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Research and Creative Activity Funding
The Experiential Education and Engagement Center and the Office of the Provost are offering funding for faculty-led research opportunities. To learn more about applying for undergraduate research and creative activity funding, please review the documents below.
Celebration of Research and Creative Activity
The annual Celebration of Research and Creative Activity highlights the work of students from all five of AUM’s Colleges. This celebration allows students to present posters and oral presentations about their research to faculty, staff, and fellow students.
Join us on April 28, 2023
Currently Funded URCA Research Projects
Heather Witcher
Assistant Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Digital humanities workshop
The EEEC and the Provost provide grant funding to faculty for research and creative activity projects that involve undergraduate students. Recently, Dr. Heather Witcher applied for a mini-grant focusing on digital humanities (DH). The funding will assist bringing in two experts to assist in running a DH workshop. It will allow faculty and students the ability to learn (and play around with) new digital methods and tools to use in their classrooms to enhance pedagogy and learning, and with student projects/creative activities. The goal is to gain more faculty engagement with DH tools and methodologies, so that they’re comfortable with the opportunities that DH provides in their future classes. It will also enable them to lead future sessions at AUM’s THATCamp next year. Undergraduates in Dr. Witcher’s Intro to DH course this fall will be helping to organize sessions and learn from the experts that are brought in, utilizing the tools in their final projects this semester. Students will have a central role in developing the workshop, because they will be forming the schedule and they will have input on some of the specific sessions offered. They will also be encouraged to join the graduate students in leading a presentation at the workshop to discuss our class and their ideas for their final projects.
Michael Field Diaries archive
The Diaries of Michael Field is a scholarly community project that seeks to make publicly and freely available the journals of Katharine Bradley (1846-1914) and Edith Cooper (1862- 1913), who wrote collaboratively under the name “Michael Field.” The journals cover the years 1888-1914 and are currently housed in the British Library; they have been digitized and the images are publicly available at The Diaries of Michael Field website. Since 2015, scholars and students involved in the archival project have collaborated on transcribing these digitized images; transcriptions are then peer-reviewed and encoded for digital dissemination. The current site is a pilot and work in progress, initially funded and supported by the University of South Carolina and now hosted and funded by Dartmouth College, alongside other partners. With URCA funding, AUM students would assist Dr. Witcher with the ongoing transcription of the journals and the formatting of already completed transcriptions. Students would also be available to assist with additional opportunities for work relating to digital humanities. The intended outcome of The Diaries of Michael Field, as a whole, is the digital publication and transcription of all 29 journals. Students involved in the proposed project— “Michael Field Diaries Archive”—at AUM would have their names attached to their portions of the transcription, providing them with a research publication and experience working on a scholarly digital humanities project.
Ph.D. (2011) Biochemistry, Medical University of Gdańsk and University of Gdańsk, Poland Dr. Greg Ciesielski is an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry in the AUM Department of Chemistry. He is an expert in the field of mitochondrial genome maintenance and his research focuses on the pathology of related human diseases. His lab utilizes a wide variety of techniques and methodologies, ranging from in vitro enzymatic assays to human cell cultures. He is an outstanding problem solver and research mentor. In acknowledgement of his impactful efforts he was recently awarded the College of Sciences Research Award (2020). In addition, Dr. Ciesielski serves as the Chair of the Undergraduate Research Committee at AUM, which aims to boost students’ involvement in research activities.Greg Ciesielski
Assistant Professor | College of Sciences
M.S. (2009) Pharmacy, Medical University of Gdańsk and University of Gdańsk, Poland
M.S. (2006) Biotechnology, Medical University of Gdańsk and University of Gdańsk, Poland
B.S. (2004) Biotechnology, Medical University of Gdańsk and University of Gdańsk, Poland
The role of molecular chaperone Tid1 in prevention of deletions in human mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondria are cellular organelles that supply energy for the entire human body. Their function depends on the maintenance of their semi-autonomous genome. Defects of the mitochondrial genome result in the development of human mitochondrial diseases, for which there is currently no cure available. Notably, epidemiological surveys indicated that 1 in ~200 persons carries defects in the mitochondrial genome, which have the potential to onset a disease in the individual or next generations. This makes it a prevalent problem for the human population, and one of the most rushing challenges to science. Mitochondrial (mt)DNA deletions are the most common defects of the mitochondrial genome. We propose that human cells are ‘equipped’ with a system that prevents mtDNA deletions formation, which, however, fails once overwhelmed by stressful environmental conditions. The key factor of this putative mechanism is a molecular chaperone, Tid1. In this short summer project, we will evaluate our hypothesis by testing whether increasing the cellular concentration of Tid1 can alleviate the formation of mtDNA deletions in human dermal fibroblasts and HeLa cells, induced by stress factors.
