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Summer Scholars

The Summer Scholars Program at Roanoke College is a grant program that enables qualified students to conduct intensive, independent research for eight to twelve weeks during the summer. Students receive a stipend, housing with other Scholars, course credit, and great experiences! To qualify, a student must have a GPA of 3.0 or higher and must have completed 8 units of credit by the start of the grant period. Each summer scholar works with a faculty mentor who guides the project. Over the course of the summer, students and mentors meet for a series of colloquia to share ideas.

panel of summer scholars

Summer Scholars showcase their work in on-campus and off-campus settings. In oral presentations, poster sessions, and research exhibits, they present the findings of their summer-long research, on projects that range from polymer synthesis to the culture of bullfighting in Spain. The Summer Scholar award covers activation waiver for one unit of independent study, on-campus housing, and a stipend of $2500.

Examples of Past MCSP Summer Scholar Projects:

Jake Beardsley, working with Dr. Adam Childers on "The Harden Effect: Quantifying the Impact of Fouls on NBA Game Outcomes" 
Eli Wooliever, working with Dr. Rama Bala on "Development of a Water Quality Sensor to Investigate Pollutants and Environmental Inequality"
Andrew Droubay, working with Dr. Durell Bouchard on "Pointer Visualization and Education in C++ Through Gamification"
Andrew Webb, working with Dr. Anil Shende on "Creating Interactive Fire Spread in VR"
Morgan Heckman, working with Dr. Dan Robb on "Modeling Circadian Clocks in Spiders"
Noelle Warfford, working with Dr. Durell Bouchard on "Developing My Musical Style: (Choral) Composition with an Interdisciplinary Twist"
Jonathan Marino, working with Dr. Karin Saoub on "Graph Theoretical Analysis of Directed Social Networks"
Maya Shende, working with Dr. Dan Robb on "Computational Modeling of the pre-Botzinger Complex"
Thomas Lux and Randall Pittman, working with Dr. Durell Bouchard on "Analyzing Techniques for Robotic Localization Mapping"
Louis Alvarez, working with Dr. Anil Shende on "Creating a Network Topology from Anonymous P2P"
John Guidry, working with Dr. Durell Bouchard on "Beat and Emotion Tracking Mobile Radio"
David Guynn, working with Dr. Matt Fleenor in Physics on "The Influence of Galaxy-Galaxy Harassment in Galaxy Evolution Along Supercluster Filaments"
Anne Kyner, working with Dr. Rama Balasubramanian on "Investigation of Mossbauer data from the planet Mars"
Sarah Witt, working with Dr. Karin Saoub on "Defining Influence in Social Networks"
Jon Ostrander, working with Dr. Durell Bouchard on "Virtual Reality, a New Learning Method"
Akram Sublouban, working with Dr. Roland Minton on "L-Systems and the Algorithmic Beauty of Plants"
Avery Makel, working with Dr. Richard Grant on "Investigating Self-Sufficient Refrigeration Via Solar Collection"
Timothy Balint, working with Dr. Durell Bouchard on "A Gesture Recognition Algorithm using OpenCV and Pybrain"
Matthew Browning, working with Dr. Heath Brown on "Exploring the Effectiveness of No Child Left Behind in Secondary Public Schools in Southwest Virginia"
Matthew Potts, working with Dr. Matt Fleenor on "Compact Galaxy Groups and a Study of their Origin and Environment"
Paul Vines, working with Dr. Rama Balasubramanian on "Synthesis of Carbon Nanotubes Using Maghemite Nanocrystals as Catalysts"
Mark Lucas, working with Dr. Roland Minton on  "The Evolution of Swarm Intelligence"
David Myer working with Dr. Roland Minton on "Mathematical Ranking Systems"
Learn more about the program.