MSU Texas research symposium presentations available online

By the time classes were moved online in the spring semester, planning was underway for the spring Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Forum, an opportunity for hundreds of undergraduate students to present their work.

However, with social distancing and the move of all university work online, the Office of Undergraduate Research had to find an alternative.

Working with a startup company, ForagerOne, the participating students were able to put their presentations and comments online and then share them with other students, faculty and staff.

Through the system, 99 students submitted 52 presentations. Those presentations received 1,960 unique views from 504 unique visitors.

The most-viewed presentation was one by Landon Anderson, Luuk Teurlinx, Ijuani Stephenson, Carlyse Wallace, "Automated Pencil Sharpening System." It is available online at https://symposium.foragerone.com/mwsu/project/862.

Indeed, one of the benefits of having the Forum go virtual is the ability to archive the presentations. For the last six years, some 600 students at MSU Texas have come through the Clark Student Center to talk to students with their poster presentations or to watch the podium presentations. Online, the presentations are available for anyone to view, anytime. The MSU presentations are online at https://symposium.foragerone.com/mwsu/projects.

Most interdisciplinary overall: Kuwin Wyke, Robotic Soccer using Artificial Intelligence: A Study in Vision Processing.

Most creative overall: Josh Gillis, Trace Hardee, Collin Palmore, Cody Park, and Ricardo Stuart. Design of a Rotating Assembly Fixture for Power Take-Off Units. 

Dillard College of Business Administration

• Oral presentations
• First place and most views in category: Alyssa Dimmick, Kervelle Guiste, Forecast of the U.S. Unemployment Rate; runner up: Kaushik Shah, Preston Sanderson Forecast of the Standard and Poor's (S&P) 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average Indexes.
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• Poster presentation — Megan Widner, Commercialization Development in Low-Earth Orbit: What Are the Keys to Sustainability? 

Fain College of Fine Arts 

• Oral presentation/film/documentary
• First place and most views in category: Madison Davis, Alexis Rucker, Darkness on the Edge of Town.
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• Gunn College of Health Science and Human Services
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• Poster presentation
• First place and most views in category: Rylie Simmons, Effective Methods to Improve the Preceptor and Nursing Student Relationship.
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• McCoy College of Science, Mathematics, and Engineering

• Oral presentations — First place: Pamela Yvonne Kambabi, Clayton Hargis, Kyle Kidwell,  Zack Jenkins, Arconic Engines-Universal Sprue Fixture with Powered Multi-Axis Rotating Synchronous Parallel Gripper for the AW Bell Cutoff Saw; runner up: Josh Gillis, Trace Hardee, Collin Palmore, Cody Park, and Ricardo Stuart Design of a Rotating Assembly Fixture for Power Take-Off Units. 
• Poster presentations — First place: Kuwin Wyke Robotic Soccer using Artificial Intelligence: A Study in Vision Processing; runner up tie: Justiz Baker, Design and Implementation of Linear and Nonlinear Controllers to Stabilize an Experimental Test Setup; runner up tie: Shady Boukhary, An Early Threat Detection System Phase 2.
• Honorable mention: most views in category (tie):  Natalie McLaurin,  Antibiotic Resistance, Sugar Fermentation, and DNA Fingerprinting of Escherichia coli Isolates from Resident and Migratory Waterfowl; second Chelsea Connor, Dietary Niche Overlap of Native and Invasive Anoles on Dominica; second most views in category: Carlyse Wallace, Ijuani Stephenson, Landon Anderson, Luuk Teurlinx, Automated Pencil Sharpener; third most views in category: Taris Major, Kimberley Telemacque, William Hendrix, Hunter Glenn,   A Tranter Heat MaxChanger Fabricated Using Additive Manufacturing.

Prothro-Yeager College of Humanities and Social Sciences

• Oral presentations — First place: Nathan Conard,  The Question of Evil and Its Logic: Confucianism and Christianity; runner up:  Mallory LeDoux, Implicit Prejudiced Attitudes Towards Disability: Visible and Invisible.
• Best Overall Presentation in Humanities: Cassandra Dale, The Sad Irony of a Young Heroic Socialist; Abilene Christian University, Language and Literature. The MSU Texas UGR department collaborated with the ACU UGR department by inviting students to participate in each other’s Undergraduate Research forums;

• Poster presentations: First place: Brian Lang, Relationships between Grit, Academic Engagement, and High-Achieving Students. Runner up: Elissa Duren, Yasmeen Gonzales, Georgia Magee, Rachel Stagner, Moral License to Discriminate against Disability in Workplace Settings

• most views in category: Carl J. Alfert, Kassidy M. Freeman, Carley Bronaugh, Extrinsic Motivators for Individuals High in Dark Triad Traits to Accept Undesirable Tasks.

West College of Education

• Oral presentations — First place and second most views in category: Carl Alfert, Effects of Varying Frequencies of Positive Expectation Violations on Retention.
• Poster presentations — First place:  Mackenzie Box, Effects of Literature Circles on Teacher Efficacy, Empathy, and Professional Responsibility; runner up and most views in category:  Madison Smith, Reading Attitudes of College Students.