The Academic Excellence Symposium (AES) – a chance for students to engage in discussion and debate about their research topic — is returning on April 30th at the Cofrin Library.
In Dean Ryan Martin’s most recent Student Success Tip (which you can view on our Instagram), he discusses the importance of attending AES. One, it’s crucial to support fellow classmates’ research. And two, attending the symposium can help students get an idea of how they can participate in something very important to UWGB : URSCA, or Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity.
“We know that engaging in undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative activity – URSCA – is good for you,” Dean Martin said in his video. “It helps you be more successful while you’re in school and after school. It helps you find mentors, it helps you find careers, it helps you figure out what you like and what you don’t like – it’s good for you.”
Two Psychology students who are attending AES, Justin Leuck and Kohyo Yamada, shared a bit about their research with CAHSS.
Leuck said his research looks at the correlation between age and hot and cold executive function.
“Executive function is an important field of research,” he said. “It allows us to understand how we interact with the world and learn things.”
Yamada’s research focuses on the comparison between student athletes and non-athletes.
“My research improves eye-tracking data,” he said. “(It) is important to investigate their extent of being surprised by observing pupil dilations and their behavioral accuracy.”
Dr. Sawa Senzaki, director of the CHILDS Lab where both Leuck’s and Yamada’s work stems from, said she is excited for this year’s symposium.
“This year we have five students from the lab (who are participating),” she said. “They are going to be presenting projects about how kids lie and regulate themselves, to athletes and students who are going to be paying attention to different kind of things and measuring the pupil dilator – super cool projects.”
Senzaki is also the sponsor for the five participating students this year.
“I sponsor student research projects and presentations because this is a really great opportunity for students to showcase their hard work that they are putting many hours (in to) – analyzing data and working with children and families,” she said. “This is a real exciting time for students.”
The Academic Excellence Symposium runs from 10 a.m. to noon and again from 1-3 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30 in the Cofrin Library.
To learn more, click here.
