RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM TO SHOWCASE STUDENT WORK
By Arla Shephard

Daily – University of Washington, WA
May 18 2007

Students and faculty will have a chance to learn about Cuban music
since the fall of the Soviet Union, gender differences in engineering
education and robots that detect wear in power cables, as Mary Gates
Hall hosts the 10th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium today.

Every classroom and open area in the building will be taken over
to make way for the expansive showcase, where students have the
opportunity to share their research projects with the larger University
community. There are 631 presentations this year, including five
performances at Meany Hall.

"We’re really excited; this is the first time we’ve managed to get
a performing arts session," said Janice DeCosmo, director of the
Undergraduate Research Program and associate dean of Undergraduate
Academic Affairs.

DeCosmo said the symposium is usually well attended, but it is more
useful for those who aren’t normally involved in research.

"Our primary purpose is to educate," DeCosmo said. "It’s not scary
or high-pressure."

Students obtain valuable preparation for graduate school, honors
theses or public speaking at academic conferences, she said.

Students create a poster or an oral presentation and are matched with
faculty members while working on their project. The experience can be
akin to "going to class where you have your professor all to yourself,"
one research participant told DeCosmo.

Senior Shannon Schmoll developed a critical-thinking component for
Astronomy 101 courses with her faculty mentor and astronomy lecturer
Ana Larson to help students understand the concept of parallax,
or why stars appear to shift in the sky due to the Earth’s orbit.

"I’m going to graduate school in the fall, where I will have to
teach, so [the symposium] prepares me for a career in education,"
Schmoll said.

This is Schmoll’s third year presenting research at the symposium.

"It’s really nice to get my research out into the UW community," she
said. "One of the reasons I came to UW was because of their strong
research symposium. I like how the UW showcases its undergraduate
research."

All disciplines are welcome, DeCosmo said, although the event consists
primarily of undergraduates in the sciences.

Projects range from junior Katherine Hallaian’s "Motivating Armenian
Youth Protest in Southern California" to junior Myra Aquino’s "The
Philippine Diaspora and the Medical Brain Drain."

The symposium begins at noon with poster presentations. Oral
presentations start at 1:30 p.m.

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