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More than 300 ��ɫӰ�� students at the undergraduate and graduate level will present original research, art, and music during the university's annual Research Appreciation Week, April 3–7.

Research Appreciation Week spotlights the spirit of innovation and collaboration shared by all disciplines and recognizes the contributions that ��ɫӰ�� original research and scholarship make to this region and to the world.

��ɫӰ�� is one of four public doctoral research universities in Pennsylvania. ��ɫӰ�� researchers received $10.9 million in sponsored activity funds for fiscal 2015–16.

Several events are open to the community, including the 12th annual Women in Mathematics, Science, and Technology program on April 3 on the first floor of Weyandt Hall; the 12th annual Undergraduate Scholars Forum (April 4), and the seventh annual Graduate Scholars Forum (April 5). Both forums are in the Hadley Union Building.

Women in Mathematics, Science, and Technology

The Women in Mathematics, Science, and Technology program includes a visit from high school students from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.; a poster session of scholarly work by ��ɫӰ�� faculty and students from the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.; and a panel discussion related to success of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The high school student participants and ��ɫӰ�� student poster winners will be recognized at this time.

Panelists are Sally Amero, who serves as National Institutes of Health review policy officer and as the extramural research integrity liaison officer in the National Institutes of Health Office of Extramural Research; Donna Olejniczak, project manager at Noveome Biotherapeutics, Inc.; and Mary Sewatsky, chief medical officer and patient safety officer at Moses Taylor Hospital, Scranton.

The Patricia Hilliard Robertson Memorial Scholarship for Women in the Sciences recipient will be announced during the awards ceremony. This scholarship was established to honor the memory of Robertson, a 1985 alumna of ��ɫӰ��, who became a physician and an astronaut. Robertson was from Homer City. She passed away in May 2001 from injuries in a flight accident.

Undergraduate Scholars Forum

The Undergraduate Scholars Forum includes a poster session of original research from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the Ohio Room and atrium. The juried art exhibition is open in the Susquehanna Room on April 4 and 5 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Oral presentations are broken down by topic and are offered concurrently. Sessions from 8:00 to 9:20 a.m. are related to “Gender and Racial Disparities in Society,” “Critical Reflection on Society and Government,” “Economic Development,” and “Environmental Damage,” and there is also a business case competition.

From 9:30 to 10:50 a.m. students will present research on “The Impact of the Media on Perception,” “Health and Well-Being,” “Applied Economic Analysis,” and “International Research.”

Topics in the 11:00 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. session are “The Past and Future,” “Urban Planning,” “Math, Motivation, and Performance Theory,” “Investment and Funding,” and “Development and Learning.”

Graduate Scholars Forum

The Graduate Scholars Forum on April 5 includes a poster session from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Oral presentations from 9:00 to 10:15 a.m. focus on these topics: kidney disease, diverse mathematical and natural science issues, special populations and predictive analysis, writing practices, and social media.

Sessions offered from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m. are on these topics: issues in Division II (athletics), health education and outreach, literary themes, expression in writing, and diversity issues in kinesiology, health, and sport science.

Three-Minute Thesis Competition

The Graduate Scholars Forum also includes, for the second year, the Three-Minute Thesis Final Competition at 1:00 p.m. in the Ohio Room.

Based on a program founded at the University of Queensland, graduate students present their original scholarship in three minutes with the aid of one PowerPoint slide. Students applied to participate in the competition earlier this semester and are chosen after a preliminary competition in March.

The six finalists and their topics are:

• Suzanne Craig — “Characterizing the role for timeless gene in planarian regeneration”
• Terrance Hudson — “Why Teach? What Motivates African American Males to Choose Careers in Teaching”
• Ingrid Krecko — “The Circle of Sadness: Improving children's emotion competence through the film ‘Inside Out'”
• Gina Vaira — “The Forgotten Ape: Exploring the Cognitive Abilities of Symphalangus syndactylus”
• Nathan Lilla — “Filtering through Vocal Frequencies for Voice Transformation”
• Derek Hanely — “Graphy Theory and the Double-Critical Conjecture”

A panel of judges will choose the winner of the competition, who will receive $500. Persons in attendance will choose the “peer winner,” who also will receive $500.

A complete schedule of the Undergraduate Scholars Forum presentations are available on the Undergraduate Scholars Forum website.

A complete schedule of the Graduate Scholars Forum presentations are available on the Graduate Scholars Forum website.