Students present research findings at SURF

Nearly 120 students presented posters, PowerPoint presentations and research from a variety of academic disciplines, including political science, psychology, biology, and computer science. In addition to introducing students to scholarly research work, SURF gives students the opportunity to have their findings presented at national conferences and published in academic journals.

The day began with a special College Coffee at the Center for the Arts, where students discussed posters displaying their research with peers and faculty members. Art students also displayed their ceramics, paintings and other works.

Cristina Mayer examined CNN’s breaking news coverage of the 2005 terrorist attacks on British subways. Mayer found that journalists sometimes departed from their tradition roles when reporting the story. “Sometimes journalists used personal references when reporting the story, and sometimes used unconfirmed sources and reports,” Mayer said. She also found the same to be true of the BBC’s reporting of the incident. “What’s ironic about that is that just before the attacks, the BBC had issued guidelines to its reporters about speed versus speculation,” said Mayer, who conducted her research under the direction of faculty mentor Brooke Barnett.

Parker Turner was interested in post-9/11 security at America’s airports, so his research focused on whether the heightened safety measures have truly made flying safer. Turner, working with faculty mentor Hunter Bacot, filed Freedom of Information Act requests to obtain figures from seven of the nation’s busiest airports on items confiscated by security personnel from 2003 to 2005. Turner found that the busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, confiscated just 405 items from the more than 41 million who boarded planes at theh airport in 2004. Meanwhile, Los Angeles International, which had 28.9 million passengers in 2004, confiscated more than 2301 items.

Turner also found that passengers have not stopped flying because of increased security measures. Each of the seven airports he surveyed reported an increase in passengers from 2003 to 2004.

Andrea French combined her love of golf with her research on Geographic Information Systems (GIS). French, guided by faculty member Honglin Xiao, used GIS technology to map out the top 50 golf courses in the U.S. By combining the golf course data with GIS data about population, she was able to determine that most of the top courses are located in metropolitan areas in the Midwest or northern states. French believes this is because courses in those areas are not open year round, like many courses in the South, and therefore do not suffer the wear and tear Southern courses are subjected to.

Asked where she would build a top 50 golf course, based on the data she accumulated, French said she would look for a “metropolitan area near the coast that doesn’t yet have a top 50 course. The Tidewater area of Virginia is an example. There, you have a lot of residents, but you also have vacationers.”

This year’s student presenters included the following:

Melissa Apperson

Melissa Askins

Peter A. Bellezza

Rachel Blakeslee

Kathryn Bradley

Caitlin Brilhart

Charity Bumpass

Ryan Carpentier

Laura Christian

Colleen Clark

Samantha Conte

Erin Culp

Kaitlyn Day

Montesia C. Deas

Jacqueline Del Giorno

Benjamin DeLoose

Brian T. Delsandro

Rachel E. DeWitt

Rebecca Dickson

Sarah Dollard

Elizabeth Downing

Neal Dugre

Elizabeth Easterly

Samuel Eisen

Nicole T. Eldridge

Adam Frank

Andrea French

Allison Genco

Crystal Gentry

Britten Ginsburg

Lindsay Gonzalez

Brian Grady

Joshua Guske

Brandon J. Hale

Katherine Hart

Rachel Hetu

R. Rebecca Hewitt

Rachel Hinson

Bridget Holmstrom

Christine E. Hopewell

Ian Hull

Eric Hydrick

Laura Iannacone

Maria Interiano

Bettina C. Johnson

Julie Kenneally

Tiffany King

Megan Kipp

Sarah Klein

Sara Knowlton

Emily Koerner

Michael Koslow

Christine Kostura

Erika M. Lamanna

Matthew Lardie

Abbey Lepley

Brooks Martin

Jon Maggio

Cristina Mayer

Cynthia McCollum

Stephen McCoy

Kristin McDonough

Katherine Michaud

Lindsay Miller

Marissa Morris-Jones

Danielle Morrow

Sarah A. Moser

Charles Mueller

Kate Mysak

Ted O’Hanlan

Kathryn Olsen

Jenna Onusko

Jennifer Papillo

Amy E. Parker

Calandra Plattner

Christina M. Pompeo

Heather Porter

Ryan Quinn

Lauren E. Rappaport

Elizabeth Rice

Sarah Robinson

Genevieve Romanello

Akane Sakata

Monica R. Salvo

Kristin N. Sanders

Bianca Sassine

Summer Schlesinger

Rebecca Schrier

Canden Schwantes

Elizabeth Shandley

Andrea M. Spaeth

Asami Sudani

Whitney Taylor

Jessica Townsend

Kyle Troester

Gwendolyn Turner

James Turner, IV

Svetlin Tzolov

Nolan M. Wildfire

Margaret Williams

Christopher Woods

Jessica J. Young

Faculty mentors included the following:

Kyle Altman

Janna Anderson

Andrew Angyal

Tom Arcaro

Hunter Bacot

Elizabeth Bailey

Andrea Bender

Brooke Barnett

Anne Bolin

Connie Book

Lee Bush

Hui-Hua Chang

Matthew Clark

Jeffrey Coker

David Crowe

Rich D’Amato

Stephen DeLoach

Brian Digre

Cynthia Fair

Victoria Faw

Heidi Frontani

Michael Frontani

Matthew Gendle

Jim Goodman

Eugene Grimley

Eric Hall

Juliane Hammer

Lynn Heinrichs

Lynn Huber

Charles Irons

Pam Kiser

Angela Lewellyn-Jones

Christopher Leupold

Maurice Levesque

Greg Lilly

Paul Miller

Christine Nemcik

Linda Niedziela

Drew Perry

Lisa Ponton

David Powell

John Reilly

Jean Schwind

Glenn Scott

Gabie Smith

Kerstin Sorenson

Bird Stasz

George Taylor

Thomas Tiemann

Brant Touchette

Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler

Scott Windham

Honglin Xiao

Suzan Zuljani-Wasik

The Undergraduate Research Program Advisory Committee includes the following:

Karl Sienerth, Director, Undergraduate Research Program

Gabie Smith, SURF Program Co-Chair

Brooke Barnett

Crista Coles

Cassandra DiRienzo

Michael Fels

Paul Miller

Linda Niedziela

Christine Nemcik

Lee Nickoson-Massey

Bird Stasz

Scott Windham