The 12th annual Fall Frontiers Poster Exhibition, hosted through the Office of Undergraduate Research, showcased 73 different undergraduate student research projects, each examining a different research topic. Taking place on Wednesday, Oct. 23, from 5 to 7 p.m., the exhibition allowed students to share their findings and show off the work they had put into their projects.
The event was attended by Dan Schwartz, the vice provost for academic operations at the University of Connecticut, who briefly spoke at the start of the event.
“It’s education and it’s research,” Schwartz said, when talking about the experience of being an undergraduate researcher. “To me, undergraduate research really is the best kind of capsulation of both of those elements. It’s sort of the perfect marriage of research and education.”
“You get the opportunity to work with world-leading researchers who are at the top of their field – world-renowned researchers,” he said. “And it’s also an amazing educational opportunity. There’s no better way to learn.”
As noted by both Schwartz and other attendees, students at this event spent the summer researching their topic and putting their information together on a poster to be shown at the event. Student researchers stood by their projects, ready to expand upon their findings if needed.
Projects also covered a wide variety of majors and disciplines, including computer science, biology, political science, psychology and various branches of engineering.
Seventh semester biology student Crystal Zhu had focused her work on the taxonomy of podostictina, a genus of fungi. In her project “Phylogeny-Based Taxonomic Revisions of Podostictina, a Genus of Lichen-Forming Fungi,” Zhu used DNA barcoding and chromatography to analyze the makeup of various types of podostictina and clarify the taxonomic names of different species of podostictina.
“From a conversation standpoint, if you don’t know what species are out there in specific areas … you can have conservation efforts, but they can be misdirected,” Zhu said, when discussing what she saw as a benefit of her research. “Research basically feeds into research … without these other people’s research, then I wouldn’t have this much data.”
Zhu’s project was a part of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology and was advised by Professor Bernard Goffinet.
Another student showcasing their work at the event was Nicolas Rodriguez, who was the research assistant for Jennifer Scapetis-Tycer, an associate professor of dramatic arts. Rodriguez’s project, titled “Singing Into Accents: Intonation and Music,” focused on how musical terminology can be used to describe the way different accents sound.
“This project takes terminology from music, in a way, and translates it into accents, so actors and musicians can replicate that accent as best they can,” Rodriguez said. He used a program called Pratt to break down and analyze the way different accents sound to the human ear.
“It is definitely a different area of research to me,” he said. “Initially it was troublesome, because I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for, so it took a bit of work there. It was really interesting to figure out these accents and see how they can translate into music.”
Rodriguez spent around 90 hours on the project, which took him about two months.
“It gives the opportunity to work with a professor, but also gives them the opportunity to enter a field of research that isn’t specifically classes or anything like that. … It gives them, for me at least, a general purpose of research,” Rodriguez said when asked about the benefits of research.
The Fall Frontiers event is a part of UConn’s “Month of Discovery,” which included four signature events designed to get students excited about research and innovation. The Fall Frontiers event was the last of these signature events, although UConn’s Innovate Labs will still be hosting events throughout October.