Rochester Post-Bulletin, 8/26/2017 (Kyle Croarkin, Anjali Donthi, Tiera Felder, Vedha Somashekar, Tristan Trejo)

Rochester Students Win National Computer Competition. Rochester Public School students took first place at the National High School Computer Competition in Cincinnati, Ohio, at the end of July.
Southern Minnesota's branch of the Black Data Processing Associates won the National BDPA High School Computer Competition, facing off against 13 others, with a team that included Kyle Croarkin, Anjali Donthi, Tiera Felder, Vedha Somashekar and Tristan Trejo. For the win, each member of the team received a $3,000 scholarship.

Rochester students attend the National Black Data Processing Associates High School Competition held in Cincinnati, Ohio at the end of July. From left to right (around the table: Vedha Somashekar (9th grade at Century), Tristan Trejo (Freshman at University of Minnesota), Kyle Croarkin (9th grade at Mayo), Anjali Donthi (9th grade at Century), Tiera Felder (9th grade at Century)

The two-day competition included a seven-hour programming project, followed by a written portion, which included about 130 questions on web technologies, programming languages, number conversion from decimal to hexadecimal, the history of Black Data Processing Associates, cyber security and more. Students don't know what they'll be tasked with creating before the competition. This year, it included creating a web application that would allow them to locate a car they were interested in purchasing, purchase the car with a loan and perform an analysis on the depreciation value over time.

Read the rest of the Post-Bulletin article.

Penn State News, 8/21/17 (Zion Emmanuel)

Making a Difference: Dean's Fund Helps Student Maximize His Success. At the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), innovation and engaged scholarship are two pillars that drive the college’s growth. Two crucial elements that support these ideals are the Dean’s Excellence Fund and the College of IST Future Fund, which offer unrestricted financial resources to address IST’s most pressing needs and create opportunities for students.

Zion Emanuel discusses a research project

In the case of Zion Emanuel, an undergraduate student majoring in IST with an emphasis on design and development, these funds are providing the assistance he needs to reach his full potential.

As an accomplished high school graduate of the Academy of Health Sciences in Largo, Maryland, and a member of the Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA), a group working to increase underrepresented groups in technology, Emanuel arrived at Penn State with a passion for technology and numerous college credits under his belt. With his outstanding academic achievements, he earned a place in the Millennium Scholars Program, a prestigious initiative to foster students to become leading researchers in STEM fields.

Read the rest of the Penn State News article.