I was fortunate enough to research with
the best and coolest mentors in the nation! It has definitely been a unique
and great experience to tap into the wealth of knowldege each mentor had, even
outside of the research scope. I have learned so much from them that I can
apply to my undergraduate courses, and even in preparation for graduate school!
My mentors had a lot of patience and understanding as I grappled with different
computing concepts dealing with Natural Language Program Analysis (NLPA). They
gave me a great glimpse of what graduate school is like, both the benefits and
challenges that may arise. Each one has been encouraging and for
that I am very thankful!
Being a part of this research group has truly been more like joining a family or
community! I had the pleasure of working with head mentor, Dr. Lori
Pollock, and PhD student mentors Emily Gibson and David Shepherd.
My mentoring professor, Dr. Lori Pollock is one of the eighteen professors in the
Department of Computer & Information Sciences here at the University of Delaware.
One of her main focuses of research is on...you guessed it, natural language
program analysis and how the NLP methodology can not only be used for the English
language, but also in computer programming. Dr. Pollock's research does not by
any means end here! She also researches how program analysis in general, can be used
for parallel and distributed systems, software testing, and several more
applications.
Emily Gibson is one of the PhD student mentors who made this experience even
more memorable. Her past experiences, joys, and frustrations have been a great
motivator for me. Emily has already been through the EXACT challenges that were
discouraging me from going to graduate school for computer science! She is
currenting working on an important subgroup of NLPA. Her
research is focused around optimizing software tools so that they are easy to
understand and are more manageable.
Last, but certainly not least, there is David Shepherd. He is the very
University of Delaware PhD student who brought the idea of applying the NLPA to
computer programming. David is a great part of representing source code using
the NLP method and also for implementing different search tools, specifically,
Find-Concept. It has been really cool having the student who originated this NLP
project at the university right here in the research lab!
I am definitely glad that I got to work with each one of them! If you would like
more information about these amazing people and their research feel free to check
out their sites! Just click on their links below!
