Spotlights

Gates Breedlove

Undergraduate Spotlight

OU Major: 
Biology
Research Mentor: 
Elizabeth Bergey
Describe your undergraduate research or creative project:

Essential oils are frequently used as natural repellents and pesticides against common snails that are considered to be pests or invasive species. These compounds have shown promising uses in both commercial and residential settings as an alternative to the more toxic chemicals currently in use. Our research examines the effects of one of these repellents, rosemary oil, on chemoreception and locomotive behaviors in the common garden snail, Cornu aspersum. Snail behaviors were observed in plastic boxes that included varying concentrations of rosemary oil (none, low and high; 9 or 10 replicates each), with emphasis on the overall distance traveled and ability to find food. Results showed the presence of rosemary oil decreased the movement of the snails in comparison to the control treatment (no rosemary oil), with no difference between the rosemary concentrations. Although few snails reached the food, those reaching the food were all in the no-rosemary treatment.

Awards and/or presentations:

Breedlove, Gates. "Rosemary Oil Makes Snails Sluggish." Curiosity to Creativity Spring Symposium, 25 April 2018, Oklahoma Memorial Union, Norman, OK.

Published Work:

n/a

Bradlee Borgfeldt

Undergraduate Spotlight

OU Major: 
Spanish
Research Mentor: 
Julie Ward
Describe your undergraduate research or creative project:

Portraying the representation and oppression of women in Latin America through three renditions of the Greek Antigone.

Awards and/or presentations:

Borgfeldt, Bradlee. "The Oppression of Women and the Representation of Three Antigonas." Curiosity to Creativity Spring Symposium, 25 April 2018, Oklahoma Memorial Union, Norman, OK.

Published Work:

n/a

Alex Arment

Undergraduate Spotlight

OU Major: 
Mechanical Engineering
Research Mentor: 
Yingtao Liu
Describe your undergraduate research or creative project:

The goal of the project is to create a system that will allow prosthetic users who have lost their hand(s) to receive tactile feedback from their prosthetics. This will be achieved by utilizing piezoelectric film, a material that produces voltage in response to pressure. Sensors will be scalable, so as to be able to fit the contours of the hand, and to allow various resolutions. Accompanying circuitry will allow data from the piezoelectric sensors to be collected and processed in a small, self-contained unit that can be worn with the prosthetic. The sensors will be integrated into a glove to be worn over the prosthetic, or into the prosthetic itself.

Awards and/or presentations:

Arment, Alex. "Piezoelectrics In the Restoration of Touch Sensing in Prosthetic Users." Curiosity to Creativity Spring Symposium, 25 April 2018, Oklahoma Memorial Union, Norman, OK.

Published Work:

n/a

Jessica Ames

Undergraduate Spotlight

OU Major: 
Chemical Biosciences
Research Mentor: 
Christina Bourne
Describe your undergraduate research or creative project:

The ParDE4 cassette found in Agrobacterium tumefaciens is of particular interest because it is structurally identical to the Rel-type ribosome-dependent ribonuclease toxin family, but its inhibition of DNA gyrase is indicative of the Par-type toxin family. While it is known that ParE toxin activity results in DNA breaks, either by inhibiting DNA gyrase or by direct nuclease activity, there is a gap in knowledge regarding the specific mechanism(s) of its actions and how this may relate to function. Here, we demonstrate the deoxyribonuclease activity, gyrase inhibition, and translational inhibition activity of toxin. We have also shown that the toxin and antitoxin interact with high picomolar affinity and that the antitoxin does, indeed, neutralize the toxin activity when the two are co-expressed.

Awards and/or presentations:

Ames, Jessica. "Exploration of the Novel Functions of the Bacterial AtParE4 Toxin." Curiosity to Creativity Spring Symposium, 25 April 2018, Oklahoma Memorial Union, Norman, OK.

