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Posts tagged ‘research’

Apr 20

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Spring Student Research Symposium Begins

flashmob

Midd Students perform a Flashmob at last year's Symposium

If the endless number of events at prospie days wasn’t enough, last night marked the start of Middlebury’s annual student research symposium.  The keynote address featured Brian Deese ’00, special assistant to the president for economic policy.  Today, with over 200 presenters in roughly 27 disciplines, you are almost guaranteed to find something you are interested in.  While many seniors present on their thesis or senior work, anyone with a project can share their work.  The presentations, each lasting roughly 15 minutes, are grouped in thematic categories and staggered throughout the day, mostly occurring in Bi Hall.

For the timeline of events, head over here.  The full schedule is a good 16 pages long, so look it over and learn something new today!

P.S. Middblog will be covering a number of the talks, but given the enormous volume of presentations, we can’t be everywhere at once.  If you are tweeting, use our hashtag #middsym and we’ll compile a post over the weekend of student responses.

Aug 6

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Ahoy! Midd To Get $1.7 Million Research Vessel

The National Science Foundation has awarded a grant of $1.7 million to Middlebury College that will provide funding for a new research vessel for use in science courses and student-faculty research on Lake Champlain. The new boat, which will be about 45 feet long and is currently unnamed, will arrive in Lake Champlain in the summer of 2012 when it will replace the R/V Baldwin, a 32-foot Maine lobster boat that Middlebury bought in 1985 and retrofitted for research and teaching. Pictured above is NOAA’s 48-foot research vessel, Auk, built by All American Marine (AAM) and considered the sister ship of the one AAM will begin building for Middlebury College in 2011.

Makes you want to take Oceanography or at least do research. The new boat will accommodate 18 students, the size of a lab section.

Midd Press Release / BFP

Oct 4

The Middlebury Improbable Research Awards

The Improbable Nobel Prize Awards feature individuals researching different ways to make people think and laugh. Highlights include

  • the scientific discovery that rats cannot tell the difference between people speaking Japanese backwards and Dutch backwards
  • the public health invention of a brasserie that can be turned into two face masks in emergency situations
  • some physicists who found out why spaghetti breaks into more than two pieces when you bend it.

This made me think of all the things Middkids are doing to stimulate thought and laughs. Below are my own Improbable Awards, a list of people and projects in our surrounding community who are doing interesting things.

Morgan Boyles 12.5’ and his work on a NOVA documentary exploring Nepalese Caves

For going on adventures to caves in Nepal sealed off since the 14th century. And making movies. And generally being cooler than me.

Iliad Readings

The live readings of Homer’s Iliad in front of the library this weekend for the exploration of the Homeric tragic hero in us all

If you know what I mean radio show with Sam Wyer 12’ and Joanna Rothkopf 12’

For dividing life into themes and complimenting that with music (math, sickness, mustaches, outer space)

WRMC FM 91.1 Wednesdays at Midnight

Jacob Udell 12.5’ and his Jewish Philosophy Discussion Group

For blurring the line between academic philosophy, theological discovery, and personal growth

Mulled Apple Cider at the Juice Bar

For making me feel fuzzy and war

Rhiya Trivedi 12.5’ and her work with Clothes Line across America

Did you know clothes dryers use 10-15% of Domestic Energy in the United States? Hang your Laundry up outside!! Unless it’s raining. Then get creative. www.laundrylist.org

Wyatt Orme 12.5’ helped save the Idaho Grey Wolf. Inquire with questions/concerns/solidarity

The Middlebury Fellows in Narrative Journalism: Bianca Giaever 12.5’, Maya Goldberg-Safir 12’, Stephanie Joyce 10’, Alana Jenkins

For opening the dialogue on origins and featuring the diverse ways and means a kid becomes a Midd kid.

