On May 12th, 2017 Geographical Science students Esther Ekanem and Jasmine Thomas were presented with the Undergraduate Internship Presentation Awards for the 2016-2017 academic year. Undergraduate students from the department have excelled at internships across the DC metro area. From here on campus with Facilities Management, START, or ESSIC, to local and state governments, private industries such as Northrop Grumman, and federal agencies like NOAA and NASA, our students have been at the forefront of research, innovation, and technology. The awards were presented by internship coordinator, Alan Eney. 

Esther Ekanem was a Systems Engineering Intern for Northrup Grumman in Linthicum, MD during the Fall semester. She was chosen for this award based off of her excellent internship experiences and the presentation she gave during the Fall Internship Symposium. While at Northrup Grumman she learned neural networks and deep learning concepts. She modified, tested, and delivered geoid undulation code for World Geodetic System 1984 to Earth Gravitational Model 1996 for system implementation. She also lead ArcGIS Runtime Software Development Kit for Java research intended for offline map service and operating system conversions.

Jasmine Thomas was a BikeUMD Intern with the Department of Transportation at UMD during the Spring semester. She was chosen for this award based off of her excellent internship experiences and the presentation she gave during the Spring Internship Symposium. While at the Department of Transportation she observed and geotagged improperly parked bicycles across campus using ArcCollector. She incorporated these data into a map in order to analyze spaces on campus which do not contain the proper biking infastructure. 

Congratulations Esther and Jasmine!