Ph.D. (1990) Chemistry, Louisiana State University Dr. Steve Arnold’s area of expertise is Physical Chemistry. His research interests are in UV-visible absorption and emission spectroscopy. Dr. Arnold instructs students at AUM in Physics as well as General Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, and Instrumental Analysis. Dr. Arnold further serves as the academic advisor for students pursuing degrees in Physical Science with the Chemistry option.Duk (Daniel) Kim
Department Chair; Professor | College of Sciences
B.S. (1985) Chemistry, Louisiana State University
Investigation on the suppression of ROS by beverages
The intake of water either plain water or beverage is a necessary means of hydration for a healthy human life. The reactive oxygen species, which are mainly produced in mitochondrial activities in the human body are known to be related to aging, cancer initiation, and a variety of neurologic disorders. It is known that many organic ingredients in the commercial beverage contain a variety of different types of antioxidants. Understanding and explaining the antioxidizing effects of organic substances to suppress the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is good for the health of the general public. ROS can be formed under highly powered ultrasonic irradiation in the lab to assimilate the role of mitochondrial work in the living organism. Fluorometric measurement is a good way to assess the amounts of peroxides in the solution. A variety of commercial beverages will be chosen for the study, and ultrasonic applications will be performed to the beverage solutions. All of the works are good to be run by an AUM undergraduate student. The results of this study will be presented in the UGR symposium and will be published in a peer-reviewed journal with the name of the student.
Ann Marie O'Neill
Associate Professor | College of Sciences
Development of a cancer macrophage fusion hybrid model
Abnormal spontaneous fusion of cancer cells with cells that arise in the bone marrow has been documented in multiple cancers. The first reports emerged when recipients of bone marrow transplants, who later developed solid tumors, were found to have cells with both donor and patient DNA. More recently, circulating hybrid cells in human cancer patients have been detected that correlate with disease stage and prognosis. Compelling in vitro and in vivo evidence exists to show cancer fusion cells exhibit characteristics of both paternal cells that induce a hybrid phenotype conducive to metastasis. However, the post-hybridization events that are responsible for producing cells with an enhanced motile and chemotactic phenotype are not fully understood, and there remains a lack of information regarding the activation of genes driving these pathways. Without knowledge of the mechanisms and pathways driving motility of cancer fusion cells, there remains an obstacle to understanding the fundamental basis of metastasis. The aim of the current proposal is to establish a cancer cell – macrophage fusion model that can be used to investigate the pathways that are utilized by these hybrid cells that potentially drives metastasis.
Erin Reilly
Professor | College of Education
The effect of neuromotor exercise on cognition and physical ability in pre-school-aged children
Four- six top undergraduate students in the PHED 4030 Methods of Teaching Physical Education class will be chosen to participate in this project based on Field Experience rubric scores for teaching lessons in the Early Learning Center during PHED 3053 and PHED 4030. Students were informed of the opportunity during PHED 3053 this spring. A program proposal has been submitted for the Fall Alabama State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (ASAHPERD) conference. If the proposal is accepted, faculty member Erin Reilly will help the students develop the presentation, make sure they understand the audience and expectations, and will accompany them to the conference to mentor them during the experience. None of the students have ever attended a professional conference, much less done a conference presentation, so this will be a great opportunity for them to get professionally involved in their state organization. The title of the proposed presentation is “Fun Large Group Activities for Pre-K and Primary Grades,” and the description is: “Fun activities for large groups of 4-8 years old. Modifications for age level and class management tips are included. Participants will learn how to easily integrate classroom standards, and how each activity helps improve socio-emotional learning and academic skills.”