VACA (vitality of the artistic community)’s Monthly Painting Rotation of the Canvas at McCullough

For a rotating canvas of student art and making my sad walk to an empty mailbox much more exciting

Ahmed Al Fatairy 12’

For being an incredible Arabic tutor and helping me one day achieve my goal to translate the collected lyrics of Jedi Mind Tricks into a volume of Arabic poetry, and thus deserve my own Mackenzie’s Middlebury Improbable Research Award. A girl can dream…

Now add your friends/colleagues/own accomplishments and achievements! I would love to honor you with a Mackenzie’s Improbable Research Award (i.e. a pat on the back, and mix CD???!)

Apr 16

Student Research Symposium

The Spring Student Research Symposium (sponsored by the little-known Undergraduate Research Office) is entering its third year and it’s amazing the evolution of this symposium. Maybe it’s been too successful? Students only remember that the Trustees, at the recommendation of the strategic plan, tried to move the Winter Carnival “day-off” to this Friday for the Symposium. Good thing we “saved” Winter Carnival. But the reality is this event has gotten more and more attention each year with good reason. Students seem to like hearing what their peers have been working on all year. That casual dining hall conversation about some random research does not stick, but when student dress up and get professional, theses and special student-teacher projects shine through. Student presenters invite their friends and the event is quite well attended.

And yet there is a bit of an undercurrent here. Students presenting also sometimes gripe about “being forced” to apply to present at the symposium by professors. Non-tenured professors have a lot of showing-off to do by showcasing their students. Some students say they get “dragged into it.” True, this is great publicity for the College highlighting the best of liberal arts coupled with student-teacher relationships. But even so, I think professors are doing students a favor in making them present. This school seems to lean toward written assessments and it’s not often that oral presentation skills are highlighted. Furthermore, a non-graded forum is good to combat the GPA and resume building that we’re all accustom to.

Below, the full schedule for the event taking place in BiHall, Friday April 17th:

Spring Student Symposium Schedule: Complete

1:00-1:30 p.m.

President Ronald D. Liebowitz and Professor of Geology and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Research Patricia Manley will open the symposium with introductory remarks. Dr. Cinda Scott, Class of 1999, will then offer a brief keynote address on her experiences in the world of research. Cinda earned her Middlebury degree in Environmental Studies and Biology, and recently completed a doctorate at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in marine molecular evolutionary genomics.
McCardell Bicentennial Hall Great Hall

1:45-2:45 p.m.
Oral Presentations: Session I

The Hidden World of Lake Champlain
Moderated by Visiting Assistant Professor of Geology Tom Manley
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 104
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

1:45- Hydrodynamic Processes of the Inland Sea of Lake Champlain: Charlotte Bemis ’09
2:00- Hydrodynamics of St. Alban’s Bay: Elgita Eglite ’09
2:15- Lake Champlain: Sub-Bottom Topography and Characterization of the Diamond Island Slump: Caitlin Wood ’09, Zachary Doleac ’12, Luke Eastman ’11, Spencer Ellis ’12, James Freeman ’11, Russell Griggs ’10, Diego Russell ’12, Maxwell Sinsheimer ’09

Managing the Earth’s Resources
Moderated by Assistant Director for CSO Marketing and Events Manager Tracy Himmel Isham
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 216
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

1:45- Faith and Activism: Christian Responses to Mountaintop Removal in Appalachia: Corinne Almquist ’09
2:00- Discovering the Faces of Diversity: Moria Robinson ’11
2:15- Resources and Regime Type: Variations in the Resource Curse in African States: Caitlin Maxwell ’09
2:30- Saving the Wild Cheetah: the Role of Reproductive Research, Genetics and Ecology in Conservation: Margo Hennet ’11

The Appropriation of Art
Moderated by Middlebury Museum of Art Chief Curator Emmie Donadio
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 219
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

