Student Research Projects

Staying Community-Minded
Pachida Lo

Leading to Something Bigger
Kaitlin Frasier

Having the Best of Two Worlds
Lisa Deskin

Giving Significance
Matthew Beck

Inspiring Awe
Marcia Whittaker

All URISC Funded Projects

Staying Community-Minded

As Pachida Lo concentrates on an academic path in the health sciences, she has kept her community of Hmong immigrants in mind. “I want to help them, especially people who may not be getting the health care they need.” Lo recently earned her Bachelors degree in Bioresource Research Interdisciplinary Sciences, with a Toxicology option. She is now entering the OSU Masters program in Public Health for Health Management Policy, and she will be applying for medical school.

“I’d like to go into primary care - that’s where I think I can do the most good,” she says. “Some Hmong people won’t go to a specialist; they don’t understand this system. I want to be able to help persuade them.”

She says that her Honors College senior thesis, titled Determination of Flavin-containing Monooxygenase Message Levels and Distribution in Mouse Lung and Liver, is related to that long-term goal. “It concerns racial and ethnic minorities and health disparities.”
She adds, “It involved a wide array of techniques. And it was fun.”

Lo’s project was supported by a URISC grant in the winter of 2005, when she was a junior. “The funding purchased the mice I needed, and some of the chemicals. And the grant application process gave me insights and experience with applying. Also, like in real-life research, I was expected to give progress reports. URISC helped me quite a bit.”

Her faculty mentors were David E.Williams and Sharon K. Krueger.

Leading to Something Bigger

Right before her graduation, Kaitlin Frasier said that one research project “definitely defined” her undergraduate experience. And that the Undergraduate Research, Innovation, Scholarship, and Creativity (URISC) award she received when she was a sophomore enabled her to get it started right.

Frasier, an Honors College student, was working with faculty mentor Virginia Weis and graduate students, and just discovering the “real world” of research, when URISC provided funds for what became her long-term project. The grant enabled her preparation to go into the field in Panama for three-months. “I came back with hundreds of thousands of larvae.” She said, “Then I spent a year counting larvae! And another year analyzing the data.”

The result was Frasier’s senior thesis, “Impacts of Mangrove Conditions on Zooplankton Communities.” As a senior, she presented the thesis at the Western Society of Naturalists Meeting, and it is the basis of a paper she is coauthoring with an OSU graduate student.

“As a freshman, I didn’t know Marine Biology was my thing. I responded to an ad to help a grad student in Marine Biology, and that took me on a trajectory. I moved from grad student to grad student doing research.”

As a senior, Frasier dived in even more through a resident course at OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center, studying sea urchins.

Will she return to zooplankton? “I’ve had it with microscopes!," Frasier says. "I would like to work with something bigger.” Having completed her biology major with an international degree, she hopes to travel to the Himalayas, and then something bigger may include using her background to make contributions in “ecology, NGOs [ non-governmental organizations], and policy change.”

Having the Best of Two Worlds

Lisa Deskin, senior in Bioresource Research, says: I have the best of both worlds – I trek to beautiful Mary’s Peak once a month to collect noble fir samples, and I get to perform experiments on them myself, using state-of-the-art equipment that most undergraduate students are never even allowed to touch. I am conducting a two-year research project that may affect global regulations regarding the use of many pesticides and manufacturing processes, and will serve as an indication of global pollution trends ( http://oregonstate.edu/~simonics/research.htm).

With the financial support of a URISC grant for Winter/Spring 2004, I have developed a method to analyze the chemicals deposited on noble fir needles that have traveled from continental Asia. I competitively presented the results of this process at the 19th Annual Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences Career Fair and Training Conference (http://www.manrrs.org/).

These experiences prepared me for an exciting job when I graduate and give me valuable skills that I can apply while seeking my graduate degree. Plus, they make all of my classes more interesting as I can apply them to real-world scenarios!

see Lisa's program

Giving Significance

Matt J. Beck's objective was to develop a mesoscale heat engine that could be used to generate electricity for portable electronics.

He says, "Without URISC this project would have been nothing more than a few ideas scratched out on the back of some homework assignments. Not only has this project allowed me to experience all levels of the research process . . . but it has done so while allowing me to become well versed in an area in which I have a great deal of interest.

"While the classroom is good at teaching engineering principles, a project like this gives those principles some real significance. Working with a knowledgeable mentor has helped me solidify my understanding of these principles . . .

"My mentor . . . was extremely helpful in getting me through what I needed to know while at the same time sparking my curiosity to learn more."

see Matt's report

Inspiring Awe

Marcia Whittaker, senior in nuclear engineering, testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Science that a NASA research project was "life-changing" and "awe-inspiring."
see articles: NASA Experience and Space Technology