PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (November 11, 2021) – As the COVID-19 pandemic began to unfurl across the world in 2020, it spurned a life-changing research opportunity for Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) student Lucy Nwosu, who is a doctoral student in electrical engineering in the Roy G. Perry College of Engineering. When the Division of Research & Innovation (R&I) launched the Faculty Research & Innovation for Scholarly Excellence (RISE) for Undergraduate and Graduate programs, Nwosu knew this was the opportunity for her to increase her research opportunities and specifically focus on the growing prevalence of the virus.
She learned assistant professor Xishuang Dong, Ph.D., in the Center for Computational Systems Biology within the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering applied for the graduate RISE grant. His COVD-19 project was “Mobile COVID Detector via Deep Learning.” It focused on using deep learning algorithms to build an efficient COVID-19 detector.
For Nwosu who earned her undergraduate degree in electronic engineering at the University of Nigeria and her master’s degree in computer engineering at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, she felt compelled to apply to be Dong’s graduate research assistant (GRA).
“[Faculty-RISE] has given me the opportunity to engage in state-of-the-art research,” Nwosu explained. “It has provided [the] opportunity for me to collaborate with experts and professors in the field while completing my research.”
Faculty-RISE enables faculty researchers to expand and sustain their research through external grants and contracts while mentoring students to become the next generation of experts. For Nwosu, the grant “provided resources needed for my research, including laptops, a Workstation – GPU, and Edge Devices, etc.”
“This program provided financial supports to my GRA to continue her research, which is also a key support to the academic development of junior faculty like me,” shared Dong, who has supervised Nwosu’s development as a researcher for nearly 2 ½ years now. She continues to impress him.
“Ms. Lucy has presented excellent learning ability and engineering skills,” Dong said. “As a research assistant, she not only assisted me [in] completing challenging research but also accomplish her research topics independently.”
He also praised Nwosu for her research diligence and ingenuity, saying, “Ms. Lucy Nwosu has developed a novel method that can recognize COVID patients based on Chest X-ray test via artificial intelligence techniques such as deep learning, which is a crucial complement to COVID detection.”
When R&I Vice President Magesh Rajan structured Faculty-RISE so that each successful faculty applicant received funding support of $5,000 for undergraduate research; and $10,000 for graduate research. The funding proves to be a lifeline for full-time graduate students like Nwosu.
She said, “I have the opportunity to work as a research assistant, gain real-life professional experience and earn a monthly salary of $2000. It has provided the opportunity for me to benefit from the Ph.D. tuition and fees waiver. This has helped me focus on my studies and maintain a GPA of 4.0 in my course work.”
As for her faculty research mentor, Nwosu is grateful for the Faculty-RISE experience:
“Thank you, Dr. Dong, for being my academic advisor. You have been nothing but supportive and encouraging and has pushed me to always focus on assigned task and keep to schedule. Even when I am struggling, you have believed in me, and it has helped me push through. I really appreciate all that you do. Thank you!”
As the Research Student Spotlight for November 2021, Nwosu, who expects to graduate with her Ph.D. by spring of 2023, has some simple advice for other undergraduate and graduate students about pursuing research: “Dedication is the key to success!”
The Faculty Research & Innovation for Scholarly Excellence (RISE) for Undergraduate and Graduate programs are currently supporting more than 100 students, as well as faculty-mentored research and innovation activities at PVAMU.
By Michael Douglas