Trussville native wins MIT award for scientific research

From Trussville Tribune staff reports

TRUSSVILLE – Costa Christopoulos, a graduate of MIT and an alumnus of Hewitt-Trussville High School has been awarded the Christopher Goetze Prize for Undergraduate Research by the Earth, Atmospherics and Planetary Sciences, also known as EAPS. An article by the organization details his research.

Christopoulos is presented the award by Planetary Sciences Prof. Rick Binzel. Photo by Vicki McKenna.

The award is given for, “innovative experimental design, care in data collection, and sensitive application of results to research problems.”

Christopolous earned this prize for this undergraduate thesis: “A Machine-Learning Approach to Aerosol Classification for Single-Particle Mass Spectrometry.”

In 2015, as a sophomore at MIT, he was given a NOAA Earnest F. Hollings Scholarship. The scholarship allowed Christopolous two years of financial assistance during his education.

According to the EAPS article, he plans to pursue a PhD in atmospheric science or climate science.

Previously, he has taken second place in the American Meteorological Society’s 15AI Conference Student Presentation Award for his presentation: “Evaluation of Machine Learning Techniques for Precipitation Type Forecasting.”