Tarleton announces winners of annual student research symposium

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STEPHENVILLE ( October 19, 2018) — Now in its 16th year, Tarleton State University’s Student Research & Creative Activities Symposium showcased the research and creative activities of more than 100 students in a two-day event concluding the annual Research & Scholarship Appreciation Week.

During Tarleton’s Research & Scholarship Appreciation Week, Oct. 8-12, a number of academic colleges highlighted their faculty and student engagement in research, scholarly and creative activities across the campuses. The symposium was held on the last two days, providing students an opportunity to discover how their peers are engaging in research across disciplines.

This year’s symposium included six graduate research oral presentations, 25 graduate research posters, 45 undergraduate research poster presentations, five First-Year Research Experience (FYRE) oral presentations, 12 undergraduate research oral presentations and nine entries in the Creative Activities category.

New this year, faculty were invited to deliver workshops, and three faculty workshops were held throughout the symposium by Drs. Tom Faulkenberry, Jonali Baruah and Heather Labansat. A faculty panel on undergraduate research and Friday’s keynote speaker Dr. Frank Morgan, of Williams College and Baylor University, rounded out the event.

Held in the Barry B. Thompson Student Center and Clyde H. Wells Fine Arts Center, the symposium concluded with the presentation of awards in several categories, including FYRE, Creative Presentations, and awards for undergraduate- and graduate-level oral and poster presentations.

“Attendance was spectacular at each of the symposium events, and we had a great team that made the symposium possible. Students were buzzing with excitement about research and creative activities, and faculty and staff were there to support them, mentor them and serve as judges,” said Dr. Amber Harris Bozer, who led this year’s symposium. “We had a particularly engaging keynote speaker and faculty workshops, which stimulated student participation and excitement. While there were winners, the student accomplishments and professional development supersede any form of measurement.”

From top: Winners of Tarleton State University’s 16th annual Student Research & Creative Activities Symposium include Ethan Caldwell, Creative Activities; Daniel Adame, Creative Activities; Cristian Botello, Undergraduate Poster; Marysol Villeda, Undergraduate Oral; Edward Smith, Graduate Poster; and Taylor Garcia, Graduate Oral.

Students received feedback and were scored by an impartial judging process, and top performers from each category are as follows:

Creative Activities
First place (tie):
• Ethan Caldwell – Civil Conflict, mentor: Dr. Andrew Stonerock
• Daniel Adame – The Art of Cinematic Comedy, mentor: Dr. Megan Ehrhart
Third place
• Justin Bartlett – TSU Street Beat, mentor: Dr. Ben Charles

First-Year Research Experience
First place:
• John Garcia – Masonry Insects at the Tarleton Permaculture Site, mentor: Dr. Barbara Bellows
Second place:
• Faith Cox, Melissa Hopkins, Jeff Brady and Dustin Edwards – Adaptive Multiplex Quantitative PCR for Identification and Quantification of Reticuloedotheliosis Virus, mentor: Dr. Dustin Edwards
Third place:
• Natalie Finn and W. Brandon Smith, Livestock Literacy: An Evaluation of Newspaper as an Inexpensive and Renewable Fiber Source for Ruminant Animals, mentor: Dr. W. Brandon Smith

Undergraduate Oral:
First place:
• Marysol Villeda and Randy McCamey – Use of Social Networking Sites for Recruiting and Selecting in the Hiring Process, mentor: Dr. Randy McCamey
Seond place:
• Clifford Curry – From Natural Law to Positive Law, mentor: Dr. Anne Egelston
Third place:
• Camille Trautman, Brittany Stewart, Faith Cox, Heidi Spann, Melissa Hopkins, Josh Katuri and Dustin Edwards – (REV)ised: a New Search for Reticuloendotheliosis Virus, mentor: Dr. Dustin Edwards

Undergraduate Poster:
First place:
• Kayli Colpitts, Tracy Brown, Cristian Botello, Kathryn Seymour and Amber Harris Bozer – Alpha Band Brain Activity in Chronic Pain and No Pain Groups, mentor: Dr. Amber Harris Bozer
Second place:
• Christine McCubbins and Victoria Chraibi – Taxonomic Description of a Rare Diatom, mentor: Dr. Victoria Chraibi
Third place:
• Genell Tantingco – Intermittent Hypoxic Conditioning: Potential Treatment for Ischemic Stroke, mentor: Dr. Myoung-Gwi Ryou

Graduate Oral:
First place:
• T. J. Garcia, J. P. Muir, K. A. Guay, J. A. Brady, and W. B. Smith – Reduce Reuse ReRumen: Variability in Nutritive Value of Paunch Manure, mentor: Dr. W. Brandon Smith
Second place:
• Kenneth Davis and Max Sanderford – The Role of Angiotensin II During Stepwise Hemorrhage in a Freshwater Channel Catfish (Ictalurus puntatus),mentor: Dr. Max G. Sanderford
Third place (tie):
• Kristen Bowman – The Effects of Semantic Relatedness on Concrete and Abstract Words, mentor: Dr. Tom Faulkenberry
• Abigail Christie, Kimberly Guay, Amber Harris Bozer, Jolena Waddell and Ryan Ridges – Circadian Rhythm of Intraocular Pressure in Minipigs: First Time Mapping of Rhythmicity and IOP Response to Light/Dark Cycle Reversal, mentor: Dr. Kimberly Guay

Graduate Poster:
First place:
• Edward Smith and Sabrina Hetzel – Enigma: Breaking Down the German Encryption Machine, mentor: Dr. Scott Cook
Second place:
• Gabriel Wechter Nejad and Victoria Chraibi – Analyzing Multivariable Water Chemistry to Assess Water Quality of Reference Sites in Texas in Compliance with the National Rivers and Streams Assessment, mentor: Dr. Victoria Chraibi
Third place:
• Carrie Maryak – Novel Application of CRISPR-Cas12a DETECTR System to Water Quality Monitoring along the Texas Gulf Coast: An Improved, Rapid Method for the Early Detection of Harmful Algal Blooms in Aquatic Samples, mentors: Drs. Jeff Brady and Janice Speshock.

Research & Scholarship Appreciation is followed by the 15th annual Texas A&M University System’s Pathways Student Research Symposium, Nov. 1-2, hosted by West Texas A&M University in Canyon.

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