The 2010 UCI Undergraduate Research Symposium invites undergraduate
students to give formal presentations or displays of faculty-mentored
research, scholarly activities,
or creative endeavors in all academic areas. Presentation formats
may be as diverse as the fields they represent but must be
appropriate
to the discipline.
Submission Process
Submission Guidelines
Abstract Guidelines
Sample Abstracts
Presentation & Abstract
Submission Process (PDF)
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Undergraduate students who wish to present
their faculty-mentored research or scholarly/creative activity
at the UCI Undergraduate Research Symposium must complete the
Presentation
& Abstract Submission Form no later than Monday,
April 12, 2010.
On the form, submitters indicate the number of student presenters
and the number of mentors associated with their particular project and presentation.
Submitters are asked to provide information on themselves, their mentor(s), and
other undergraduate presenters, if applicable. Please note that in the case of
group presentations, only one submission per project is needed.
Next, student presenters are asked to upload/attach an
electronic version of their project’s abstract. In the heading of the abstract,
please include any additional undergraduate co-authors who are not presenting at the
symposium. For more details, please review the Abstract
Guidelines. They are also asked to indicate
whether their faculty mentor(s) has approved the abstract.
Submitters are asked about the details of their
presentation, including the title of the project/presentation, whether it’s an oral
(this includes performances) or poster presentation, the area of research for the project,
and the equipment needed for the presentation.
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A confirmation via e-mail is automatically
sent to the student presenter(s) and faculty mentor(s) once
the submission has been received. This confirmation includes
a code that allows them to access and update the submission.
The e-mail also includes a Web site link with the code already
embedded so they can easily access the submission. Changes
to
the abstract or other information must be completed by the
deadline for submission, which is Monday, April 12,
2010.
The review process starts once the deadline for submission has
passed.
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Once the review is complete, student presenter(s)
and faculty mentor(s) are sents another e-mail notifying them
whether the submission was accepted, not accepted, or needs
modification (which must be completed immediately) before a
final decision can be made. Revisions should be received as
quickly as possible. After a submission has
been accepted, the associated presentation is scheduled, and
the student presenters and their faculty mentors receive a final
e-mail notifying them of the time and place of the presentation.
It also allows them to send e-mail invitations to guests they
wish to invite through an automated system. These e-mail invitations
to guests introduce them to the symposium and provide additional
information, including directions to the UCI Humanities Buildings.
Faculty mentors can also invite their colleagues to presentations
by their students. Once a presentation has been scheduled, student
presenters, faculty mentors, and guests associated with that
particular presentation receive a final e-mail notification
about the time and place of the presentation and directions
to the UCI Humanities Buildings.
Presentation Format Submission Guidelines (PDF)
Poster Presentations
Poster presentations are displays on poster boards. Instead of a board, poster presenters
can request a table to display objects including models, devices, or artwork. Poster
boards must be 3’ or 4’ (height) by 4’ (width). These can be purchased at a
stationery, office supply, or art supply store.
Presentations should be prepared on poster board in advance. If this is not possible
because of difficulty transporting your poster board, a poster board can be requested for
the day of the conference. Please note that we provide only 3’ (height) by
4’(width) poster boards. Pushpins, glue, and other materials needed to assemble
the poster board are provided (a room for poster assembly is also available).
Presenters must be available to discuss their displays during their assigned
poster session. A few specifics on the poster boards include: posters
must be readable from at
least three feet away, the presentation title must be at least two inches
high, and beneath the title, the name(s) of the student author(s), faculty
advisor, and home
institution must be at least one inch high. UROP reserves the right to
cancel a presenter’s poster session if the above requirements are
not met. See the Presentation Guidelines for more specific information
on how to prepare a poster presentation.
Oral Presentations
Oral presentations are 15 minutes in length with three additional minutes
allotted for a question-and-answer period. This schedule is strictly
enforced. See the Presentation
Guidelines for more specific information on how to prepare an oral
presentation.