PhD, Biology, University of Potsdam & Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Germany, 2008 Dr. Stein is Assistant Professor in Biology and Environmental Sciences specializing in plant ecology. She is broadly interested in understanding the patterns, causes and consequences of plant diversity. Her main research focusses on the mechanisms by which species interactions, such as plant-soil microbial feedbacks and plant-herbivore interactions, affect species diversity, biological invasions, and ecosystem functioning under climate change. The motivation of her work is to develop management solutions to successful restoration and conservation and to mitigate the effects of climate change. She works in a variety of systems, including grasslands, working rangelands, and woodlands. Her recent publications include journal articles in Ecology, Journal of Ecology, Oecologia, Plant and Soil, Mycorrhiza, and Ecology and Evolution. She is a member of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) and Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland (GfÖ).Claudia Stein
Assistant Professor
Diploma Biology (chemical ecology, botany), Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, 2003
Screening plant and soil microbial communities in native prairie ecosystems
Understanding the mechanisms that maintain species diversity is crucial to restore healthy and well-functioning native ecosystems. In my research, I focus on the importance of interactions among plants and soil microbial organisms as drivers of species diversity and ecosystem functioning. This summer and fall, I will couple greenhouse and field experiments with field observational studies to assess whether soil microbes from remnant prairies are more beneficial to native prairie plants compared to soil microbes originating from disturbed habitats. This work will provide important preliminary data needed to establish a long-term prairie restoration experiment at AUM, which will offer excellent opportunities for continuous student involvement in the lab and in the field. This summer, four directed research students and one volunteer will be working with me. They will gain practical research experience, improve their analytical skills and be able to interact with researchers and scientists from other universities. The data we collect this summer will allow students to present a poster at the Ecological Society of America conference in August 2022 and to prepare a manuscript for submission to a regional journal.
The role of plant and soil microbial diversity in shaping prairie communities under drought
Understanding the mechanisms that maintain species diversity is crucial to restore healthy and well-functioning native ecosystems. In my research, I focus on the importance of interactions among plants and soil microbial organisms as drivers of species diversity and ecosystem functioning. In 2015, I established a long-term experiment at Washington University’s Tyson Research Center, Eureka, MO to test the overarching hypothesis that plant-soil microbial interactions are the dominant force stabilizing species diversity and ecosystem functions. Each fall, I am harvesting plant biomass from this experiment and this offers excellent opportunities for student involvement. Students will also be able to act as mentors for local high school students and work with them in the field. I propose to request funding to travel with students from AUM to the Tyson Research Center and to pay for local high school student interns. Students will gain hands-on experience in the field, improve their plant identification skills and be able to interact with other scientists and field technicians from a R1 institute. The data we collect will allow me to maintain this long-term experiment. Three manuscripts are in preparation for submission to international scientific journals, one of these is authored by an undergraduate student.
Seth T. Reno is Distinguished Research Associate Professor of English, specializing in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British literature, ecocriticism, affect theory, climate fiction, and the environmental humanities. He regularly teaches classes in these areas, as well as literature surveys and writing courses. Seth hails from Ohio, where he received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. Before joining AUM in 2013, he taught at Wittenberg University, Ohio State, and Columbus State Community College. He is author of Early Anthropocene Literature in Britain, 1750–1884 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) and Amorous Aesthetics: Intellectual Love in Romantic Poetry and Poetics, 1788–1853 (Liverpool University Press, 2019); editor of The Anthropocene: Approaches and Contexts for Literature and the Humanities (Routledge, 2021) and Romanticism and Affect Studies (Romantic Circles Praxis Series, 2018); and co-editor (with Lisa Ottum) of Wordsworth and the Green Romantics: Affect and Ecology in the Nineteenth Century (University of New Hampshire Press, 2016). He has also published dozens journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and book reviews. Dr. Reno is currently working on two projects. The first is a critical edition of William Delisle Hay’s novella The Doom of the Great City (1880), which imagines an environmental catastrophe caused by a poisonous London fog in the late nineteenth century. He is co-editing this story with Allison Hamilton, a current graduate student in AUM’s Master of Liberal Arts program. The second project is an anthology of lesser-known industrial writers, tentatively titled Popular British Industrial Writings: A Critical Anthology. It contains hundreds of relatively unknown (and often unpublished) poems, essays, and other forms of writing that chronicle the British Industrial Revolution. He received a Franklin Research Grant from the American Philosophical Society to fund this project. In addition to literature, Dr. Reno has a passion for food and travel: he loves cooking, he teaches courses on food and culture, he has undertaken several domestic and international research trips and study abroad courses, and he once came in fourth place at a burger-eating competition (he has since given up his professional food-eating aspirations).Seth Reno
Distinguished Research Associate Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Creative-research trip to the Montgomery Zoo
This creative-research trip to the Montgomery Zoo would be a required experiential activity for students taking my ENGL 1020 (freshmen comp 2) course in Fall 2021. My theme for this sectionof ENGL 1020 is “Nature/Food/Animals,” which takes a general environmental humanities approach to students’ research and writing, asking them to investigate several local environmental issues from various disciplinary perspectives. For this project, students will spend a day at the Montgomery Zoo and Mann Wildlife Learning Museum in order to learn about animal conservation, ecological sustainability, animal ethics, and the history of zoos and collections of live animals—all issues they will read and write about during the course. All students will complete a creative project based on our trip—part reflection on two assigned course readings (Erica Fudge’s Animal and John Berger’s “Why Look at Animals?”), and part reflection/creation of their own experiences at the zoo. This creative project could take any number of forms, from poetry to visual art to a digital project. Students will also have the option to develop their experiences and research into the final research paper and presentation for the course.
