Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Eight Students to Present Their Research at Highly Selective National Conference.

Eight Students to Present Their Research at Highly Selective National Conference


Posted 01/30/2015
Submitted by Barbara Steinberger
Category: Campus Announcements, Student Announcements
(L-R) Andres Olarte, Colleen McLoughlin, Natalie Dukette, and Conor Knox. Click on photo to enlarge.
(L-R) Andres Olarte, Colleen McLoughlin, Natalie Dukette, and Conor Knox. Click on photo to enlarge.
(L-R) Michelle LaValle, Reed Ashley Haight, and Adam Stankiewicz. Missing from photos: Joshua Gischner. Click on photo to enlarge.
(L-R) Michelle LaValle, Reed Ashley Haight, and Adam Stankiewicz. Missing from photos: Joshua Gischner.
 
For the second year in a row, University of Hartford students have been selected to present their research at a highly selective conference of outstanding undergraduates from around the country.
Eight UHart students, all seniors in the University Honors Program, will be presenting their work at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) in April at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Wash.
The acceptance of UHart student proposals for the second consecutive year is a significant achievement for the University’s growing Honors Program and a sign of the rigorous, high-level research in which our honors students are engaged.
“This is an incredibly bright and talented group of students,” said Associate Professor Donald Jones, director of the University Honors Program. “This is an opportunity for them to interact with their true peers — other top students from around the country.”  
Each student has been working closely with a faculty mentor and with Jones, who together taught the students how to write conference proposals and will help them prepare and refine their presentations. The University is paying for the students’ travel and conference-related expenses, thanks in large part to a $10,000 grant from the Parents Association.
The student presentations span a wide range of topics, including efforts to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease through diet, climate change rhetoric among U.S. Senators, the economics of hosting the World Cup, and bystander intervention in sexual violence, to name just a few.
“I’m really excited to share something that I’m passionate about — economic development — with other students in that field,” said Natalie Dukette, whose research looks at an economic development phenomenon in which resource-abundant developing countries tend to grow more slowly than those with far fewer resources.
Several students said they are looking forward to having their audiences challenge them with probing questions about their research. The students also are eager to attend other students’ presentations to see what kinds of research they are doing.
The eight students, their presentations, and their faculty mentors are as follows:

Natalie Dukette (Economics major, A&S) — “Rethinking the Resource Curse with Complexity Theory”
Faculty Mentor: Jane Horvath

Joshua Gischner  (Judaic Studies major, A&S) — “Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust: Contemporary Controversies of the Jewish Cemetery Clarified through an Historic Shift due to Jewish Emancipation in the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries”
Faculty Mentor: Richard Freund

Reed Ashley Haight (Psychology major, A&S) — “Bystander Intervention in Sexual Violence: Combating Moral Blinders”
Faculty Mentor: Jack Powell

Conor Knox (Mechanical Engineering major with an Acoustics concentration, CETA) — “The Complexity of Time and Sound: Problems of Time-Based Measurements and Regulations”
Faculty Mentor: Eoin King

Michelle LaValle  (Biology/Pre-Med major, A&S) — “Slowing Alzheimer’s Disease: The Effects of a Calorie Restricted Diet”
Faculty Mentor: Jacob Harney

Colleen  McLoughlin (Double major in Rhetoric and Professional Writing, and Politics and Government, A&S) — “The Effect of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ on U.S. Senate Climate Change Rhetoric”
Faculty Mentor: Katharine Owens

Andres Olarte (Double major in Economics and Finance, and Marketing, Barney School of Business) — “Positive or Negative Economic Results: Return on Investment of Hosting the World Cup”
Faculty Mentor: Lillian Kamal

Adam Stankiewicz (Multimedia Web Design and Development major, University Studies) — “Using Visualization to Motivate Student Collaboration in Online Learning Environments”
Faculty Mentor: Larissa Schroeder 

UNOTES - Jan. 2015