1:45- Italian and/or Flemish: Antonello da Messina’s Artistic Sources Revisited: Nicole Conti ’09
2:00- The Mule Burst-All: Untranslation Theory and The Arabian Nights: Michael Nevadomski ’09
2:15- Postcolonial Primitivism: France’s Colonial Legacy at the Musee du Quai Branly: Ramona Richards ’09
2:30- An Imaginary Trip of Antonin Artaud to Bali: Ilinca Todorut ’09

Gods and Myths
Moderated by Professor C.A. Dana Professor of Italian Pat Zupan
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 220
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

1:45- The Influence of Lucretius’s On the Nature of the Universe on Sandro Botticelli’s Mythological Paintings: Elizabeth Hirsch ’11
2:00- Threadbare – An Excerpt from a New Play: Samantha Collier ’09
2:15- The Influence and Inspiration of Self-Baptism in the Acts of Paul and Thecla: Jacqueline Montagne ’09
2:30- The Mythology of Ancient Science: Morgan Peach ’09

Through the Lens of Food
Moderated by General Manager of Commons Operations Brad Koehler
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 303
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

1:45- Kitchen and the Community: Mallory Falk ’09, Aylie Baker ’09, Catherine McCarthy ’09
2:00- The Grocery Gap: Assessing Food Access in US Cities: Edward Kwasnik ’09
2:15- Chop Suey and Chicken Fingers: The Commodification of Chinese(ness) Through Food: Samuel Lazarus ’09

Celebrities Through the Ages
Moderated by Professor of Studio Art Eric Nelson
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 311
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

1:45- Cuerpo femenino, arte y memoria: Artistic and Literary Representations and Reinterpretations of Eva Peron: Ria Shroff ’09
2:00- “I am not the Catholic Candidate”: Local and Religious Issues in John Kennedy’s 1960 Campaign: Gregory McDermott ’09
2:15- Nero’s Masks: Truth and Theater in Tacitus’s Annals: Matthew Pincus ’11
2:30- Banksy’s Breakout Year: From Local Vandal to Global Celebrity: Alexander Benepe ’09

The Global Market
Moderated by Professor of Political Economy Peter Matthews
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 338
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

1:45- The Celtic Tigress: An Examination of Changing Normative Standards of Beauty in Dublin, Ireland Since the Celtic Tiger: Catherine Hylas ’09
2:00- Sueños y Realidades de los Trabajadores Ambulantes de Distrito Federal: Aakash Mohpal ’09
2:15- Neural Correlates of Strategy Choice in Economic Decision Making: Adrienne Taren ’09
2:30- Determinants of Migration and Remittances: Abigail Willman ’09

2:45-3:00 p.m.
Break
A capella music provided by the Bobolinks. Light refreshments will be available.
McCardell Bicentennial Hall Great Hall

3:00-3:45 p.m.
Poster Presentations
McCardell Bicentennial Hall Great Hall
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

