There was ample evidence of brilliance, innovation and creativity at the Celebrating Undergraduate Excellence (CUE) poster session held on May 19 in the Memorial Union Horizon Room. An amazing variety of undergraduate research and creative work taking place at Oregon State University was on display in the form of posters, art work and You Tube videos.
CUE showcased the projects of OSU undergraduates in all disciplines and fields of study. Over 100 students participated in the event. A total of 34 science majors presented their research on a wide range of topics.
A few of the deeply researched and informative science projects at CUE were: Corvid response to forest thinning in the Willamette National Forest; classroom experience for toddlers with developmental delays; accretion disk dependence on black hole size in binary black hole mergers; understanding metastatic growth through the traction force of human breast cells; and, charge mobility of organic semiconductors by using optical trapping.
Please see a complete list of undergraduate projects here.
CUE encourages presentation of ambitious, collaborative research projects, in which a student works alongside a faculty mentor and other researchers to create new knowledge. True Gibson, an Honors College junior studying biochemistry and biophysics, presented his research contributions to a National Science Foundation-funded project led by Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics Ryan Mehl.
Gibson's poster, "Increasing the Rate of an Ideal Bioorthogonal Ligation," explored his work in developing a stable set of chemical ingredients that will produce the desired reaction with biological processes in humans.
Quite a few of the accomplished science undergraduates who presented their research at CUE are URISC (Undergraduate Research Innovation, Scholarship & Creativity) and URSA Engage (Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and the Arts) scholars, who were able to pursue their research with faculty mentors with the help of the awards.
Celebrating Undergraduate Excellence is sponsored by the Division of Undergraduate Studies and organized by University Events.
