Dr. Sherry Westmoreland, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Southwestern Oklahoma State University (SWOSU), recently concluded her role as an abstract reviewer for the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR). Scheduled for April 2024 in Long Beach, Calif., this conference serves as a significant platform for showcasing undergraduate research achievements.
“NCUR sent out a call for reviewers in October, so I signed up,” said Westmoreland. “I felt this would be a fantastic opportunity to gain experience to help our students author better research proposals.”
Her involvement with NCUR dates back to spring 2023 when she accompanied Jessica Massey, a senior in the ABET-accredited Manufacturing Engineering Technology program, to Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Massey’s research focused on Computer Aided Design and Finite Element Analysis for fasteners in aerospace applications.
Westmoreland has been a dedicated advocate of undergraduate research since she joined the SWOSU Computer Science faculty in August 2022. Currently, she is sponsoring a NASA research project supported by internal funds. The project is leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to support Martian soil analysis for potential crop growth experiments on Mars.
This study began in the Department of Biology several years ago but has transitioned to the Blue Thunder Alley student research lab on the third floor of the Stafford Building. Equipped with multiple workstations featuring GPU accelerators, the lab facilitates ML support. Additionally, the lab benefits from a dedicated research network provided by OneNet, the state’s academic technology partner. This network enables students to quickly access research data from NASA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture without overloading the network for the rest of the campus.
