Five Rhodes students—Seongjoon Hwang ’21, Meredith Bacue ’21, Aaron Weist ’21, Joe Hernandez ’21, and Khanh Ton ’23—won awards for their geographic information system (GIS) research projects presented as part of Memphis Area Geographic Information Council’s virtual event held this spring.
International studies major Seongjoon Hwang won the annual GIS scholarship for his presentation, “U.S. Drone Strikes in Pakistan: Mapping the Unseen War on Terror.” Biology major Meredith Bacue received first place in the map competition for “Distribution of Spotted Lanternfly in Relation to the Distribution of their Preferred Host Plant, Tree of Heaven.”
For the GIS Scholarship Competition, students submitted a written research proposal and then were selected to give a virtual research talk on their project. Other Rhodes students who placed in the competition include:
- Second Place: Aaron Weist (urban studies) and Khanh Ton (environmental science) for “Impervious Surfaces and Urban Heat Islands: Memphis vs. Nashville”
- Third Place: Joe Hernandez (environmental science) for “Wetland Suitability in High Flood Risk Zones in Harris County, Texas”
For the Map Competition, students submitted maps they created based on their research topics. Rhodes students who won awards include:
- Second Place: Khanh Ton (environmental science) for “Relationship between Herbicide-Resistant Corn Cultivation and Abundance of Common Milkweeds and Monarch Butterflies in the American Corn Belt”
- Third Place: Seongjoon Hwang (international Studies) for “Mapping a Hypothetical North Korean Artillery and Missile Attack”
All the scholarship competition projects were done by students as part of the Environmental Science Advanced GIS and Remote Sensing course at Rhodes. The Map Competition projects were done by students as part of the introductory GIS course.