WashU Sam Fox School alum awarded Fulbright 2026-27 U.S. Student Program grant

Driptaa Chakraborty, AB ’26, has been awarded a Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant for the 2026-27 academic year. She will use the grant to visit India and study Patan Patola weaving, a method of creating complex textiles in India, as a case study for the intersection of computation, manufacturing, and textile-based fabrication.

Fulbright is the U.S. government’s flagship international educational exchange program. In partnership with more than 140 countries worldwide, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers unparalleled opportunities to advance knowledge and innovation across all academic disciplines. In 2026, WashU maintained its status as a Fulbright Top Producing Institution for U.S. students.

With the Fulbright grant, Chakraborty plans to use her majors in architecture and mathematical sciences to develop an interactive tool to catch human error in the patola weaving process from user input data that will allow weavers to conserve months of labor, saving on high production costs while preserving and protecting the integrity of a centuries-old craft. Her proposal is informed by her work as a research assistant at Clemson University where she helped design a computer-simulation process by which knitting-machines are used as fabrication machines to manufacture multi-layer, multi-material objects.

Driptaa Chakraborty, AB ’26, is interested in the critical analysis of computational methodologies across design practices and the historical and social implications of computational tools in design. She earned her bachelor’s degree in architecture with a second major in mathematical sciences. Chakraborty received the James W. Fitzgibbon Scholarship in Architecture, a full-tuition scholarship granted to one WashU architecture student per graduating class. Her capstone research in early computation models and the development of neighborhoods in Navi Mumbai in the 1970s was supported by the Academic Year Undergraduate Research Award.