News, Events and Media

More than 150 students participated in USU’s Student Showcase, its largest turnout ever. The judged poster session, with more than 90 individual posters, yielded ten winners and honorable mentions.

Poster winners included:

• Education: Casey Zobell, Jessica Christensen, Tyson Mertlich, & Rebecca Feller, Department of Psychology (Melanie Domenech Rodríguez, faculty mentor) Plagiarism in the dissertation: Academia’s highest tier
• Engineering: Zak Dymock & Alexa Lunt, Department of Biological Engineering (Ronald Sims, faculty mentor) Evaluating algae settling and the mechanisms of auto and bio-flocculation of Logan Lagoons wastewater algae for aid in developing a secondary clarifier
• Humanities and Social Sciences: Allison Fife, Department of History, Department of Economics and Finance (Leonard Rosenband, faculty mentor) Page by page: Reconstructing an intellectual’s drive to collect
• Life Sciences: Colby Kearl, Department of Biology (Scott Bernhardt, faculty mentor) Development of a genetic marker to distinguish between Pulex irritans and Pulax simulans, two potential flea vectors of plague transmission
• Physical Sciences: Brooke Siler, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry (Joanie Hevel, faculty mentor) Trapping a PRMT1: Target complex by tethering the target to the enzyme

Poster honorable mentions included:

• Education: Sydnee Jenkins, Department of Psychology (Kerry Jordan, faculty mentor) Incomplete understanding of large scale numbers on adults
• Engineering: Kirk Jackson, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Kevin Heaslip, faculty mentor) The remaining service life method for pavement deterioration: Improving pavement forecasting and optimizing infrastructure investment
• Humanities and Social Sciences: Allison Leonard, Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology (Diane Calloway-Graham, faculty mentor) Breathe in, breathe out: Utilizing mindfulness in the social work practicum
• Life Sciences: Karmella Dolecheck, Department of Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Sciences (Jong-su Eun, faculty mentor) Effects of supplementing Propionbacteria in lactation dairy diets on ruminal fermentation in continuous cultures
• Physical Sciences: Kelby Peterson, Department of Physics (J.R. Dennison, faculty mentor) Micrometeoroid from MISSE examined to understand the effects of the space environment on space suit materials

“We were extremely impressed and pleased by both the quality and quantity of undergraduate research shared today at this event,” said Scott Bates, associate vice president for research. “We anticipated some growing pains with this added participation, but that’s the best type of challenge to have. Even though we added additional categories to speed up the process, we had so many students to talk to. We prolonged the judging time to allow the judges to really get to know the students and their projects.”

In addition to the 90 posters, 28 students presented research-based oral presentations throughout the day.

Also during Student Showcase, outstanding undergraduate researchers and mentors were honored at an undergraduate research awards ceremony. Nine students were recognized as David and Terry Peak Undergraduate Researchers of the Year from their colleges, as well as faculty mentors from each college. To view their full bios, visit http://researchweek.usu.edu/2012/htm/undergraduate-research-day.

During the ceremony, newly named Goldwater Scholars were announced. Recipients of the prestigious national award include Mitch Dabling (civil engineering), Rachel Ward (physics), Sarah Mousley (math) and Jordan Rozum (physics) received an honorable mention.

Computer science major Amy Hansen received the Joyce Kinkead Honors Thesis award, given by USU’s Honors Program Director Christie Fox.

Comments