Environmental humanities and environmental justice
This required, sophomore-level course for students in AUM’s Honors program will center on the interdisciplinary field of Environmental Humanities (EH), with a particular focus on issues of environmental justice and racism grounded in the unique culture and history of the city of Montgomery, Alabama. Students will learn how humanistic inquiry presents possible solutions to local and global environmental degradation by analyzing cultural values, historical patterns, social contexts, public attitudes, political ideas, religious beliefs, spiritual dimensions, moral concerns, and emotional registers. Students will become familiar with core aims and key terms of EH through readings, assignments, and guest lectures in a number of different disciplines, including literature, art, history, and philosophy, and they will develop a number of experiential, research-based, and creative projects that ask them to engage with their local environments and histories in and around Montgomery. I’m requesting funding for three of these experiential trips: the Montgomery Zoo and Mann Wildlife Museum; the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum; and an overnight trip to the Grand Bay National Wildlife Refuge (on the Gulf Coast) and Dauphin Island, Alabama.
Randy Russell is the Advisor for Pre-Physical Therapy studies. Additionally, Mr. Russell instructs students in Astronomy, Introduction to Physical Sciences, and Physics.Randy Russell
Assistant Professor | College of Sciences
A program of solar radiation and cloud measurements
This project will complement an ongoing project funded by NSF involving the collection of hyperspectral images of the sky through the creation of a concurrent data set of solar radiation measurements and hemispherical RGB sky images. A publicly available data set including both hyperspectral sky images and solar radiation measurements does not currently exist. Such a data set will allow our research group to explore the use of detailed spectral information contained in hyperspectral images to determine the effects of aerosols and clouds on solar radiation. Students will learn to use instruments for measuring the parallel and diffuse components of solar radiation and how to model that data using a simple model describing the attenuation of solar radiation by the atmosphere. The proposed project will involve at least two undergraduate students each working up to 100 hours on the project.
Lee Farrow
Chair; Distinguished Research & Distinguished Teaching Professor
Lee Farrow
Chair; Distinguished Research & Distinguished Teaching Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Emmeline Pankhurst in Russia and the international intersections of feminism and communism, 1917-1933
In June, 1917, the notorious feminist Emmeline Pankhurst traveled to Russia, accompanied by her secretary and fellow suffragist, Jessie Kenney. Her goals were two-fold: to encourage the Russian people, particularly its women, to support Russia’s continued participation in the war, and to teach Russian women how to use the vote. The women spent a total of five months in Russia, witnessing and participating in one of the most important transitional periods in Russia’s long history. In the end, Pankhurst was unsuccessful in both areas, but an examination of her visit – from the British, Russian, and American sides – reveals a number of questions about the character of these various liberation movements, albeit from very different oppressive regimes. I would like to obtain the help of an undergraduate history student in scouring American sources. Working with a student in this way will not only further my research, but will also help the student expand their knowledge and experience with research. Understanding the steps involved in quality research is critical to history majors. Students will be expected to locate potentially useful primary sources (letters, papers, diaries, etc.) and contact the institution that houses those documents to obtain as much information as possible about the collection, and order copies where applicable. In other cases, students will be expected to scour American newspapers of the period to locate and copy articles reporting on Emmaline Pankhurst in Russia.
