{"id":29175,"date":"2019-04-25T08:36:36","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T12:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=29175"},"modified":"2024-07-02T17:10:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T17:10:58","slug":"20-years-undergrad-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=29175","title":{"rendered":"20 years of celebrating undergraduate research"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Celebration of Undergraduate Research is a research symposium held at UNC-Chapel Hill each April. This year’s celebration, which also included a making expo, was held at the Blue Zone in Kenan Stadium. (photo by Kristen Chavez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Carolina\u2019s undergraduate students are making meaningful contributions to research every day, and their work was on full display at the 20th annual Undergraduate Research and Making Expo on April 24.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

When Rawan Ajeen was young, she didn\u2019t see herself in the research world. Researchers, she thought, didn\u2019t look like her \u2014 at least not in the posters that hung on the walls of her science classrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re young, you\u2019re taught that a researcher is someone like Einstein or Newton \u2014 those kinds of figures,\u201d she said. \u201cI never really viewed research as an area I could contribute to.\u201d<\/p>\n

That changed when she came to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she found a community that challenged the stereotype of what a scientist looks like. Now a senior majoring in nutrition and psychology, Ajeen was among nearly 300 students who presented their research findings or makerspace creations at Carolina\u2019s 20th<\/sup> annual Undergraduate Research and Making Expo on April 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really connected and related with the research community here early on, and before that, I didn\u2019t see a space for me in this community,\u201d she said. \u201cI found a way for my research to reflect me as a person and my interests and passions, and now being able to present it, I view it as a platform for bigger conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Ajeen\u2019s research examined our psychological responses to food and dieting, other projects explored everything from the effects of sleep deprivation on college students\u2019 heart health to the impact of community resources on resilience after a natural disaster.<\/p>\n

Troy Blackburn, associate dean of undergraduate research in the College of Arts & Sciences, said the range of projects shows that any student can get involved in research at Carolina.<\/p>\n

\"Rawan
Rawan Ajeen presents her work at the annual Undergraduate Research and Making Expo (photo by Jon Gardiner\/UNC-Chapel Hill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOne of our main goals is to get the message out there that any student on campus who has an interest can do research,\u201d he said. \u201cThe students here today are from many disciplines and all GPA levels, all walks of life. We\u2019ve got everyone from English and comparative literature to biochemistry and biophysics, and they\u2019re all impressive. They\u2019re fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Ajeen prepares to graduate and plans to explore research in graduate school, Kenan Poole, a first-year computer science student, is just getting started.<\/p>\n

As part of a geology 101 class, Poole designed and conducted an experiment \u2014 his first \u2014 on strategies for finding clean ground water. He also used Carolina\u2019s makerspaces to create custom containers to test water filtration with different types of rock.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t currently plan to pursue a career in research, but the project has already changed the way he thinks about his own education.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really cool that they introduced this research aspect so early because research feels so much more accessible to me now,\u201d he said. \u201cEven as undergraduates, and even as beginners, we\u2019re still able to do meaningful research.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Emilie Poplett, University Communications<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carolina\u2019s undergraduate students are making meaningful contributions to research every day, and their work was on full display at the 20th annual Undergraduate Research and Making Expo on April 24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":29176,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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