Rutgers students are honored for computing research

CAMDEN Two seniors at Rutgers-Camden have received honorable mentions from the Computing Research Association for projects done this year, the school announced Tuesday.

Brian Brubach of Philadelphia and Robert MacDavid of Collingswood were among 22 students to receive honorable mentions in this year's "Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awards" from the association.

Brubach worked on rectangular packing problems, a type of geometry in which the goal is to optimize the use of space by packing objects as densely as possible into as few containers as possible. His work involved packing rectangles into another rectangle, improving on the best-known result, the school said in a release.

MacDavid worked on developing algorithms to find near-optimal solutions to scheduling problems.

"This award tells me I am able to perform research of real significance," MacDavid said in a statement. "It is amazing to me because it was only two years ago that I did not even know what research was."

Brubach said in a statement that he planned to pursue a Ph.D. in computer science, so the opportunity to do research as an undergraduate student "gives me a sense of purpose."

- Jonathan Lai