Undergraduate Research Symposium held at Penn State Lehigh Valley

More than 110 students, faculty and staff attended the Undergraduate Research Symposium on April 5 at Penn State Lehigh Valley. The Undergraduate Research Symposium allowed students to present their research before a panel of judges and fellow students, faculty, staff and the community. The judges awarded first, second and third place honors to projects featured in the Arts, Humanities, Business, and Social and Behavioral Sciences, STEM and Information Literacy categories.

David Livert, associate professor of psychology at Penn State Lehigh Valley, was the featured keynote speaker. Livert presented “Avoiding Flying Pots, Flames and Knives: How a Social Psychologist Studies the Dynamics of Professional Kitchens.” Livert shared his insights and research findings as a social psychologist. He discussed people’s behavior in the professional kitchen, and how their actions are shaped by social settings.

“All of these student chefs came into this not knowing anyone, which made it a great place to do research,” Livert said about his research at the Culinary Institute of America in New York. “Emotional Intelligence is the ability to recognize people’s emotions, predict them and then regulate your own. One way we measured this was by giving them a situational judgment task.”

Twenty-nine students submitted research projects. The projects that won include:

ARTS, HUMANITIES, BUSINESS, AND SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES-- These awards recognize excellence in poster content, poster display, oral presentation, creativity, and critical thought in the arts, humanities, business, and social & behavioral sciences subject areas.

• First place - Erica Hughes, Isabella Hanna, Jermaine Jones, Amia Luu, Maria Mahfoud, Kelly McNally, Rebecca Senior, Nicole Stopper, Sean Mcginley, Brian Perch, Kerry Huzzard, “The Opioid Crisis and the Ripple Effects: Secondary Exposures Among College Students” (Faculty mentor: Jennifer Parker)
• Second place - Brian Perch & Nicole Stopper, “Atul Gawande’s Chance to Improve American Healthcare” (Faculty mentor: Anita Yuskauskas)
• Third place - Rana Moawad, “Examining the Effectiveness Stricter Fast Food Advertisement Regulations Have on Decreasing the Obesity Epidemic in the United States” (Faculty mentor: Anita Yuskauskas)

STEM - These awards recognize excellence in poster content, poster display, oral presentation, creativity, and critical thought in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics subject areas.

• First place – Leo Liang, “CPU Utilization of Programming Paradigms in Multiple Languages” (Faculty mentor: Richard Martin)
• Second place - Abby Ward, Dayana Delgado, & Rana Moawad, Impacts of Scenedesmus obliquus and Neritina reclivata on Cellular Respiration and Photosynthesis (Faculty mentor: Karen Kackley)
• Third place (tie) – Chad Schaeffer & Christopher Trapp, Engineering Mechanics of Connecting Rods (Faculty mentor: Tracey Carbonetto)
• Third place (tie) – Angelo Sesma & Brian Tang, Mobile Battery Consumption of Various Programming Paradigms (Faculty mentor: Richard Martin)

The University Libraries Undergraduate Research Award: Excellence in Information Literacy recognizes scholarly work based on a foundation of careful background research & literature review. The award is given to entries that demonstrate excellence in information literacy through the following areas: research process and strategies, source selection, source integration, citations, and social, ethical, or economic considerations in accessing information.

• First place - Erica Hughes, Isabella Hanna, Jermaine Jones, Amia Luu, Maria Mahfoud, Kelly McNally, Rebecca Senior, Nicole Stopper, Sean Mcginley, Brian Perch, Kerry Huzzard, “The Opioid Crisis and the Ripple Effects: Secondary Exposures Among College Students” (Faculty mentor: Jennifer Parker)
• Second place – Rana Moawad, “Examining the Effectiveness Stricter Fast Food Advertisement Regulations Have on Decreasing the Obesity Epidemic in the United States” (Faculty mentor: Anita Yuskauskas)
• Third place – Brian Perch & Nicole Stopper, “Atul Gawande’s Chance to Improve American Healthcare” (Faculty mentor: Anita Yuskauskas)

The Planning Team consisted of Tracey Carbonetto, Jen Jarson, Michelle Kaschak and Maryam Kiani. The winners will present their work at the annual Penn State Regional Undergraduate Research Symposium, which will be held at Penn State Hazleton this year on April 18.