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| SVSU Students Demonstrate Outstanding Research and Creativity |
| Students at Saginaw Valley State University are undertaking ambitious projects to build autonomous vehicles and self-playing guitars, and to research topics such as aircraft crashes and college anxiety. In all, seven projects involving 10 students have been selected to receive funding through SVSU’s Student Research and Creativity Institute. Any SVSU student may submit a proposal to receive financial support for his/her research or other creative endeavors. Each student project is eligible to receive up to $10,000. All student submissions must be sponsored by an SVSU faculty or staff member. Students serve as the primary researcher, author, or creative agent for each project but are guided by SVSU faculty and staff. The following students were selected to receive funding for their projects: • Madison Bangert, a biology/pre-med major from Midland, was awarded $1,533 to travel to a joint conference of the American Culture and Popular Culture associations where she will present her analysis of gender roles in the postfeminist film “Shaun of the Dead.” The conference will be held in San Francisco in March 2008. In his letter of support, SVSU associate professor of communication Rob Drew wrote that Bangert’s paper is “an exercise in feminist film criticism that considers the popular comedy-horror film ‘Shaun of the Dead’ as a representation of how ideals of masculinity are changing along with those of femininity.” Drew added that her written work “has been consistently high in quality” and that the biology/pre-med major “is as competent and passionate in her scientific studies as in her cultural studies.” • Electrical engineering major Ryan Essenmacher of Shelby Township will receive $8,336 to lead a team of students in developing an autonomous vehicle for competition at the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition at Oakland University in May 2008. It marks the first time SVSU electrical engineering and computer science students have engaged in such a national competition. For the past four years, Essenmacher has been an active member of SVSU’s Cardinal Formula Racing Team, which annually designs and builds an indy-style race car for competition. Autonomous vehicles are used for defense purposes to scout the perimeter, and robotic vehicles aid public safety personnel in search and rescue efforts. In the near future, the automotive industry envisions vehicles that will literally drive themselves, reducing crashes. In his letter of support, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering Russ Clark wrote that “the multi-disciplinary aspect of the team will help ensure the success of the project.” Brooks Byam, associate professor of mechanical engineering, noted that Essenmacher’s proposal added a new dimension to the project because “there is a big difference between concept to completion and concept to competition.” Byam added that the competition is run by a consortium that includes General Motors and the Department of Defense, among others. • Nathan Hepworth, a history major from Standish, was awarded $1,489 to travel to the British Museum Library to study original documents and further his research on Irish-English relations. Hepworth spent much of his childhood in Ireland where, he observed, “most Irish can tell you what they dislike about England, but very few know when this attitude originated, or why.” In his letter of support, SVSU professor of history Robert Braddock said he has come to know Hepworth as a “promising scholar.” Braddock explained that historians often must consult original manuscripts to gain a more complete understanding of their subject matter. “Calendars and abstracts rarely tell the researcher precisely what he needs to know and, therefore, only by looking at the original letters and memoranda can he confidently support his conclusions,” he said. • Psychology majors Kaitlin Herzog of Saginaw (48602) and Ashley Schafer of Westphalia will receive $950 for travel to the Midwestern Psychology Association conference to present their research on the role of coping strategies on stress and academic engagement. The pair plan to enlist about 100 SVSU students as research subjects to see how they cope with stress and how it affects their academic performance. Previous studies have looked at this within the Chinese population, but little research has been done in Western cultures. In her letter of support, SVSU associate professor of psychology Ranjana Dutta stated “this team is well prepared for their first attempt at genuine research as undergraduate psychology majors,” adding that she has taught both of them in class and their “performance has been excellent.” Dutta stressed that the project “has been researched and designed entirely by Kaitlin and Ashley” and “is a topic of obvious relevance to them as college students.” • A team of three electrical engineering students from Ontario was awarded $6,524 to develop a self-playing acoustic guitar. Kevin Moore of Sarnia, Sasha Lucic of Milton and Andrew Cairns of Seaforth say they have found nothing like their design in the marketplace. They intend to create a prototype that will use mechanical and electrical circuitry to manipulate the guitar while writing computer programs to tell the instrument what to play. In his letter of support, SVSU associate professor of electrical and computer engineering Russ Clark said the project possesses a “wow factor.” Because “effective engineering teams most often are interdisciplinary,” he added that this project “will demonstrate the interaction between engineering and fields that most people feel have no relation to engineering, in this case music.” • Steve Richey will receive $9,700 to study reports of fatal private aircraft crashes in the U.S. and compile a database in a readily accessible format for researchers to answer questions regarding the causes, circumstances or effects of crashes. A native of Terre Haute, Ind. who served as a respiratory therapist in the U.S. Air Force and now resides on SVSU’s campus, Richey intends to obtain more than 2,500 reports and record up to 250 points of data from each. He hopes his efforts will “aid in the development of safer aircraft through improvements in crashworthiness and the development of technologies to avoid common issues that might be identified.” In his letter of support, Frank Dane, the Finkbeiner Endowed Chair in Ethics and Public Policy at SVSU, admits building such a database is a “very ambitious project,” but Dane is convinced Richey will be able to complete it because he “is very competent with respect to gathering and categorizing large amounts of information.” Dane worked with Richey on a previous study and said he “identified and obtained copies of hundreds of articles and did so much more quickly than any student with whom I’ve worked in my 30-year career.” In a second letter of support, Guohua Li, the Finster Chair in Anesthesiology and Epidemiology at Columbia University Medical Center, said Richey has impressed him “with his maturity, thoughtfulness and perseverance.” Li has a documented research interest in fatal air crashes; he pledged to assist Richey in any way possible and recommends the project “with enthusiasm.” • Joshua Urbain, a computer science major from St. Charles, was awarded $6,482 for his research study on artificial intelligence and distributed computing, which uses the processing power of multiple computers to work on complex tasks. He proposes to develop an expert system that would advise SVSU students and provide them with recommendations on what courses to take. Urbain sees potential for this project to “reduce the price of doing artificial intelligence projects as well as speed them up in an efficient way.” In his letter of support, SVSU professor of computer science Morteza Marzjarani described Urbain as a “hard-working individual” who takes his responsibilities “very seriously.” He added that as a student, Urbain has “performed at a high level” and has “demonstrated outstanding leadership in class.” Winning Student Research and Creativity Institute proposals were chosen through a competitive selection process. The selection committee includes at least one representative from each of SVSU’s five colleges. Carlos Ramet, executive assistant to the president, serves as coordinator of the program. Other current committee members are: • William Barnes, assistant professor of art • Joni Boye-Beaman, professor of sociology and interim assistant dean of the College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences • Brooks Byam, associate professor of mechanical engineering • Holly Child, assistant professor of criminal justice • Andrew Chubb, associate professor of chemistry • Daniel Cook, assistant professor of English • Frank Dane, Finkbeiner Endowed Chair in Ethics and Public Policy • Sally Decker, professor of nursing • Josh Ode, assistant professor of kinesiology • Joseph Ofori-Dankwa, professor of management and marketing • Danilo Sirias, associate professor of management and marketing • Stephen Taber, associate professor of biology • Lee Trepanier, assistant professor of political science • Robert Tuttle, assistant professor of mechanical engineering SVSU has committed $50,000 annually to fund outstanding student projects. For more information, visit www.svsu.edu/srci. |
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