Copiah-Lincoln Community College students Julian Parker, of Brookhaven, were part of a unique research opportunity this past summer.

Sophomores Julian Parker, of Brookhaven, and Dallas Nickerson, of Magee, participated in a grant partnership of Co-Lin with Jackson State University. JSU received a research grant from The Department of Homeland Security for Scientific Leadership Awards for minority-serving institutions. JSU then contacted Co-Lin to form a partnership to accomplish the research goals of the grant and get Co-Lin students involved.

The focal point of the DHS grant was to increase awareness of natural disasters through the implementation of newly emerging technology in research and education. A portion of the grant was used to purchase drones and other aerial equipment so that research could be conducted from the air.

Parker focused his research on the 2005 flooding levels for Hurricane Katrina. Nickerson conducted her research on spatial analysis for Mississippi River flooding in Vicksburg.

Both students benefitted from the summer internship program as they learned ArcGIS software, how to analyze data once captured, and were required to give a final presentation of their research findings to a panel of instructors.

Co-Lin instructors Dr. Reed Freeman, Dr. Kevin McKone, Jamie Lambert and Thalamus Marshall served as mentors for the program.

“This research internship with JSU was valuable for the students because they were given the freedom to be creative in defining their specific objectives for the project,” the team of mentors noted. “Once their objectives were accepted by JSU, the students were somewhat self-reliant in learning and using the ARCGIS software. Hands-on work experiences for our students like this are a wonderful complement to college education in classroom settings.”

For more information about STEM fields at Co-Lin, contact kevin.mckone@colin.edu or reed.freeman@colin.edu.