A sophomore at Florida State University, Cooper Lyon was interested in UROP after hearing about the positive experience multiple of his peers had in the program. The research by Dr. Mehta appealed to his creative interests, and his love for film and design, giving him a unique workspace with almost entire creative freedom. Through this program, Cooper has learned important skills about communication, utilizing feedback, and organizing and implementing scholarly sources and documents. In the future, Cooper hopes to work in the film festival field as an event programmer.

Jacob is currently studying anthropology at Florida State University, but is hoping to pursue postgraduate studies abroad. He plans to focus on archaeology and developing his skills within geographic information systems. His interests within archaeology are broad and he is still developing them by keeping his studies open to a wide range of periods and cultures. In his free time he loves to draw and cook for his close friends.