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Summer program brings student interns to ORNL

Research Alliance in Math and Science students spend the summer working in ORNL's state of art facilities, such as the EVEREST visualization lab.

A select few, however, work on leading-edge technology with some of the world's foremost researchers, make lifelong relationships with other students from around the world, and get to know their way around the nation's top multi-purpose national laboratory.

Those in the latter group are among the summer interns from 13 colleges and universities who participated in the 2005 Research Alliance in Math and Science (RAMS) Program at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The RAMS program gives talented, highly motivated students an opportunity to put their fresh ideas and energetic drive into action on high-visibility, national-priority research projects.

Funded by the Mathematical, Information and Computational Sciences Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research under the U.S. Department of Energy, the program promotes collaborative efforts between national laboratories and universities to improve the quality and diversity of the U.S. workforce. The project is administered through the Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate at ORNL.

RAMS participants gain cooperative research experience with students and faculty from other universities, as well as researchers from DOE's national laboratories. The program is aimed at increasing the number of under-represented populations in the workplace by encouraging students to pursue advanced degrees in computer science, computational science, mathematics, engineering, and technology.

Program requirements include a research proposal, journal of research experiences, weekly seminars, project web page, oral presentation, poster presentation, and a research paper suitable for publication developed in concert with the mentor. More information on the RAMS program and participants can be found at http://www.csm.ornl.gov/Internships/RAMS/

As part of the 2005 internship program, which ran from May 31 through Aug. 12, students toured the Spallation Neutron Source, the historic Graphite Reactor of the Manhattan Project, the High Flux Isotope Reactor, the William L. and Liane B. Russell Laboratory for Comparative and Functional Genomics (Mouse House), the High-Temperature Materials Laboratory, and the Center for Computational Sciences, which houses the National Leadership Computing Facility and EVEREST (Exploratory Visualization Environment for Research in Science and Technology).

Students from Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., participating in the program are: Marcus Frazier, Grenta, La., who earned B.S. in Computational Science and Mathematics this year; Jamila Jones, Chicago. Ill., a senior majoring in High-Performance Data and Retrieval; Rashida Askia, Sacramento, Calif., pursuing a Master of Science degree in Administrative Supervision and Elementary Education; Tanika Rand, Kansas City, Mo., who earned a B.S. in Statistics and Data Science this year, and Antoinette Taylor, Cleveland, Ohio, a junior majoring in Computational Science and Mathematics.

Participants from Florida A&M University are: Kenroy Williams, Sunrise, Fla., who received a B.S. this year in Modeling and Simulation; and Jason Montgomery, Tallahassee, Fla., pursuing a Master of Science degree in Visualization and Computational Sciences.

Students from Alabama A&M University in Huntsville are: James Fletcher, a senior majoring in Computer Science and Mathematics; Keitha Griffin, Belleville, Ill., majoring in Computational Science, and Shana Woods, Smyrna, Ga., a senior majoring in Computing and Computational Science.

Students from Winston-Salem University are: Janel Brown, Wadesboro, N.C., and Jermaine Hemby, Goldsboro, N.C., both seniors majoring in Computational Engineering.

Students from Savannah State University are: James Da Cunha, Freeport, Bahamas, freshman majoring in Mechanical Engineering, and Jonathan Solomon, Atlanta, Ga., freshman majoring in Chemical Engineering.

Other interns and their universities are:

Lionel "Gerald" Lovett, Hattiesburg, Miss., is a sophomore majoring in Statistics and Data Sciences at Jackson State University.

Cindy Lopez, Valley Stream, N.Y., is majoring in Computational Science and Engineering at York College of the City University of New York.

Elizabeth O'Quinn, Spartanburg, S.C., is a senior majoring in Computational Biology and Enzyme Kinetics at Wofford College.

Latia Shumpert, Tupelo, Miss., is majoring in Computational science at Fayetteville State University.

Rowena Ong is pursuing a Master of Science degree in Computational Biology and Computational Science at Vanderbilt University.

Nicholas Brabson is a sophomore studying Electrical Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Jennifer Bennett, Greeneville, S.C., is a 2005 graduate of Spelman College with a degree in Computational Visualization and Simulation.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a multiprogram research facility managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.