“When it comes to computer science in particular, the proportion of women has been falling.” “Twenty-five years ago more women were drawn to computer science than today.” Randoll Stross.

The lack of women in the field of computer science has influenced me to further my education and enhance my knowledge about computers, digital products, web applications, and interfaces. As a child growing up in Philadelphia, I have always had an innovative and creative mindset. Currently, I am a graduating senior at Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) located in North Carolina, majoring in computer science with a minor in aviation science.

As an undergraduate student I participated in the Center of Excellence for Remote Sensing Education and Research (CERSER) program at ECSU. CERSER has provided me with professional development skills, discipline and training in preparation for graduate school. Because CERSER is a research based program I had the opportunity to partake in several scientific research experiences, including three summer research internships at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana (IUB).

During the 2008-2009 academic school year, I was a member of “The Undergraduate Research Multimedia Team”. The focus of this research was to evaluate and implement web 2.0 technologies in support of CReSIS and Cyber infrastructure scientific research projects at ECSU. Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, and MediaWiki were the four popular content management systems that were tested and evaluated on the Window Apache MySQL PHP (WAMP) server. Web 2.0 technologies include social networking, text and data mining, knowledge incorporation environments, tagging, visualization, and mashups.

For the summer of 2009, I traveled IUB to participate in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) research program. This research consisted of creating a social networking application for PolarGrid scientists by applying Facebook Application Programming Interface, and using web technologies such as MySQL, Apache, and XML. Through the academic year of 2009-2010, I worked on the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars research team to determine “Can humans live on Mars?” The primary objective of this research was to create a program using MatLab and Kito's database to store and classify Mars images and data in a timely manner. In the summer of 2010 I returned to IUB to intern in the informatics department. The primary focus of this research was to use the BH-Tree methods, K means, H-Clustering, XNA, Plotviz, and C# to create a 3D data point visualization and clustering analysis research tool for bioinformatics and cheminformatics labs at IUB.

The following academic school year of 2010-2011, I was place on the Grounding Line Validation Team, which surrounded the research of the Antarctic Surface Accumulation and Ice Discharge. ENVI, a geospatial image processing and analysis tool was used to exam rapid climate changes in a small section of the Pine Island Glacier located in Antarctica. Our findings verified that an ice shelf had been decreasing over the years from 1972 to 2003. NASA has interviewed on team on these discoveries and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names officially labeled the area the “Elizabeth City State University Bay”. During the summer of 2011 at IUB I analyzed and compared MapReduce frameworks Hadoop and Twister for intensive computing. This past semester at ECSU, I participated on the “Mathematics 2011-2012 Research Team”. This project consisted of examining “The Use of Math Sprint in a Tutorial Program for Seventh Grade students to improve the End of Grade Test Scores”.

As technology expands and the demand for computers increases, the more I become fascinated and inquisitive about this field. After graduation, I intend to pursue a Master’s degree in human computing interaction and design (HCI/d). It is my desire to fully understand the interaction between users and computers while obtaining knowledge and skills in product usability, design theory, problem solving, and time management challenges. I plan to use these tools and strategies to design new digital learning environments and web applications to improve online education for college students. Obtaining my master’s degree will assist me in achieving my goal of contributing to the HCI Industry and the rapid growth of technology.