Andrea Diaz
Reporter
Research is a tool that not only helps students get a good grade, but it also helps our society discover and learn things we otherwise might not have known. The undergraduate symposium is an event that allows Idaho State University undergraduate students to showcase their findings through the form of posters that they can present to others at ISU.
Students have mainly presented their work on posters, however, any major that has other ways of presenting their research, other than posters is encouraged to present and involve themselves in the symposium. All undergraduate students are able to participate.
This year is a little different as it will be an online event instead of an in-person one, due to COVID-19. “When we can do it in person there is a real festive air about it. Online is not quite as exciting,” said Assistant Vice President for Research, Deb Easterly, a doctorate in educational leadership.
There has been a variety of topics that have been presented this year on ISU’s symposium website. One topic, in particular, came from the Mechanical Engineering department about “Automating Predictive Maintenance” by undergraduate students: Andrew Christiansen, Avery Conlin, Safal Lama, Marco Schoen, Mary Hofle, Anish Sebastian, Omid Heidari, Kellie Wilson, Isaac Griffith, and Paul Bodily. According to the abstract of the presentation, their purpose for this research is to, “To keep these systems operating efficiently and with low energy consumption, maintenance needs must be diagnosed and met early on. We intend to develop a predictive maintenance platform to aid in such efforts.”
Another topic was “An Empirical Test of LDS Clients’ Preferences for Religious Self-Disclosure by Therapists” by Joshua Swift, Julie Spencer, and Trinety Campbell. According to the presentation’s abstract the main focus of this research topic was because “There is little research, and therefore a growing need, regarding the experiences and preferences of religious persons in psychotherapy. This study examined psychotherapy clients’ (N = 45) opinions regarding therapists’ self-disclosures (TSD) about their religious beliefs.”
Any department is encouraged to join and the variety of topics brings about many interesting concepts that different students are interested in and encourages them to collaborate with others.
When asked about why this event is important Easterly said, “Students can share their work with their peers and with faculty on campus. It gives them an opportunity to practice before they go to symposia off-campus, in their disciplines. They have the opportunity to talk with others who might be interested in their research. They may find opportunities to collaborate with other students and faculty on campus.”
The symposium is already over, thus students can no longer view the posters and presentations, however posters from last year and other resources such as the 2020 undergraduate research booklet, how to contact the students and the 2020 awards announcements are available at this link: www.isu.edu/research/undergraduate-symposium