Ph.D. University of Georgia (2008), Genetics Bio: Dr. Vanessa Koelling is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology and Environmental Science. She is a plant evolutionary biologist, which means that she studies how plant populations change over time in response to new environmental conditions. Within the field of evolutionary biology, she is particularly interested in the evolution of plant mating systems, the mechanisms of plant speciation, and in plant evolutionary genetics. Her work aims to understand which evolutionary mechanisms are most important in plant mating system evolution and speciation, and to understand the causal genetic changes underlying plant adaptations. She currently studies these topics using the common yellow monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus), a wildflower endemic to the Western United States with many features that make it an ideal system for the study of evolution. She has also begun a new project to study the population genetics, ecophysiology, and evolution of two of Alabama’s native azaleas (Rhododendron cumberlandense and Rhododendron prunifolium). In addition, she is interested in eventually expanding her research into other Southeastern plants. Dr. Koelling has published her work in distinguished scientific journals, such as Heredity, the American Journal of Botany, and The American Naturalist. She is a member of the Society for the Study of Evolution and the Botanical Society of America. (Scholar page) Dr. Koelling is also an experienced teacher who has taught a range of introductory and specialized courses. She especially enjoys teaching topics in evolution, genetics, and applied bioinformatics. She incorporates inquiry-based and active-learning methods into her courses, and continually seeks new ways to engage and motivate students in her classrooms.Vanessa Koelling
Assistant Professor | College of Sciences
B.A. Reed College (2000), Biology
Digitizing the AUM herbarium: a valuable resource for biodiversity information
Herbaria represent important repositories of historical biodiversity information. Most herbaria are small and have not yet been digitized and made accessible to the global scientific community in public databases, meaning that the information they contain is known only to a small number of scientists with direct access to the herbarium. I propose to mentor an AUM student in digitizing AUM s small herbarium of around 1,000 specimens. That digital information will then be uploaded to public biodiversity databases so that it is accessible to researchers around the world. AUM s herbarium will then become a more valuable long-term resource for use in classes and research projects at AUM and other institutions.
Tami Shelley
Associate Professor | College of Education
The importance of design and selection of equipment in early childhood education center areas
Four undergraduate early childhood students serving their practicum hours (ECHE 4914) in our on- campus Child Development Center were given the opportunity to assist in early childhood research. These students are in our pre-service teacher preparation program to become early childhood educators. They have completed methods courses on the importance of developmentally appropriate learning environments for early childhood students. These four undergraduates have spent a great deal of time in the on-campus Child Development Center this summer assisting the director and the lead teacher. These four students will have the opportunity to learn about research protocol and a literature review as they assist in preparing various parts of the literature review. We are in the beginning stages of discussing time commitment for this project on the part of the undergraduates so all four have been made aware of the opportunity and so far two have made the commitment should the research proposal be granted. If the research is conducted, I (Tami Shelley) would also like the opportunity to assist these students in sharing their research findings at a professional conference. This would mean I (Tami Shelley) would select the appropriate conference (virtual or in person) and guide the students in writing up the proposal for a presentation. If selected, I would also assist them in the planning and implementation of the presentation. The opportunity to assist undergraduates with research protocol and the idea of professional development through the sharing of research/ideas at a professional conference is extremely important to me as a professor. It is a unique learning opportunity in pre-service teacher preparation. The title of the proposed research proposal is “Early Childhood Research on Importance of Design and Selection of Equipment in Center Areas”. Each student will be assigned an area of the literature review concerning design and selection for book centers and gross motor outdoor wheeled equipment areas for early childhood age groups of three and four years-olds (this is the age group served in our on-campus Child Development Center. We will then present this to our director and lead teacher in order to discuss what they feel the needs are in updating the existing book center based on the literature findings/suggestions. The director and lead teacher have expressed a need for updating of the reading area to enhance student engagement with books in the book center. We will also collect qualitative data in the form of observation/notes of the children using the existing book center and wheeled motor development equipment. Observations will be conducted again after the updating of the book center and wheeled motor development areas.