Performing Arts/Visual Arts Presentations
Performing Arts/Visual Arts presentations are considered Oral Presentations
since they are executed in the same format: up to 15 minutes for a performance with three
additional minutes allotted for a question-and-answer period. Performing arts
presentations may include creative activities in music, dance and theater, and visual arts
presentations can be done in drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture,
ceramics, mixed media, video and film. The number of abstracts accepted in the performing
arts or in the visual arts may be limited by available space.
An abstract is required for presenters in the performing arts or the
visual arts. A performing arts abstract should describe the performance.
Visual arts abstracts should describe the visual art research question,
methodology, and outcomes. Artwork must be of a serial nature. In addition to
submitting an abstract, those in the performing and visual arts must submit
additional materials that are outlined in the presentation and submission guidelines,
listed below, for
each arts category:
Music
Participants may perform in one of the following categories:
(A) Original composition
(B) Composition in the style of a specific musical period, style, or composer
(C) Arranging
(D) Performance
(E) Lecture recital
(F) Research and/or analysis
Resources available at UC Irvine include playback for cassette/CD (in a classroom setting
only) and a piano. For categories A, B, and C, students must submit a full score (or
significant portion of a score if work is in progress) plus a cassette cued to the
performance. A full score must be available at the time of the presentation. For category
D, students must submit a cassette cued to the performance. For categories E and F,
students should follow the standard symposium format. Name, school, address, phone number,
title, composer, and type of musical instrument(s) must be attached to the submitted
cassette. Cassettes should be mailed or delivered to the UROP Office.
Dance
Participants may perform a solo and or as a small ensemble (up to four dancers) in modern
dance, jazz, or ballet. In addition to the abstract, students must submit a videotape cued
to the performance. Name, school, address, phone number, title, choreographer, and idiom
of the piece must be attached to the submitted videotape. Videotapes should be mailed or
delivered to the UROP Office.
Theatre
Participants may present monologues or scenes (up to five actors). In addition to the
abstract, students must submit a script (and cued videotape of performance, if possible).
Name, school, address, phone number, and title of the piece must be attached to the
submitted script and videotape. Scripts and videotapes should be mailed or delivered to
the UROP Office.
Drawing, Painting, Printmaking, Photography, Sculpture, Ceramics, and Other
Applied Arts
In addition to the abstract, students must submit six slides or transparencies of their
work, completed or in progress, and an artist’s statement. For three-dimensional
work, two views of each piece should be included. If slides or transparencies are not
available, participants can send a PC-formatted disk or CD of digital scans of their work.
No original work should be submitted. Please include the name, title of work, medium,
dimensions, and date for each piece of work submitted. All
materials should be mailed or delivered to the UROP Office.
At the conference, all studio artists are required to give an oral presentation, complete
with slides or transparencies and/or a PowerPoint presentation. Slides, transparencies or
scans can be used to cover the historical progression of the work and ideas, as well as
visual connections with other artists.
Video and Film
In
addition to the abstract, students must submit a videotape or film.
Video presentations must be on one-half-inch VHS tape, and film is to be 16mm only.
Attach name, school,
address, phone number, and title of piece to the submitted videotape or film. Videotapes
or film should be mailed or delivered to the UROP Office.
NOTE: If individuals want their performing/visual arts materials to be returned to them in
the event that their abstracts are not accepted, include a self-addressed, stamped
envelope/folder with the submission to the UROP Office.
Abstract Guidelines (PDF)
Students must submit abstracts of their faculty-mentored
research, scholarly, or creative activity. Presenters will be
selected
on the basis of the quality of their abstracts and other submission
material, as in the arts. All abstracts must be received
by Monday, April 12, 2010. Reminder: Please note that in the
case
of group presentations, only one submission and abstract per project
is needed.
Abstracts must include sufficient information for reviewers to judge the nature and
significance of the topic, the adequacy of the investigative strategy, the nature of the
results, and the conclusions. The abstract should summarize the substantive results of the
work and not merely list topics to be discussed. Remember that abstracts will be published
in the Symposium Program and online.
Abstract Content
An abstract is an outline/brief summary of your paper and your whole
project.
It should have an intro, body and conclusion.
