- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Graduating student awarded prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 08 May 2019 16:18:55 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock senior has been selected as a 2019 recipient of. Scott Wolf, 19, of White Hall, Arkansas, will graduate May 11 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics with minors in history and English. In the fall, Wolf is headed to New Jersey to pursue a Ph.D. in quantitative and computational biology from Princeton University. “Earning the NSF fellowship was a huge accomplishment,” Wolf said. “I had a lot of support from my professors to put together an application of that caliber.” The fellowship provides Scott with three years of financial support within a five-year fellowship period through a $34,000 annual stipend and $12,000 cost-of-education allowance to the student’s graduate institution. The program recruits high-potential, early-career scientists and engineers and supports their graduate research training in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Launched in 1952 shortly after Congress established the National Science Foundation, the fellowship program represents the nation’s oldest continuous investment in the U.S. STEM workforce. Since he was homeschooled with his three brothers, Wolf began taking dual-enrollment classes at Southeast Arkansas College at age 14 and graduated high school at age 15. At 16, Wolf was attending ��Vlog��ý Little Rock as a recipient of the Chancellor’s Academic Distinction Scholarship. “��Vlog��ý Little Rock is close to home, and a bunch of people in my department have been able to utilize industry ties and take advantage of our connections with technology companies and other businesses in Little Rock,” he said. “I’ve had the opportunity to take advantage of coursework, research, and industry opportunities.” While at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Wolf’s work and research opportunities have included working as an undergraduate researcher in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics and a tutor in the Mathematics Assistance Center. He has completed internships at Inuvo Inc. and Entergy. Wolf has also studied abroad three times. He spent the summer of 2016 studying at the Chinese Language Institute at Xiamen Huaxia University and has taken faculty-led trips to South Korea and China. Wolf discovered a love of bioinformatics while completing research in the Systems Genomics Laboratory at the MidSouth Bioinformatics Center with Dr. Mary Yang, the center’s director. “I really appreciated the opportunity to do research in bioinformatics with Dr. Yang,” he said. “Without her, I wouldn’t have any experience in the area. Learning how to interact in a lab was invaluable when it came to going to Princeton and moving forward with research.” With a new interest in bioinformatics, Wolf sought out summer research opportunities and found the Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton University. Last summer, he conducted research at Princeton in quantitative and computational biology, the field he will now pursue as a doctoral student. “I intend to explore how the fundamentals of mathematics, computer science, and statistics intersect with physiology, genomics, and neuroscience to give insight into complex biological systems,” he said. “I am particularly interested in how complex behavioral patterns can be quantified and how they emerge at the individual and group level.” Looking back on his time at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Wolf is thankful to professors who served as mentors in his academic pursuits as well as those who lifted his spirits in times of distress. “There have been all kinds of people who have helped me at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. You get research mentors who are critically important and community members, who aren’t formal mentors, but are there to talk to you and have some equity in you as a person,” Wolf said. “Someone like Dr. James Levernier from the English Department who goes out of the way to tell you to pursue your passion and take advantage of all the resources you can. When you are beaten down over a piece of research you can’t understand, they are there to sympathize with you. In the math department, there is a sense of community I haven’t seen elsewhere. I know the professors, and I can talk to them. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock has been a good community for me.”

From mowing grass to NASA: Siratt finds success at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Ajani Oyindamola — Mon, 06 May 2019 12:59:29 +0000

Five years ago, John Siratt, of Malvern, began classes at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock as a non-traditional transfer student with no “master plan,” but a desire to see how much he could achieve. Now, Siratt will graduate from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on May 11 with a Master of Science in mathematical sciences as well as two prestigious graduate fellowships to earn his Ph.D. in mathematics at one of the best universities in the country. In 2014, he struggled to support himself through college while working full-time as a groundskeeper at the College of the Ouachitas. It wasn’t his first attempt at college, having attended the University of Arkansas right after high school and later Henderson State University, but Siratt was determined to make this time a success. “I originally decided to come back to school because we lost my little brother in 2010, and it made me reassess my life priorities,” Siratt said. “It made me see what a loss it was, considering how much good he could have done in the world. After a year and a half, I took that job at a community college mowing grass just so I could go back to school.” After graduating from the College of the Ouachitas in 2014, Siratt began his studies as a part-time student at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. He became a full-time student after Dr. Allen Thomas, a former ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty member in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, hired Siratt to work as a research assistant in 2015. “I call myself a second-chance student. I wasn’t successful in college when I was younger because I didn’t have clear goals,” he said. “Growing up, most people around me didn’t understand the concept of going to school for math if you weren’t going to become a school teacher.” At ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Siratt has found great success in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. He completed two internships with the Formal Methods Research Program at the in Norfolk, Virginia, in summer 2017 and 2018. Siratt has been recognized by the department with the Outstanding Achievement by an Undergraduate and Outstanding Senior awards. Last year, Siratt received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. The fellowship provides three years of financial support through a $34,000 annual stipend and $12,000 cost-of-education allowance to the student’s graduate institution.

