Undergraduate Research

Robert Hackett ’12 participated in the seventh National Monitoring Conference in Denver from April 25-29, 2010, where he presented results from his research project “Tracking the Impact of Land Use and Sustainable Practices on Lake Water Quality."

How often do you notice the products that appear in your favorite television shows? And what do you think about those brands? Alex Walton ’10 sought to answer those questions, as well as gauge the opinions of broadcasting professionals, in his study of product placements in reality television shows. His work is the fourth in a series of E-net profiles to showcase Elon undergraduate research during CELEBRATE! 2010.

It’s a new area of research – “whole body vibration” – that exercise sports scientists are exploring. Can standing on a machine that sends rapid vibrations through a body make an athlete run faster or jump higher? James Burns ’10 wanted to find out. Burns' work is the second in a series of E-net profiles that showcase Elon undergraduate research during CELEBRATE! 2010.

Amid the aftermath of the global financial meltdown, Clayton Winkelvoss ’10 found a perfect topic for his Honors thesis: executive compensation on Wall Street. Did banks receiving funds from the Troubled Assets Relief Program offer their employees larger or smaller compensation packages in 2008 than they did in 2007, before the financial crisis? Winkelvoss' work is the first in a series of E-net profiles that showcase Elon undergraduate research during CELEBRATE! 2010.

Paul Miller, professor of exercise science and director of the undergraduate research program, has been elected to serve a three-year term as a councilor in the Undergraduate Research Program Director's Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research.

For the second consecutive year, Elon University junior Amanda Leigh Clark has been recognized with an honorable mention in the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship Program, which awards scholarships to students planning for careers in science, math or engineering.

To many Americans, healthy living involves counting calories, watching medical segments on the morning news, or drinking diet soda. Health elsewhere on the planet takes a more active approach, according to Elon University senior Ryan Bleam, the third student to be featured in a monthly series of E-net profiles on the inaugural class of Lumen Scholars.

If the maker of Big Red and Juicy Fruit thinks its chewing gums have a monopoly on boosting your memory, it should think again. New work by Elon University faculty member Amy Overman and her undergraduate researchers show that gum itself isn’t special – any candy or oral activity probably works just as well at sharpening the mind.

If, like the famous advertisements claim, Red Bull does “give you wings,” it may not be the sugar and caffeine that makes you feel like Pegasus. New work by an Elon faculty member and his undergraduate researchers points to something else that happens when guzzling the popular energy drink – and it has more to do with your mind than anything else.

This year 36 Elon students will be presenting at the 23rd National Conference on Undergraduate Research set for April 16-18 at the University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse. Read this note for a list of the students and their research topics.