Surry, N.H. resident a candidate for Watson Fellowship

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Jacob LaRocca (Photo by Union College)

SCHENECTADY, NY (02/08/2012)(readMedia)-- Jacob LaRocca of Surry, N.H. was recently named as one of Union College's candidates for the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship.

The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program offers a one-year grant to graduating college students "of unusual promise" to study independently outside the United States. The stipend for individual award winners is $25,000.

LaRocca's project is titled "Tapping Into Hackerspaces."

LaRocca is passionate about electronics and music. His many creations include MIDI, or digital, tap dancing shoes, which he hopes to patent one day. (MIDI is a standard method of representing musical notes.) LaRocca proposes a Watson year that would take him to hackerspaces, or community labs, all over the world to explore the connections among technology, music and dance.

"At any one hackerspace, hundreds of inventors, builders, computer geniuses, hobbyists and artists share their knowledge, tools and experience," he says. "These are the perfect settings in which to develop my shoes and other musical instruments and inventions, and also collaborate with others on their projects." LaRocca proposes traveling to Argentina, England, India and Japan.

LaRocca, a senior, is majoring in electrical engineering. 

"The Watson Fellowship is an extraordinary opportunity for our students and a great privilege for us," said visual arts professor David Ogawa, chair of Union's Watson Fellowship Committee. "It makes it possible for students to explore the passions they have developed here at Union."

At Union, LaRocca is also president and founder of the Nott Noisemakers, the hockey pep band; general manager and technical director of the campus radio station, WRUC; a member of the jazz ensemble, orchestra and brass ensemble; and a member of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.