Author: McGuire, Caroline

• Research Lab in Obesity Prevention

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Opportunity Description
Community-Based Participatory Research in Obesity Prevention – This 5-credit course is intended to be taken as part of a year-long sequence; part II will be offered in Spring 2015.

This course provides a unique opportunity to study a complex health problem – obesity – from a social ecological perspective and to work with community partners to assist in the development, implementation, and evaluation of a statewide obesity prevention campaign using community-based participatory research methodology. Lectures focus on current obesity trends, causal factors of excessive weight, and the consequences of obesity. Community-based participatory research skills include focus groups, interviews, and environmental audits to develop an obesity prevention program that meets the needs of a diverse population. This is a unique learning opportunity that will allow students to work with a national health care consulting firm and a statewide media company to develop and test an obesity prevention program. To learn more about this research and how the course will fulfill Plan of Study requirements, please see: http://undergrad.psych.uconn.edu/2014/07/15/psyc-3885/ or contact Dr. Amy Gorin at amy.gorin@uconn.edu.

Student Qualifications
Interest in applied research, nutrition, physical activity, and health behavior change.

How to Apply
Please contact Dr. Amy Gorin at amy.gorin@uconn.edu as soon as possible to receive a permission number to register.

Mentor: Amy Gorin, Associate Professor
Department: Psychology
Email: amy.gorin@uconn.edu
Timing: Fall 2014, Spring 2015
Campus: Storrs

• Research Assistant for Education/Psychology Students

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Opportunity Description
Dr. Kearns’s work focuses on word reading difficulties in children in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. He studies the basic processes involved in word reading in children (links to cognitive and developmental psychology) and designs interventions to improve reading outcomes in these struggling readers. Work in his lab involves two kinds of tasks:
1) Work in schools with children, either testing them (links to school psychology) or delivering instruction to struggling readers (links to special education).
2) Work on campus to enter data and validate its accuracy (links to most social science research).

It is an expectation that students will work at least 10 hours per week. All students work as volunteers for one semester, and opportunities to conduct funded research are possible if the first semester is successful. Dr. Kearns was previously an assistant professor at Boston University. You can contact Michael Li (milkeli@bu.edu) if you would like to learn about Dr. Kearns, his lab, and his previous work mentoring undergraduates.

Student Qualifications
Qualified candidates will be willing and able to do both kinds of work. Important qualifications include these:
* Organizational skills
* Problem-solving skills and the ability to figure out complex tasks
* Flexibility
* Consistency and punctuality
* Hard work.
Other research skills are not required; most skills will be taught on the job.

How to Apply
Applicants should write to Dr. Kearns directly (devin.kearns@uconn.edu). Include your resume and your schedule for Fall 2014 in your inquiry. Review of applications is ongoing. Interviews may be scheduled via Skype as early as August 1, 2014. We look forward to hearing from you!

Mentor: Devin Kearns, Assistant Professor of Special Education
Department: Educational Psychology
Email: devin.kearns@uconn.edu
Timing: Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Summer 2015, Ongoing
Campus: Storrs

• Congratulations, Summer 2014 SURF Award Recipients!

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SURF is the largest competitive funding opportunity administered by the UConn Office of Undergraduate Research. I am delighted to announce that 59 UConn undergraduates have been offered SURF awards for summer 2014. The faculty review committee was impressed by the overall high caliber of the 108 applications submitted this year.

Congratulations to the SURF awardees! Your academic achievements, creativity, and initiative were evident in your applications. You have a challenging summer of deep engagement with the process of research ahead of you. We look forward to hearing about all you learn!

Thank you to the faculty members who supported SURF applicants: mentors, letter writers, and faculty review committee members! SURF represents a collaborative effort between students and faculty. This program would simply not be possible without the support and participation of faculty members!

Thank you, too, to SURF supporters in the UConn community. We are grateful to the Provost’s Office and to the Deans of the Schools and Colleges of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Engineering, Fine Arts, Pharmacy, and Nursing, who all contributed funding to the SURF competition this year. Alumni, parents, and friends of UConn also helped fund SURF awards. This collaborative funding effort ensures that SURF supports a diverse array of undergraduate research endeavors!

