image: Carola Wenk, assistant professor of computer science at The University of Texas at San Antonio has been awarded $400,000 over five years from the National Science Foundation. The NSF Faculty Early Career Development award will be used to study geometric shape handling in theory in practice. view more
Credit: Kris Edward Rodriguez
Carola Wenk, assistant professor of computer science at The University of Texas at San Antonio, has been awarded a five-year, $400,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study geometric shape handling in theory in practice.
The CAREER award is NSF’s most prestigious honor for junior faculty members and is designed to support exceptionally promising college and university faculty members who are committed to the integration of research and education. Wenk is the only junior faculty in UTSA’s College of Sciences who has a current NSF Career Award.
Wenk, who joined UTSA in 2004, is bridging the gap between theoretical research and applications by integrating theoretical algorithms research with real-world applications such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS), car navigation systems and computational proteomics. Essential in the interdisciplinary field of computational biology, computational proteomics applies the techniques of computer science, applied mathematics, and statistics to the large-scale study of proteins, particularly their structures and functions.
In Greece this past summer, Wenk used data from GPS receivers in school buses and taxis to develop real-time traffic estimation and prediction systems.
“I would like to apply similar technology here in San Antonio and maintain a database for each road segment to determine current travel situations using GPS receivers in cars traveling all over this area,” said Wenk.
Additionally, the CAREER award could help create advancements in the medical industry as Wenk and her students look to develop novel computational tools to analyze two-dimensional electrophoresis gels. The gels provide two-dimensional images that can help determine the composition of protein samples benefiting the development of pharmaceutical products.
“This medical imaging technology could help doctors examine a medically processed sample for drops in protein levels and determine whether a certain illness was present,” said Wenk.
Wenk received her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in math and computer science from Free University of Berlin and completed her post doctoral research at The University of Arizona in Tucson.
Earlier this month, she was the recipient of UTSA’s 2007 President's Distinguished Achievement Award for Research Achievement for Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty.
The University of Texas at San Antonio is one of the premier institutions of higher education in South Texas and one of the fastest growing universities in the state. One of nine academic universities and six health institutions that comprise the UT System, UTSA is the second largest institution in the system. Celebrating its 37th anniversary, UTSA serves more than 28,300 students enrolled in 63 bachelor's, 43 master's and 20 doctoral degree programs.
Programs are offered through the colleges of Architecture, Business, Education and Human Development, Engineering, Honors, Liberal and Fine Arts, Public Policy, and Sciences, and the Graduate School. A Top 100 Hispanic-serving institution, UTSA is ranked among the top 10. A university of access and excellence, UTSA is committed to research and discovery, teaching and learning, and public service.