Pastry-Powered T(o)uring Machine Endowed Fellowship

Lauren Bricker (MS '93, PhD '98), Ruben Ortega (MS '94), and Paul Franklin (MS '98) are among a dozen University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering graduate students and alumni who formed a team to ride in the 1995 Seattle-to-Portland (STP) bicycle ride. The team named was inspired by Computer Science & Engineering's Steam-powered Turing Machine mural, painted 30 years ago by a group of graduate students and recreated in the Allen Center.

Many team members continue riding together even as they pedaled off campus and into careers and family life. Bricker and Ortega have sons aged 18 and 10, the younger of whom rode the first half of the STP in 2008, and the older is entering University of Washington in the fall of 2009. Ortega, an expert in search technology, worked for Amazon.com and other start ups for over 10 years and now is an independent software consultant. Bricker consults on user interface architecture and teaches/helps with IT at Lakeside School. Franklin is a software developer at Amazon.com.

The three contributed to the Allen Center capital campaign and organized a consortium through the bike team to fund this Students First fellowship endowment. "We got a great education at the UW, which opened the doors to great jobs, so we wanted to give back to CSE," said Ortega. "Creating an endowed fellowship offered a terrific opportunity to do that and the timing was right for all of us," added Franklin.

Academic merit and financial need. Normally one year, renewable up to 6.