The Pittsburgh chapter of the ARCS® Foundation, Inc. (Achievement Rewards for College Students) will award $70,000 as this year's portion of a $230,000 funding commitment to 14 outstanding American doctoral students majoring in science and engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, seven of whom are receiving the funding for the first year. The presentations will be made at an awards dinner at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 13 at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, 4215 Fifth Ave., in Oakland.

The gala event will feature keynote speaker Andrew Moore, director of Google's Pittsburgh engineering office. The following seven scholars are receiving the first year of their ARCS Foundation funding.

• Brian Becker, of Vero Beach, Fla., is the Westinghouse Electric Company awardee. He is conducting research in the field of autonomous vehicles at the School of Computer Science;
• Katharine Ricke, of Arden Hills, Minn., is the Abraham-Wainwright scholar. She is doing climate change research at the Department of Engineering and Public Policy;
• Katherine Fu, of Arlington, Va. is the Lawrence J. Rhoades Memorial awardee. She is working on design theory at the Mechanical Engineering Department;
• Nathaniel Shank, of Albany, Ga., is studying bio-inorganic chemistry in the Chemistry Department;
• Christopher Wirth, of Buffalo, N.Y., is the PPG Industries awardee. He is studying polymers and coatings in the Chemical Engineering Department;
• James Tolbert II, of Suitland, Md., is studying computer graphics in the Computer Science Department;
• David Whitney, of Woodland, Colo., is studying neuroscience and bio-imaging in the Biological Sciences Department.

Each ARCS Foundation scholar from the Pittsburgh chapter receives $5,000 in support per year for three years, or until completion of the recipient's doctoral degree program. The event is sponsored by Bank of New York Mellon, Intel Research Pittsburgh and Medrad Inc.