Students presented a variety of research on poster board stands and mingled with guests and faculty walking through the crowded aisles during the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program fourth annual Spring Research Symposium on Monday.
The program is limited to first and second-year students who work as research assistants to faculty. As research assistants, students probe through scholarly articles and help their faculty sponsors in their examinations. Participants of the program clock in their time doing the research and receive a $12 an hour stipend.
Freshman chemistry major Richard Tran found out about the research assistant opportunity through his high school while exploring jobs.
“I was looking for a future job once I got into college just to make some extra money,” Tran said. “I figured out: maybe if I can do something in research, that’ll help me immensely into getting money and also working toward my career. This program … was perfect for me.”
Tran helped his faculty sponsor, chemistry professor Young-Seok Shon, with research on Nanoparticle Catalytic Reactions. Tran contributed to Shon’s research by testing with alkynes, an unsaturated hydrocarbon, “to see how fast the reactions go compared to original reactions.”
Although most of the presentations involved science research, many of the topics were not scientifically oriented.
Freshman Emily Graham, a double major in psychology and film production, participated in a communication research study on a whim after receiving an email about UROP.
“I didn’t think I’d get in because it sounded too sciencey for me — but I did,” Graham said. “ I felt cool being involved in something this big and this early on in my college career. I wasn’t expecting to do anything extracurricular.”
Graham was a research assistant to intercultural communication professor Aaron Cargile, and worked on conducting surveys studying the possibility of experimentally inducing the feeling of awe in people. One of the methods involved showing participants a video of women painting an egg with beeswax and dye and having those participants open a bag and hold the finished product. Graham was amazed by the intricate patterns painted on the egg shells.
“I remember the first time I held [the egg], and I was like: ‘this is insane!’” said Graham. “Why was this only like two or three bucks on the internet. [The women] should make millions off them. They’re pretty awe-inducing.”
Deviating away from scientific studies, freshman music major Julian Esparza presented “The Contemporary Piano,” a combined research effort between Esparza and music professor Alan Shockley that attempts to help composers write “contemporary music on piano that are non-traditional.”
One of the techniques Esparza utilized in his research is making a “prepared Piano,” which is a regular piano with added items on the strings to alter the tone.
“I’ve seen people put ping pong balls on the strings of the piano,” Esparza said. “Putting stuff on the piano strings fixes the timbre of the sound. It makes it sound more percussive or muted depending on what you put.”
Just as students eagerly displayed their posters to passersby, the faculty members were excited to connect with the young undergraduates.
College of Education faculty member Alejandra Priede was a first-time participant in UROP. Her research was centered around the motives for students to go in the teaching profession.
“I think it’s a wonderful experience for students. It’s an opportunity for faculty also to stay in touch with undergrads,” Priede said. “I teach only in the doctoral program in the College of Education, so it’s nice to be in touch with undergraduates too.”
