Computing Student Received Latornell Grant

One of our Bachelor of Computing Students, Brandon Edwards, received an Arthur D. Latornell Travel Grant. This grant is given to students whose research interests relate to resource management and/or resource conservation.

Brandon has been working on a collaborative project between Dr. Daniel Gillis in the School of Computer Science and Dr. Shoshanah Jacobs in the Department of Integrative Biology. Their research is looking at developing an efficient simulation computer model to simulate the life cycle of the piping plover, an endangered North American shorebird.

For him, this grant is helping to fund travel to the International Ornithological Congress (IOC) in Vancouver, BC. IOC is a major conference that happens every 4 years and brings ornithologists around the world together to present their research.

One of Brandon’s most enjoyable experiences as a result of his research was be able to attend the American Ornithology 2017 Conference, his first ornithology conference. “A line from the keynote speaker really stuck with me, and it was ‘Who hears the birds when you cry? You do.’" said Brandon. "It was a cool moment, especially attending an ornithology conference as a computer science student because I felt a strong sense of not really belonging, but the conference kind of allowed me to find my place in the field of ornithology, and that line really stuck with me. I was also able to present some preliminary research at the conference (on the piping plover stuff) and meet/network with a huge variety of scientists.”

Brandon would like to extend his thanks to Dr. Daniel Gillis and Dr. Shoshanah Jacobs for their continual guidance and support for this work.

As well, the School of Computer Science would like to extend their congratulations to Brandon for receiving this grant.