Researcher of the Week: Celia Drew

Tue, 03 Dec 2013 08:29:11 -0500

Meet Celia. She is a Mathematics/Statistics and Information Systems major. Last summer, she was a participant in the SURF program at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg. Her current research interests include the emerging field of "Big Data" and cyber-security.

How did you find out that you could do research in your field in the summer?
I learned about it as a Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) Scholar. Janet McGlynn of the Office of Undergraduate Research came to one of our seminar classes to tell us about the NIST fellowships.

How did you know that research at NIST was what you wanted to do?
I really wanted to see what it was like to work in a federal lab.

Did you apply to other places?
I also applied to several Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Math or Statistics at universities around the country. I was accepted to one of those at Michigan State in Probability and Discrete Math.

Was the application difficult to do? Did you have help with this?
It was easier than I expected. The Office of Undergraduate Education holds workshops to help you prepare a personal statement about which of the NIST labs and projects might be a good fit for you.

What was your summer research project?
I ran computer simulations looking at how cell phone networks could keep up better when people are on the go and the base stations to which they are connected keep changing. My work helped to measure the performance of mobile devices as the connections pass among different size towers, like from the giant ones that serve part of a city to the little base station at somebody's home. We were looking for the best mix of coverage areas to minimize outages and keep the devices from inefficiently “ping-ponging” from one station to the next.

Who was your mentor for this project?
Dr. David W. Griffith, an electrical engineer in NIST’s Information Technology Lab. He was so nice and helpful, and his daughter, Indira, is now a freshman at UMBC!

How much time do you put into this work?
I worked on the project full-time for 11 weeks.

Were you paid? Where did you live?
The NIST fellows were paid $500 a week, and 140 of us stayed for free at the Hyatt House in Gaithersburg. It was so much fun hanging out with students from all over the country. We’d have lunch together at NIST, and we’d all head into D.C. or to the beach on the weekend.

What academic background did you have before you started?
I had taken Calculus II and III as a freshman along with Discrete Structures and a computer programming class.

How did you learn what you needed to know for this project?
I had never worked with MATLAB, a computing language that helps you run simulations and visualize lots of data, so I watched videos and looked at textbooks to get started.

What was the hardest part about your research?
There were times when it was hard to figure out the coding I needed. But Dr. Griffith was always willing to make suggestions if I hit a snag.

How does this research relate to your course work at UMBC?
Matlab is one of the main programs used for mathematical calculations, so it’s something I needed to learn. I’m already using it this fall in my Linear Algebra class!

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research?
Recommendations from professors are crucial. I was lucky enough to get recommendations from two terrific teachers, Dr. Brian Dean and Dr. E.F. Charles LaBerge. Be sure you get to know some of your professors right from the start.

What are your career goals?
I am interested in the new field of “Big Data,” which combines math, statistics, and computer knowledge to analyze huge amounts of data. Google and Facebook created this kind of work, and now government agencies and companies like General Electric are looking for breakthroughs of their own in this area. I’m also interested in cyber-security, which is another rapidly growing field.

Do you now live on campus or commute to UMBC?
I’m from Montclair, N.J., just outside New York, and I live on campus.