LAKELAND, Fla. (April 25, 2006) — Three computer science students at Florida Southern College were selected to participate in a summer internship on the FSC campus to test classification software for researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa.

“These are some of our top students, and this is a prestigious opportunity for them to work at what is typically a graduate school level,” said Susan Serrano, associate professor of mathematics at FSC. “This internship is an example of the excellent opportunities for advanced learning and undergraduate research mentorship available at small programs like ours.”

The following students were selected by their professors to participate: Christina Parks, a senior from Nassau, Bahamas; Kassandrea Staats, a senior from Lakeland, Fla.; and Kristin Alfero, a junior from Valhalla, N.Y. Parks and Staats will perform the initial research, and Alfero will conduct follow-up analyses in June. The students will work with Serrano and Gwen Walton, senior member of the technical staff in the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon.

The students’ work will support Carnegie Mellon research to automatically analyze and classify malicious software (viruses, worms, etc). The students will develop and test software and will perform experiments to determine the effectiveness of new analysis and classification methods. At the end of the project, they will prepare a technical presentation for the Carnegie Mellon research team.

About Florida Southern College
Founded in 1885, Florida Southern College is a private, comprehensive, United Methodist college with a liberal arts core. The college maintains its commitment to academic excellence through 38 undergraduate majors and distinctive graduate programs in business administration, education, and nursing. Florida Southern has a 14:1 student/faculty ratio, provides strong student/faculty mentorship programs, boasts 25 NCAA Division II national championships, and is ranked by U. S. News and World Report as one of the top ten Southern Comprehensive Colleges-Bachelors and by the Princeton Review as a “Best Southeastern College.” Located on scenic Lake Hollingsworth, Florida Southern is the home of the world’s largest single-site collection of Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.