Once again, congratulations to those students offered 2014 SURF awards.

Caroline McGuire, Ph.D.
Director, Office of Undergraduate Research

 

 

 

• Upcoming Presentations of Student Research and Creative Activity

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While the largest-ever Frontiers in Undergraduate Research Poster Exhibition may now be over, there are several additional opportunities to see UConn students’ work in the coming days and weeks.
bfa-2014

BFA Art Exhibition

April 17-27, 2014
ArtSpace, Windham Gallery, 480 Main Street, Willimantic, CT 06226

See this exhibition of work by students graduating from the BFA program in the Art and Art History Department, School of Fine Arts.

UConn School of Nursing ATHENA Research Conference

April 25, 2014
School of Nursing Widmer Wing

The program for this annual conference includes a poster presentation session from 1-2:30pm featuring the work of Honors students.

Language Fest 2014

April 26, 2014
9am – 4pm, Oak Hall

The UConn Language Fest is a University-wide research conference, now in its fourth year, which showcases the many facets of research on language in the UConn community. Poster sessions are scheduled for 10-11am, 1-2pm, and 3-4pm, and feature the work of undergraduate researchers from a number of UConn departments and programs.

Undergraduate Research Colloquium in Biology

May 2, 2014
8:30am-6:00pm, TLS 111

Graduating senior biology students (BIOL, PNB, EEB, MCB, BPHYS) will present short talks on their research at this 32nd annual biology research colloquium. All presentations are limited to ten minutes. Advisors, undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, postdocs, staff, parents, and friends are welcome and encouraged to attend.

UConn School of Engineering – Senior Design Demonstration Day

May 2, 2014
1-4pm, Gampel Pavilion

Senior Design Day, an exhibition of capstone projects from across the School of Engineering, affords parents, alumni, friends and project sponsors the opportunity to view project outcomes, interact with students and faculty, and learn more about the School. This year, 475 students will display and demonstrate 154 projects, and the whole university community is invited.

• Hone Your Presentation Skills: Upcoming Events

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You’re involved in undergraduate research or creative activity – terrific! Now, how do you go about sharing your findings and experience with others? Two upcoming events will help you do just that.

Drop the Jargon and Get to the Point! How to Effectively Communicate Your Research to a Wide Range of Audiences
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
6-7:30pm
Laurel Hall 102

Effectively communicating science to a wide range of audiences is becoming an increasingly needed skill for scientists of all disciplines.

Dr. Ellen Prager is a marine scientist who has moved away from traditional career paths and now focuses much of her time on communicating earth and ocean science to broad audiences through writing popular science and children’s books, public speaking, working with the media, and consulting.

Using both her successes and failures as examples, she will share what she’s learned about effectively communicating science and how you can be better prepared and successful. She will also let you in on some of the secrets to engaging your audience and getting your points across.

This event is sponsored by the Graduate School, and you can RSVP at this link. Undergraduates are welcome.

Poster Presentation Information Session: Get Ready for Frontiers
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
12:15-1:15pm
Rowe 320

Will you be sharing your project at Frontiers this year? Have you been accepted to present your work at a professional conference? Are you unsure about where to start when it comes to putting your project into poster form and talking about it with an audience? If your answer to any of those questions is “yes,” this information session is for you. Undergraduate students will share posters they have designed and presented, and we will discuss such topics as templates, fonts, images, and how to prepare yourself as a presenter.

• Congratulations, Fall 2013 UConn IDEA Grant Recipients!

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idea_logo_standard_color_bottomWEBThe UConn IDEA Grant program provides funding of up to $4,000 for self-designed projects including entrepreneurial ventures, community service initiatives, traditional research projects, or other creative endeavors. Proposals for the UConn IDEA Grants represented a variety of disciplines, ranging from history to mechanical engineering.