John Siratt works on algebraic equations in his office at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Photo by Ben Krain.

Siratt also received the Richard and Peggy Notebaert Premier Fellowship from the University of Notre Dame, where he will pursue a Ph.D. in mathematics. Siratt was one of eight recipients selected from more than 5,000 applicants for the fellowship, Notre Dame’s most prestigious scholarship. The fellowship is a five-year renewable scholarship that covers full tuition at Notre Dame and includes a $40,000 yearly stipend. Looking back on his time at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Siratt is thankful to his wife, Chassidy, who is studying drawing in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program, Dr. Lakeshia Jones, assistant professor of mathematics, and Dr. Steven Minsker, professor of computer science, for keeping him motivated and encouraging him to pursue new opportunities. “You have to look for other experiences, like mentors, internships, and research projects,” Siratt said. “These experiences help you grow into success. No one should expect to come out of their education as the same person as when they started because education has completely transformed myself and who I am. It helped me explore areas of myself and opportunities that would not have been available otherwise. I mean, how many guys on a lawnmower get to go to NASA? It’s been a really cool experience after all.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock awards funding to six projects in Seed Grant Competition

Ajani Oyindamola — Fri, 21 Sep 2018 14:22:04 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has awarded funding to six research projects by ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty members through the 2018-19 Seed Grant Competition. This year, the competition accepted research proposals in two tracks. Four projects were awarded funding of $6,000 each in Track A, while two projects were awarded $12,000 each in Track B. The grant period for each award is from Aug. 16, 2018, to Aug. 15, 2019. The ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Seed Grant Competition aims to kickstart compelling research projects that can later be funded by external support after the term of the seed grant. The Track A winners and their projects include:

Annie Childers and Liangfang Lu, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, “Placement and Retention in Developmental Mathematics at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock”
Amar Kanekar, School of Counseling, Human Performance, and Rehabilitation, and Joseph Williams, Department of Rhetoric and Writing, “Health Quest – A Training Simulation for Health Education Students and Workers”
Rebecca Glazier, School of Public Affairs, and Heidi Skurat Harris, Department of Rhetoric and Writing, “Identifying Reliable Indicators of Instructor-Student Rapport in Online Classrooms”
Fusheng Tang, Department of Biology, “Osh6-Mediated Sterol Redistribution Extends the Lifespan”

The Track B winners and their projects include:

Hirak Patangia, College of Engineering and Information Technology, “An Experimental Investigation of a Faster Voltage Equalizer for a String of Batteries in Electric Vehicles”
Shanzhi Wang and Brian Berry, Department of Chemistry, “Investigation of the Pre-steady State of MTANs from Borrelia burgdorferi”

Kanekar and Williams’ project involves testing a digital simulation that will train health education students in how to conduct public health initiatives by learning aspects of program planning and evaluation for preventing a condition/disease of public health importance. “My co-investigator, Dr. Joe Williams, and I feel great about winning this grant as we believe that this pilot project may open up doors for extending educational games for student learning in other health courses and looking into advanced gaming projects for student learning,” Kanekar said. Proposals were judged based on the significance of the research or creative activity, quality of the research plan, expected outcomes and direct impact to the community, strength of plan to seek external support, ability to enhance and acquire external support, and qualifications of the researchers. “The quality of the proposals for this year’s Seed Grant competition blew me away,” said Jerry Damerow, chair of the Dean’s Science Council for the College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences and one of judges for the seed grant competition. “The quality was so good it made judging very difficult.” Damerow said the judges looked for projects that would give ��Vlog��ý Little Rock a competitive advantage and projects that could lead to commercially viable products or services. “In this regard, Dr. Childers and Dr. Lu’s project to improve outcomes in developmental mathematics has the opportunity to give ��Vlog��ý Little Rock an advantage in retaining and graduating students versus other universities that use a more traditional approach,” Demerow said. “Dr. Patangia’s project aimed at improving the efficiency of charging a string of batteries has important potential in the rapidly growing field of alternative energy.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock hosts surrounding universities for annual Calculus Bowl