Published Work:

n/a

Sonia Abarzak

Undergraduate Spotlight

OU Major: 
Biology
Research Mentor: 
Dr. Elizabeth Bergey
Describe your undergraduate research or creative project:

nails live in a variety of soil types and changes in soil structure due to human activity are common. In this experiment, we tested the preference of a soil-associated snail (Anguispira alternata) to soils with different organic matter content (simulating the addition of compost or the loss of organic matter in urban soils). Six soil mixtures were randomly assigned within a plastic ‘shoe box’ divided into six compartments, using plastic dividers that extended to just below the soil surface. Six replicates were created and two snails were placed in each compartment, for a total of 72 snails. Equal-sized pieces of lettuce were placed at the soil surface in each compartment. To collect data the number of snails in each compartment were counted and a chi square test was conducted to analyze the data. It was found that the snails avoided the two sandiest compartments and did not distinguish between the four compartments with higher or equal concentrations of coconut fiber.

Explain what you learned or give advice to fellow students:

Abarzak, Sonia. "Habitat Preference of Anguispira Alternata for Difference Compositions of Sand and Organic Fiber." Curiosity to Creativity Spring Symposium, 25 April 2018, Oklahoma Memorial Union, Norman, OK.

Published Work:

n/a

Esmeralda Alcala

Undergraduate Spotlight

OU Major: 
Microbiology
Research Mentor: 
Swadhin Swain, Ben F. Holt III
Describe your undergraduate research or creative project:

Plants have extraordinary ability to sense and respond to their surrounding environment. Environmental factors such as light profoundly influence plant growth and development. Identifying the genes and understanding their function in light perception and signaling is essential for improvements in crop engineering. Despite numerous efforts, our understanding about light signaling in plants is incomplete. Recently, the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana demonstrated that NUCLEAR FACTOR Y (NF-Y), a heterotrimeric transcription factor, has a novel function in light perception. To create an in-depth understanding, genetic screening was carried out in the background of a known quadruple mutant, nf-yc3 nf-yc4 nf-yc9 hy5, to discover the genes involved in the NF-Y mediated light signal transduction. In the future, characterization of those genes will lead to a more complete understanding of the light signaling mechanism in plants.

Explain what you learned or give advice to fellow students:

From my experience, I have learned the procedures for forward genetic screening, the time sensitive data collecting, and planning ahead. My advice to fellow students is to not be afraid or intimidated to ask and reach out to people.

Published Work:

n/a

Hailey Grippen

Undergraduate Spotlight

OU Major: 
English
Research Mentor: 
Dr. Sandra Tarabochia
Describe your undergraduate research or creative project:

My research is centered around the different internal and institutional factors affecting faculty writer motivation in relation to faculty writer identity development. I analyze scholarship and interviews from my mentor's longitudinal study of faculty writer identity development to identify patterns in these relationships. There is little scholarship that explores the importance of faculty writer identity development or the greater effect that it may have on faculty member motivations. Instead, scholarship is oriented more towards encouraging faculty writers to be more productive. Ultimately, my research project functions as call for more research on how the institutional and internal factors intersect with both faculty motivation and writer identity development in order to create healthier writing environments and healthier faculty writers.

Explain what you learned or give advice to fellow students:

Over the past semester I have learned how to prepare interviews to be segmented, segment data to fit my mentor's coding process, and conduct interviews through a semi-structured qualitative interview process. Through my research, I have learned a lot about the difficulties of the tenure process and different aspects of faculty writer identity development.It's been and exciting and rewarding journey! I'm also excited to be walking away having learned a lot about my own writer identity development, and different ways that I can continue to maintain motivation as a writer as my writing career develops.

Awards and/or presentations:

Grippen, Hailey. "Progressing from Writing to Writer: Exploring Factors that Impact University Faculty and Their Writer Identity Development." Curiosity to Creativity Spring Symposium, 25 April 2018, Oklahoma Memorial Union, Norman, OK.

