UA Poster and Oral Competition Judges Announce Winners

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Seventeen students in the College of Arts and Sciences received prizes for their research and creativity in the third annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Oral or Poster Presentation Competition on The University of Alabama campus.

The projects ranged from composing original works of music, to conducting original historical and cultural research, to designing and performing experiments in scientific labs. First, second and third place prizes were recently given in both oral and poster competitions and in each of the College’s three divisions.

The first place winners and the titles of their works in each division are:

“The ‘Edward’ Ballade by Johannes Brahms” by Susan Warner, a music major from Tuscaloosa; “The Controversy over Pro-Anorexia Websites” by Melissa Anne Levine, an English major from Acton, Mass.; “As the Merry-go-round Turns” by Jarrod Stanley, an interdisciplinary major from Tuscaloosa; “Mood and Memory” by Emily Anderson, a psychology major from Baton Rouge, La.; “Design, Construction, and Test of a Portable Nuclear Fusion Reactor” by Adam Parker, a political science major from Florence; and “Investigating Potential Bacterial Sources of Dopaminergic Neuron Toxicity in C. elegans” by Shermeen Memon, a biology major from Tuscaloosa.

Second place titles and winners are:

“Visitations: A Play” by Kristen Anderson, a theatre major from Kingston Springs, Tenn.; “The Creative Campus” by Erica Crabtree, a communications major from Madison, and Kristi Wilcox, an English major from Tuscaloosa; “Voy Perdiendo’: An Exploration of Poetry in the Arty of Eating” by Laura Godorecci, an interdisciplinary major from Tuscaloosa; “Developmental Differences in Implicit Learning” by Dana Weathington, a psychology major from Anniston; “Fish Utilization of Riffle Habitat Created by a Dam Removal on the Cahaba River” by Heath Howell, a biology major from Samson; “Designing Reversible Single-crystal Transitions” by Timothy Kucharski, a chemistry major from Aiken, S.C. and Jerry Oxsher, a chemistry major from Smyrna, Texas.

Third place titles and winners are:

“Three Quarters to Him” by Jamie Coston, a dance and political science major from Harvest; “An Analysis of Mound V Material Culture from the Moundville Site, Alabama” by Matthew Jared Mirarchi, an anthropology major from Opelika; “Cedar Chest a Hand Drawn Animated Film” by Alicia Clark, an interdisciplinary major from Montgomery; “Binding Energy of Supersymmetric Atoms” by Tim Lovorn, a physics major from Mobile; and “Long-term Growth Trends of Baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) in Relation to Unregulated Streamflow of the Sipsey River, AL” by Byron L. Comeens, an environmental science major from Double Springs.

One hundred and five students in the College of Arts and Sciences participated in the out-of-class creative or research projects, typically working closely with faculty mentors.

“There is no way I could have done a project of this magnitude without the support of my mentors, Professors Guy and Kim Caldwell. The research project took me over a year to develop and putting my work up on a poster helped me visually see everything I had worked on with the Caldwells come to fruition,” said Shermeen Memon, a biology major from Tuscaloosa.

The first place prize was $250; second place won $100; and third place winners won $50. The purpose of the competition was to showcase undergraduate research or creative projects and to give students practical experience in defending or performing their work before judges. Faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences judged the projects.

“At the end, Dean Olin walked around and announced the winners, and I was so surprised to win since I entered mostly to have fun and as a learning experience,” said Memon.

Undergraduates representing all divisions of the College of Arts and Sciences – the humanities and fine arts, the natural sciences and mathematics, and the social sciences – presented their research and creative works. The 86 projects included 48 from the natural sciences and mathematics division, 29 from the social sciences division and nine from the humanities and fine arts division.

“I provided extra credit to my 275 student general biology class to attend the poster competition. I wanted these students to become inspired by their peers who are going above and beyond the typical classroom experience at UA. This experience has convinced me that undergraduates are an underutilized talent and that many professors and students could benefit from the creative synergy that result from these exchanges,” said Dr. Kim Caldwell, assistant professor of biological sciences and mentor for some students at the competition.

The competition was held at the Heritage Room in the Ferguson Center. Approximately 250 faculty and students were in attendance.

“I was impressed with each and every one of the competitors. I know the judges had a difficult time deciding on the final winners because of the excellence of all the presentations,” said Dr. Jimmy Williams, associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and coordinator of the event.

The College of Arts and Sciences is Alabama’s largest liberal arts college and the University’s largest division with 350 faculty and 6,600 students.