Jenny Lambert — Mon, 23 Apr 2018 17:00:49 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Department of Mathematics and Statistics was the recent host of a highly competitive Calculus Bowl on Friday, April 6. Several math clubs from universities across the state were in attendance, representing the University of Central Arkansas, the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Arkansas State University, Arkansas Tech University, and the University of Arkansas – Pulaski Technical College. At the start of the afternoon, the students filed into the Engineering, Technology and Science building for registration, and afterward, gathered in a classroom to compete in the calculus contest. Here, students competed as individuals, working through a timed, 15 question calculus exam without the use of calculators or phones. Following the competition, students enjoyed a lunch of fresh pizza and refreshments while grooving to the sounds of “We Few,” a ��Vlog��ý Little Rock student band composed of drummer, Seraphim Lawhorn; guitarist, Dallas Smith; and standing base guitarist, Jordan Anderson. Once students were refueled and refreshed, they huddled into their groups for the main event – Math Jeopardy. Each team was given an instrument, such as a bell, rattle, symbol, or drumsticks, for sounding off and letting the game’s orchestrator know they had an answer. As the reigning champs, ��Vlog��ýPB selected the first question. As the game took off, the anticipation among the students grew. While some questions caused silence to fall upon the room as students penciled their calculations, others garnered an almost immediate response, showcasing the wit and intelligence of the math whizzes. Finally, the game came to an end and ��Vlog��ýPB once again took home the title of the winning team. This group was awarded a $200 cash prize to go toward its math club. Individual winners of the overall competition were also announced. These students were selected for having the highest scores in the calculus contest. Individual prizes included two $100 cash prizes, ten $20 cash prizes, and ten $10 cash prizes. These students and their placements included:

First place – Joseph Filipek, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock
Second place – Travis Chism, Arkansas Tech
Third place – Zach Smith, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock
Fourth place – Justa Frank, Arkansas Tech; Jesse Griffiths, Arkansas Tech; Chandrasimha Penthala, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock; Azaryah Wilson, UCA
Fifth place – Tyrone Brock,��Vlog��ýPB; Timothy Coth, Pulaski Tech; Christopher Flocken, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock; Hayden Henson, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock
Sixth place: Gilberto Guerra, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock; Robert Hill, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock; Nickolai Knight, ��Vlog��ýPB; Paloma Salazar, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock; Eric Sutherland, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock
Seventh place: Brycelynn Bailey, Arkansas Tech; Madison Gartch, UCA; Matthew Horn, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock; Tyler Huffstutler, Arkansas State; Aaron Jackson, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock; Shamara Lawrence, ��Vlog��ýPB; Verenice Perez, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock; Humphrey Wanjala, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

For more information, contact event coordinator, Dr. Xiu Ye, at xxye@ualr.edu.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock student awarded prestigious National Science Foundation fellowship

Ajani Oyindamola — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 19:26:09 +0000

Four years ago, John Siratt was struggling to support himself through college, working full time as a groundskeeper while taking classes at the College of the Ouachitas. Now, Siratt, a graduate student from Malvern studying mathematics at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, could not be more thankful to be a recipient of. The fellowship provides three years of financial support within a five-year fellowship period through a $34,000 annual stipend and $12,000 cost-of-education allowance to the student’s graduate institution. “I am very excited and stunned by the news,” Siratt said. “There was a rumor online that the fellowship results were going to be posted on April 2. I woke up that night and saw the email at 1:30 a.m. I showed the email to my wife who was still awake working. I wasn’t sure I had read it right until she started jumping and celebrating.” Siratt was one of 2,000 fellowship recipients from a nationwide pool of more than 12,000 applicants. The program recruits high-potential, early-career scientists and engineers and supports their graduate research training in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. Launched in 1952 shortly after Congress established the National Science Foundation, the fellowship program represents the nation’s oldest continuous investment in the U.S. STEM workforce. “To support U.S. leadership and innovation in science and engineering, we must recognize and nurture talent from all of our nation’s communities,” said Jim Lewis, NSF acting assistant director for Education and Human Resources. “I am pleased that again this year, the competition has selected talented students from all economic backgrounds and all demographic categories. In addition, NSF worked successfully to accommodate students from U.S. islands devastated by Hurricanes Maria and Irma, so that they could still compete for a fellowship.” Siratt will graduate with a master’s degree in mathematics from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in 2019. Afterwards, he is considering pursuing doctoral programs at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock, Carnegie Mellon, Notre Dame, Indiana University Bloomington, and the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.

