Ten undergraduate students from across the country completed a nine-week competitive research program aimed at improving the overall quality, safety and efficiency of the health delivery system.
The program is part of the Computer Science Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) project funded by the National Science Foundation. The University of Central Arkansas was selected earlier this spring to become a REU site by the foundation. The goal of the REU program is to encourage talented undergraduate students to pursue graduate study and research careers in computer science by providing them a competitive research experience.
The research program was hosted by the Computer Science Department at UCA. This is the first Computer Science REU in Arkansas selected by the Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE) Directory of NSF. UCA’s Computer Science Department received a $324,977 grant for a three-year period for this program. The project is led by Dr. Vamsi Paruchuri and Dr. Yu Sun, both faculty of UCA’s Computer Science Department.
UCA’s project, “HIT@UCA: Applied Research in Health Information Technology” integrates fundamental research of computer science with applications in health information technology. Faculty members at UCA and UAMS and four graduate students worked with the undergraduates on carefully designed research projects range from medical image processing to health informatics and secure and privacy preserving electronic health records transmission.
The students participated in a full range of research activities including designing and conducting experiments, analyzing data, documenting research results and writing papers for publication, and presenting at a symposium.
The students were paid a stipend of $4,500 for their participation in the program, along with over $2,500 towards accommodation, food allowance and travel expenses.
Brent Sanderson, a senior at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., applied for the program in order to gain more hands-on experience in computer science.
“I did a lot of work that I feel proud of; that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to participate in if I hadn’t come here this summer,” Sanderson said. “…To be able to do real work, to be proud of it and have something to look back on and possibly get a research paper published is something that I will always carry with me.”
Dr. Paruchuri was pleased with the first year of the program.
“It went really well,” he said. “… The students felt they got the research experience that they came for.”
UCA being selected as a REU site speaks volumes about the quality of the university’s Computer Science program, he added.
“Our department has really talented faculty who can guide students in cutting-edge technology and research projects,” Dr. Paruchuri said.
Students who participated in this year’s program are:
Travis Jones, of Pine Bluff, a junior at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff;
Keenan Bonds, of Norfolk, Va., a sophomore at Norfolk State University;
Aaron Crawford, of Searcy, a senior at the University of Central Arkansas;
Melissa Perkins, of Bentonville, a sophomore at Arkansas Tech University;
Ryan Mendez of Cabot, a sophomore at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock;
Brent Sanderson, of Nashville, Tenn., a senior at Belmont University;
Cody Hudson, of Osceola, a junior at the University of Central Arkansas;
Karen Gilmer, of Milledgville, Ga., a junior at Georgia College & State University;
Danielle Osborne, of Conway, a junior at the University of Central Arkansas;
Ashley Lawrence, of Conway, a junior at the University of Central Arkansas.
The REU mentor team for 2011 is Drs. Vamsi Paruchuri, Yu Sun, Sinan Kockara, Michael Nooner, Paul Young, Umit Topaloglu (UAMS) and Shengli Sheng.
The graduate students who participated in the program are Priyatham Anisetty, Christopher Mitchell, Sait Suer and Tejaswi Yellepeddi.
To learn more about HIT@UCA, visit http://sun0.cs.uca.edu/reu/.
