Student researchers follow their curiosity

As a general biology major, John Ryan McMichael’s curiosity has inspired him to study lizards and frogs on the Auburn University at Montgomery campus and to take an even “deeper dive” into research.

In this case, a deeper dive means investigating the multi-armed propulsion capabilities of a favorite saltwater creature, the octopus.

“Arm swimming is very, very understudied,” McMichael said. “There’s not a whole lot of research.”

Recently, McMichael and a number of other undergraduate students from AUM’s College of Sciences had the opportunity to present their research findings ranging from biomechanics to neuroscience. While it’s not uncommon for graduate students at four-year universities to present at conferences or pursue journal publications, McMichael said the College of Sciences Research Symposium offers a unique opportunity to “let undergraduates shine.”

“It really is about the process,” he said. “The symposium is the final step where you can bring it to your community and discuss it.”

McMichael’s presentation drew on data collected by the Monterrey Bay Research Aquarium, which used submarines to follow octopi and capture data about their movements.

“That was one year of just developing the methods of measuring these arms,” McMichael said. “The collaboration with Monterrey Bay Research Aquarium definitely created a lot of what the project is now. We used data that they collected with their submarines and from there went off of what we noticed.”