John Siratt works on algebraic equations in his office at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Photo by Ben Krain.

Siratt remains thankful to his wife, Chassidy, a ��Vlog��ý Little Rock art student who proofread all of his application materials, and his advisor, Dr. Lakeshia Jones, assistant professor of mathematics who Siratt described as both his “guiding light” and the “whip behind me when I started slacking,” for encouraging him to apply for the fellowship. “John’s life experiences, academic record, and work ethic have provided him with an innate potential for research and the potential to advance knowledge in the mathematical sciences,” Jones said. “I have learned that John has a keen ability to process a lot of information in a short period with limited oversight. He holds himself and his work to a very high standard and does not settle for mediocre.” After graduating the College of the Ouachitas in 2014, Siratt began his studies as a part-time student at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. He could afford to attend full time after Dr. Allen Thomas, a former ��Vlog��ý Little Rock faculty member in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, hired Siratt to work as a research assistant in 2015. “I call myself a second-chance student. I wasn’t successful in college when I was younger because I didn’t have clear goals,” he said. “Growing up, most people around me didn’t understand the concept of going to school for math if you weren’t going to become a school teacher.” Now Siratt is well on his way to a successful career in mathematics. This summer he will begin his second internship with the Formal Methods Research Program at the in Norfolk, Virginia. His 2017 internship was supported through a Workforce Development grant from the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium. “To me,” Siratt said, “the most important part of this story for other students is that I spent years being rejected. I never thought something like this could happen to me, but I never stopped trying to open doors.”

��Vlog��ý Little Rock student interns at NASA

Ajani Oyindamola — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 14:21:27 +0000

A University of Arkansas at Little Rock student spent his summer interning at the in Norfolk, Virginia. John Siratt, a graduate student in mathematics from Malvern, was one of the student researchers accepted into the highly competitive . He worked with the Formal Methods Research Program within the Safety Critical Avionics Division at NASA Langley Research Center from May to August. Siratt was able to secure an internship with the space agency thanks to help from his professors. Dr. Lakeshia Jones, assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, supervised Siratt’s independent studies and encouraged him to develop research topics and search for specialized internship opportunities. “Dr. Jones encouraged me to think about research topics, and I did a practice research statement,” he said. “The topic I got interested in seemed to have obvious applications for aerospace. The Arkansas Space Grant Consortium said that NASA has internships, so I reached out to them and had a conference call to some researchers at NASA Langley Research Center. They invited me to apply, and the next thing I knew they were asking what kind of computer I wanted when I got there.” In addition to the help Jones provided, Dr. Steven Minsker, professor of computer science, helped Siratt prepare for the internship by supervising an independent study. “Without Dr. Jones and Dr. Minsker, I would not have had the background to make the progress I made while at Langley,” he said. “My NASA mentors were very impressed with my skills and knowledge, and none of that would have been possible without the willingness of these faculty members to supervise relevant independent study.” His internship was supported through a Workforce Development grant from the Arkansas Space Grant Consortium. He worked with Dr. Anthony Narkawicz, Ricky Butler, and Dr. Cesar Munoz from NASA. At the research center, Siratt was assigned a three-month project that he wrapped up in five weeks. Siratt studies automated theorem proving, a subfield of artificial intelligence and mathematical logic that deals with proving mathematical theorems with computer programs. Siratt and his mentors redesigned and improved a library of trigonometry proofs used to prove mathematical concepts the Formal Methods team is using to verify algorithms for air traffic control systems. This work was performed in the prototype verification system (PVS) theorem prover, a system which allows users to rigorously prove mathematical statements. “Let’s say we are having a debate with a very meticulous person who wants you to justify everything,” Siratt said. “That is what it’s like to justify everything to a computer. We program a drone or autopilot system or air traffic control system, and the computer wants you to prove your mathematical concepts. We use trigonometry a lot. We don’t want to have to re-prove trigonometry to the computer every time, so we have a trigonometry library where the proofs are contained.” Siratt and his mentors generated more than 100 trigonometry proofs during his internship. “The computer is going to hammer and hammer you on the details of the computer programming until it is convinced it is right,” he said. “You can look at my work for the summer as finding ways to argue the truth of the facts of trigonometry in as simple a way as possible.” With the additional time, Siratt was able to work with other research projects and explore his own research topics with the other scientists. “I really enjoyed the internship,” he said. “It was a great atmosphere with great people to work with. People are coming in and out and discussing ideas. The people enjoy what they do and are self motivated.” Siratt is planning to apply for another internship at NASA Langley Research Center for summer 2018. In the upper right photo, John Siratt (right) and his wife, Chassidy (left), attend the 2016 Fribourgh Award Reception at Pleasant Valley Country Club. Photo by Lonnie Timmons III/��Vlog��ý Little Rock Communications.

