The Faculty Research Showcase was hosted by the Office for Undergraduate Research in the Student Center Ballroom Tuesday. Ranging from biological and life sciences to fine arts and humanities, the showcase featured 34 different faculty labs and organizations in search of undergraduate researchers.
Darby Pepper, a master’s student focusing on metallurgical engineering, works alongside Nilesh Kumar, an assistant professor in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. The pair worked together during Pepper’s undergraduate years and now work in the same lab as graduate students.
“I designed my own tinsel frame, what the sample will be tested in, so it was cool to learn, as an undergrad, all of the equations that you need to build something like that,” Pepper said. “It’s really cool to see everything I’d been working on with other grad students, when I was working under them, turn into something that’s my own.”
Organizations like “On Track to Wellness” and the UA Lactation Lab offered opportunities for students who are interested in public health and life science.
“I’m a pediatric nurse, and so when I started pediatric nursing decades ago in the ‘80s, pediatricians typically would say primary hypertension doesn’t exist in children,” said Janet Brown, an assistant professor in the Capstone College of Nursing. “Now, children have primary hypertension and are diagnosed with type two diabetes.”
“On Track to Wellness” was given a grant of almost $4 million. The grant will help the organization focus on its programs: Building Healthy Families and Double Up Food Bucks Alabama.
“My next grant is going to be looking at childhood obesity with more scientific rigor,” Brown said. “Right now, in Building Healthy Families, we just measure height and weight but I’d like to measure strength. They lose about half a pound a week, but I think more importantly is the fact that they’re running and jumping.”
Undergraduate students visited various tables and received business cards, pamphlets and new contacts with faculty.
“I would love to help people out with my engineering skills by going more into the human side of engineering,” said Marc Cera, a sophomore majoring in mechanical engineering. “I’ve gone to about five tables, and I’ve talked to the ones I’m interested in, which is research prosthetics.”
Lee Winchester, director of graduate student success and associate professor of exercise science, kinesiology, described his transition from biology to exercise science and discovering his interests through a research showcase.
“I did an undergraduate in exercise science at Purdue, but went biomedical for graduate school,” Winchester said. “At a research fair, I met the guy whose lab I ended up working in as an undergrad. By looking around, talking, and my friend introducing me to him, I realized his lab was doing exactly what I wanted to do. His lab did a lot of the initial work on toll-like receptor discovery and that’s what fueled me to go make my own.”
Overall, the showcase emphasized building connections between faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students.
“You become more of a community with your college and your major,” Pepper said. “You get to know more people, and it feels more homey and not as big of a thing. There are people to go to if you have questions about classes or anything.”
Emie Vandiver and Patrick Byrd, seniors majoring in biology, manned the Office for Undergraduate Research table at the showcase.
“The Office for Undergraduate Research has many different programs to help connect students to research opportunities,” Vandiver said. “One large thing that we offer is research ambassadors. Students can go online and make an appointment with them and learn about how to get involved in research in that area.”
Byrd’s research lab, involving wetland ecology and the adaptation of salt marsh plants to sea levels and saltwater intrusion, opened his eyes to new career opportunities.
“My perspective is a little different because I started as a premed student, and undergrad research was what broadened my horizons a little bit and made me realize that this was really what I wanted to do,” Byrd said. “It can be career-changing for a lot of students.”
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