Summer camp leads to career path for 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock student
Wesley Ferguson. Photo by Lonnie Timmons III/糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Communications.
A summer camp at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock changed Wesley Ferguson鈥檚 life.
After spending two weeks getting a crash course in life as a computer scientist during 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 competitive High School Research Program, Ferguson never looked back as he pursued a career in computer science at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock.Ferguson worked with Dr. Mariofanna Milanova, professor of computer science, to turn two-dimensional facial images into 3-D animations and videos.鈥淎fter the High School Research Program, I wanted to get into computer science,鈥� he said. 鈥淢y mentor (Milanova) gave me a taste of what computer science was like. At the end of high school, the EIT (Engineering and Information Technology) department gave me the financial ability to pursue a degree.鈥�After graduating from North Little Rock High School in 2013, Ferguson attended 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock with the Provost鈥檚 Academic Excellence Scholarship.In the Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology, Ferguson worked as a student ambassador, where he enjoyed helping other students through tutoring. He said being an ambassador helped get him out of the dorms and helped him make friends and be 鈥渓ess reclusive鈥� as an undergraduate student.Ferguson鈥檚 favorite experience has been working on virtual and augmented reality research at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock鈥檚 Emerging Analytics Center.鈥淲orking at the EAC is just really cool,鈥� he said. Ferguson has worked on projects like the virtual cadaver, which can help train medical students. He has also worked on a video game called 鈥淚sland Escape鈥� and on 鈥淪cenario Generator,鈥� an application that allows users to easily create 3-D environments using a paint program.Ferguson and a fellow student researcher were able to present 鈥淪cenario Generator,鈥� which has potential in military and city planning applications, at the 2016 Supercomputing Conference in Salt Lake City.鈥淭his app can be used to create 3-D worlds very easily,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o many people would come by the conference and say it was really cool.鈥�After graduating with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in computer science and a minor in information assurance in May, Ferguson, 22, of North Little Rock, is now pursuing a master鈥檚 degree in information science from 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock.After he graduates in 2019, he plans to move to a technology industry city like Seattle or Washington, D.C., to work as a software developer.
