Computer Science

• Thomas Haines ’20 is using computational linguistics to analyze how children learn languages. He analyzes simplified systems of languages to understand their structure, and then applies the results to more complicated systems. He is currently using Ruby to program a learning algorithm.
• Rachel Halepeska ’21 developed an app for both iPhone and Android that allows Eckerd students and staff to track their use of plastic, with the goal of reducing single-use plastic consumption. During the course of her project, Rachel added scrolling capabilities and size constraints to an existing iPhone app and developed an Android app with a similar look and feel. In addition, she made it possible for participants to upload individual plastic consumption data to a server for analysis.

Computer science internships can take you to places in Florida and beyond. For example, you could be a:

• Software engineering intern at BuzzFeed
• MATLAB programming intern at the United States Geological Survey
• Software developer for Chowly
• GIS and Python intern at the United States Geological Survey

Got a special interest? We encourage students to seek out a professor who will sponsor their independent project. Here are just two recent study topics:

• Machine learning in wildlife management
  Eckerd students are building smart systems that analyze video to identify animals and better understand their behavior. Working with biology professor Dr. Jeffrey Goessling, students are studying the social interactions of gopher tortoises, a keystone species currently under threat. The pattern on the carapace (upper shell) of each tortoise is unique, raising the possibility of creating a “tortoise recognition” system similar to the facial recognition systems used to identify individual humans.
• Auto-classification of foraminifera
  This independent study involves basic image processing and deep learning techniques for object recognition. Working with Visiting Professor Dr. Patrick Schwing, an Eckerd student is using algorithms to automatically extract regions of interest in a digital image. The goal is to create training and test sets for a convolutional neural network.

In the past couple of years, Computer Science students have spent three-week terms or entire semesters at:

• Kansai Gaidai University, Japan
• Griffith University Gold Coast, Brisbane, Australia
• Culture and international business, Shanghai, China
• Xiamen University, China