Written by Bailey Coffman
Dr. Jon White, Director of Computer Engineering and professor in the Engineering and Physics Department, was recently accepted into a fellowship with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This honor entails a year-long fellowship with the U.S. Census Bureau in Washington D.C., and this year, White will work with STEM experts and the government to bridge the gap between science and public policy. The fellowship will begin Aug. 1 and end Aug. 1, 2025.
“I’m working on developing machine learning algorithms that can be used to better count young children and people who don’t speak English in census operations, as well as getting to work with the research division of the census that manages university grants,” White said. “This involves getting to work with graduate students in computer science and engineering to develop novel techniques to solve census problems. These include large language models, historical research into economic trends and graph database techniques.”
At Harding, White said he has many plans to use his experience with the AAAS and the Census Bureau and apply it to the classroom.
This includes, but is not limited to, the “usages of AI to process large amounts of data, how GPUs are becoming prevalent in the data center and how the lifecycle of software is an important consideration in complex projects,” White said.
Jack Johnson, a senior computer science major, speaks to the effects of implementing AI in the classroom. Johnson believes an emphasis on the use of AI in data management would be a game changer.
“I would say that AI definitely has a place in data management along with many other fields of computer science,” Johnson said. “AI is incredibly useful to take busy work away from developers, allowing them to focus on more complex problems and discover their solutions. Having worked in data management for Harding, I can definitely see a use for AI in that field.”
A senior software development major, Ross Cherry, believes Dr. White’s work with the lifecycle of software is extremely important in relation to buying or developing.
“Harding has a lot of data needs, and using the best possible solution is always the way to go,” Cherry said. “The lifecycle of software is a vital consideration for any project. It gives a clear idea about development and also stresses the importance of upkeep after deployment. If the lifecycle of software isn’t considered early on, then the project is bound to run into problems that could have been discussed, or at least previously known about, before they became a problem.”
