Case Western Reserve University will celebrate undergraduate research and creative projects at Intersections: Symposium and Poster Session Friday, Dec. 6. Support of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors (SOURCE) hosts this special event during which students can celebrate their success and share their work with the campus community.
The poster session will be held Friday, Dec. 6, from noon to 2:45 p.m. in the Tinkham Veale University Center.
Students who present their research have the opportunity to be judged for prizes in the following categories:
- Arts and humanities
- Computer science and engineering
- Life sciences
- Management and accounting
- Nursing
- Physical sciences and mathematics
- Social sciences
“Intersections—all three of them—is one of my favorite campus events. It puts before us the powerful learning experience that our students gain through their projects and the faculty mentors who work with them,” said Sheila Pedigo, director of SOURCE.
In addition to the symposium and poster sessions, student writing and research projects completed as a part of SAGES will be showcased in the Celebration of Student Writing and Research. These course/group presentations offer an entire class (or group of students) the opportunity to display and discuss their writing projects at tables or poster presentations.
Read more about Intersections.
Snapshot of presenters
This year’s event will feature more than 150 projects—and more than 400 students—covering a diverse selection of projects. Some of the students who will be sharing their work on Dec. 6 are highlighted below.
Brendan Allen
Major: Biochemistry; pre-health
Presentation title: “Identification of IER3IP1 interacting proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum using an Ascorbate Peroxidase-mediated biontinylation assay”
Research project summary: Microcephaly, epilepsy and neonatal diabetes syndrome is a rare pediatric neurodegenerative disease caused by a mutation in the immediate early response 3 interacting protein 1 (IER3IP1) gene. Its protein product, IER3IP1, has no known unknown function in the Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) but is speculated to be involved in the movement of material from the ER to the Golgi. Moreover, the binding partners of IER3IP1 in this process are unknown; however, an ascorbate peroxidase (APEX)-mediated biotinylation assay can be used to determine the identities of these proteins and, in turn, form a clearer picture of IER3IP1’s function.
Zach Hennessey
Major: Business management with international concentration
Presentation title: “Impact Investment in Portugal”
Research project summary: Hennessey was tasked with working various roles to achieve a broader understanding of the startup ecosystem in Europe and use the United States as a reference point to learn how it can play a role in helping Europe advance its ecosystem, specifically in the impact investment sector.
Halle Rose
Major: Cognitive science and English
Presentation title: “Yoga and Video Games: The Engagement & Tension of the Empathic and Analytic Neural Networks”
Research project summary: The researchers’ work shows that participants engaged in yoga have greater success in socioemotional tasks, while those who participated in video games performed with lesser aptitude; this paper provides support for the hypothesis that increased awareness of one’s own emotions—cultivated through the practice of yoga—will result in an improved ability to identify emotional states in others. Furthermore, the work demonstrates that strictly engaging the analytic network suppresses a participant’s ability to identify and understand the emotional states of others.