USU students to show projects at Capitol
There are no comments for this page [ Add Comment ]Tuesday, January 16, 2007
By Amy K. Stewart
Standard-Examiner staff
SALT LAKE CITY -- Some of the 42 Utah State University students showing off their research projects today at the Capitol are guinea pigs themselves.
This is the first year students have collaborated with professors who are part of the Utah Science, Technology and Research (USTAR) initiative.
USTAR is based at the state's two research universities: USU and University of Utah. The goal is to increase university research capacity and expand Utah's high-tech industry.
Some of the projects being presented today are funded by USTAR.
"Student participation is important to the success of USTAR," said Brent Miller, USU vice president for research.
"As undergraduates participate in USTAR and other related research projects, they become better learners, better citizens and better contributors of Utah's future workforce," Miller said.
USU sophomore Andrew Burgon, 22, a biology major, is helping work on a weight-loss drug as part of obesity research by USTAR professor David York.
"It's like being a kid who wants to direct movies, then working with Steven Spielberg," Burgon said. "Collaborating with a USTAR professor is a privilege you don't normally get."
USU senior Nathan Jack, 23, an electrical engineering major, will present research on wireless sensor networks, which he is conducting with USTAR professor Krishna Shenai.
Other USU students not affiliated with USTAR professors will be presenting research on everything from the evolution of wasps to whether lack of sleep leads to first-year students gaining the "freshman 10" pounds.
"We have an amazing number of first-year students who are already out of the chute in terms of research," said Joyce Kinkead, USU associate vice president for research.
Today's event runs from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the State Office Building auditorium in Salt Lake City as part of the 2007 legislative session.
The presentation is meant to give college students practice in presenting their research, as well as keeping legislators informed on different areas of research.
"It's important for the legislators to see what's being done with the money they have allocated -- and that it's going to good use," Jack said.
Burgon's research with York includes studying a peptide that is naturally produced in the body. They are trying to pinpoint how it works in decreasing the desire to eat fatty foods. A drug tested on mice and rats makes the rodents choose a diet with low fat content.
Jack's research includes making small, low-powered, cheap sensors. These sensors can collect clear data by using magnetic waves as opposed to radio waves. They can be used to monitor livestock, track water in fields or predict avalanches.
Shenai is helping Jack get a patent, and to work with local companies in trying to market the product.
Mary-Marie Sullivan, 22, a senior majoring in liberal arts and sciences, has spent three semesters studying sleep patterns and weight gain in freshman. She is tracking 186 students who volunteered to complete a 30-minute questionnaire their first week of school in fall 2005.
Sullivan is trying to validate data from national studies that show less sleep results in more pounds. So far she has discovered that is true with male college students -- but not with female students.
Nicole Frank, 20, a junior majoring in biology, is studying the stingers of sphecid wasps. The insects, which are dead and stored in vials, were collected in Costa Rica and Madagascar.
In the lab, Frank dissects the stinger into nine pieces, then inputs photos and data into a computer program. Data includes length of stinger, as well as shade and strength of the stinger segments -- all of which can vary depending on the species and environment of the sphecid wasp.
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