Undergraduate students from nearly every college at N.C. State presented their academic research at the 22nd Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium at the McKimmon Center on Wednesday.
Students from different disciplines, including the humanities and the arts, gathered to present posters of their research to judges, faculty and peers.
Two sessions, one at 10:30 a.m. and the other at 12:30 p.m., were held and more than 400 students participated overall.
Students who participated submitted an abstract and created a poster based on their research, which will later be judged based on various criteria. A winner will then be chosen from each department.
The winners selected in the symposium are invited to the annual Sigma XI ceremony and dinner, held April 17 in the College of Veterinary Medicine Atrium.
Judy Day, associate director of Undergraduate Research, said the event highlights and rewards student work.
“The symposium allows students to present the studies they have created in their discipline,” Day said. “Students are given a chance to share what they have learned with faculty, administration and fellow students.”
Students could register for the symposium alone or in a group, but all undergraduate students were required to work with a mentor for their research.
Graduate students could be listed as authors of the research, but a faculty member or grad student mentor helped and guided each piece of research.
“Sometimes students come up with an idea completely on their own, and then approach a mentor to help with research,” Day said. “Some students are working on projects that are a subset of research their mentor has already been working on. We also have some students that submitted their senior design projects to the symposium this year.”
Joseph Murray, a senior in mathematics, researched a new method for sports ranking. Murray presented his research in the second session of the symposium.
“My research is specifically about sports ranking methods and modifying them to improve their predictive accuracy,” Murray said. “Algorithms that tend to rank teams fairly don’t always provide accurate predictions. My research focused on adding several components to improve retroactive predictive accuracy of these ranking methods.”
Murray said he became interested in the study because of his major.
“I got interested in this research because it’s based in linear algebra and matrix theory, which is essentially my specialty in the field of Mathematics,” Murray said. “I find that once I get on a roll and get deep into the research, I can’t pull myself away from it. It’s that interesting.”
Hannah Gardner, a senior in zoology, researched swine with diabetes. Her research was also featured in the second session of the symposium.
“My research was about behavioral changes and body dimensional changes in swine that were induced with diabetes,” Gardner said. “The goal was to see if the pigs with a higher blood-glucose average differed in behavior and body dimension than those with a lower blood-glucose average.”
Aside from being helpful to the students involved with the symposium, Day pointed out another benefit.
“This event is open to the public, and other students are encouraged to come to see if undergraduate research is right for them,” Day said. “Students will be able to talk directly to peers who have done research, see how it benefited them, see what is going on in their major, and hopefully it will spark their interest.”
Students who are finishing their research through the end of the school year will also have a chance to show their work. The 12th Annual Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium will be held July 31 in the McKimmon Center.