  1. Oscillons in the Early Universe: Nasser Alidoust ’10
  2. Midd Computer Go: Ling Fang ’09, Bevan Barton ’10
  3. The Effect of Neurosteroids upon a Rat Model of Cognitive Flexibility as seen in Schizophrenia: Emer Feighery ’09
  4. Not Available Online: Sky Feuer ’09
  5. A Changing Landscape: A Look at the Past and Future of Farming in Vermont: Hillary Gerardi ’09
  6. Knowing Who and What to Believe: Epistemic Development during Adolescence: Kathryn Greis ’10, Amber Harris ’10, Torin Hayes ’09.5, Jonas Shoenefeld ’11
  7. The Effects of Testosterone and Social Isolation on Hippocampal Neurogenesis in the Adult Male Rat with Cell Survival Periods of 15 and 30 Days: William Inglis ’09
  8. The Role of the Insula in Cognitive Flexibility: Emily Jacobs ’09
  9. Active Sites through the Lens of an Analogous Model Complex: William Johnson ’09
  10. What Economics Students Think of the Economics Major: Steven Jones ’09
  11. Radical Intermediates in and Additions to Ruthenium and Chromium Polyene Complexes: Jesse Keenan ’09
  12. An Eye-Tracking Study of Attentional Biases in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Jennifer Kurland ’09
  13. The Effects of Cannabinoid System Blockade on Cognitive Flexibility in a Rat Model for Schizophrenia: Ashton Lehmann ’09
  14. An Exploration of the Ecological Health, History, and Management of Three Southern Appalachian Trout Rivers: Kelly March ’11, Connor Wood ’11
  15. Cognitive Effects of Glucose in the Rat Insular Cortex: Alison Mehravari ’10
  16. Growth and Opportunities in Renewable Energy: Christopher Mutty ’09, Charles Cavness ’09, Daniel Chow ’09
  17. Reciprocity, Emulation and the Spread of Collective Action: An Agent-Based Model: Yan Naung Oak ’09
  18. A Visual Discrimination Task Using Avoidance Learning in Octopus joubini: Nicholas Palmeri ’09, Alexa Warburton ’09
  19. Mechanism and Kinetics of the Oxidation of Purine Derivatives Coordinated to Platinum(IV) Complexes: Michelle Personick ’09
  20. Not Available Online: Nancy Pinnell ’09
  21. An Explosion in Three-Dimensions: Oxygen-rich Supernova Remnant G292.0+1.8: Adele Plunkett ’09
  22. Interactions of Bacteria with the Larval Mosquito Gut: Ruth Reinken ’10
  23. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Semantic Expectancy: An N400 Study: Cordelia Ross ’09
  24. A New Approach to Citizen Service: Rodrigo Seira ’11, Robert James Nicol ’11, Joshua Pincus ’10
  25. Elements of Rapport: Can Gaze Aversion Facilitate Recall in Young Children?: Madeleine Terry ’09
  26. Comparing Strategies to Reduce the Social Misinformation Effect: Julia Tomasko ’09
  27. Local Hydrogen Production: Matthew Vaughan ’09
  28. Modeling Color Changes between Cameras using a Large Database of Registered Images: Scott Wehrwein ’10, Kelvin Gorekore ’10
  29. Independent Study in Operating Systems Implementation: Scott Wehrwein ’10, David Fouhey ’11
  30. Tools for Image Alignment, Panoramas, and Computer Vision Algorithm Evaluation: David Fouhey ’11, Toby Norden ’10
  31. The Effects of Testosterone Dose on Spatial Learning and Memory in Male Rats: Karle Wisdom ’09
  32. Producing Hydrogen Using Pedal Power (the Hydrobike Project): Nathaniel Woods ’11, Chester Curme ’11, Addison Godine ’11

3:45-4:45 p.m.
Oral Presentations: Session II

Social and Ecological Issues: Vermont
Moderated by Symposium Keynote Speaker Cinda Scott, Ph.D.
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 104
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

3:45- The Role of Social Networks in the Migration Flow from Mexico to Addison County: Rodrigo Dominguez Villegas ’09
4:00- Assessing the Impact of the Addison County Parent Child Center on its Clients’ Lives: Kristin Haas ’11, Christopher Hassig ’09
4:15- Use of Winter Roost Trees by Southern Flying Squirrels (Glaucomys volans) in an Old-growth Forest: Robert Tuttle ’09
4:30- Maple from the Ground Up: The Role of Place in Distinguishing Sap: Caitlin Wood ’10, Clare Crosby ’09, Zachary Doleac ’12

Fighting Disease
Moderated by Assistant Professor of Biology Catherine Combelles
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 216
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

3:45- Feeding the Disease: Putting Cancer and Nutrition in the Early-Twentieth Century into Historical Perspective: Joshua Wessler ’09
4:00- Investigation of Cisplatin and Oxaliplatin Resistance in Human Cervical Cancer Cells Using Microarray Analysis of Gene Transcription: Benjamin Fowler ’09
4:15- Male Circumcision in Swaziland as an HIV/AIDS Prevention Strategy: Amer Dastgir ’10
4:30- One Year Readmission in ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Transfer Patients: Danielle Kruse ’11


