2 Students Finalists in STaR Symposium

Fairmont State University information systems majors Joseph Boyd and Joshua Posey, both of Weston, were among 18 finalists in the Undergraduate Student Research Contest during this year's West Virginia Science, Technology and Research (STaR) Symposium held at Waterfront Place Hotel in Morgantown this fall.

The STaR Symposium provides a forum for the state's increasingly competitive science and technology enterprise. University and college faculty members, researchers, graduate and undergraduate students and members of the business community share research developments, ideas and collaborations during the annual event.

The contest entry presented by Boyd and Posey was "A Research Study of New Computing Algorithms for a Public Grid Infrastructure Using the Global Grid Exchange." Boyd and Posey were among the first FSU students to receive an FSU Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Fellowship, which provided $3,200 for two months of summer research under the mentorship of Dr. Rebecca Giorcelli, FSU Assistant Professor of Information Systems. Boyd and Posey also received support from Innovation Management & Technology Services (IMTS), where they served as interns.

"The SURE fellowship has provided Joe and Josh with invaluable experience by allowing them to work in the field with leading edge technology at a high tech firm," Giorcelli said. "Having the opportunity to showcase their results at the STaR Symposium really highlighted this research experience for them."

Giorcelli said the quality of the students' work is demonstrated by the offer, extended by Jeff Tucker, Chief Technology Officer at IMTS, to continue funding their research in public grid infrastructure beyond the SURE fellowship program.