NDSU’s finest undergraduate research takes the stage

On April 11, the Office of Research Development from North Dakota State hosted the fifth annual NDSU EXPLORE Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity in the NDSU Memorial Union.

According to the NDSU undergraduate research department, the main purpose of the program is to encourage and celebrate the scholarly accomplishments of NDSU undergraduate students. There were 61 unique undergraduate researchers that presented at the event.

One of the presenters, Jeremy Dikau, described the event as, “A huge resume booster and a great opportunity. I’ve learned so much preparing my presentation, and it was fascinating.”

Each group of undergraduate researchers were paired with a mentor to develop their research project. They were given several weeks to prepare their research projects.

This event was organized as three sessions: a morning session from 9:30-11:30 am, a lunch break that included a guest speaker from 11:30a.m.-12:45 p.m. and an afternoon session from 1-3 p.m.

“I’ve learned so much preparing my presentation, and it was fascinating.” 

JEREMY DIKAU, NDSU STUDENT 

This year’s guest speaker was Scott Meyer, the executive director of entrepreneurship initiatives at NDSU. Meyer’s speech was titled, “Growing our own: Entrepreneurship and the modern day land-grant university” and pertained to entrepreneurial opportunities for NDSU students.

Throughout the event, 15 presentations were delivered verbally, and the remaining 46 presentations were delivered as poster presentations. Each individual undergraduate researcher delivered their oral presentation in their 15 minutes allotted, including questions, at the Rose Room of the Memorial Union.

The presentations took place in Plains Room. Unlike previous years, instead of selecting the top three from each morning and afternoon session, there will only be one overall award winner per session. The top three finishers of each type of presentation will be awarded $500, $250 or $100, respectively.

Previous years’ first places winners have been:

Morning Oral Presentations: Sierra Walker with the topic of “AIF: A Universal Regulator on Cell Redox Signaling.”

Morning Poster Presentations: Alexandra Howatt and Isabel Krum with the topic of “Healthy Women are Beautiful Women: Health and Beauty Practices at the Crystal Palace.”

Afternoon Oral Presentations: Nathan Johnson with the topic of “Manipulation of Biological Matter Using Electrodeless Dielectrophoresis.”

Afternoon Poster Presentations: Erin Richards with topic of “Mec1- Independent Phosphorylation of Rpa2 N-terminus in the DNA Damage Response.”

This year’s awards winners have not been announced yet. NDSU EXPLORE ended early this year due to the snowstorm on April 11.