April 08, 2025

Mizzou Engineering junior Miles Farmer is one of three University of Missouri undergraduate students who have received the Goldwater Scholarship, one of the most prestigious national scholarships in natural sciences, engineering and mathematics in the United States.

“We had 15 excellent undergraduate researchers apply for the Goldwater Scholarship this year, which is a testament to the enthusiasm and quality of the undergraduate research community at Mizzou,” said Nina Wilson-Keenan, EdD, who coordinates the Goldwater Scholarship for the Office of Global and National Fellowships and advised all the applicants. “I’m inspired by the work our four nominees did over winter break to revise their applications and make them reflect their best visions for their research careers.”

A Discovery Fellows Scholarship from the Honors College gave Farmer the opportunity to begin research his freshman year. His passion for research has only grown since then.

“Research has been invaluable to my undergraduate experience,” he said. “It is a truly unique hands-on opportunity that allows learning beyond typical coursework and provides skills that complement nearly any career. My time in undergraduate research has shaped my career goals, changed the way I approach problems, and improved my collaboration and presentation abilities.”

Farmer has worked on a variety of projects related to deep learning and software analysis throughout his time at Mizzou. His primary focus has been on software vulnerability detection using machine learning techniques and then analyzing the choices made during that process. Farmer works with Ekincan Ufuktepe, an assistant teaching professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and is part of the Computational Imaging and VisAnalysis Lab, which is led by Kannappan Palaniappan, a Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Farmer said the Goldwater Scholarship will allow him to add to his research experiences.

“I am very excited and deeply honored to be named a Goldwater Scholar,” Farmer said. “I hold sincere gratitude for this recognition and appreciation for my mentors, whose support over the last several years made this possible. With this award, I will continue my research in deep learning for software analysis – namely, graph deep learning for software vulnerability detection, analysis and mitigation.”

Farmer served as a software engineer intern for Garmin for nearly two years and worked in a similar role for nearly a year for the Cerner Corporation. He recently received a MizzouForward Undergraduate Research Training Grant to continue his research. Farmer has received a handful of awards during his time as a Tiger, including an Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award from the Honors College and the Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the department. He also earned the Outstanding Junior Award from the College of Engineering.

This story is an excerpt from a larger story published on the Honors College website.