Welcome Back to OWM, Dinelka

By Elizabeth Benham 

The Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) is happy to welcome back Dinelka Jagoda, who is serving as a 2024 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program fellow, conducting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education research in the Metric Program under her mentor, Elizabeth Benham. Her 2024 SURF fellowship project portfolio will focus on projects related to measurements in daily life, infographic creation, and publishing metric outreach posters. Dinelka's research will explore International System of Units (SI) adoption and best practices within the U.S. healthcare and hospitality industry sectors.

During her 2022 NIST Montgomery College Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) internship and 2023 SURF fellowship, Dinelka contributed to multiple educational and outreach projects including expanding the Metric Estimation Game to include a new option called the Metric Meal, developed for young learners. Dinelka also co-authored the SI Units Card Deck (SP 1297), a fun, hands-on game designed to enhance learners' understanding of the SI, including the defining constants, base units, derived units with special names, and prefixes. 

Dinelka Jagoda is currently in her third and final year at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer science with an upper-level concentration in art. Outside of her academic pursuits, Dinelka practices various forms of art, focusing on traditional charcoal, digital art, UX/UI design, and laser cutting.