Jacqueline Jones, 2018, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Jacqueline Jones ’18

The goal of our project was to determine whether inoculating plants’ roots with fungi could improve their ability to defend themselves against insect attack. If so, this method could eliminate the need for GMOs and therefore limit harmful mutations in insect populations. As the more technical intern, I was in charge of building the mathematical model for our data, namely photosynthesis rates, and compiling a code to process our 500 data files. This experience both helped me hone my skills as a coder and allowed me to explore field research, an area of science I rarely encounter as a mechanical engineer. I will not be studying plants for my independent work, but the computer science I learned and worked with this summer will be incredibly helpful in the data processing I intend to do in my senior year, and I am grateful for this learning experience.