Current
Issue

UNIToday
Archives

Submit
Class Notes

Alumni
Home

  
Years ago the kind of research that some undergrads conducted involved seeing how many people could squeeze into a VW Beetle or how many hot dogs you could eat in 30 minutes.

Today, undergraduate students are conducting timely, complex and valuable research. For example, studying how the brain functions, which could lead to finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Or determining how certain sediments impact the environment. Or how molecules react to heat, which can help determine how petroleum behaves in pipelines at different temperatures, “so we know how we can use it,” according to Cary Pint, senior physics major.

Not only is research being conducted, it is being published—something new for many undergraduate students.

Pint’s research about thermal absorption of molecules appeared in the December 2004 issue of the American Journal of Undergraduate Research, the only refereed journal in the nation devoted to undergraduate research in the pure and applied sciences.

“Research involves both conducting research and being able to articulate it. If a bright undergraduate asks to do a research project and maybe make a presentation, that’s typically about it—the research will never see the light of day. But if students are doing undergraduate research and publishing it, it’s a good experience; they go through all the phases,” Chancey said.

Senior physics major Cary Pint’s research about thermal absorbtion of molecules was published in December. Michael Roth, associate professor of physics, provided guidance.

  
The explicit purpose of AJUR is to publish original research by undergraduate students in science, mathematics, engineering, technology and related areas.

“When I was offered the job at UNI, I told the provost I wanted some start-up money to do this,” said Chancey, who came to UNI in 2001 from Purdue University. “That fall I attended several conferences and asked fellow researchers to join. I made the presentation three or four times and gathered a good group of people to be on the editorial board. It’s an interdisciplinary group.”

Nine UNI faculty members are among the 46 disciplinary editors covering 35 subject areas, such as astrophysics, cell biology, biology, mathematics and physics. They hail from universities and businesses across the country, as well as South Africa and Nigeria.

Since the first issue of AJUR in June of 2002, 64 undergraduate students (including 13 from UNI) have published 48 research papers.

Nine of the published undergrads have been from outside the United States. Three are from Nigeria, one from South Africa, four from Austria and one from India. “Many universities publish their own journals but AJUR has a wider intent. It shows what American students are doing,” Chancey said.

Ryan Collins published research in the June 2004 issue about what happens at a microscopic level in our brains when we think. A 2004 graduate with a B.S. in physics, Collins is now attending graduate school at Creighton University in Omaha.

“Doing the research and being published gave me a chance to put some of the electrodynamics I learned in my classes to use and taught me some new methods for tackling some tricky problems. None of my undergraduate classes involved biophysics, so most of what I learned from it stood apart from the rest of my curriculum,” Collins said.

More doors have opened for Pint because of his published research project.

“Due to my success in research, which is reflective of the people I work with at UNI, I was accepted into two competitive conferences,” Pint said. “An undergraduate journal like AJUR allows students to experience the process of research and publication without the harsh criticism offered in competitive international journals. The experience was priceless to me.”

  
He was one of five undergraduate students in the country to present at a symposium conference on atomic, molecular and optical physics. He also presented his work at the “largest international conference on nanotechnology in the world,” in Anaheim, Calif., where he competed not against undergraduates, but Ph.D.’s.

This summer, Pint is conducting physics research at Montana State University, through a National Science Foundation grant. “I’ve also been nominated by the physics department to apply for the most prestigious award in undergraduate physics a student can achieve, the Apker Award,” he said.

For recent graduate Melissa Potter, her research wasn’t directly related to what she’ll be doing this fall, which is teaching at Craig High School in Janesville, Wisconsin. But the process itself has been invaluable.

She became interested in the tessellated artwork of M.C. Escher, a graphic artist known for his seemingly impossible structures. Her main goal was to create tessellations of the hyperbolic plane (having negative curvature) using a compass and straightedge.

“The topic of my paper is not one in which many people, even in the world of mathematics, have experience. I had to explain what I was saying very carefully, thoroughly and precisely, much as I will have to do while explaining new concepts to students,” said Potter, who has a B.A. in mathematics education. “This paper also gave me practice relating something new to something familiar to clarify my points. This is a concept I’ll use constantly to help my students build knowledge.”

Jason Ribando, department of mathematics, advised Potter with her research and co-wrote the article, which was published in March.

“She’s one of the few students I’ve had who’s been interested in this long-term,” Ribando said. “The idea is to give students a broad education in mathematics above and beyond what they’re going to teach. I have no doubt she’ll have opportunities to expose her students to the Escher tessellations. This is how every mathematician learns how to write a paper—they learn from an adviser—it’s a hard process to do for the first time, and for the second and third time. It’s a rare student who’s motivated to do this at the undergraduate level.”

Chancey believes that AJUR puts UNI out front as a leader in undergraduate research, although the university has always been strong in that area. “Undergraduate research projects that extend classroom learning are a hallmark of a UNI education. All undergraduates can undertake scholarship projects with faculty, either as individuals or as part of a team of students. More than 400 students are engaged in scholarly projects with UNI faculty each year.”

AJUR is produced entirely at UNI, and has a readership of about 600. The primary audience is faculty. Several university and college libraries also subscribe to it.

“Publication in AJUR highlights students’ research to a wider audience. Several papers have prompted inquiries by companies interested in hiring the authors or marketing products connected with their research,” Chancey said. “More often, publication in AJUR emphasizes a student’s ability to carry a project through to completion, a skill always in vogue with employers and scholarship committees.”

Maintained by the UNI Alumni Association
Last Modified: January 25, 2006