2011 Earth sciences colloquium a success

Undergraduate science and engineering students gain experience presenting research

By Amanda Beck
Senior Communications Specialist

Researchers from the College of Sciences hosted the annual Minority Opportunities for Research Experience in Earth Science and Environmental Engineering (MORESE) on Friday, Sept. 23, 2011, in the Loeffler Room in the Biosciences Building on the Main Campus.

The MORESE is a three-year grant funded by the U. S. Department of Education designed to provide research and field experiences for minority undergraduates majoring in geology, environmental science and engineering. The three co-primary investigators on the interdisciplinary grant are Dr. Hongjie Xie and Dr. Lance Lambert from the Department of Geological Sciences, and Dr. Hatim Sharif from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

“It is important for us to support undergraduate research at every opportunity we have,” said George Perry, dean of the College of Sciences. “The students learn by doing, and faculty have an opportunity to teach in a new way.”

The colloquium is just one of the events supported by the MORESE grant, and it addresses the goal of providing students with an opportunity to work closely with a professional advisor on a specific research topic.

 Seventeen presentations—half as oral presentations, half as poster presentations by students, 14 of whom are supported by the MORESE grant. Research topics ranged from geology to environmental science to civil engineering. Six graduate students served as judges to evaluate the presentations based on overall quality of the talk, and professionalism of the speaker. Each of the six winners received a cash prize. The winners were:

First place

·         Ben Cardenas, oral presentation, Seasonal changes in albedo and frost coverage in the Martian crater Louth

·         April Escamilla, poster presentation, The effect of Bacillus subtilis and cell fraction additives as a method to improve cement strength

Second place

·         Francisco Cantu, oral presentation, Innovative Beam-to-Column Joint Design of Fixed Moment Resisting Steel Frames for Seismic Areas

·         Anthony Arricale, poster presentation, The Analysis of Lake Level and Temperature Variation in the Great Salt Lake using ICESat, MODIS, and In-Situ Data

Third place

·         Marcus Garcia, oral presentation, Chaetetes Modeling and Flow Calculations

·         Marvin Lopez, poster presentation, Defining an Undescribed Species of Ammonoid to be either Demarazites or Waagenoceras