Vision and depth-based trajectory for mobile robots
Vision-based trajectory tracking using a camera system mounted on a mobile robot has been a challenging problem. In such tracking systems, the robot/camera system is required to follow a desired trajectory for relative position and orientation (pose) with respect to a target object. In typical outdoor applications, the actual pose of robot is measured by a Global Positioning System (GPS). However, GPS is not practical for indoor applications. The precise pose error of the mobile robot with respect to the target cannot be measure by GPS. In such cases, the pose error may be calculated using vision-based approaches. In the proposed project, we will explore fast and reliable vision-based approaches for real-time calculation of the pose error between the mobile robot and the target. In vision- based systems, the pose is estimated using the camera images of the target object taken from robot’s current position. And robot is instructed to move desired position for given time instant. During our experiments, we will first create simulation models using python programming language. Later, we will use an actual robotic vehicle to test our algorithm. The proposed project will involve two undergraduate students each working 80 hours during Fall 2021 semester. Students will gain skills for recent demanding CS jobs such as robotics, computer vision, and machine learning. Project will also help AUM CS Department to develop materials and tools for a new Robotics course, which will be offered in Spring 2022.
Nick Bourke
Associate Professor | College of Education
Utilizing cooperative group structures in environmental education
Classroom discourse and cooperative grouping are important teaching strategies. Benefits of these strategies include gains in student achievement, promotion of higher-level thinking skills, and increased student motivation (Kagan & Kagan, 2017). Though classroom teachers and educators are aware of the benefits of these strategies, most don’t structure the experiences in an effective manner (Vasquez, 2008). To effectively utilize these strategies, teachers need to be aware of how to effectively structure them. Cooperative grouping is part of the curriculum of undergraduate education majors, however effective cooperative grouping structures, proven by research to be effective, may not be part of the teaching strategies that many undergraduate students are exposed to. Environmental Education instructors, in particular, may lack the pedagogical background skills necessarily to implement effective cooperative grouping strategies.
Our project involves two parts: 1) Develop and present a workshop for environmental educators in which they learn three cooperative grouping structures. 2) Conduct a qualitative case study examining the experiences of environmental educators as they apply their learned cooperative grouping structures in their classrooms. At least three undergraduate Elementary Education majors will be involved in the development and presentation of the workshop to environmental educators. The undergraduate students will also work with the Principal Investigator (PI) as we design and conduct the qualitative case study. This proposed project has two outcomes. Undergraduate elementary education majors will develop and deliver the workshop described above and will assist the PI with a case study leading to the publication of a manuscript.
On-Campus Undergraduate Research Opportunities
Undergraduate research provides invaluable opportunities for you to deepen your understanding of your discipline or to prepare for graduate school and career. The Professors below have opportunities available. Please contact them and get started today!
Faculty, if you haven’t already worked with students, you’ll find that mentoring them in research is rewarding and that they can make meaningful contributions to your project. If you would like to have students work with you on a project please let us know at [email protected].
Clarissa Chavez
Department Chair; Associate Professor | College of Sciences
Department of Psychology, College of Sciences
Project start: Open Project end: Open
Description of opportunity:
Students would have the opportunity to continue to run a previous MS thesis social-cognitive psychological experiment to gather more data.
In this study, we will continue to examine how a single bout of intense exercise and repeated exposure to individuating information changes the accessibility to person versus group-based (i.e., group stereotypes) memories. This experiment requires all research assistants to be CPR certified. You’ll also learn how to use a cycle ergometer, monitor heart rates, and test for blood pressure.
Looking for: This experiment will likely take a year to complete. Students should be either a psychology major or minor. This is a rather arduous experimental design. Students should be dependable, motivated, and have flexible schedules.
Duties: Students will be expected to run the experiment and help train other students to run the experiment. Students will be expected to read literature on background theories involved within the experiment. Students may also be involved in writing an IRB protocol and data analysis (via SAS).
Amount of time estimated/week: Average of 5 hours a week. This is flexible.
To learn more: Email: [email protected]
Department of Information Systems, College of Business
Project start: 1/10/2020 Project end: 5/20/2021
Description of opportunity:
Developing a computer application to collecting data from online forum(like Reddit) or SNSs. Otherwise, modifying existing application (which I am already using)
Looking for: Computer programming
Duties: Students are expected develop or upgrading a computer application can facilitate researches which leverage secondary data from Internet.
Amount of time estimated/week: 5
To learn more: Email [email protected]
Tara Beziat
Associate Professor | College of Education
Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Technology; College of Education
Project start: Open Project end: Open
Description of opportunity:
My research topic is metacognition. Cleaning and sorting survey data. Finding and summarizing articles including annotations.
Looking for: No qualifications necessary
Duties: Reviewing Data sets collected through Qualtrics and sorting and cleaning the data using Excel. If time allows, I can work with the student to show them how to use SPSS- statistical software. Conducting literature reviews.
