A local college student has received a scholarship named in honor of former Columbus North basketball player Josh Speidel presented by LHP Engineering Solutions.
Columbus’ Evan Finke, who attends Purdue Northwest, received the Josh Speidel Scholarship valued at $19,999 to attend LHPU’s Autonomous Electric Vehicle Bootcamp.
The scholarship was presented to Finke by Speidel, LHP co-founder and CEO Dave Glass and Zach McClellan, LHPU president.
Speidel, who attends the University of Vermont on a basketball scholarship, was involved in a traffic accident Feb. 1, 2015 as he attempted to drive across U.S. 31 near Taylorsville. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and relearned how to walk and talk, eventually graduating from North and beginning his college career in Vermont.
After Speidel’s accident, LHP became actively involved in the emerging field of crash-avoidance technology and autonomous vehicles that sense surroundings, interpret information, navigate paths and obstacles using technology such as global positioning systems, lasers and computer vision. LHP is involved in engineering the technology of the embedded control systems and telematics used in the systems.
LHP had made a contribution to Speidel’s rehabilitation efforts as he recovered and established the Josh Speidel Scholarship Fund for its LHPU Controls training program to attract top college graduates.
