Steve Ball Presents Winning Paper

by George Zamora

SOCORRO, N.M., December 11, 2001 -- New Mexico Tech student Steven Ball recently was singled out by the White Sands Missile Range Chapter of the International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA) as having written the best technical paper among several undergraduate entries in the organization's annual student paper competition.

Ball, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering at New Mexico Tech, also was allowed to present his award-winning research paper, "Power Grid Modeling and Simulation," to an attentive luncheon audience at the ITEA Modeling and Simulation Workshop, held earlier this month in Las Cruces.

"Steven's presentation was absolutely outstanding," said John Meason, director of Tech's Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center and one of several ITEA members who attended the luncheon. "He knew his material and communicated that knowledge superbly to his audience. His delivery was very professional.

"In fact, I have had occasion to listen to many seasoned veterans whose deliveries and styles were much less effective than Steve's," Meason added.

As part of his ITEA "best paper" award, Ball also received a $1,000 non-renewable scholarship to apply to costs incurred while attending the state-supported research university.

In addition to his studies at New Mexico Tech, Ball currently works as a research associate at the university's Institute for Complex Additive Systems Analysis (iCASA).

Earlier this year, Ball was listed as one of the co-authors of an article published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, titled "Discovery of Radio Emission from the Brown Dwarf LP944-20."