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Students showcase research, innovation during annual symposium
Students at Louisiana Tech University don’t always let their grades do all the talking about their knowledge.
Sometimes they show off their research, too.
More than 50 Louisiana Tech students did exactly that Thursday morning as the 2013 Louisiana Tech Undergraduate/Graduate Student Research Symposium was held at University Hall. Eight undergraduate students gave oral presentations, while 42 research posters were on display with student authors available to answer any questions posed about their research.
Louisiana Tech President-Elect Dr. Les Guice was on hand to review the symposium and was impressed with what he saw.
“This is exactly why we encourage faculty to do research with their students,” Guice said. “Some of these students are true college freshman already involved with cutting-edge research. It’s this kind of engaged learning outside of the classroom that’s becoming the wave of the future and it’s great to see the kinds of results we’re getting.”
Adjunct Professor Emerata Dr. Nelda Spinks served as one of the judges for the symposium and called what she viewed “breathtaking.”
“I was talking to (College of Engineering and Science student) Kisler Wilson about his poster project (Field & Laboratory Evaluation of Environmental Effects on Chip Seal Performance: Freeze-Thaw & Asphalt Aging),” Spinks said. “He was so impressive. Here was a student from the Caribbean knowing about weather and road conditions in Louisiana.
“All of the projects are so thorough and go into so much depth. Just to think that our students are so full of new ideas gives me so much hope about the future and the role Louisiana Tech will play in it.”
Bill Willoughby, associate dean and director of graduate studies and research for the College of Liberal Arts, served as a judge for the oral presentations and was also impressed.
“I heard some very good work ranging from departments all over the university,” Willoughby said. “All of the students should be very proud of their presentations, whether oral or on a poster.”
Senior journalism major Patrick Boyd gave his oral presentation titled Genocide and Park Avenue: How Ex Libris Brought Me Back To Cambodia.
“It was great to hear ways other curriculums are studying and giving presentations,” Boyd said. “It was one of the first times I’ve done something like this, but I wasn’t nervous at all. Mine was really just a glorified reading of my paper.”
While the students made their presentations at the symposium, the research is still in the early stages for many like senior Biomedical Engineering major Rachel Baker from Longview, Texas, who presented a poster on Quantifying Space-Related Edema using Multi-Wavelength Photoplethysmography.
“We’re still actually in the middle of our research — it’s ongoing,” Baker said. “The project started with a grant from the Louisiana Space Consortium for an undergraduate research assistantship. We’re basically trying to measure light absorption to study and quantify space-related edema, or swelling. Hopefully we’ll be able to publish the results of the research this summer.”
Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research and Biological Sciences Professor Bill Campbell was a driving force behind the symposium and said five undergraduate students from both the poster and oral presentation categories will be selected to compete at the University of Louisiana System Academic Summit in April at the University of Louisiana-Monroe.
“I thought it all went well,” Campbell said. “We had some great presentations and a good turnout of both faculty and students. The work is for the judges now. They’ll have to come up with five undergraduate presentations for both the poster and oral presentation categories, and they have a lot of good projects to choose from.”
Serving as faculty judges for the symposium were Spinks, Willoughby, Dr. Ioannis Vlachos, Dr. Marisa Orr, Dr. Sven Eklund, Dr. Heath Tims, Mr. Larry Jarrell, Dr. Timothy Bisping, Dr. Marcia Dickerson, Dr. Bryan Townsend, Dr. Pasquale De Paola, Dr. Jeremy Mhire, Dr. Rick Simmons, Dr. Jeffrey Walczyk, Ms. Vanessa Johnson and Dr. Yuri Voxiyanov.
The following are the presentations that were given during the Tech symposium:
ORAL PRESENTATIONS:
Sometimes they show off their research, too.
