��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.

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

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

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

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

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

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