoral students. Through 2001 a total of 54 awards have been made. It is the intention of the Foundation to continue the program as the simulation and training field develops.