Florida A&M has another student to add to its long list of achievers. Shari M. Briggs, a FAMU-FSU mechanical engineering master’s cooperative student, won the Best Oral Presentation Award at the 20th Undergraduate Research Symposium in San Juan, Puerto Rico at the Ana G. Méndez University.
Briggs’ address on, “Heat Transfer in a Spherical Solid,” brought home a win for the top spot for oral presentation. This is the second year, a member of the FAMU mechanical engineering team under the direction of mechanical engineering professor Carl Moore Jr. and mathematics professor Desmond Stephens has placed high in this prestigious symposium, out of a number of universities.
“I am thrilled that Shari’s research has been recognized,” Moore said. “Many students graduate without ever entering, not to mention winning, a technical presentation award. This is a great accomplishment for Shari and a testament to her hard work in FAMU’s graduate engineering program.”
National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Investigation of Composite Processing Techniques for Ceramic and Polymer Composite Materials sponsored Briggs’ research.Since 1989, the symposium provides an outlet for minority science, technology, engineering and mathematics undergraduate and graduate students to compete in the presentation of their research experiences at their universities.
Since 2000, Ana G. Méndez University System has hosted the symposium. According to AGMUS’s Web site, its goal is expanding their reach of our meeting to other institutions in the nation with minority participation in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) areas.
The symposium is implemented under the Student Research Development Center, which is part of the Vice Presidency for Planning and Academic Affairs of the Ana G. Méndez University System. According to AGMUS, in 2009, more than 300 students attended the symposium, from 35 universities in the United States.