Amount of time estimated per week: 1-5 hours
To learn more: Email is best – [email protected]
Kim Brackett
Associate Dean; Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work; College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
Project start: Open Project end: Open
Description of opportunity:
Constructions of family life and pathways to family formation. Currently we have data about family ministry and I am interested in looking at grandparents as part of the family experience. My past research includes examinations of dating and relationship formation. I’d love to work on some of these topics again. I do some additional work on pedagogy and meta-cognition. A curiosity I currently have involves the evolving language in the area of gender.
Looking for: I’d like to work with a student for longer than just one semester. It’s important that the student have a basic understanding of sociological concepts and an academic interest in personal relationships. Curiosity about society is a huge plus.
Duties: Reading and literature review work on grandparenting and family ministry. Possible interview question development, IRB protocol work, and data collection around a gender study or dating study.
Amount of time estimated/week: I am flexible on this. It depends on student availability.
To learn more: Stop by my office -319 Clement Hall or send me an email – [email protected]
Michael Burger
Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Department of History and World Languages and Cultures, College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
Project start: Already started Project end: Until about December 2021 or so.
Description of opportunity:
I’m working on a book on spatial dimensions of medieval diocesan administration. Bishops were increasing their control over their dioceses and creating centralized bureaucracies to enable them to do so. How hard was it to overcome a culture that expected power to be exercised face to face? One aspect of the book will be analyzing the movement of bishops and its relationship (or lack of relationship) with the locale of the business they handled using Geographic Information Systems (i.e., the application of computer technology to spatial relationships). This will require a lot of data entry, where a student might be helpful.
Looking for: I would need a student who reads well and is anal retentive about detail. Ability to read Latin would be a big plus, but in certain phases of the project would not be necessary. A plus also would be command of the GIS program, GeoMedia.
Duties: Reading the chief administrative records of medieval bishops, called “bishop’s registers” and entering data from them into Excel spreadsheets. Some of these registers are primarily in the form of English summaries, so Latin will not always be needed depending on what register I’m working on.
Amount of time estimated/week: This could be quite variable. Say, 3 hours per week?
To learn more: Email would be best: [email protected].
Dr. Agnitra Roy Choudhury is an Assistant Professor in the Economics department. Dr. Roy Choudhury received his PhD and MA from Binghamton University. His training is in applied microeconomics and applied econometrics. His research interests include studying the impact of regulations on health care and labor markets. Currently Dr. Roy Choudhury’s research includes analyzing Scope of Practice regulations and Certificate of Need laws. In addition to studying health care and labor market regulations, Dr. Roy Choudhury has projects ranging from entrepreneurship to the impact of legalizing of cannabis on public health. His research papers have been published in peer-reviewed journals like Vaccine, Empirical Economic Letters, Applied Economics Letters, and Journal of Risk & Financial Management. In his free time, he enjoys exercising, cooking, and spending time with his friends.Agnitra Roy Choudhury
Assistant Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
Project start: as soon as possible Project end: March 2020
Description of opportunity:
Mainly work on empirical projects and quantitative analysis. This project deals with analyzing how access to paid family leave affects early childhood health investments. We will be looking at various markers to detect health investments, such as birth weight, infant mortality, etc. The other side of this same project is analyzing the impact of paid family leave programs on employment of women in the child bearing years and their labor market opportunities.
Looking for: Economics, Computer science, finance, mathematics
Duties: Work on data transformations, aggregating data, cleaning data, and some basic statistical analysis.
Amount of time estimated/week: 10 hours per week maximum
To learn more: Email – [email protected]
Lee Farrow
Chair; Distinguished Research & Distinguished Teaching Professor
Lee Farrow
Chair; Distinguished Research & Distinguished Teaching Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Department of History, World Languages, and Cultures, College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
Project start: Any time Project end: None at the moment
Description of opportunity:
I am considering writing my next book on the travels of Emmeline Pankhurst, the British feminist and suffragette, in Russia. Pankhurst visited Russia during the Russian Revolution, eager to capitalize on the changes taking place to further the rights of women. A student could help me research for mentions of this in secondary literature and, possibly, newspapers.
Looking for: Any major, but student needs to be thorough and pay attention to details.
Duties: Secondary research online; ordering potential sources through interlibrary loan and copying relevant pages; possibly research in newspapers online or on microfilm.
