Undergraduate and graduate students from across the college disciplines stood proudly next to posters detailing their research endeavors as part of this week’s Student Research and Creative Activities Day.
“It was a little intimidating at first,” admits Lizette Ruiz, a senior psychology major who hopes to attend graduate school in the fall. “But is a great opportunity for me to share my work with others.”
Rishabh Sharma, a graduate student in computer science who will begin his doctoral studies at the University of Missouri this fall, was passionate about his big data research project exploring the effect of diet and lifestyle associations on breast cancer. He became interested in the subject because one of his family members has cancer and became so interested that Sharma changed the subject of his master’s thesis to this study.
“I am so excited about being here,” Sharma said. “Not only from the educational aspect of learning about dietary habits and illness, but learning to work with others, to share and to learn from them.”
Like Sharma, Emma O’Halloran, a graduate student majoring in anthropology, chose a research subject close to her heart: her third great aunt and American operatic soprano Emma Abbott. Her research is an exhibition that will be displayed in the Anthropology Teaching Museum on the fourth floor of McCarthy Hall beginning in April.
“I love talking and seeing others as interested as I am in her. Being able to talk about my research with others has been great.”
The Office of Research and Sponsored Projects hosted the March 20 event, where Outstanding Student Scholarly and Creative Activities Awards were presented to one undergraduate and one graduate student from each of the eight colleges. A listing of the recipients can be found here.
In addition, three Outstanding Poster/Exhibit Awards were presented to
- Aylin Gann and Rebeca Gomez, graduate students majoring in psychology, and Shelby Abrahamian, sociology senior, who presented “Creating Leadership in the Classroom: The Importance of Empathy and Social Awareness”
- Breanna McBean and Angelica Arredondo, both senior mathematics majors, for “The Shape of Large Soap Bubbles”
- Adam Mizban, junior, chemistry, for “Building a Solid-State Tesla Coil”