Forty-eight of the 63 U of S USRA students presented posters this year. The winners are:- 1st place: Trista Friedrich (supervised by Lorin Elias, psychology): "Examining Aesthetic Preference for Movement Direction."
- 2nd place: Daniel Gomez (supervised by Alexey Cheviakov, mathematics and statistics): "Mathematical Modeling of Narrow Escape Problems in 3D Domains."
- 3rd place: Amelia Hesketh (supervised by Timothy Kelly, chemistry): "Synthesis and Stability of Gold-Coated Silver Nanoprisms."
Other examples included the role of genetics in tooth enamel formation, predicting the behavior of subatomic particles, how the brain handles simple arithmetic and word recognition, and using fungi to make crops more tolerant to salty soils.
The USRA provide financial support to help undergraduate students across Canada gain research work experience during the summer that complements their fields of study, and encourages them to pursue careers in research in natural sciences and engineering.