My name is Khaliq Satchell and I am from Columbia, Maryland. Currently, I am a sophomore attending Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. My declared major is Computer Science with a Scientific Concentration.
My decision to pursue Computer Science was based on my love for technology. Ever since I started middle school, I was always designing and brainstorming ideas for electronic devices that no one had come up with yet. Originally, this was nothing more than a hobby. But what was once a hobby slowly became obsession, which transpired into what I now consider a passion. “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.” This was said by William Arthur Ward, a writer of inspirational maxims. His quote contributed towards my continued dreaming of becoming more than what I am now. I was driven and told myself that one day all of my ideas would come to fruition. My first encounter with programming code occurred during a Computer Science course that I enrolled in during high school. In the course, we were taught how to use a program called Jeroo. Jeroo is "an educational tool that has been designed for novice programming students." This experience solidified my future goals and made attending college with a major in Computer Science an easy decision.
At ECSU, I participate as a student scholarship recipient of the Center of Excellence in Remote Sensing Education and Research (CERSER) program. Under the directorship of Dr. Linda B. Hayden, CERSER has an objective to "develop and implement innovative and relevant education and research collaborations focused on ice sheet, coastal, ocean, and marine research." As a participant of the program, I have learned many skills that I will be able to apply in the upcoming future.
In the spring semester of 2014 at ECSU, I was a part of the GOES Data Products Team, mentored by Dr. Malcom LeCompte. The title of the research project was “SeaSpace Terascan GOES Multispectral Animations” and the objective was to create an animation of the visible disk of the Earth in all five channels and a similar animation at maximum spatial resolution of the Southeastern United States and especially the state of North Carolina and its coastal environment. Most importantly we created animations at visible wavelengths and mid and one of the thermal IR channels.
In the summer of 2014 at Indiana University in Bloomington, I worked on a research project called “The Use of Parallelization Support to Speed up PlotViz3”. My research mentor was Dr. Geoffrey Fox who was also the head of the lab. The purpose of this project is to add parallelization support to the code for multithreading PlotViz3. The code in the software uses the C++ programming language which is what we shall be using to make improvements. In the end, adding this support will speed up the virtualization process in the software and make it less time consuming when looking for results quickly and efficiently. In the spring semester of 2015 at ECSU, I was a part of the U.A.V. Team, mentored by Mr. Edward Swindell. The title of the research was “Remote Sensing Archaeological Sites through Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (U.A.V.) Imaging.” The objective was to use a U.A.V. to take aerial images of a chosen sight. Afterward, we used a program to create a mosaic of the multiple images we took at the sight. We were able to make observations and draw conclusions of what could have been in the area. The overall research was a success and we have proven how useful U.A.V.s can be in archaeology.
Over the course of my undergraduate studies, I would like to attend more internships as well as some S.T.E.M. conferences, so that I may be able to acquire more contacts and opportunities that may benefit me. After I receive a bachelor’s degree, I will continue on to acquire a master’s degree. After attaining a master’s degree, I would like to work for a well-known tech company and someday become a project manager.