Students Receive Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavor Awards
Northeastern University is proud to announce that the Provost’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors Awards will support over 25 student-initiated projects during Spring 2016. Recipients of the Provost’s Awards span Northeastern’s colleges and represent disciplines ranging from Pharmacy to Political Science, Urban Landscape to Biochemistry.
The Provost’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors Awards offer financial and academic support to Northeastern students seeking to conduct original projects of their own design. The goal of the program is to encourage students representing a wide range of majors and disciplines to carry out both early and advanced independent research and creative endeavors under the mentorship of Northeastern faculty members. The Provost’s Awards represent a substantial commitment of university resources to the involvement of undergraduates in Northeastern’s flourishing and groundbreaking research efforts.
Projects supported by the Spring 2016 Provost’s Awards include:
Influence of cadmium exposure via maternal inhalation on the development of autism spectrum disorder in offspring mice
Sul Gi Chae Bouve’17
The study aims to examine the toxic effects of cadmium, one of the most significant heavy metal components in tobacco, on the development of autism spectrum disorder in offspring as a result of maternal exposure.
The History and Urban Ecology of Boston’s Infrastructural Landscapes
Jackson Plumlee CAMD’16
This project examines six constructed landscapes in Boston–the Back Bay Fens, the Esplanade/Charles River Basin, the Southwest Corridor, Deer Island, Spectacle Island, and the Rose Kennedy Greenway—as case studies for the provision of public space and ecological value within urban infrastructure.
Scientific Payloads: Atmospheric-Measurement and Controlled-Descent Experiment
Joseph Conahan COE’19, Agamemnon Despopoulos COE’18, Eleanor Blair COE’18, Jennifer Morin COE’19
This award will support the Northeastern chapter of the American Insitute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ participation in the NASA Student Launch Competition. This year’s challenge is to launch a rocket to a mile in altitude with two scientific payloads on board. One of the payloads will be a quadcopter that will deploy from the rockets and safely bring the payload to a predicted location.
The Effect of Wildlife-Crossing Structures on Arboreal Wildlife in Costa Rica
Katra Laidlaw COS’17
This study aims to determine the effectiveness of wildlife-crossing structures to mitigate the effects of habitat fragmentation and prevent road-related deaths. Using rope bridges that were installed by a wildlife rehabilitation center called Kids Saving the Rainforest in 2001, the goal of this project is to determine how frequently the rope bridges are used by wildlife, and which types of wildlife benefit most from the bridges.
The role of internal waves on the delivery of plankton to benthic environments in stratified, nearshore systems in Northern Massachusetts Bay
Katherine Hudson COS’17
This study will attempt to find and describe internal waves—a type of wave first identified in 1998 off southwestern Massachusetts—in the waters surrounding Nahant and Cape Ann, MA using a Fetch Autonomous Underwater Vehicle designed by Northeastern University professor Mark Patterson. In addition, the project will investigate the role these phenomena play in transporting planktonic organisms to the sea bottom.
Creating a Medievalized Game
Michael Epstein CSSH’16
This project involves the design and development of a tabletop board game based on accurate and research-informed inclusion of medieval thematics, such as quests, the hunt, and medieval romance.
More information on the Provost’s Awards, including a database of previous recipients, can be found here.