Published Work:

n/a

Spencer Gallucci

Undergraduate Spotlight

OU Major: 
Mechanical Engineering
Research Mentor: 
Dr. Yingtao Liu
Describe your undergraduate research or creative project:

My research this semester was to begin the design of an under actuated prosthetic hand. What this is, is a prosthetic hand that operates using only 2 motors, or actuators, and due to the small number of actuators it is under actuated. Internal mechanisms for the fingers and the thumb had to be designed along with a palm to encase all of it.

Explain what you learned or give advice to fellow students:

I learned how to operate 3D printers, and how to design for 3D printing through this project. Sometimes the best design you have, will fail when you try to actually create it outside of just a computer program. This research also tested my time management skills heavily, because i did not have nearly enough time to actually fully accomplish the desired goals due to my 16 credit hours of class i was attending at the same time. It was a fun learning experience regardless however.

Awards and/or presentations:

Gallucci, Spencer. "Under Actuated Prosthetic Hand." Curiosity to Creativity Spring Symposium, 25 April 2018, Oklahoma Memorial Union, Norman, OK.

Published Work:

n/a

Sidney Bernbaum

Undergraduate Spotlight

OU Major: 
Art, Technology, and Culture
Research Mentor: 
Todd Stewart and Robert Bailey
Describe your undergraduate research or creative project:

We went on a two week road trip through the American southwest. We followed the US-Mexico border as a basis for our trip. Our focus was on space/place and the way that it is handled in real life. It was eye opening to see the effect that borders imagined by humans had on people's lives.

Explain what you learned or give advice to fellow students:

For this trip, be prepared to be tired and to camp. We had multiple places to go each day, and didn't always have time to see everything. I camped for the first time in my adult life, and I found out that I love it. This experience is well worth the exhaustion.I can't put into words what this trip did for me, but I feel like it really put into perspective some ideas that I had about the world. I met some people with different world views, some that I liked and some that I didn't, and that is always something to strive for.Oh, and if you ever go to the library at Slab City, don't take pictures of people's dwellings. Caveman will kick you out of this town with no rules.

Published Work:

n/a

Amber Morgan

Undergraduate Spotlight

OU Major: 
Chemical Engineering/Biotechnology
Research Mentor: 
Susan Walden
Describe your undergraduate research or creative project:

I have worked on a research project using the integration of a peptoid and a cholesterol as a possible preventative measure for Alzheimer's Disease. If this project is successful, it could be extended to include many of the neurodegenerative diseases that are currently being fought. I also got the opportunity to travel to Costa Rica as a part of a summer REU. I studied the driver behind the color change of a very rare water anole native to Costa Rica.

Explain what you learned or give advice to fellow students:

There are many important things that I have learned in my undergraduate experience. The most important piece of advice that I would give to a student is to start early, and to take advantage of every opportunity presented to you. The earlier that a student gets started in undergraduate research, the more they can explore many different opportunities. This allows the student to find specific interests and find good fit for themselves for after graduation. I would also recommend to students to look for undergraduate research opportunities abroad instead of studying abroad through the university. This gives students the opportunity to travel the world and gain valuable life experience at the same time.

Awards and/or presentations:

Morgan, A.M., C. Hestekin and S. Servoss 2017. The Effect of Cholesterol and Peptoids on Membrane Properties of Bicelles. National Conference of Undergraduate Research, 2018. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) National Conference, 2017. Denver, Colorado. Louis Stokes Alliance For Minority Participation (OKLSAMP) Annual Research Symposium, 2017. Stillwater, Oklahoma. (Awarded first place in non-life sciences)Morgan, A.M. and L. Swierk. 2016. Hiding in plain sight: Rapid color change permits disruptive camouflage in the aquatic anole, Anolis aquaticus. AISES National Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science National Conference, Long Beach, California. OKLSAMP Annual Research Symposium, 2016. Stillwater, Oklahoma. Las Cruces Biological Station Research Symposium, Las Cruces, Costa Rica.

Published Work:

Morgan, A.M and L. Swierk. 2016. Hiding in plain sight: Rapid color change permits disruptive camouflage in the aquatic anole, A

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