I am a junior majoring in Computer Science at Elizabeth City State University, located in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. My expected graduation date is May 2011. Beginning in high school, I became interested in computers, technologies, and programming languages, never realizing those interests would actually further my career in Computer Science. My main goal is to become successful in learning even more about Computer Science so I can further my education to get my masters degree. Thus far, I have gained a tremendous amount of useful knowledge while being a part of the Center of Excellence for Remote Sensing Education and Research (CERSER) program. CERSER has a lot to offer, including assistance on obtaining internships at a variety of Universities around the world, networking at world-wide conferences, and excellent undergraduate research experiences on campus grounds. All of these factors have increased my enthusiam toward higher education. Over the three year span of my involvement in CERSER, I have performed Undergraduate Research, attended conferences, and networked with many people who has had an impact on the grounds we walk on today. Building a life long relationship with these intelligent scholars, has been preparing me for graduate school in the next 2 years. During my freshman year, I began attending conferences where professionals present their research, and give useful information on how to be successful. The first conference I attended was the National Infinite Possibilities Conference( NIPC) located at North Carolina State University. The 2007 Infinite Possibilities Conference was held to address the discrimination against women in mathematics, create a spirit of sisterhood, and a make a strong connection with those who attended. It also provided information and resources that benefited the participants to succeed in their careers. The second conference I attended was the National Science Foundation (NSF) Science Technology Centers site visit for the Center of Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) located at The University of Kansas. The purpose of the NSF site visit was to review how CReSIS operates as a center and how the center improved to meeting its objectives. The third conference I attended was the 2008 IEEE International Geoscience & Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) conference located in Boston, Massachusetts. The pupose of the conference was to allow world-class scientists, engineers and educators to engage in the fields of geoscience and remote sensing, and present their latest activities. Over fifteen hundred participants from all over the world participated in a week full of technical sessions, tutorials, exhibits and social activities. The theme of the conference was entitled "The Next Generation" which defined the focus of the 2008 Symposium on outreach. In 2009, I attended The National Black Engineer of the Year Awards (BEYA) STEM Global Competitiveness Conference which took place in Baltimore, Maryland February 20-22, 2008. The conference included professionals and students from around the U.S who took part in the Science, Engineering, and Technology fields. It consisted of career fairs, seminars, and workshops to bring students and employers together.

While being a part of CERSER, I have also completed research during the 2007 academic school year. My freshman year I was on the Oceanography Research Team. Our research was entitled, “A Multiple Linear Regression of pCO2 against Sea SurfaceTemperatures, Salinity, and Chlorophyll α at Station BATS and its Potential for Estimate pCO2 from Satellite Data.” We obtained field data of alkalinity, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), temperature, salinity, and chlorophyll α determined at BATS station in the last two decades; calculated pCO2 from alkalinity and DIC; applied the correlation method to test the applicability of the method in the central Atlantic Ocean and found the linear regression to see how accurate the data was.

Continuing into my sophomore year, I was apart of work in support of a larger NASA IPY project to determine the Antarctic’s mass balance (i.e., the net gain or loss of ice from the Southern continent.) The purpose was to determine the ‘Grounding Line’ along a specific stretch of Antarctic coastline, using NASA supplied computer codes written in Interactive Data Language (IDL) 4th generation programming language. It was installed and run in the windows environment. IDL compiling and execution is transparent to the user by clicking on the file name of the desired process, described in the instructions manual and then the code is executed.

I have also had the opportunity to create my professional webpage, take classes in programs such Geographic Information Systems, and Linux, and gain knowledge throughout the year, which helped prepare me for my summer 2008 undergraduate research.

While performing research during the academic school year, I have continued to perform undergraduate research during the summer. In 2008, my research was entitled " The Younger Dryas Impact Study". Here, we studied the events precipitating the dramatic, millennial long climatic cooling known as the Younger Dryas, that occurred approximately 13,000 years ago. During my research, I have had the opportunity to do some hands-on learning at the Kimball Bay in Fayetteville, North Carolina. There, we focused on using the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), and Coring. Learning these techniques has given me an idea of what scientist like Allen West and his team have done while investigating what actually caused the impact about 12,900 years ago. This experience has helped me during my second summer internship opportunity at the University of Kansas.

During my second internship, the summer 2009, I had the opportunity to work with CReSIS (Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets). CReSIS is a Science and Technology Center established by the National Science Foundation. CReSIS deals with the developement of new technologies and computer modeling to measure and predict the changes in sea levels based upon the mass balance of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. My research was entitled the "Automatic Ice Thickness Estimation from Polar Subsurface Radar Imagery". Here Michael Jefferson and I, along with Christopher Gifford, focused on automating a tedious task of estimating ice thickness from the airborne radar data taken from Greenland and Antarctica. The identification of the ice sheet's surface, and bedrocks location, and the interface between the icesheets. Ultimately, we compared the automatic, human, and active contour approach to see which would benefit CReSIS in helping to determine changes in the ice sheets over time.

Currently, I am working on the CRISM team....

Exposure of the many undergraduate and summer research experiences has given me the opportunity to apply to many well know internships, and meet many world renown Doctors and Scientist. Without CERSER, none of this would be possible because the amount of work, training, and involvement is greater than anyone could imagine. I have set the tone for many generations to come, and I will continue to increase my involvement. Achieving this status requires dedication, assertiveness, and continuously making decisions which will benefit my future. I will continue to strive for perfection in my scholastic career, as well as cease all opportunities made possible by perusing a higher education to obtain my Doctorate Degree. Although my studies at Elizabeth City State University take considerable time, effort, and dedication, I know that this knowledge is essential to helping me along my way.