Uncommon Eagles
Each year, two graduate students are selected to receive the Averitt Award, which is the highest honor bestowed within the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies. This year, Aaron Roberts of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences was honored for Excellence in Instruction. In addition, Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering and Information Technology (CEIT) student Cameron Cato was recognized for Excellence in Research.
Roberts, an English major with a concentration in post-colonial literature, finished work on his Master of Arts degree in May. He said completing his studies would not have been possible without the leadership of Department of Literature professors Joe Pellegrino, Dustin Anderson and Howard Keeley. “I think all three of them are an excellent combination of intense scholarship but also of calm mentoring,” he said. “I don’t know what I would have done without their guidance.”
His research in biopolitics explored famines in Ireland and in the former Indian state of Bengal, now known as the nation of Bangladesh. Roberts investigated how public policies can be used to manipulate people’s personal lives. Citing the Bengal famine of the 1940s, he noted: “The widespread famine was caused by nature but the colonial government enacted certain policies that made it much worse for certain groups of people. As a result, poorer farmers suffered more because rice intended for them was taken to feed people who were considered more important.” Roberts discovered that many of the themes in post-colonial literature are still relevant because many of the same social issues exist today.
In addition to teaching for two semesters, the native of Mt. Zion, Illinois presented his research on several occasions – twice at the Georgia Southern-sponsored British Commonwealth and Post-Colonial Studies Conference in Savannah, as well as during four other conferences.
“There are so many research activities here… Georgia Southern gave me my background in Irish Studies,” said Roberts. “The Center for Irish Research and Teaching continues to grow in influence and provides many great educational and research opportunities, including a program for students to go to Ireland to conduct research.”
This fall, the Excellence in Instruction winner will begin his doctoral studies at the University of California at Riverside and said he was grateful for the opportunity to run his own classroom at Georgia Southern for two semesters. Emphasizing the University’s unique curriculum, Roberts said he was encouraged to foster and develop his teaching skills. “I wouldn’t trade teaching for anything,” Roberts added. “Above all else, I encourage my students to think critically. In our information-filled world, it’s easy to simply turn on ‘auto-pilot’ in our lives and go with the current. I want my students to find their own thoughts and their voice with which to express those thoughts.”
Honored for Excellence in Research, Cameron Cato examined miniaturized antennas and wireless propagation. The electrical engineering graduate said his research explored a variety of areas including the design of several electrically small antennas and UHF wireless power transfer systems for the remote powering of wireless sensors. What that means he explained is to simply “transfer power wirelessly to remote sensors with the goal of eliminating or extending battery life.”
Cato grew up in McDonough, Georgia, and said his fascination with radios and wireless communication began in high school as he pursued his amateur radio operator license. “I started experimenting with antenna design and decided that it would be my profession,” said Cato. “To be able to take a large antenna to shrink it down to a small package so it is more portable and easy to carry… to integrate it into a mobile or portable communication platform is an exciting field of study.”
Because his research involved computer simulation, design, prototyping and physical measurements, Cato said the cutting-edge technology in the University’s Laboratory for Antennas and Wireless Propagation provided him with invaluable experience. “I have been able to do antenna measurement which is essential to validate computer simulations… from that a prototype will be built and knowing how to test and measure is an important process in antenna design.”
He presented at the Graduate Research Symposium for two years and in his first year placed first for the project “A Miniaturized Circularly Polarized, Parasitic Array Antenna for Ground Station Communication with Cube Satellites.”
Department of Electrical Engineering Professor Sungkyun Lim said Cato always displayed a strong responsibility and willingness to complete projects, even working on them after hours and on weekends. “He always maintained a positive outlook regardless of the amount of work we tended to throw at him,” said Lim. “Cameron is a self-taught, forward thinker who likes grasping new concepts and ideas and seems to adapt quickly to learning new skill sets.”
The May 2014 graduate acknowledged he couldn’t have asked for anything more than what he received from the Georgia Southern CEIT program. “This department is growing in reputation and from my experience you get a lot of hands-on experience and real world education that you may not get elsewhere.” – Sandra Bennett