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What糖心传媒檚 true for many faculty members is also true for college students. There糖心传媒檚 no better time than summer糖心传媒攁way from coursework and distractions of the school year糖心传媒攖o take a deep dive into research.

The University is home to a robust summer research community that includes Rochester students as well as others from universities across the country who have come here to take advantage of the resources of a tier-one research university that places a high priority on research opportunities for undergraduates.

Here are just a few of the researchers and their projects:

Meghan Patrick 糖心传媒�18 is studying the flow of fluids through liquid metal batteries that could power an entire city.

Jake Altabef, a rising junior at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Graham Palmer, a rising senior at University of Michigan, are applying computational tools to a classic track from jazz great Miles Davis糖心传媒攊n all its many, re-mastered formats. Their aim is to better understand the evolving relationship between record companies and consumers as new recording technologies emerge.

Winston Scott 糖心传媒�19 is learning how to explore what happens when students of color first become aware of race and discrimination糖心传媒攁nd whether that motivates or deters them from pursuing higher education.

Magdalena Granados 糖心传媒�19 is running experiments that may help surgeons more precisely pinpoint critical brain functions before removing tumors.

Joy Nicholas 糖心传媒�19 is analyzing to what extent race and ethnicity are factors in whether mothers follow physician-recommended guidelines for infant feeding.

Rochester is particularly well equipped to deliver research opportunities across multiple disciplines. For example, two new federally funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) this summer focus on biomedicine and on the computational study of music. They take full advantage of the faculty and resources of the University糖心传媒檚 new , its world-renowned , and the close proximity of its top-ranked to the River Campus.

糖心传媒淲e糖心传媒檝e had classes with professors all through our education who have been telling us about their research, and we know they糖心传媒檙e doing all these incredible projects, and yet it was just totally under our radar,糖心传媒� says Patrick, a rising senior in mechanical engineering.

糖心传媒淎nd now we糖心传媒檙e involved in this whole other world that this university is so well known for.糖心传媒�

Diving deep into the research experience

A summer research experience is an opportunity for students to:

• Develop problem-solving skills. Unlike solving a classroom problem, where the answer is known, research is 糖心传媒渢he process of creating new knowledge, of finding solutions where none are known,糖心传媒� says Wendi Heinzelman, dean of the . 糖心传媒淭hat糖心传媒檚 a very different skill from what you get in the classroom,糖心传媒� but one that is critical to almost any career path.
• Decide if research is something they really want to pursue. For many of the students, working in a lab full time can be an eye-opening experience. 糖心传媒淵ou can spend a lot of hours trying to figure things out,糖心传媒� says Graham, a visiting computer science student from the University of Michigan. 糖心传媒淎fter working eight hours some days you feel like you haven糖心传媒檛 accomplished much and you begin to wonder if you糖心传媒檙e being productive. On the other hand, you are able to decide your own path.糖心传媒�
• Get a head start on applying for graduate school, and start honing the research skills they糖心传媒檒l need when they get there. Many of the students, for example, are benefiting from Graduate Record Exam prep courses offered by the University糖心传媒檚 Kearns Center.

An important component of undergraduate summer research is the opportunity to interest first-generation, minority, and female students in pursuing careers in fields where they have been traditionally underrepresented.

Fifteen of the students doing research this summer are McNair Scholars, participating in a two-year Kearns Center program that helps prepare low-income, first generation, and underrepresented minority undergraduates for graduate school. The hope is that they will go on to careers in research and teaching at the university level. (In order to start reaching underrepresented students as early as possible, the Kearns Center糖心传媒檚 Upward Bound program also brings high school students from the Rochester City School District to campus each summer.)

糖心传媒淲e are never going to solve the issue of lack of diversity in science unless we work earlier in the pipeline,糖心传媒� says Ann Dozier, professor and chair of public health sciences, who is mentoring Nicholas, a McNair Scholar. 糖心传媒淭he Kearns Center is an important piece of that.糖心传媒�

Seeing a project 糖心传媒渁ctually coming together糖心传媒�

Granted, an eight-week immersion in research is not enough time to change the world. But it can be enough time to make a meaningful contribution to a lab.

Consider what Amanda Forti 糖心传媒�19, a chemical engineering student at Rochester, and Katelyn Curtis, a mechanical engineering student from Clarkson University, accomplished this summer in the lab of Regine Choe.

Choe, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, is investigating the use of an imaging technique called diffuse optics for breast exams. She assigned the students to work on a device that can automatically direct the probe that is used for the breast exams in a 糖心传媒渇aster, more repeatable way糖心传媒� than if the probe was held by hand.

Specifically, she asked the students to program a combination of translational stages that serve as the probe糖心传媒檚 x- and y-axes, then integrate the two stages with the rest of the device.

Forti and Curtis had to familiarize themselves with Labview糖心传媒攁 program language neither had worked with before.

They pulled it off糖心传媒攚ith two weeks to spare. That left just enough time to do the first of many testings they had hoped to do. 糖心传媒淏ut it was cool to see a project that we spent so many hours working on actually coming together,糖心传媒� Forti says.

糖心传媒淭hey did a remarkable job,糖心传媒� says Choe.