Menzer, from McLean, Va., is a computer science senior in the College of Engineering. He received the award for his exceptional research and as an incentive to continue on to graduate school. Working with researcher James Pratt in the Cornell Program on Dairy Markets and Policy, and Mildred Warner, an assistant professor of city and regional planning, Menzer constructed a computer graphics tool to analyze data on the impacts on local governments of continued reductions in federal aid, a study funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Menzer said he heard about the study while taking a course in computer graphics. His system features stacked two-dimensional maps with selected boundaries, such as states and counties, on which socioeconomic data are displayed.
Researchers also can zoom, rotate or change color scales.