Future STEM teachers look to inspire students with robotics club

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 15:12:32 +0000

Sandra Leiterman, a math specialist in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Educational Center, created the first (VEXU) robotics team in the state of Arkansas. In VEX robotics, students design and build robots to compete in robotics competitions that change every year. Prior to six years ago, Leiterman had no experience coaching robotics teams. Now, being a robocoach is practically second nature to her as she coaches the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock team and two robotics teams at Mills High School. Last year, she also helped start robotics teams at two Little Rock elementary schools, Chicot and Jefferson. “When I first started teaching, I was asked to start a robotics team when I had no experience,” Leiterman said. “Now I know a lot of high school robotics teams want to continue onto college competitions. As future teachers, there is a huge push for these students to provide STEM activities for their future students.” While most robotics teams are staffed by engineering students, ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s squad, who dubbed themselves “Just a Prototype,” is made up of future math and science teachers looking to inspire their future students. “There is such a demand right now for STEM in schools,” said Donetha Groover, a robotics team member and biology major. “We are all going to be teachers. We want to experience robotics and take it into the classroom ourselves.” In addition to being on the robotics team, the students also give back by volunteering with local high school robotics programs and serving as judges at their competitions. ��Vlog��ý Little Rock team members include Groover, senior biology major from Lodi, California; Jamie Burrows, junior math major from Mabelvale, Arkansas; Robert Presswood, sophomore physics and math major from Lincoln, Illinois; Rachel Smith, senior math major from Lockesburg, Arkansas; Michael McKinnie, senior biology major from Cabot, Arkansas; Shala Nail, senior math major from Evening Shade, Arkansas; and David Shurley, physics major. The REC Foundation awarded the team a materials grant that team members used to build their robot named FLN, which is pronounced Flynn and stands for Finished Last Night. The humorous name refers to a highly stressful week when the team completely redesigned its robot and made last-minute adjustments the night before the competition. “Four of us had judged a high school robotics competition in Monticello the weekend before our competition,” Burrows said. “We were really impressed by Bryant High School’s design and used an adaptation for our robot. That left us about four days to rebuild the robot before we left for the competition, and we had a few sleepless nights.” Each year, VEX creates a unique game teams play during the robotics competitions. This year, they used their robots to play the game “Starstruck” on a 12-foot by 12-foot field. The object was to attain a higher score than the opposing team by placing stars and cubes in the scoring zones and hanging a robot on the hanging bar. “FLN is unique because every other robot had a claw, yet FLN’s design is to collect the star in the basket and then shoot the star across the border,” Smith said. After their first competition in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Just a Prototype members were invited to participate in the TEX VEXU tournament in Houston against teams from Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas in February. Just a Prototype received the special Judges Award recognition. “The judges loved the fact that the team is made up of future math and science teachers that joined the team in order to gain experience so they may one day start their own teams when they have teaching jobs,” Leiterman said. For now, the team members are looking forward to April 21, when VEX will announce the new robotic game competition for the 2017-18 season. The students plan to create a second robotics team and are hoping to host a VEXU competition at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock in the fall. In the upper right photo, the “Just a Prototype” robotics team members include: Back row (L-R) Jamie Burrows, Rachel Smith, Shala Nail, and Donetha Groover. Front row (L-R) David Shurley , FLN the robot, and Faculty Advisor Sandra Leiterman. Photo by Lonnie Timmon III/��Vlog��ý Little Rock Communications.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

Graduating student awarded prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship

From mowing grass to NASA: Siratt finds success at ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

����Vlog��ý Little Rock awards funding to six projects in Seed Grant Competition

����Vlog��ý Little Rock hosts surrounding universities for annual Calculus Bowl

����Vlog��ý Little Rock student awarded prestigious National Science Foundation fellowship