EVL Research Experience Undergraduate (REU) and Computer Science alum (BS 2020) Jonathan Vega discusses the impact of his data visualization research. Under EVL faculty member and Computer Science associate professor G. Elisabeta Marai’s supervision Vega undertook the task of studying and visualizing contrails - water vapor and engine exhaust emitted from airplanes. His work helped create a simulation that captured the part that contrails play in climate change.

Most significantly, Vega’s research led him to discover more about the relationship between contrails, climate change and the potential impact upon the Colorado River and his Native American tribe’s daily lives, including food, tribal traditions and ceremonies. Unbeknownst to Vega when he embarked on his REU was how the data visualization of contrails could be directly linked to his tribal community and global warming.

Vega’s work earned him the UIC Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Award in 2020.

See the full article in the Computer Science News.