KU students to present research projects at symposium Saturday, March 8

LAWRENCE -- The sixth annual Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Symposium will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 8, in the Kansas Union. Almost 70 undergraduates in all disciplines will present the results of their research/creative activity by means of oral, poster or video presentations.

Presentations are arranged by topics including:

 • General interest, ranging from a study of workplace literacy in metropolitan Kansas City to the restructuring of manufactured housing design in Native American communities to the flexural stiffness of bee antennae.

 • Physics and astronomy, math and engineering, ranging from a statistical analysis of coronary heart disease and its risk factors to the search for a beautifully beaded boron "bracelet" or self-assembling electronic materials.

 • Social science and architecture, ranging from a contemporary urban-park case study in France to the effects of preschoolers' background knowledge on their memories for events depicted in stories read to them.

 • Chemical and biological sciences, ranging from design, synthesis and biological testing of non-hormonal, nonsteroidal, reversible male contraceptives to new iron compounds for bleach catalysts in laundry detergents.

"Media are welcome to stop in and see what the students have done," said Barbara Schowen, director of KU's Honors Program. A good time to come by would be between noon and 2 p.m.

Video presentations are from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Parlors Room of the union.

Oral presentations are from 9:15 to 11:30 a.m. and 1:15 to 3:30 p.m. in Alderson Auditorium in the union.

Poster presentations are from noon to 2 p.m. in the union ballroom.

A full schedule of events and the abstracts can be viewed at www.ku.edu/~honors/sympos/newsym.html.

Many undergraduate projects were funded by KU's long-running Undergraduate Research Award Program with funding from the state via the KU Center for Research, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the provost's office. Students with undergraduate research awards performed their research last spring or summer. Others at the symposium are presenting work for a senior honors thesis, and a few were involved at an off-campus site.