Congratulations to the nine undergraduates who have been awarded UConn IDEA Grants in the second award cycle of this new program coordinated by the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR)! Click here to download the list of grant recipients and their projects.

Rosse Gates ’16 (ENGR) – Autonomous Navigation Systems and Algorithms

  • Rosse will work to develop an autonomous quadcopter that can track its position in relation to the environment and survey disaster areas in GPS-devoid environments.

Dillon Jones ’15 (ENGR) – Gentleman’s Gantry Machine

  • Dillon will work to build a “Gentleman’s Gantry Machine,” a general purpose, computer controlled positioning system of his own design that will enable multiple forms of manufacturing on one device.

Saher Kazi ’16 (CLAS) – Investigation and Analysis of the Barriers to Mental Health Care in India

  • Saher plans to investigate the factors influencing access to mental healthcare in India in a study involving mental health clinics in the town of Nashik in Maharashtra, India.

Kiersten Kronschnabel ’16 (CLAS) – POWER: Providing Optimal Strategies for Patient Retention While Transitioning from Pediatric to Adult Care 

  • Kiersten’s project is a community service initiative to address the dearth of resources for facilitating the pediatric-adult care transition for HIV-positive adolescents.

Katelyn McFadden ’15 (CANR) – Effects of Poor Maternal Nutrition on Liver Development in Lambs

  • Katelyn’s project builds on a collaborative study in the Department of Animal Science evaluating the effects of poor maternal nutrition on the growth of offspring in sheep. Katelyn will analyze liver samples in lambs to understand the mechanisms at work affecting offspring growth and development.

Amoolya Narayanan ’16 (CLAS) – Investigating the Use of Natural Antimicrobials to Control Urinary Tract Infections in a Mouse Model

  • Amoolya will investigate the potential of trans-cinnamaldehyde, a natural antimicrobial molecule contained in cinnamon, as an antimicrobial coating on urinary catheters to control urinary tract infections.

Zachary Raslan ’15 (CLAS) – Historic GIS Mapping of Hartford, CT

  • Zachary is partnering with a larger research project, Virtual Hartford, to acquire and digitize the earliest maps of Hartford, CT. He will apply GIS software to create maps that detail the evolution of the city and show changes to the physical landscape after significant historic events.

Aaron Rosman ’16 (CANR) – Elatine Ambigua and Elatine Triandra

  • Aaron will conduct research on invasive plant species Elatine Ambigua and Elatine Triandra to clarify the species boundaries and provide insights on their source and vector of introduction in the U.S.

Rachel Winsor ’15 (ENGR) – Project XX

  • Rachel plans to partner with UConn groups and departments to help bridge the gender gap to success by developing and implementing a series of empowerment workshops for the UConn community.

 

Thank you to the faculty members who have agreed to supervise the UConn IDEA Grant students in their projects. Thank you as well to the faculty members and program directors who served on the UConn IDEA Grant Proposal Review Committee!

• Announcing the 2014 Roper Awards for Research Experience (RARE)

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The Roper Award for Research Experience (RARE) supports undergraduate research apprenticeships that make use of the archives of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. We are pleased to announce the two student/faculty RARE teams who have received awards for Spring 2014 and thank the Roper Center for its generous support of these student awards.

Project Title: Public Perception and Judicial Legitimacy
Student Apprentice and Major: Molly Rockett, Political Science
Faculty Mentor and Department: Virginia Hettinger, Political Science

Ms. Rockett and Professor Hettinger will be using the DRI National Poll on the Civil Justice System to explore public perceptions of the judicial decision-making process and poll respondents’ assessments of firsthand experiences (as litigants, jurors, or witnesses) with the legal system.

Project Title: The Right to Bear Arms: The Role of Federalism in Gun Control Policy
Student Apprentice and Major: Brian Tiedt, Political Science & Economics
Faculty Mentor and Department: Paul Herrnson, Political Science

Mr. Tiedt and Professor Herrnson will use the metadata available on iPOLL and a variety of data sets to consider the evolution of public opinion on gun control, subgroup variation in opinion, and public perceptions of the role of the federal government in regulating firearms.

