Three R.I. students chosen for computer research conference

(Updated, Sept. 10, 9:56 a.m.)

NARRAGANSETT – Rhode Island’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research will send three university students to the 25th annual international SuperComputing13 Conference in November.
The three students – Layla Oesper of Brown University, Mary Penniman of Bryant University and Brianna Mellon of Roger Williams University – earned student-volunteer slots at the prestigious event through a competitive selection process.
“The competition for selection was intense,” said Dr. Edward Hawrot, Brown University department of molecular pharmacology, physiology & biotechnology. “Only about one in four applicants from across the national experimental-research community of participating states and jurisdictions were invited to attend as student volunteers.”
Hawrot also serves as co-principal investigator for Rhode Island’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.
The conference, to be held Nov. 17-22 in Denver, spotlights the most advanced scientific and technical applications in the world, bringing together the international supercomputing community for an exceptional program of technical papers, tutorials and timely research posters.
Oesper, a graduate student from Colorado Springs, Colo., in Brown’s Computer Science department, is conducting research focused on designing algorithms to analyze high-throughput DNA sequencing of cancer genomes.
Penniman, a Bryant junior majoring in environmental studies and an Army ROTC cadet from Leominster, Mass., is focusing her studies on modeling ecosystem communities and relationships.
Mellon, a junior, majoring in marine biology with a minor in psychology from Ellington, Conn., is focusing her studies on such areas as creating a model of currents in Narragansett Bay to predict patterns of larval movement. •

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