More than 50 Louisiana Tech students did exactly that Thursday morning as the 2013 Louisiana Tech Undergraduate/Graduate Student Research Symposium was held at University Hall. Eight undergraduate students gave oral presentations, while 42 research posters were on display with student authors available to answer any questions posed about their research.
Louisiana Tech President-Elect Dr. Les Guice was on hand to review the symposium and was impressed with what he saw.
“This is exactly why we encourage faculty to do research with their students,” Guice said. “Some of these students are true college freshman already involved with cutting-edge research. It’s this kind of engaged learning outside of the classroom that’s becoming the wave of the future and it’s great to see the kinds of results we’re getting.”
Biomedical Engineering major Rachel Baker shows her poster presentation to Louisiana Tech President-Elect Dr. Les Guice during the Undergraduate/Graduate Student Research Symposium.
Adjunct Professor Emerata Dr. Nelda Spinks served as one of the judges for the symposium and called what she viewed “breathtaking.”
“I was talking to (College of Engineering and Science student) Kisler Wilson about his poster project (Field & Laboratory Evaluation of Environmental Effects on Chip Seal Performance: Freeze-Thaw & Asphalt Aging),” Spinks said. “He was so impressive. Here was a student from the Caribbean knowing about weather and road conditions in Louisiana.
“All of the projects are so thorough and go into so much depth. Just to think that our students are so full of new ideas gives me so much hope about the future and the role Louisiana Tech will play in it.”
Bill Willoughby, associate dean and director of graduate studies and research for the College of Liberal Arts, served as a judge for the oral presentations and was also impressed.
“I heard some very good work ranging from departments all over the university,” Willoughby said. “All of the students should be very proud of their presentations, whether oral or on a poster.”
Senior journalism major Patrick Boyd gave his oral presentation titled Genocide and Park Avenue: How Ex Libris Brought Me Back To Cambodia.
“It was great to hear ways other curriculums are studying and giving presentations,” Boyd said. “It was one of the first times I’ve done something like this, but I wasn’t nervous at all. Mine was really just a glorified reading of my paper.”
While the students made their presentations at the symposium, the research is still in the early stages for many like senior Biomedical Engineering major Rachel Baker from Longview, Texas, who presented a poster on Quantifying Space-Related Edema using Multi-Wavelength Photoplethysmography.
“We’re still actually in the middle of our research — it’s ongoing,” Baker said. “The project started with a grant from the Louisiana Space Consortium for an undergraduate research assistantship. We’re basically trying to measure light absorption to study and quantify space-related edema, or swelling. Hopefully we’ll be able to publish the results of the research this summer.”
Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research and Biological Sciences Professor Bill Campbell was a driving force behind the symposium and said five undergraduate students from both the poster and oral presentation categories will be selected to compete at the University of Louisiana System Academic Summit in April at the University of Louisiana-Monroe.
“I thought it all went well,” Campbell said. “We had some great presentations and a good turnout of both faculty and students. The work is for the judges now. They’ll have to come up with five undergraduate presentations for both the poster and oral presentation categories, and they have a lot of good projects to choose from.”
Serving as faculty judges for the symposium were Spinks, Willoughby, Dr. Ioannis Vlachos, Dr. Marisa Orr, Dr. Sven Eklund, Dr. Heath Tims, Mr. Larry Jarrell, Dr. Timothy Bisping, Dr. Marcia Dickerson, Dr. Bryan Townsend, Dr. Pasquale De Paola, Dr. Jeremy Mhire, Dr. Rick Simmons, Dr. Jeffrey Walczyk, Ms. Vanessa Johnson and Dr. Yuri Voxiyanov.