 
Press Release from the Roper Center

• Congratulations, 2014 SHARE Award Recipients!

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SHARE awards support undergraduate research apprenticeships in the social sciences, humanities, and arts. Following the most competitive application cycle to date, we are pleased to announce the 20 awardees for the Spring 2014 semester. Congratulations!

Project Title: Deferred Examination
Student Apprentice and Major: Patrick Adams, Economics
Faculty Mentor and Department: Talia Bar, Economics

Project Title: Evaluation of Gifted Education Using State Accountability Systems
Student Apprentice and Major: Daniel Arndt, Education
Faculty Mentor and Department: Jonathan Plucker, Educational Leadership

Project Title: Implementing and Evaluating K-3 Literacy Support in CT Schools
Student Apprentice and Major: Rachael Cerutti, Elementary Education
Faculty Mentor and Department: Michael Coyne, Educational Psychology

Project Title: Exploring Prunus Domestication in the Southern Caucasus
Student Apprentice and Major: Joyce Fountain, Anthropology
Faculty Mentor and Department: Alexia Smith, Anthropology

Project Title: Assessing Legal Protections Against Rape in the 50 U.S. States
Student Apprentice and Major: Celia Guillard, International Relations
Faculty Mentor and Department: David Richards, Political Science

Project Title: The New Husky Study: Stress, Coping and Health Behavior Change in First-Year Students
Student Apprentice and Major: Megan Iacocca, Psychology
Faculty Mentor and Department: Crystal Park, Psychology

Project Title: Damini: Illuminating the Flaws in India’s Legal System and Rape Laws
Student Apprentice and Major: Tina Lapsia, Political Science
Faculty Mentor and Department: Betty Hanson, Political Science

Project Title: Congressional Responsiveness During the ‘New Gilded Age’
Student Apprentice and Major: Phillip Menard, Political Science
Faculty Mentor and Department: Thomas Hayes, Political Science

Project Title: Gifted Students Achievement Patterns Beyond High School
Student Apprentice and Major: Jennifer Moore, Secondary Education
Faculty Mentor and Department: Del Siegle, Educational Psychology

Project Title: Discourse in Linguistically Diverse Mathematics Classrooms
Student Apprentice and Major: Bailey Muchin, Special Education
Faculty Mentor and Department: Mary Truxaw, Curriculum and Instruction

Project Title: Neural Mechanisms for Behavioral Differences on Visual Integration in Schizophrenia
Student Apprentice and Major: Fariya Naz, Psychology
Faculty Mentor and Department: Chi-Ming Chen, Psychology

Project Title: Observations on the Genderization of Security: A University (UConn/Avery Point) Community Perspective
Student Apprentice and Major: Kaitlin Pealer, Anthropology
Faculty Mentor and Department: Richard Cole, Political Science

Project Title: Beyond Nation States
Student Apprentice and Major: Marissa Piccolo, Political Science
Faculty Mentor and Department: Prakash Kashwan, Political Science

Project Title: Understanding of Social Relationships in Children with a History of Autism Who Have Achieved Optimal Outcomes
Student Apprentice and Major: Kaitlyn Porter, Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Faculty Mentor and Department: Deborah Fein, Psychology

Project Title: Counting Strategies in Deaf Homesigners in Nicaragua: Can Fingers Help?
Student Apprentice and Major: Devika Prasad, Psychology
Faculty Project Title: Marie Coppola, Psychology

Project Title: Neonatal Nurses’ Perceptions of Mother-Infant Skin-to-Skin Contact in NICUs: A National Survey
Student Apprentice and Major: Kelsey Richardson, Nursing
Faculty Project Title: Xiaomei Cong, Nursing

Project Title: Examining Questioning in Reading Classrooms
Student Apprentice and Major: Melissa Scarbrough, Secondary Education/French
Faculty Project Title: Catherine Little, Educational Psychology