Amount of time estimated per week: To be negotiated, flexible.
To learn more: Email [email protected] or stop by my office, 345 Liberal Arts on Wednesdays or make and appointment
Ph.D. Microbiology, May 1992, University of Kentucky
Dr. Haddix is an Associate Professor in the Biology Department in the School of Sciences. He has a broad background in microbiology and molecular biology. His research interests are in the biological functions of bacterial pigments and the use of bacteria as biological sensors for the detection of environmental contaminants. Dr. Haddix’s primary research interest involves identifying and characterizing the biological function of a red pigment made by the soil bacterium and opportunistic bacterial pathogen Serratia marcescens. His early work on this project built a circumstantial case for a negative role for prodigiosin pigment in cellular energy production during high-rate cell multiplication when cellular energy levels begin at their maximum (PubMed ID # 18805986). More recent work has revealed that the pigment has a positive function in cellular energy production when cellular energy levels are low; this positive function ultimately produces a doubling of pigmented cell yield over that of non-pigmented cells (PMID # 29616306). His most recent work has more clearly defined the negative role, and a manuscript describing these results is due to be submitted for publication in spring, 2019. Ongoing experimental work will more closely address the positive function and build a model for prodigiosin pigment in the cellular energy fluxes associated with Serratia marcescens population growth.Pryce Haddix
Associate Professor | College of Sciences
B.A. Biology with chemistry emphasis, May 1985, Transylvania University, Lexington, KY
Department of Biology, College of Sciences
Project start: Although project is ongoing, Dr. Haddix is willing to mentor new students after Spring 2020.
Project end: Ongoing
Description of opportunity:
Research in microbiology involving the biological function of a red pigment produced by Serratia marcescens bacteria. My ongoing work has shown that the pigment modulates in a complex manner the production of the energy storage compound ATP.
Looking for: Junior or Senior standing; successful completion of two semesters of general chemistry with their labs as well as microbiology and its labs.
Duties: Experimental work on the project using laboratory equipment including a spectrophotometer and a chemostat. Data analysis and conclusion using Microsoft Excel. Preparation of a poster presentation describing the results.
Amount of time estimated/week: That depends on the credit hour option for our research course BIOL 4932
Directed Research: 1 credit = 3 hours; 2 credits = 6 hours; 3 credits = 9 hours
To learn more: Dr. Pete Haddix [email protected]; 334-244-3333
David Hughes
Associate Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Department of Political Science and Public Administration, College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
Project start: Open Project end: Open
Description of opportunity:
Usually has a rolling series of projects available for interested students.
Looking for: Political Science and Public Administration students.
Duties: Varying research responsibilities.
Amount of time estimated/week: As much as students would like to shoulder.
To learn more: My email address is [email protected].
Brett Lehman
Associate Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, & Social Work , College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
Project start: Open Project end: Open
Description of opportunity:
Social impact of the Legacy Museum on the wider Montgomery/River Region community.
Looking for:
Students should be interested in social change, social inequality, and/or community engagement. Intro to sociology course experience, and the ability to effectively describe what was learned from the course. Look for students who have at least 1 year of school remaining to gain maximum benefit from the experience.
Duties:
Ethical conduct of research training; otherwise, the duties will depend on student interest and availability.
Amount of time estimated/week: Flexible: 1-3 hours a week
To learn more: Email [email protected]
Department of Sociology, Anthropology, & Social Work , College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
Project start: Open Project end: Open
Description of opportunity:
Social impact of the Legacy Museum on the wider Montgomery/River Region community.
Looking for:
In-depth observation of students’ social life on the AUM campus. This is a student-led project due to the nature of the project.
Duties:
Ethical conduct of research training; otherwise, the duties will depend on student interest and availability.
Amount of time estimated/week: Flexible: 1-3 hours a week
To learn more: Email [email protected]
Jacqueline McNett
Assistant Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Department of Criminal Justice , College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
Project start: Open Project end: Open
Description of opportunity:
Media Content Analysis of Forensic Files
Looking for:
Access to Netflix
Experience with Microsoft Excel
Any major
Undergraduate or graduate
Duties:
1) Watching Forensic Files
2) Taking detailed notes
3) Creating Excel spreadsheets
Amount of time estimated/week: Flexible: 1-3 hours a week
To learn more: Email [email protected]