Undergraduate Research Competition Awards at CCU
Sixty-nine presentations were delivered by Coastal Carolina University students from 20 majors representing all five colleges at the Undergraduate Research Competition held recently. The awards will be formally presented at the Honors Convocation on Friday, May 9, at 3 p.m. in Wheelwright Auditorium.
In most cases, students presented on projects completed under the mentorship of CCU faculty, but some completed projects through off-campus internships as well. Students presented alone or in teams, and a few presented their work on more than one project, sometimes in very different disciplines. For example, Nathan Grimes, who won first place in the Humanities and Business category, managed to combine his two majors of marine science and economics into a business presentation on externalities and incentives controlling shark fin markets, but he also presented a poster on a physics project examining sources of error in radar wave propagation related to meteorological studies.
“Every year, I am blown away by the breadth and talent of our student researchers,” said Director of Undergraduate Research Rob Young. “These kinds of hands-on experiences are invaluable for landing jobs and getting into graduate schools after graduation.” Following the CCU competition, several students headed to the University of Kentucky to present their research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.
Presentations at the CCU Undergraduate Research Competition were judged by more than 30 faculty judges representing all colleges and the library. Award categories and the number of awards in each category were determined based on the presentation submissions, and directly reflect the numerical distribution of topics and presentation formats, oral or poster.
The following students placed first or second in their respective categories:
Oral Presentations
Humanities and Business Category:
First place: Nathaniel Grimes, economics and marine science major, with research mentor Rob Salvino, “Institutions of the Shark Fin Market: Roles of Externalities and Incentives”
Social and Political Sciences Category:
First place: Ashleigh Simons, psychology major, with research mentor Linda Palm,
“Blame attribution as a function of sexual assault victim characteristics”
Physical, Biological, and Health Sciences Category:
First place: Janel Reeves, biology major, with research mentor Sharon Thompson, “Call a Vegetable a Vegetable: Perceptions and Taste Ratings”
Second place: Mary Anderson, biology major, with research mentors Greg Martel and Karen Aguirre, “Effectiveness of Gaming Systems on Balance in Older Individuals”
Poster Presentations (single category):
Tie for first place: Anthony Carrone, psychology major, with research mentor Miranda Brenneman, “Tattoos and Risk Taking Behavior in College Students”
Tie for first place: Valerie Hartigan, marine science major, with research mentor Julie Harding, “Stable Isotope Analysis in Deep Sea Cephalopods of the Bear Seamount”
Second place: Joseph Griswold, marine science major, with research mentor Erin Burge, “Prevalence and Intensity of Ectoparasites on Fundulus heteroclitus as a Function of Size in Two Marsh Systems in South Carolina, USA”
Wheelwright Auditorium is located at 108 Spadoni Park Circle in Conway.
