{"id":211170,"date":"2023-05-01T14:43:35","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T18:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/?p=211170"},"modified":"2023-08-15T08:55:25","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T12:55:25","slug":"innovative-research-takes-center-stage-at-student-research-symposium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/2023\/05\/01\/innovative-research-takes-center-stage-at-student-research-symposium\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovative Research Takes Center Stage at Student Research Symposium"},"content":{"rendered":"

From exploring the impact of climate change and human influence on soil formation to examining real-world applications of mathematics in education, Montclair State University\u2019s annual Student Research Symposium featured nearly 200 undergraduate and graduate student projects spanning a diverse range of disciplines.<\/p>\n

The students presented their research in four poster presentation sessions that provided students the opportunity to showcase their research questions, methods and conclusions on Wednesday, April 26 in the University Hall Conference Center.<\/p>\n

The event was attended by students, faculty and members of the surrounding communities, including a high school class field trip aimed at getting a glimpse into the cutting-edge research being conducted by Montclair students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea behind this event is to create a venue where people can see the great work students are producing and a way to sort of maximize what the University does naturally to help students develop more skills that they\u2019ll take on with them,\u201d says Jessica Brandt, the associate dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and one of the event\u2019s organizers.<\/p>\n

\"President
President Jonathan Koppell (in photos above and below) delivers a welcoming address, touting the exceptional student research at the symposium.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"President
President Jonathan Koppell delivers a welcoming address.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In his welcoming address, President Jonathan Koppell commended the students for their exceptional work and emphasized the importance of research in advancing knowledge and driving innovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point of today is to underscore how the learning experience that involves inquiry, that involves the creation of models for the testing of hypotheses, is qualitatively different than one that doesn\u2019t include those opportunities. Students who are involved in the production of models or in the process of an inquiry gain an insight into the world that is enormously valuable,\u201d he said during his remarks. \u201cI\u2019m excited to see the students here who are clearly engaged in work that\u2019s interesting and exciting to them and that they\u2019re going to join the community of those creating knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The symposium, sponsored by the Office of Research, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, College of Science and Mathematics and the College of Education and Human Services, also featured a line of table booths to assist students with their research and answer their questions.<\/p>\n

\"A
A student presents her research on Sudoku in the context of Graph Theory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Students appreciated the opportunity to showcase their work and engage with other researchers. For John Eakley, a senior Biochemistry major, the opportunity to showcase his research in Organic Chemistry gave him the experience he needs for his professional career aspirations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis opportunity gives me more practice in public speaking and educating other audiences, and also if something\u2019s pretty complex, I could break it down. So someone who\u2019s not science-oriented could still process what I\u2019m talking about which will help my goal of being a physician. So most of my patients might not know how medicine works, but I want to be able to articulate in a way for them to understand their prognoses, and to me, that\u2019s why this is also important in the learning experience,\u201d Eakley said at the event.<\/p>\n

Carly DeLucca, a senior majoring in Sustainability Studies, presented her research on locating urban heat islands in Montclair and her proposal for mitigation techniques for combating them. DeLucca said this research opportunity helped her prepare for her future career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis opportunity will help me be a better researcher essentially,\u201d DeLucca said. \u201cIt definitely helps me present my research and gather all my future findings into a more cohesive way that I could tell people about in a way that makes sense. \u201d<\/p>\n

For Michaela Forbes, a senior studying Environmental Science, the research symposium was a great end to her senior year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time I\u2019ve done research by myself with the help of a mentor before so that was a really good experience and then also just being able to conclude my time here and to present well, I think will help me in the future,\u201d Forbes said.<\/p>\n

Geena Taite, a doctoral student in the Mathematics Education program and a full-time high school mathematics teacher, focused her research on improving how applications of mathematics are taught in schools by providing more professional development in math modeling. Taite was joined by her fellow high school mathematics students who came to gain some insight into research at the undergraduate and graduate level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis event is definitely good to get some practice runs of presenting in front of other people in developing those kinds of communication skills and also having other people hear about your research and their wonderings about all the details of the research,\u201d Taite said. \u201cWhen I found out about this research symposium from my advisor, my research team and I decided it would be a great idea to be able to share our research with the Montclair community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Graduate
.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To conclude the event, Brandt expressed what she hoped the student researchers received from the symposium.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope they take away a sense of confidence in the work that they do and learn how to take ownership of a project with the confidence to present it to other people. And for some of the students who are working with faculty and working with other teams, learn that skill of what it is to be a part of a team that produces a particular project which you have to then present to others who might not know anything about it,\u201d Brandt said. \u201cAnd maybe for some of them, a spark to continue to do research or think of ways to apply what they\u2019ve done in the community and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

More information on the research symposium and list of attendees (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo Gallery<\/h2>\n

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Story by Rosaria Lo Presti. Photos by John J. LaRosa.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From exploring the impact of climate change and human influence on soil formation to examining real-world applications of mathematics in education, Montclair State University\u2019s annual Student Research Symposium featured nearly 200 undergraduate and graduate student projects spanning a diverse range of disciplines. The students presented their research in four poster presentation sessions that provided students […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":357,"featured_media":211171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,23,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-20_chss-news","category-7_homepage-news-and-events","category-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/357"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211170"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211201,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211170\/revisions\/211201"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/chss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}