Project Title: Preparation of Engraved Editions of Late Piano Works by American Modernist Composer Dane Rudhyar
Student Apprentice and Major: Jonathan Schmieding, Music -Composition and Performance
Faculty Project Title: Ronald Squibbs, Music

Project Title: Gap Detection and Frequency Discrimination Abilities in Individuals High in Autism Spectrum Disorder Symptomatology
Student Apprentice and Major: Emily Thompson, Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Faculty Project Title: Inge-Marie Eigsti, Psychology

Project Title: Social Challenges for Correctional Nurses Delivering Healthcare
Student Apprentice and Major: Alyssa Zabin, Psychology
Faculty Project Title: Denise Panosky, Nursing

• Upcoming Application Deadlines for Summer Research Experiences

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Early December marks the time when you should be thinking about….Summer!  Many research programs have their application deadlines in January and February. If you wait until Spring Break to start looking, you will miss some of the most exciting opportunities.

Many summer programs use the acronym “REU” or Research Opportunity for Undergraduates.   REUs typically offer a summer stipend of $4000 to $5000, as well as housing for the summer! Other Summer positions can have a variety of different names–Fellowships, Internships, and Co-ops.  Don’t worry about what it’s called–just get the experience!

Department of Homeland Security – STEM Summer Internship Program
Deadline: January 6, 2014; http://www.orau.gov/dhseducation/internships/

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security sponsors a 10-week summer internship program for students majoring in homeland security related science, technology, engineering and mathematics (HS-STEM) disciplines. The program provides students with quality research experiences at federal research facilities located across the country and allows students the opportunity to establish connections with DHS professionals. Undergraduate students receive a $5,000 stipend plus travel expenses for a 10-week research experience.

Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI)
Deadline: 5:00pm, January 10, 2014; http://science.energy.gov/wdts/suli/

The Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) program encourages undergraduate students to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers by providing research experiences at the Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories. Selected students participate as interns at one of 15 participating DOE laboratories.

Summer ORISE Fellowship Opportunities at the CDC
Deadline: January 17, 2014; http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/dls/orise.html

Appointments through the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) Fellowship Program. This is a paid research opportunity for biology and chemistry majors.

Amgen Scholars Program 
Deadline: February 3, 2014; http://www.amgenscholars.com/

The Amgen Scholars Program provides undergraduates with faculty-mentored summer research opportunities in science and engineering fields at 10 host universities in the United States.

Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies – Summer REU Program
Deadline: February 5, 2014; http://www.caryinstitute.org/students/reu-program

Cary Institute’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program provides the opportunity for 8-12 students each summer to conduct quality research in ecology. Selected students receive a $6000 stipend, a $600 food allowance and housing in an Institute dormitory.

Biomedical Engineering Summer Internship Program (BESIP)
Deadline: February 9, 2014; http://www.nibib.nih.gov/training-careers/undergraduate-graduate/biomedical-engineering-summer-internship-program-besip

The NIBIB sponsored Biomedical Engineering Summer Internship (BESIP) is for undergraduate biomedical engineering students who have completed their junior year of college. The internship will allow students to participate in cutting edge biomedical research projects under the mentorship of world-class scientists in NIH laboratories in Bethesda, MD. Stipend of approximately $6600 for 10 weeks. Applications open on Dec. 1, 2013.

Additional information on off-campus research opportunities is available here.

• Announcing New Research Internship Program at UConn Health Center

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The Office of Undergraduate Research is pleased to announce a new research internship program for UConn undergraduates – the Translational Research Internship Program. This summer research internship is designed to provide undergraduate students with greater insight into the physician-scientist career path (combined M.D./Ph.D). Students will conduct research under the direction of a faculty member at UCHC while gaining a better understanding of the clinical side of medicine by shadowing a physician/surgeon. The program will allow students to see firsthand the interplay of biomedical research and clinical medicine: how clinical medicine influences and inspires basic research and how basic research translates into therapies used in the clinic.

For information on eligibility, funding, and the online application, visit the Translational Research Internship webpage.