The following are the presentations that were given during the Tech symposium:
ORAL PRESENTATIONS:
- Lillian Grappe (Advisor: Dr. Celia Lewis) Choose not by the View: Gender in the Merchant of Venice
- Sarah McCorkle, Jordan Vaughn, & Lance Taylor (Advisor: Dr. Bryan Townsend) Does this Dress Make Me Look Fat?: A Study of Deception, Intimacy, & Altruism
- Elizabeth Ryland, (Advisor: Dr. Yuri Lvov) Bio-Applications for Halloysite Clay Nanotubes
- Justin Huckaby (Advisor: Dr. Mark DeCoster) 3-Compartment Predator-Prey Model for Understanding Normal Brain Cell Signaling & Disease
- Emily Traylor (Advisor: Dr. Dorothy Robbins) Illness in Persuasion: An Historical Context
- Allison Hebert (Advisor: Dr. Dorothy Robbins) Like a Tree’s Identity: In Search of Roots in Song of Solomon
- George Patrick Boyd (Advisor: Dr. Dorothy Robbins) Genocide and Park Avenue: How Ex LIbris Brought Me Back To Cambodia
- Howard E. Morgan, Dylan Dillaway, Sunita Maharjan (Advisor: Dr. Thea Edwards) Phytoestrogen Variation among Organs of Soybeans during Growth and Reproduction
UNDERGRADUATE POSTERS:
College of Engineering & Science
- Scott Li (Advisor: Dr. Adarsh Radadia) Microelectronic Point-of-Care Diagnostics for Early Phase Rickettsial Infections
- Braden Smith (Advisor: Nazimuddin Wa-siuddin) Evaluation of Cohesive Strengths of Hot Asphalts & Emulsion Residues for Chip Seal Performance
- Victoria Bamburg (Advisor Dr. Thomas Bish-op) Python Tools for Analysis of Structure and Dynamics of Nucleosomes
- Ashley Matthews (Advisor: Dr. Daniela Mainardi) DFT Study of Kinetics of LiAlH4
- Rachel Baker (Advisor: Dr. Patrick O’Neal) Quantifying Space-Related Edema using Multi-Wavelength Photoplethysmography
College of Liberal Arts
- Tiffany Woda (Advisor: Mr. Gregory Lyons) Creating a Unit Guide to Improve Student Learning in the Music Classroom
- Mary Alice Milford & Samantha Raburn (Advsior: Dr. Kevin Singh) habiTECH2013
- Mason Nabors & Colton Stevenson (Advisors: Dr. Pasquale De Paola & Mr. Thomas Deal) Gowanus Remediation Research & Interpretive Center
College of Applied and Natural Science
- Jamie E. Young (Advisor: Dr. Brandon Moore) The Association between Mercury Bioaccumulation & Hepatic Iron Deposits in Spotted Gar
College of Education
- Samantha Chrisman, Toni Baggiano, & Emily Littlefield (Advisor: Dr. Bryan McCoy) Cultural Connections: Reflective Inquiry
- Alyson McCoy & Rachel Carson (Advisors: Dr. Carrice Cummins & Dr. Bryan McCoy) Diagnosis & Correction of Reading Difficulties
College of Business
- Mallory Hernandez, Claudine Adams, Elizabeth Eldredge & Alex Brokenberry (Advisor: Dr. Son Le) The Green Pepper Business
- Eric Lawrence, Ben Carlisle, Hunter Norwood, Josh Powell & Collin Ross (Advisor: Dr. Son Le) Underground Radar Robot
- Claire Allen, Josh Cuthbert, Kevin Kisseberth, & R.P. Stuart (Advisor: Dr. Son Le) Albritton Acres
- McKenzie Redmon (Advisor: Dr. Doug Amyx) Lil Daddy Productions
- Phong Le & Terry Jones (Advisor: Dr. Rob Blackstock) Inflation in the New Century
GRADUATE POSTERS:
College of Engineering and Science
- Emmanuel Ogbonnaya (Advisor: Dr. Leland Weiss) Solar Thermal Scavenging for Micro-scale Power Applications
