Folami Alamudun, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, received the award for best graduate research presentation during his internship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Alamudun, who is also a member of the Sketch Recognition Lab, was a research intern at ORNL and participated in the lab's Research Alliance in Math and Science (RAMS) program.
Alamudun's research presentation was entitled, "Fractal Analysis of Radiologists' Visual Scanning Pattern in Screening Mammography." Alamudun's research team's goal was to better understand what radiologists' see during cancer screenings. The outcome of the team's observations of patients and radiologists suggests that the probability of error in mammographic cancer screening is predictable.
When asked about his award, Alamudun said, "I felt very humbled. But I was very thankful for the honor."
The RAMS program, hosted by the ORNL Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate, connects student interns with research mentors. Alamudun's mentor was Dr. Georgia Tourassi, director of the ORNL Health Sciences Institute and the Biomedical Science and Engineering Center.
"From the moment I arrived there my interactions with her were both professional and deeply personal," Alamudun said of Tourassi. "Her passion was contagious and I was infected very very quickly."
Alamudun holds a bachelor's degree in electrical and computer engineering from The University of Texas at El Paso and plans to receive his doctorate in computer science from the CSE department at Texas A&M in fall 2015. Dr. Tracy A. Hammond, associate professor and director of the Sketch Recognition Lab, serves as Alamudun's Ph.D. advisor.