ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Naval Academy Midshipman 1st Class (senior) Kade Heckel, 21, of Hughesville, Pennsylvania, and Midshipman 1st Class (senior) Evan Robertson, 21, of Oak Harbor, Washington, were recently awarded Marshall Scholarships. This highly-competitive academic scholarship provides up to two years of postgraduate study at a United Kingdom university. This year, over 1,000 candidates competed for one of the 41 scholarships awarded. This year’s class includes the largest number of U.S. service academy graduates since service academies began competing for the Marshall Scholarship in the early 1980s.
Heckel is a double major in computer science and computer engineering at the Naval Academy. He is a Trident Scholar, conducting research on machine learning for network intrusion detection. He has served as the training officer and vice president of the Naval Academy Cyber Security Team.
In the fall of 2019, Heckel was recognized by Commander NAVSEA for discovering two attack vectors against commercial 3D printing technologies and was invited to present his findings at the DoD’s Avengercon Cyber Security Conference. His research influenced Navy requirements for putting such systems on ships.
Upon commissioning, Heckel plans to pursue a Master of Science in artificial intelligence and adaptive systems at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. After completion of the Marshall Scholarship program, Heckel will serve as a cyber warfare engineer.
Robertson is a double major in aerospace engineering and physics at the Naval Academy. He is one of five Stamps Scholars in the Class of 2022, conducting research with NASA on autonomous satellite robotics and space system design.
Outside the classroom, Robertson is a varsity rower on the Navy Heavyweight Crew Team, the vice president of USNA’s chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society. As a lifelong musician, he organized the “School of Rock,” a group of midshipmen who enjoy playing and discussing rock music in their free time.
Upon commissioning, Robertson plans to pursue a Master of Science in advanced mechanical engineering with aerospace at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. After the completion of the Marshall Scholarship program, Robertson will report to Naval Air Station Pensacola for flight school. Following successful completion of flight school, he will join the fleet as a naval aviator.
The Marshall Scholarship Program was founded by an Act of Parliament in 1953 to commemorate the humane ideals of the European Recovery Program (Marshall Plan). Goals of the program include enabling future leaders of America the opportunity to study in the U.K., to help scholars gain an understanding and appreciation of contemporary Britain, to contribute to the advancement of knowledge at Britain’s centers of academic excellence, and to motivate scholars to act as ambassadors throughout their lives, thus strengthening British-American relations. The program has awarded over 2,000 scholarships to date.
For more information on the Marshall Scholarship please visit http://www.marshallscholarship.org/.
For more information about the Naval Academy please visit www.usna.edu or our Facebook page.
