Brandon Martinez and Eli Zamora received second place for their research poster at the Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium held at Texas A&M University.
Their poster, titled “Toward Guiding Semi-Autonomous Vehicles” was about their research in motion planning. They worked with researchers from the Parasol Lab in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering to develop their project.
As high school students, the duo competed against 25 college students within computer science and engineering and over 100 college students at the symposium. Their research poster was judged based on quality of research and effectiveness of the presentation at the symposium.
“Participating in the program as a high school student was the first and most crucial step in my education,” Zamora said. “Now I know what research is like and what I want to pursue.
Martinez and Zamora are high school students at the Thelma R. Salinas STEM Early College High School in the Rio Grande Valley. They came to Texas A&M to participate in a 10-week Research Experience for Undergraduates program in the computer science and engineering department. Through the program they worked with Unocal Professor Nancy Amato and graduate students Jory Denny and Read Sandstrom.
“Bandon and Eli were fun to work with,” Amato said. “Many times we would forget they were still in high school. I wasn’t surprised to see their project come out as a winner in the poster competition.”
Through their research, Martinez and Zamora worked with the motion of robots. They combined two algorithms that were never combined before. The result allowed their robot to travel six times faster than previous algorithms.
The research symposium was the official end of the summer Research Experience for Undergraduates program. Throughout the summer students conducted research, developed personal websites, wrote research papers and posters, and attended weekly brown bag luncheons with guest speakers from the industry.
“The REU program is a great way go get students excited about research and interested in coming to graduate school at Texas A&M,” said Theresa Roberts, coordinator of the REU program.