Creativity, Transformation and Communication
Moderated by Visiting Lecturer in Theatre Dana Yeaton
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 219
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

3:45- Transforming Alessandro Baricco’s Novecento: From an Italian Narrative Monologue to a Five-actor Movement-oriented Piece in English: Nerina Cocchi ’10
4:00- Orchestral Conducting: Confessions of a Fledgling Conductor: Hannah Rommer ’08.5
4:15- Living with Pasternak: The Resurrection of a Russian Poet: Andrew McDonald ’10.5
4:30- Boiling Water, Stepping Stone: Pooja Shahani ’08

Let’s Talk About Sex
Moderated by Assistant Professor of Psychology Kim Cronise
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 220
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

3:45- What’s In a Name?: A Study of Sexual Deviance in the Tres Riches Heures: Ari Gimbel ’09
4:00- Love Bites: The Sexual Evolution of the Vampire in Literature: Teresa Jauregui ’09
4:15- Stripped Down and Laid Out: A Study of Self-Perceptions and Social Portrayals of Erotic Dancers: Tiffany Orlowski ’09

Exploring Immigration: Paths and Patterns
Moderated by Professor of Geography Guntram Herb
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 303
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

3:45- A Survey of the Impact of Migrants’ Remittances in Southern Ecuador and Rural El Salvador: Jessica Clayton ’09,
4:00- One Was, as the Crow Flies, about 2,000 km Away But From Where? Representation of Truth in W.G. Sebald’s The Emigrants: Elizabeth Gordon ’09
4:15- College “Choice”: Russian Jewish Immigrant Youths’ Negotiation of the American College Selection Process: Alina Levina ’09
4:30- One Man’s Hope is Another’s Profit: Re-Examining the Palatine Immigration to London in 1709: Andrew Ruoss ’10

Manifestations of Faith
Moderated by Chaplain Laurie Jordan
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 311
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

3:45- An Analysis of the Role of Congregations in the Social Engagement of Senior Adults: Brittany Burnett ’09
4:00- In Perpetual Sacrifice, Mary the Human Mother of All: Alicia Danze ’11
4:15- Islamic Finance-Contributing Factors and Economic Repercussions: Daniela Fiedler ’09
4:30- Visual Theology in Sixteenth-Century Russia: The Icon of the Virgin of the Burning Bush: Susanna Merrill ’09

Perspectives on Death
Moderated by Assistant Professor of Religion Elizabeth Morrison
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 338
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

3:45- Death in Holbein’s Ambassadors: a New Perspective: Dorothy Mitchell ’09
4:00- A Good Death: How Hospice Cultivates and Teaches Emotion Management: Hannah Rabinovitch ’09
4:15- Visions of Life, Death, and Desire: The Myths of Inanna and Persephone: Joseph Stern ’11
4:30- The Verdict of 50,000,000: James Garfield’s Assassination and American Memory: Connor Williams ’09

4:45-5:00 p.m.
Break II
A capella music provided by the Mountain Ayers. Light refreshments will be available.
McCardell Bicentennial Hall Great Hall

5:00-6:00 p.m.
Oral Presentations: Session III

The Development and Reflection of Identity
Moderated by Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women’s and Gender Study Laurie Essig
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 104
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

5:00- Mirrors of Myth: The Gendered Use of Mirrors in Modern and Contemporary Poetry: Emily Asher ’09
5:15- Early Skirmishes in the Culture War: Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality in the Transgender Movement: Kelly Janis ’10
5:30- Still Connected?: A Longitudinal Analysis of Parental Communication during Emerging Adulthood: Catherine Timmins ’09
5:45- Redirecting Social Change: Intersections of Multiculturalism and Sexual Diversity in Contemporary Japan: Mohammed Shoushi ’09

