A student in Fordham’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) has brought home the University’s fourth Gates Cambridge award.

Jeffrey Lockhart, FCRH ’13, a GSAS master’s candidate in computer science with a concentration in data mining, is one of 40 students who have been selected from the United States to receive a full scholarship to Cambridge University in the United Kingdom to pursue graduate study. He expects to graduate from GSAS in May and begin at Cambridge the following September, where he will get his master’s in philosophy in Cambridge’s multidisciplinary gender study.

As an undergraduate, Lockhart was a double major in computer and information science and women’s studies, graduating summa cum laude and earning the Fordham Women’s Studies Essay Award for his thesis on LGBTQ ethics. Since 2010 he has been a research assistant in the University’s Wireless Sensor Data Mining Lab, where he works closely with Gary Weiss, Ph.D., associate professor of computer and information science, on the use of smart phone sensor data for activity recognition.

Lockhart has been a National Merit scholar and Fordham Presidential Scholar. He is a member of Phi Kappa Phi academic honor society and Sigma Xi scientific research society. In 2012, he was one of 75 undergraduates around the country who presented their research in Washington D.C. at an annual event attracting the attention of Capitol Hill.

“Jeff is indeed a tribute to Jesuit education,” said John Ryle Kezel, Ph.D., director of the University’s St. Edmund Campion Institute for the Advancement of Academic Excellence. “He really makes one proud of the preparation our students get, especially from taking our core courses.”

Lockhart called himself “fortunate” to have many members of the Fordham community influencing and supporting his work; in particular his faculty mentors Weiss; Orit Avishai, Ph.D., assistant professor of sociology; Patrick Hornbeck, Ph.D., chair and associate professor of theology; and Judith Green, Ph.D., professor of philosophy and co-director of women’s studies. He believed that his interdisciplinary background in gender studies and computer science was a big plus in his being awarded the scholarship.

One of the most prestigious international scholarships, the Gates Cambridge award was established in 2000 with a $210 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The scholarship goes to 90 students annually (40 U.S. students, 50 from other nations) and covers the full cost of studying at Cambridge. A defining characteristic of the Gates Cambridge scholarships is the commitment of scholars to working for the greater good.

Three Fordham students have previously received the award. They are: Rose Spear, FCRH ’06, who received the award to study biomaterials research, Joseph Clair, GSAS 08, the first student ever to receive a Gates scholarship in divinity, and Jeremiah Schwarz, FCRH’ 03, who received the award in history.

A Rose Hill student who mines smart phones to unearth what they reveal about their owners recently brought his team’s research to Capitol Hill.

Jeffrey Lockhart, FCRH ‘13, presented his poster, “Smart Phone-Based Sensor Mining for Biometric Identification and Activity Recognition,” at the 16th annual Posters on the Hill (POH), held April 23 and 24 in Washington, D.C.

Sponsored by the Council on Undergraduate Research, the American Chemical Society, and education lobbyists from Washington Partners, the event featured 75 undergraduates from institutions around the country—a mere 8.8 percent of students who applied for the prestigious opportunity.

Lockhart presented his research during a poster session at the Rayburn House Office Building, which houses offices of U.S. Representatives and their staff.

“My sense is that our work was well-received,” Lockhart said. “Our fantastic results and National Science Foundation funding also turned heads.”

The project is an outgrowth of the Wireless Sensor Data Mining (WISDM) Project, led by Gary Weiss, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of computer and information sciences. The group, which consists of more than a dozen researchers, collects sensor data from smart phones and other mobile devices that could provide useful knowledge.

“Smart phones have devices called accelerometers, which measure acceleration in three dimensions,” explained Lockhart, who is the team’s lead server side sensor mining architect. “By monitoring the accelerometer, we are able to capture patterns that describe the way a phone is moving in space. When that phone is in a person’s pocket, it moves with the person’s leg, and so the motion pattern is the pattern of the person’s activity.”

From these patterns, the group can tell whether an individual is walking or jogging, sitting or standing, or even male or female.

“Several professors [at POH]working in fields ranging from psychology to physical therapy were very interested in how the work could be applied to their studies,” Lockhart said.

The WISDM Project has been ongoing since May 2009 and has resulted in several publications and conferences presentations. Recently, the group received a $420,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, and in July 2010, Weiss received a $25,000 faculty research grant from Google.