The first members of a new Undergraduate Research Academy were announced April 5 during Mountain Lion Research Day.
The inaugural class of research academy members will work closely with faculty and are part of a broad effort to enhance campus research efforts, according to Rebecca Webb, assistant professor, College of Engineering. Webb, along with Tom Christensen, professor, Department of Physics, lead the push for the Undergraduate Research Academy.
“I thought this was a good idea from the beginning, but once I saw the student response to the academy I knew it was a great idea,” Webb said. “The students are so excited about this opportunity and it really shows. I cannot wait to see what they accomplish.”
A total of 13 students will participate in the research academy. They will work on meaningful research projects with a faculty mentor, earn a stipend, participate in monthly seminars, and present findings at Mountain Lion Research Day in 2014. The students selected are juniors and seniors with 3.7 or higher grade point averages.
Webb and Christensen hope to cause a buzz among undergraduates and faculty alike. By doing so, they hope to make research an exciting topic that undergraduates realize they can participate in.
“At many universities you have to be a graduate student to get these kinds of experiences,” Webb said. “By offering these opportunities to top undergraduate students, we’re creating something unique that we think is going to have tremendously positive results.”
Potential benefits include more opportunities for sponsored research but Webb and Christensen also focus on the student benefits. Being part of the academy will offer students unparalleled experiential learning opportunities. In addition, a graduate school application with research experience noted, as well as a letter of recommendation from a faculty member, can open lots of doors, Webb explained.
While some of the students are scientists and engineers, both Webb and Christensen were quick to point out that research includes the humanities. Christensen defined research as “new knowledge” and applicable to all academic disciplines.
The Office of Research and Innovation provided funding for seven student stipends and the College of Letters, Arts & Sciences, the College of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Kraemer Family Library provided support for additional student stipends.
Several students have already been paired with mentors to work on specific projects. The students, mentors and their projects follow
Jason Adams, junior psychology major, will work with Brandon Gavett, assistant professor, Department of Psychology, on cognitive performance disparity between incremental and non-incremental digit span testing.
Sandra Garcia, junior psychology major, will work with Leilani Feliciano, assistant professor, Department of Psychology, on the stability of preferences in older adults with and without dementia.
Olivia Latendresse, senior English major, and Sara Horton, senior English major, will work with Rebecca Laroche, professor, Department of English, to create an early modern recipes online collective.
Mary Morton, senior biology major, will work with Eugenia Olesnicky Killian, assistant professor, Department of Biology, on the role of cg11505 in drosophila melanogaster development.
Chris Richey, junior biology major, will work with Tom Wolkow, associate professor, Department of Biology, on evaluating Ase1 response to microtubule damage in fission yeast.
Kim Hoang, junior biology major, will work with Jeremy Bono, assistant professor, Department of Biology, on the functional links between specific genes and an adaptive trait.
Colin Curtis, junior mechanical and aerospace engineering major, will work with Michael Calvisi, assistant professor, College of Engineering and Applied Science, on computational modeling of intracranial aneurysms.
Christopher Brown, sophomore mechanical and aerospace engineering major, will work with Andrew Ketsdever, professor, College of Engineering and Applied Science, will work on satellite micropropulsion investigation.
Corbin Spells, junior mechanical and aerospace engineering major, will work with Ketsdever on characterization and optimization of an atomic oxygen source.
Mario Arias, junior mechanical and aerospace engineering major, will work with Rebecca Webb, assistant professor, College of Engineering and Applied Science, on beamed energy propulsion mm-wave heat exchanger.
Faraz Saleem, junior mechanical and aerospace engineering major, will work with Webb on computational evaluation of a high-energy advanced thermal storage system.
Tawnie Mizer, a junior history major, will work with Mary Rupp, instructor, Kraemer Family Library, on the Carmen Abeyta papers.
— Photos by Tom Kimmell, Kimmell Photography
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