Place and Space
Moderated by C.A. Johnson Professor of Art Glenn Andres
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 216
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

5:00- The Syntax of Space: Sign Language Verb Agreement: Charles Bradley ’09
5:15- Developing a New Metric for Open Space Accessibility: Considerations for Urban Planners: Leah Skahen ’09
5:30- Yina Ng ’09 and Simon Thomas-Train ’09 in Concert

Nature, Aesthetics, and the Structure of Spacetime
Moderated by Assistant Professor of Physics Noah Graham
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 219
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

5:00- Rachel Carson, Wendell Berry, Henry David Thoreau: Discerning the Ideal Relationship with Nature: Rosalind Chaplin ’09
5:15- An investigation of Kant’s a priori principle of taste: Peter DeGolia ’11
5:30- A Mysterious Paradox in Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity: Garrett Reynolds ’09
5:45- Carbon Nanotubes: Conductance and Insulating Layers: Evan Mikkelson ’09

How, Where and What We Teach
Moderated by Assistant Professor of Education Jonathan Miller-Lane
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 220
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

5:00- A Road toward Peace: Education for Peace-building in Southern Thailand: Saijai Liangpunsakul ’12
5:15- Three Schools, Three Outcomes: A Comparison of the Students’ Army Training Corps at Middlebury, Dartmouth, and the University of Vermont: Benjamin Robins ’09
5:30- Direct-to-Consumer Pharmaceutical Advertising and its Effects on Teenage Sexual Behavior: Leah Shackleton ’09
5:45- Separate and Approaching Equal: A View of the Evolving Black Experience in U.S. History Textbooks: Katherine Sparkes ’09

Advances in Health Research
Moderated by Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Roger Sandwick
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 303
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

5:00- Understanding the Function and Timing of CCNB1IP1, a Putative E3 Ubiquitin Ligase Necessary for Meiosis and Fertility in Mice: Jeffrey Cloutier ’09
5:15- Investigating a Role for Sensory Neuron Cell Death and Hyperexcitability in Experimental Colitis: Carson Cornbrooks ’11
5:30- Alcohol Tolerance: Drinking Talent or a Drink Preference?: Kazya Lee ’10
5:45- Investigating SloR Control of Virulence in Streptococcus Mutans, the Primary Causative Agent of Dental Cavities: Kevin O’Rourke ’09, Whitney Hendrickson ’09

War and Peace
Moderated by C.A. Johnson Fellow in Political Philosophy Kateri Carmola
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 311
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

5:00- Becoming a “Good Neighbor”: The Revolution in U.S. Latin American Policy Between 1928 and 1936: John Allen ’11
5:15- Exploring an Economic Rationale for the Union for the Mediterranean: Jennie Goldstein ’09
5:30- Rebuilding Your State – UN Transitional Administrations: Micah Macfarlane ’09
5:45- Order and Ideals: Coping with Desolation in the Fiction of Zhang Ailing (1920-1995): Elizabeth Pogust ’09

Creating History from Memory
Moderated by Associate Professor of History of Art and Architecture Pieter Broucke
McCardell Bicentennial Hall 338
Click here for abstract descriptions of each of these presentations.

5:00- In the Shadow of the Huacas: Moche Archaeology in Peru: Elissa Bullion ’10
5:15- The Right to Memory and Truth: Evaluating Brazil’s 2007 Truth Commission Report: Elizabeth Herron-Sweet ’09
5:30- The Prince and the Painter: Comparative Ethnography on the Upper Missouri: Alec Weltzien ’09
5:45- Collected Memory, Collective Memory: Italy’s Present-day Remembrance of its Fascist Past: Marie Horbar ’09

6:00-7:00 p.m.
Spring Symposium Reception
All members of the Middlebury community and Symposium guests are warmly invited to join us for a celebratory reception.
Great Hall, McCardell Bicentennial Hall

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