College of Science and Mathematics student receives internship with Blue Waters Student Internship Program

April 6, 2016

Georgia Southern University student Reed Hodges was recently selected for an internship in theBlue Waters Student Internship Program (BWSIP), a national program that supports year-long undergraduate internship experiences which apply high-performance computing solutions to problems in the sciences, engineering or mathematics.

As a participant in the program, Hodges will receive a $5,000 stipend and attend a two-week workshop where he will learn about supercomputing techniques. Additionally, he will work for a year under the mentorship of assistant professor Maxim Durach, Ph.D., to research the optical and electromagnetic properties of various structures on the microscale, essentially using powerful computers to model how extremely tiny things behave when you shine light on them, Hodges said.

“I think of it as an excellent opportunity to continue in and advance the area of research I have been with Dr. Durach for the past school year,” Hodges said. “I hope to use it as a means to further my knowledge and experience in order to contribute to science and technology.”

Hodges was selected for the program out of more than 100 students who applied. Durach added the BWSIP selection committee selected only 20 interns for the program and selected an additional four to only attend the two-week institute.

“Reed is a very talented student and I believe this internship will be an important step in his path to become a professional scientist,” Durach said.

Hodges is the second Georgia Southern student to have been awarded this internship. In 2014-2015 Matthew LePain, who is currently a graduate student in the Department of Physics, participated in this program and the results of these studies were accepted for publication in theJournal of Computational Science Education.