- Purnima Kharidehal (Advisor: Dr. Daniela Mainardi) Design of Biocatalyst for Clean En-ergy: A Multi-Scale Modeling Study of Metha-nol Oxidation by Ion Modified MDH Enzymes
- Shuyan Huang (Advisor: Dr. Shengnian Wang)Enhance Electroporation for Gene Delivery to Mammalian Cells with the Application of AuNPs and AuNRs
- Pushparaj Pathak (Advisor: Dr. Long Que) Real-Time Tagless Monitoring of Cell Viability using Patch-Clamp Microdevices
- Kisler Wilson (Advisor: Nazimuddin Wasiuddin) Field & Laboratory Evaluation of En-vironmental Effects on Chip Seal Performance: Freeze-Thaw & Asphalt Aging
- Rajivalochan Subramaniam (Advisor: Dr. Markus Wobisch) The ATLAS Jet Triggers
College of Liberal Arts
- Monty Russell (Advisor: Dr. Susan Roach) Carving Memories of Mexico: The Art of Jacabo Salinas
- Anna Ford (Advisor: Dr. Melinda F. Bryan) Receiver Position & Acceptance of Noise, Speech Understanding, & Sound Quality Ratings
- Lauren Collette (Advisor: Dr. Kerrilyn Phillips) Flow Rate & Controlled Measurement
- Michael Markham (Advisor: Dr. Robert Brooks) The Deep South’s Museum of the End
- LeStavion Beverly (Advisor: Dr. Robert Brooks) Animate South
- Phillip Carthern (Advisors: Dr. Robert Brooks & Dr. Karl Puljak) The Southern Exchange Forum
College of Business
- Jacob Young (Advisor: Dr. T. Selwyn Ellis) Multidimensional Evaluation of IT Ethical Scenarios: Privacy & Security
- Calee Jo Holcombe and Kristie Murphy (Advisor: Dr. Ted Englebrecht) An Empirical Examination of Reasonable Compensation in Closely Held Corporations
- Lauren Brewer (Advisor: Dr. Bruce Alford) Psychological Types of Marketing Instructors and Students
- A.J. Burns & Prabhashi Nanayakkara (Advisor: Dr. Tommy Roberts) Visualizing Information Security Complexity
College of Education
- Barrett Stover (Advisor: Dr. David Szymanski)Effect of the Rotex on Range of Motion & Stride Length of Collegiate Baseball Pitchers
- Anusha Elumalai (Advisor: Dr. David Szyman-ski) The Relationship between Arousal Levels & Putting during 3 Different Conditions: A Pilot Study
- Tyler Donahue (Advisor: Dr. David Szyman-ski) Effect of the Rotex Device on Range of Motion & Golf Performance Variables in Male Collegiate Golfers
- Devyani Mulay (Advisor: Dr. Jeffrey Walczyk)Advancing Lie Detection by Developing Underlying Cognitive Theory: Activation-Decision-Construction-Action Therapy (ADCAT)
- Amanda Morgan (Advisor: Dr. Bryan McCoy) Qualitative Spelling Inventories: Ensuring Accurate Differentiated Instruction of Orthography
- Victoria Felix (Advisor: Dr. Walter Buboltz) Technology & Sleep Difficulties among College Students : A Call for Research
College of Applied and Natural Science
- Elizabeth Griggs & Trey Hanna (Advisor: Dr. Rebecca Giorno) Understanding the Role of SpoVID and CotO in the Proper Assembly of the Coat and Exosporium of Bacillus Anthracis
- Gargi Suchak (Advisor: Dr. Bill Wolf) qPCR Survey of Kallikrein (KLK6) Gene Expression in Normal & Tumor Tissues
- J. Hunter Collins (Advisor: Dr. Pat Hindmarsh) Effects of Combinatorial Antifungals on Candida Albicans: Identifying Stress Response
- Jennifer Guergues (Advisor: Dr. Bill Wolf) qPCR Survey of Kallikrein (KLK5) Gene Expression in Normal and Tumor Tissue
Written by T. Scott Boatright – boat@latech.edu
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