Congratulations to Adam Rennaker and Ben Werner, chosen to give poster presentation to legislators Feb. 3

By Ginnie Lyons
University Relations

Junior Adam Rennaker, senior Ben Werner and faculty mentor Dr. Patrick Jarvis of UST's Quantitative Methods and Computer Science Department were chosen to participate in the second annual Private College Scholars at the Capitol 2005, a poster session celebrating undergraduate research.

This event will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3, during the 2005 legislative session, in the Minnesota State Capitol rotunda. Students from Minnesota’s private colleges and their research mentors will meet with legislators, staff and visitors to tell them about their work and publicize their academic achievements. The general public is welcome to attend.

This poster session is sponsored by the Minnesota Private College Council. Last year, 24 students took part in the first MPSAC. This year, the participating schools are: Augsburg College, Bethel College, Carleton College, College of St. Benedict, Concordia College-Moorhead, Hamline University, St. John's University, St. Mary's University, College of St. Scholastica and the University of St. Thomas.

Visit the PCSAC Web site for more information on the event.

For their presentation, Werner and Rennaker will discuss with legislators their work on Peer-to-Peer (P2P) models and harvesters.

P2P models allow for many computers to work cooperatively at a single time, rather than requiring one super computer to do all the work.  P2P models have been made famous by mp3 sharing, as they contrast to the typical client-server model.

UST's Werner-Rennaker-Jarvis collaboration has created an intelligent P2P Web harvester. Harvesters typically are run on the client-server model, and are used by popular search engines, such as Google, to gather content from the Web. The harvesting often is run on one computer, whereas the UST team's P2P harvester does the same thing, only does not require an expensive super computer.

The team's P2P harvester may lead to more efficient ways to store and harvest Web content. This could, in turn, reduce the amount of time spent searching the Web, trying to find information on a topic.

Werner, from Jackson Hole, Wyo., the home of his parents, Bob and Pat, and sister, Liz, has a double major in quantitative methods and computer science, and behavioral neuroscience. He says that he likes the challenge and good job opportunities QMCS offers. Werner, whose hobbies are skiing and ultimate Frisbee, plans to attend graduate school at the University of Minnesota for a master's in computer science and one day hopes to own his own software company.

Rennaker's home is in Oakdale, Minn., with his parents, Kathy and Ronald Rennaker, and sisters, Julie and Melinda. He enjoys traveling, fishing, video games and computer programming. He is minoring in communication studies and thinking about doing a double major in communication and QMCS. Rennaker says that he always has liked working with computers and when he realized that he could get paid for an activity he enjoyed, he thought it was the perfect opportunity. He has a summer internship with Cargill lined up and may "give the working world a try" after he graduates in December 2005 – before he decides whether to pursue a graduate degree.