At the Cullen College of Engineering, students learn not just in the classroom, but through hands-on work. The University of Houston celebrated the work of more than a dozen of these students, along with many more from across UH, at the 6th Annual Undergraduate Research Day earlier this month.
The event, which is hosted by the Office of Undergraduate Research and The Honors College, gives students the opportunity to showcase to the entire UH community their efforts to make real, substantive contributions to their disciplines. With more than 100 students presenting their research, undergraduate research has entered the mainstream at UH, said Stuart Long, associate dean of undergraduate research and professor of electrical and computer engineering.
“It is clear that the University of Houston community has embraced undergraduate research and created a culture that encourages these intellectual pursuits. This commitment is pivotal in our journey toward achieving Tier One status. Undergraduates who take on research activities have higher retention rates and are more likely to pursue advanced degrees than those who do not pursue research,” he said.
In addition to poster presentations, the event featured best poster awards that were given to students in each discipline. In engineering, the awards went to electrical and computer engineering major Adelanwa Adesanya and biomedical engineering major Astha Vijayananda.
Adesanya’s poster outlined research into stress control in electrodeposited thin films. He performed this work under the guidance of Stanko Brankovic, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.
Vijayananda was recognized for her poster exploring the effectiveness of optical coherence tomography in distinguishing cells of a rare form of cancer, retroperitoneal liposarcoma, from surrounding tissue. She conducted research under the guidance of Kirill Larin, associate professor of biomedical engineering, and in collaboration with the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.