Undertaking independent research is a goal for many students. Now students in the Department of Computer Science can do this with the help of the Provost’s Undergraduate Research Award (PURA). Provost Joseph Cooper (1991-1995) established the PURA program in 1993 with a generous endowment by the Hodson Trust. The award allows students to work on an independent project over the academic year, with the assistance of a JHU mentor, to conceive, design, and execute the project. This encourages students to be creative and put their knowledge and skills into practice.
The CS undergraduate recipients and their faculty mentors include:
Keyi Ding
Project: Development of Machine Learning Techniques to Distinguish Giant Stars from Dwarf Stars and Application to the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way
Mentors: Rosemary Wyse, Alumni Centennial Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy; and Carrie Fillion, graduate assistant in the Department of Physics and Astronomy
Xinyi “Cindy” Ren
Project: Investigating the Role of SCAP Knockdown in Antitumor Immunity
Mentors: Peter Espenshade, a professor of cell biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and graduate student Casie Kubota
Wu Han “Enoch” Toh
Project: Compositional Optimization of MHC-II AntigenPresenting Lipid Nanoparticles for Targeted Helper T-cell Delivery
Mentors: Hai-Quan Mao, associate director of the Institute of NanoBioTechnology (INBT) and a professor of materials science and engineering
Le “Chris” Wang
Project: Is The Formation Of Terrestrial Planets The Cause of Solar Atypical Abundance Pattern?
Mentors: Kevin Schlaufman, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy