Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Computing Sciences students at Elon have numerous opportunities to participate in experiential learning through research.

Research opportunities may involve work on campus with Elon professors or work at other institutions. Recent students have worked on improving GPS for phone-based computer gaming, understanding and developing design principles for digital magazines, data mining to understand online communities, and addressing mobile touchscreen security mechanisms.

Students may also elect to participate in research opportunities off campus including ones supported by the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program (REU).

Computing Sciences students and faculty members regularly participate in research supported by SURE (Summer Undergraduate Research Experiences), a program sponsored by the Elon Undergraduate Research Program.

Students may also receive financial support for their research as Elon College Fellows, Honors Fellows, and Lumen Prize winners.

Students routinely present their research on campus at the annual SURF (Student Undergraduate Research Forum).

SURF presentations

Spring 2020Student presenting undergraduate research.

(In-person presentations canceled due to COVID-19)

  • AB: Fighting Algorithmic Bias – presented by Jack J. Amend; Dr. Scott Spurlock, mentor
  • Developing a Mobile Application to Facilitate Aural Training and Synesthetic Experiences – presented by Adam R. Behrman; Dr. Duke Hutchings, mentor
  • Chasing Rainbows: Colorizing Black and White Images with Adversarial Learning – presented by Drew Bowman; Dr. Scott Spurlock, mentor
  • The Effect of Quick Release and Dwells Time on Encumbered Interaction – presented by Sam Jimenez; Dr. Duke Hutchings, mentor
  • Making Waves: Additive Synthesis via the Continuous Wavelet Transform – presented by David J. Temming; Dr. Scott Spurlock, mentor
  • Monitoring and Reporting Metrics for a Raspberry Pi Cluster – presented by Garrett J. Wibbelsman; Prof. Joel Hollingsworth, mentor

Presentations from past years

Past SURF presentations in Computing Sciences

Faculty research interests

Faculty members in Computer Science at Elon have expertise in a wide variety of research areas as shown below. Students interested in these or other topics are encouraged to contact the appropriate faculty member for discussion and possible collaboration.

  • Megan Squire: data mining, text mining, big data, database design, machine learning, free and open source software, software engineering practice.
  • Shannon Duvall: artificial Intelligence, machine learning
  • Joel Hollingsworth: operating systems, distributed processing, networking
  • Duke Hutchings: human-computer interaction, usability, usable security, information visualization, computer science education, data science education
  • Ryan Mattfeld: LiDAR, accelerometers, virtual/augmented reality, wearables, mHealth, computer science education
  • Pratheep Paranthaman: serious games, game UX, game design and evaluation, mixed/virtual/augmented reality, brain-computer interface, and crowdsourcing
  • Scott Spurlock: computer vision, machine learning, computer science education