Matt Nizol, a graduate students in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, is among the 2,000 NSF awardees this year. A number of students with ties to the college are also on the list, Luchini Colbry said, noting that the competitive NSF program attracts about 14,000 applicants annually.

Matt Nizol
Nizol said his research is at the intersection of software engineering and database theory.

“Specifically, I'm researching test database generation from conceptual data models. The problem is of theoretical interest because it is NP-hard; however, tools that generate test data have the potential to help software engineers validate data-intensive enterprise systems more effectively.”

Nizol said he is collaborating with Laura Dillon, professor of computer science and engineering, and Kurt Stirewalt of LogicBlox Inc., on his research. Nizol is enrolled in the computer science doctoral program, with Dillon as his advisor.

“We hope that this collaboration will ensure that our research is transferable to industry,” he added.

Nizol graduated with a computer science degree from the University of Michigan Dearborn, where he also studied history and humanities in the Honors Program. After graduation, he worked in industry for 10 years.

“At EDS/Hewlett-Packard, I wrote programs to analyze massive warranty data sets for General Motors. At United BioSource, I wrote software that analyzed clinical trial data for biotech clients working on cancer drugs.”

Nizol lives in Hartland, Mich., with his wife and two children.