Monday, May 09, 2011

More than 2,000 University of North Carolina Wilmington students will graduate into careers and advanced education at commencement ceremonies on Friday, May 13 and Saturday, May 14. Below are the stories of several UNC Wilmington spring 2011 graduates who are making their career dreams come true.

Student to Help the Feds Capture Criminals with Technology

Brandon Hilton (B.S. in computer science) will create software solutions for major defense agencies such as the CIA, NSA and Homeland Security when he graduates. Hilton's job with Praxis Engineering Technologies, Inc. outside of Washington, D.C., is the result of the experience he gained with the UNCW Face Aging Group, which focuses on developing computer algorithms to improve facial recognition technology.

As a student researcher, Hilton helped further face-aging technology that has been used by the FBI and others to capture criminals and terrorists. He and other group researchers have created the largest publicly available longitudinal face database used by defense agencies and researchers.

"I never knew I wanted to be in research until I joined the UNCW Face Aging Group," said Hilton. "Undergraduate research with national security implications is extremely rare. I was exposed to cutting edge research daily and gained valuable knowledge about defense software and ultimately landed an amazing job."

Hilton served as the vice president for the UNCW Association for Computing Machinery for two years. He hopes to attend graduate school and would like to one day work for a major defense agency such as the CIA.

Creative Student Entrepreneur Continues Bookmaking Journey

Claire Bateman's (M.F.A. in creative writing) childhood love for writing and studio art has led her to the University of Alabama, where she will pursue a unique master's degree in book arts and expand the book-creation skills she learned in the UNCW Publishing Lab. For years, Bateman, an entrepreneur, has successfully sold her handcrafted leather-bound journals through Etsy.com and in local stores like Pomegranate Books.

"The UNCW creative writing program helped me to tackle goals I had for my master's program while allowing me the freedom to explore my creativity beyond poetry," said Bateman. "The Publishing Laboratory added desktop publishing to my list of skills."

Bateman received a Graduate Council Fellowship, the most prestigious and competitive scholarship offered by the University of Alabama. After completing her second master's degree, she hopes to build book arts programs at other universities, as there are currently only three graduate programs of that nature in the U.S.

Tennis Player Goes Pro

Michael Pereira (B.S. in chemistry) was uncertain of his future in tennis when he came to UNCW four years ago. Today, he is certain that after graduation he will join the Future Circuit, the first of three levels to become a professional tennis player. His pro status will take him on a tour of South America, Europe and Mexico to compete in tournaments.

"Our coach told us my freshman year that we would be the class that changed everything," said Pereira. "At the time, UNCW tennis had never beaten a ranked team, never been in the top 75, never made it past the semifinals of the CAA tournament, never been to the NCAA tournament and never qualified for the National Indoor Championships. By the end of my sophomore year, we had accomplished all of these."

Pereira, a North Carolina native, has been on the All-CAA team for four years. He has won major tournaments, including Landfall, UNCW, South Carolina and Georgia Tech invitationals. Pereira's goal is to reach the top level of professional tennis within the next year and after a long career as a pro become a tennis coach.

Media Contacts:
Emily Jones, Media Relations, 910.962.3171 or jonesel@uncw.edu