{"id":58610,"date":"2024-04-12T12:33:34","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T16:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=58610"},"modified":"2024-04-16T10:32:23","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T14:32:23","slug":"research-and-creativity-flourish-at-2024-spring-research-and-arts-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2024\/04\/research-and-creativity-flourish-at-2024-spring-research-and-arts-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Research and creativity flourish at 2024 Spring Research and Arts Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"More

More than 650 presenters participated in the 2024 Research and Arts Conference at UTC. Photo by Angela Foster.<\/p><\/div>\n

Mushrooms, artificial intelligence, state policy, stroke rehabilitation, television shows and medieval magic were some of the 290 unique presentation topics at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga\u2019s annual Spring Research and Arts Conference.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, April 10, students, faculty, staff and community members from various disciplines came together to share their research and creative works.<\/p>\n

Presenters utilized every room in the University Center for their projects\u2014including posters, panels, oral presentations and performances.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very exciting,\u201d said Dr. Lisa Piazza, executive director of the UTC Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavor (URaCE). \u201cIn a lot of cases, we\u2019ll meet students at orientation who want to get into research. Many of them are here presenting today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really the best outcome that we can have for high-impact practices here like engagement and student success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piazza expressed the importance of opportunities for students to share their research.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pride on everybody\u2019s face as they\u2019re standing there actually presenting their work,\u201d she said, \u201cit\u2019s pretty amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chancellor Steven R. Angle spoke to many of the presenters while visiting their displays.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so fun to see students excited about learning, their projects, what they\u2019ve researched and the questions that have come up that they want to answer,\u201d Angle said. \u201cThe common theme is the excitement for the students. They\u2019re actively engaged. This isn\u2019t sitting in a class; it\u2019s discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

A look back at some of the presentations from this year\u2019s conference.<\/p>\n

Medieval Magic and Medicine: Tools of the Trade<\/h4>\n
\"Freshman

Freshman Collin Jackson’s model of a curse tablet was one of the “Tools of the Trade” displayed by Dr. Kira Robison’s “Medieval Magic and Medicine” course.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the Chickamauga Room, 27 of Dr. Kira Robison\u2019s history students in her \u201cMedieval Magic and Medicine\u201d class presented museum-style exhibits related to the topic, \u201cTools of the Trade.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe task was to do a research project,\u201d Robinson said, \u201cand I asked them to find a discipline they were interested in and to find a tool\u2013\u2013a physical object\u2013\u2013 and research it. Instead of writing a paper, I told them to make an exhibit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey Bashore, a junior majoring in history, made her exhibit on medieval fertility. The tool she incorporated was a Latin fertility potion, which included ingredients such as raw egg yolks, dog\u2019s mercury, bird\u2019s tongue and a bull\u2019s penis.<\/p>\n

She displayed a fake bowl of the potion.<\/p>\n

\u201cFertility is something that affects every single person no matter the time or location,\u201d Bashore said. \u201cI thought that was always interesting, especially during the medieval era.\u201d<\/p>\n

Junior Karen Cruz, a double major in international studies and Spanish, said the idea behind her project on smudging stemmed from her Hispanic heritage and Catholic background. Smudging is a ceremony for cleansing the soul of negative thoughts.<\/p>\n

Some of the items she displayed included sage and palo santo smudging sticks. The connotations around smudging have changed throughout time, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring medieval times,\u201d Cruz explained, \u201csmudging was used a lot because witchcraft was prevalent during that time. They started using smudging to scare people and to connect with spirits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freshman communication student Collin Jackson displayed a model of a curse tablet.<\/p>\n

He explained that in medieval times, practitioners would create a thin, lead tablet engraved with a curse\u2014and then break it with a nail near the victim.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would drive a nail through it to invoke spirits, deities and gods,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s model was made of clay instead of lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are normally made of lead,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I didn\u2019t want to accidentally curse someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Senior

Senior Hayden Hunley<\/p><\/div>\n

Hayden Hunley, \u201cPoisonous or Edible? A Mushroom Classification Challenge\u201d<\/h4>\n

Hailing from the tiny town of Santa Fe, Tennessee, senior computer science student Hayden Hunley loves going into the woods to forage for mushrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to know just on a list of mushroom features if I would be able to tell if it\u2019s poisonous or edible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Hunley used an old field guide with over 8,000 instances of positive mushroom identifications. For each identification, 22 features were recorded, including cap shape, cap color, odor and stalk shape.<\/p>\n

He then created the random forest model and the logistic regression model to distinguish between poisonous and edible mushrooms.<\/p>\n

The random forest model had 100% accuracy over all 8,000 mushrooms, while the logistic regression model was 97% accurate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was right up my alley,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s data science and mushrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Chancellor

Chancellor Steve Angle and senior Juan Pena.<\/p><\/div>\n

Camron Rockwell, Juan Pe\u00f1a, Noah Leiker and Dr. Erkan Kaplanoglu, \u201cFinger Rehabilitation System\u201d<\/h4>\n

According to mechatronics engineering senior Noah Leiker, this project doesn\u2019t fix broken bones\u2014but instead, neurological damage.<\/p>\n

The finger rehabilitation system attaches to a stroke patient\u2019s finger and uses motors to help it perform all necessary movements, allowing the user to repair muscle memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big thing about our design was making it adjustable,\u201d Leiker said. \u201cWe have Velcro and you can increase the size or shrink it to fit anybody\u2019s finger so multiple people can use it. So if we were to sell this, you could roll out a bunch of them instead of having to make each one custom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The motivation for this project, Leiker said, was to improve the lives of patients who are deeply affected by their long-term stroke symptoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people that struggle,\u201d he said. \u201cThey lose a lot of things in their life that they just can\u2019t do anymore. It was an idea to help those people out and try to give them a chance to get their life back again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AI

AI for Real panelists Laurel Rhyne, left, Nagwan Zahry and Shane Ward.<\/p><\/div>\n

AI for Real<\/h4>\n

UTC\u2019s AI Initiative<\/strong><\/a> hosted its first-ever panel discussion on AI applications for the classroom and in research. Chief Information Officer and AI Initiative Program Coordinator Vicki Farnsworth moderated the discussion.<\/p>\n

Panelists included:<\/p>\n