Graduate students share research with campus community

Graduate and professional students are an integral part of research all over campus. They contribute to journal articles and make presentations at professional conferences, but their opportunities to tell the campus community about their research projects are limited. This spring the Council of Graduate Students (COGS) took steps to change that.

A day-long Graduate Academic Conference drew more than 120 graduate and professional students to the MSU Union to discuss their recently completed and ongoing research projects. Students applying to present completed research were required to submit evidence of the quality of the project—notification that the project had been accepted for presentation at an academic conference, for example. Ongoing research could be in any stage from idea on. “Our goal was to give students an opportunity to hone presentation skills and get feedback on their research projects,” says COGS President Manish Madan, a Ph.D. student in criminal justice.

Students could choose to make oral presentations or prepare a poster. Students who prepared posters also prepared brief oral descriptions of the projects for the faculty judges and others attending the sessions. Judges (see sidebar) evaluated the presentations and the posters on their quality and their success in translating the research for a general audience.

The top posters in each of the three sessions for completed research projects received awards of $300; the second place winners received $200. Four winners from the ongoing research sessions received $100 awards. In addition, two students whose projects were deemed best for incorporating international issues or concepts received $250 prizes from International Studies and Program.

First place awards in the three poster sessions for completed research went to

• Mahmoodul Haq, Ph.D. student in civil and environmental engineering, for “Hybrid Bio-Based Composites from Blends of Unsaturated Polyester and Soybean Oil Reinforced with Nanoclay and Natural Fibers” 
• Wei Liu, Ph.D. student in fisheries and wildlife, for “Tourism Development and its Impact on Panda Habitat in Wolong Nature Reserve, China” 
• Mark Zorzie and Abigail Quinn, masters students in industrial and organizational psychology, for “The Big 5 Personality Factors and Persistence Among College Students”

Runners up in the three sessions were 

• Sanjib Biswas, Ph.D. student in chemical engineering and materials science, for “Transparent and Electrically Conductive Monolayer Film of Graphene for Optoelectronics Application” 
• Marcus Hollmann, Ph.D. student in animal science, for “Potential to Reduce Methane Emission from Dairy Cattle in the U.S.: A Life-Cycle Analysis” 
• Meagan Shedd, Ph.D. student in educational psychology and educational technology, for “The Relationship of Child Care Providers’ Views of Themselves as Literacy Educators and their Literacy Teaching Practices: An Exploratory Study”

Award recipients in the four sessions for ongoing research were 

• Chieh Chen, Ph.D. student in psychology, for a poster entitled “Importance of Androgen Receptors in Anxiety-Related Behavior Using the CreLox Mouse Model” 
• Randall Juras, Ph.D. student in economics, for an oral presentation on “Willingness to Work: Lessons from an Antipoverty Program”
• Stephanie Smith, masters student in crop and soil sciences, for a poster on “Bioenergy Cropping Systems on Marginal Land” 
• Ajay Nair, Ph.D. student in horticulture, for an oral presentation entitled “Evaluation of Alfalfa-Animal Based Organic Amendment in Peat-Compost Growing Media for Organic Transplant Production”

International awards went to 

• Megan Fritz, Ph.D. student in entomology, for “Ivermectin-Treated Cattle Reduce Survivorship of the Afro-Tropical Malaria Vector Anopheles gambiae s.l” 
• Tom Isaacson, Ph.D. student in advertising, public relations, and retailing, for “Teaching International Public Relations through Study Abroad Programs: What is the Value for Future PR Practitioners?”

The COGS committee that planned the conference (see sidebar) solicited support from a number of MSU colleges and other units, including the OVPRGS. “We were pleased to be a sponsor for this first Graduate Academic Conference,” says VP Gray. “We congratulate COGS for developing and producing this forum. Graduate and professional students are the drivers for research in a university and crucial to future global productivity and the education of future students, and we appreciate their contributions.”

“We were pleased with the number of students who participated in the conference, especially since it was the first one,” Madan says. “We hope it won’t be the last.” His vision for the event goes beyond its continuation at MSU to draw students from other universities. “We’ve planted the seeds this year,” he says. “We want to see the conference grow into a well-established opportunity for graduate and professional students to tell the community about the work they are doing and establish new research connections.”

Photo above: COGS President Manish Maden (left) presented an award to Randall Juras for his presentation on the impact of a requirement that only one member of a household could enroll in an Argentine workfare program. Using data collected by the government, he is studying the determinants of women's participation in the labor force and public employment programs.

Edith Torres-Chavolla described her research exploring the use of aptamers--nucleic acid sequences that can bind to a range of non-nucleic acid targets--as an alternative to antibodies as recognition agents in nanosensors. The technology has potential in diagnostic and biodefense labs and in the food inudstry to replace more expensive sensosrs currently used.

Planning committee

A committee of COGS representatives organized the Graduate Academic Conference

Megan Huth (Chair), Ph.D. student, Psychology

David Achila, Ph.D. student, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Robin Blom, Ph.D. student, Journalism

Tan Chow, Master’s student, Human Nutrition

Stefan Fletcher, MSU Law School

Jillian Hmurovic, Ph.D. student, Psychology

Manish Madan, Ph.D student, Criminal Justice

Emily Miller, Ph.D. student, Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education

Joe Prinsen, second year student, College of Osteopathic Medicine

Diagnostic information available by listening to a patient's heart and other body sounds is plentiful but less often used given availability of modern medical imaging capabilities. Sridhar Ramakrishman developed a model using acoustic electronic sensosrs mounted on the human torso to create a low-cost, noninvasive, portable alternative diagnostic system with potential applications for home-monitoring systems and battlefield operations.

Judges

Judges were drawn from the MSU community:

Eva Almenar, assistant professor, Packaging

Burton A. Bargerstock, director, Communication and Information Technology, University Outreach and Engagement

Phylis Floyd, associate professor, Art and Art History, Asian Studies

Teresa Krieger-Burke, assistant professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology; associate director, In Vivo Pharmacology Center

Sanja Kutnjak Ivkovich, associate professor, Criminal Justice

Andre Lee, associate professor, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

Tonghun Lee, assistant professor, Mechanical Engineering

Augusta Pelosi, assistant professor, Small Animal Clinical Sciences

Jesenia Pizarro, assistant professor, Criminal Justice

Elliot Ryser, professor, Food Science and Human Nutrition

Susan Sleeper-Smith, professor, History

Volodymyr Tarabara, assistant professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

William Terrill, associate professor, Criminal Justice

Marvin P. Thompson, professor, Food Science and Human Nutrition, Animal Science

Claire Vieille, assistant professor, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

Photos by Jeffrey Prouix, courtesy of COGS