My name is Tatyana Matthews and I am from Charlotte, North Carolina. I am a sophomore Computer Information Science major with a scientific concentration at Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) located in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. I found the basis for my love of science learning about the solar system as a young child. At no point in time did I think in my collegiate years that I would major in the field. However, it was not until that defining moment when a representative of NASA opened my mind to the wonders of the Computer Science field that my curiosity was triggered.

Today, I am on the journey to obtaining a master's and later doctorate degree in Computer Information Science. At ECSU I am involved in the Center of Excellence in Remote Sensing Education and Research (CERSER) program, directed by Dr. Linda Hayden. The goal of this program is to develop and implement innovative and applicable education and research collaborations centered on ice sheet, coastal, ocean, and marine research. While being engaged in this program I have learned a number of skills, which will serve me well as I venture out and participate in internships as well as research opportunities.

During the spring of 2014, I participated in research at ECSU investigating HUBzero under the leadership of mentors Je’aime Powell (Old Dominion University) and Justin Deloatch (ECSU). The title of the research was “Configuring and Customizing the HUBzero Experience”. The project explored how HUBzero elements are applied for scientific collaboration, education, and research. Primarily, the focus was to learn how to utilize the database component of HUBzero as well as the process of publishing the hub so that it could be viewed publicly. The data that was used for the database component derived from information collected by the 2013 Research Experience for Undergraduates Pasquotank River Watershed Team, who completed tests of five tributaries and the river itself. Upon conclusion of the research, the team successfully created and titled a hub named CERSERhub, uploaded the water quality data to the database component, and gained as well as comprehended knowledge of HUBzero.

In the summer of 2014, I engaged in an enriching research undergraduate experience at Indiana University Bloomington. I worked in Dr. Geoffrey Fox’s Informatics lab under the mentorship of Scott McCaulay, investigating the Apache Big Data Stack. As each day passes, users around the globe continue to produce Big Data. In order to combat the challenges that Big Data produces, “computing power and storage” is imperative so that such large volumes can be captured, managed and organized in order to lead the way for analysis and processing. Essentially, this problem led to my research which involved installing and testing as many open-source software packages as possible on to FutureGrid machines and later making those packages accessible utilizing the product Chef. Particularly, the focus of this research was Apache HBase, a scalable database, in which the package was installed, abstract knowledge was developed, deliverables were produced, and its Chef cookbook was installed. In brief, research revealed how the Apache Big Data Stack could be used and applied to solve complications pertaining to Big Data.