Becoming a Dallas College STEM Ambassador has been a rewarding experience for Marquita Williams and David Brock.
Both students at Dallas College’s El Centro Campus recently worked with UNT Dallas faculty on undergraduate research projects and presented their findings at conferences.
Williams analyzed collected and historical data from various sites along Rowlett Creek to develop what is known as load duration curve. Williams presented the study at the Undergraduate Research Symposium on April 20, focusing on the calculation of load duration curves on Rowlett Creek.
“The project benefits the community because scientists are actively building ways to amend the very water that we utilize daily,” Williams said.
Brock, meanwhile, did his research project on low dimensional discrete time dynamical systems. He presented his abstract on outer billiard visualizations algorithms at the Mathematical Association of America’s 101st conference on April 1. Brock will also present at the Mathematical Association of America MathFEST in Philadelphia in early August.
“The study of billiards has many uses, from signal processing to optics,” Brock said. “My work on efficiently visualizing the structure of these billiards does not directly impact these fields. But, as our abstract says, ‘This research should help others in the field of polygonal outer billiards by allowing for quick visualization and experimentation.’ The images generated are also beautiful.”
Along with research projects, El Centro STEM Ambassadors provide complimentary tutoring for fellow students. The student volunteers provide more than 700 hours of virtual tutoring sessions to students across all Dallas College campuses.