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Putting Student Research Center Stage

Putting Student Research Center Stage

The mysteries of autism. The art of animation. A chronicle of a blue-collar Baltimore neighborhood. The potential of rattlesnake venom as a drug delivery system.

These are just a few of the topics to be found at two upcoming campus events that put UMBC students’ intellectual curiosity and artistic creativity front and center.

The 12th annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD)  will be held Wednesday, April 23, followed by the 30th annual Graduate Research Conference (GRC) on Friday, April 25. Both events are extraordinary opportunities to discover original research and to enjoy free arts performances and exhibits.

Led by the Office of Undergraduate Education, URCAD gives students valuable experience preparing for graduate school or future careers, and in many cases, competitive grants of up to $1,500 over an academic year to support selected work. Over 130 student participants are expected at this year’s event.

“URCAD allows students and faculty from all departments to benefit from the research, scholarship and creative work of our undergraduate students,” said Teresa Viancour, associate vice provost for undergraduate education. “URCAD presenters have made the transition from ‘student’ to ‘young professional.’ They are engaged in the creation of new knowledge and the sharing of that knowledge with their colleagues. The scope and importance of their work marks them as contributors to their fields of study.”

The GRC is a partnership between UMBC and University of Maryland, Baltimore and is sponsored by UMBC’s Graduate Student Association (GSA). Through its mentorship, support, outreach, social life and advocacy efforts, the GSA serves the more than 2,300 graduate students on campus. This year’s GRC keynote speaker is Diane Auer-Jones ’88, assistant secretary for postsecondary education with the U.S. Department of Education. Over 80 UMBC and UMB graduate students are scheduled to present at the GRC.

“The GRC is an important opportunity to present research results in an interdisciplinary setting to peers, faculty members, the University of Maryland community at large and the public,” said Archana Ambike, the GSA’s graduate research chair.

“The GRC demonstrates what UMBC is all about: outstanding research within a dynamic, supportive, community,” said Jessy Warner-Cohen, president of the GSA. “The conference tops off an outstanding year for the GSA.”

Selected highlights of 2008 URCAD and GRC presentations and performances include:

  • Andrej Bevec, a senior visual arts major, will screen his short animated film “Morning,” which blends a pen-and-ink animation style, three-dimensional backgrounds and elements of silent film to tell a complex story.
  • Senior history major Sarah Blusiewicz will examine the impact of deindustrialization and the decline of Baltimore’s steel industry on her hometown. 
  • Biological sciences Ph.D. candidate Ananth Bommakanti’s work looks at what ribosome formation in yeast can tell us about how normal human cells become cancerous.
  • Public policy doctoral student Frances Carter (’07 M.S., physics) is using UMBC’s Meyerhoff Scholarship program as a rich data set as she explores how enhancing undergraduate research experiences could help to increase the number of scientists and engineers produced at UMBC and across the U.S.
  • Pei-Chun Chen, a senior majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology, is exploring how crotamine, a South American rattlesnake venom protein, could have potential for anti-cancer and gene therapy drugs.
  • Senior modern languages and linguistics major Christianna Stavroudis is studying how a social skills curriculum could improve how people with autism learn to communicate. Stavroudis recently was accepted into the prestigious Erasmus Mundus master’s program in clinical linguistics, which will fully fund her graduate studies at three European Union universities.

URCAD will be held on Wednesday, April 23, 9 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. at the University Center and Fine Arts Building. A morning session will be devoted to dance and music presentations and an afternoon session will focus on film and video. For more information, visit the URCAD Web site.

The 2008 Graduate Research Conference will be held on Friday, April 25, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the University Center. For more information, please visit the GSA’s Web site.

(4/21/2008)

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