Three students at Johnson C. Smith University recently won awards for their research projects at national conferences. Randale Watson, a sophomore at Johnson C. Smith University with a major in computer engineering, received a first place award for presenting a research project on Emergency Detection and Relief Using Roboticsat the February Emerging Researchers National Conference in Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) held in Atlanta.

Watson, who is from Kingston, Jamaica, worked with a team of students to create a robot that could serve as a prototype for deployable search and rescue purposes. His peers on the research team included JCSU students Christopher Cornwall, Gordon Clayton, Jamar Robinson, Kevon Scott, Raymond Thomas and research advisors Lijuan Cao and Hang Chen.

Rolanda Sue, senior biology and chemistry major at JCSU from Georgetown, Guyana,  won third place at the conference for presenting a research project titled Ground Truthing LIDAR Data Within a Successionally Diverse Piedmont Forest. Her team of fellow JCSU students included Camille Grimsley, Jamaal Jackson, Michelle Jackson, Megan Talley with faculty advisor  Joseph Fail, Jr.

Kirachae Graham, a junior computer science and information systems major from Charlotte, won second place at the Carolinas Women in Computing Conference in Columbia, S.C., for presenting her research project titled Gap Analysis: Cell Phone Forensic Tools.. For her work, Graham received a full scholarship to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference in Maryland this October.

More than 60 students in the STEM College at Johnson C. Smith University presented research projects at conferences throughout the country this past year. Johnson C. Smith University will host a STEM conference for undergraduate college students on March 25 and 26.