It highlights major points of the content, and answers why this work
is important, what was your purpose, how you went about your project, what you learned,
and what you concluded.
It is a well-developed paragraph and should be exact in wording.
It must be understandable to a wide audience.
Do not include any charts, tables, figures, or spreadsheets in the
abstract body.
Abstract Heading Layout
Title of paper (if your title includes Greek
letters, scientific notation, bold, italics, or other special characters/symbols, make sure they appear
correctly here in Microsoft Word)
First name, middle initial, and last name of author. Please include
any additional undergraduate co-authors, whether they are presenting with you or not.
Please exclude the name(s) of your faculty mentor(s) since they will be listed separately.
Name(s) of faculty mentor(s)
Abstract Body Format
Abstracts should follow these guidelines:
Sample Abstracts: Sample Format, Dance, Humanities, Science,
Social Science, Studio Art
Sample Abstracts (PDF)
Sample Format of Heading and Body of an Abstract
Title of Project/Presentation*
Joe M. Smith**
Mentor: Mary J. Wilson***
Abstracts must include sufficient information for reviewers to judge the nature and
significance of the topic, the adequacy of the investigative strategy, the nature of the
results, and the conclusions. The abstract should summarize the substantive results of the
work and not merely list topics to be discussed. An abstract is an outline/brief summary
of your paper and your whole project. It should have an intro, body and conclusion. It is
a well-developed paragraph, should be exact in wording, and must be understandable to a
wide audience. Abstracts should be no more than 250 words, formatted in Microsoft Word,
and single-spaced, using size 12 Times New Roman font. It highlights major points of the
content and answers why your work is important, what was your purpose, how you went about
your project, what you learned, and what you concluded.
* If your title includes Greek letters, scientific notation, bold,
italics, or other special characters/symbols, make sure they appear correctly here in
Microsoft Word.
** Include additional undergraduate co-authors, whether they are
presenting or not presenting, if applicable
*** Include additional faculty mentors, if applicable
DANCE
Syncope
Jenny A. DeMuth
Mentor: Dr. Marc Kotz
The definition of syncope is: a brief lapse in conscience caused by a transient cerebral
hypoxia (lack of oxygen). Using the theme "brief lapse in consciousness," this
piece focuses on the audience's perception and the interference in the visual reception.
It explores the use of non-traditional light sources to illuminate the body and face. The
illumination of the body creates a dramatic contrast of light vs. dark. The darkness
becomes just as important as the light in the visual field. Development of this piece
involved learning how to control the visual field with movement and having the dancers
manipulate the audience's spatial perception. I learned how this process works by
rehearsing in a dark studio with flashlights. The flashlights can be used to light the
whole body or specific parts of the body. The images of floating body parts create a
magically surreal mood. It is sometimes difficult for the audience to perceive what is
real and what is an illusion, creating brief lapses with reality or consciousness. The
music adds to the overall atmosphere of the piece because of its low and calming effect.
HUMANITIES
Cristina Peri Rossi: The Postmodern Transgressions of Parody and Ambiguity
Eduardo Ruiz
Mentor: Dr. Lucia Guerra-Cunningham
Uruguayan writer Cristina Peri Rossi’s first book, El libro de mis primos (The Book
of My Cousins, 1969), is compared with her later novel, La nave de los locos (The Ship of
Fools, 1984), to suggest how an authoritarian society can be criticized through parody and
then rebuilt on the foundations of a philosophy of ambiguity, similar to Lyotard’s
vision of the postmodern. Dissatisfaction with the power structures of tradition and
validation of marginality are characteristics of such vision, which inscribe Peri Rossi in
the postmodern current of Latin-American literature. The postmodern condition agrees with
the major conclusions drawn from both works. First, tradition is viewed as a decadent
state of affairs that needs to be brushed aside, for it does not respond to genuine human
concerns and, in fact, has frustrated and destroyed them. Parody is the tool used to
dispose of tradition. Secondly, there has to be an acceptance of the margins, of the
other. This presupposes a tolerant ambiguity of inclusion that is capable of rebuilding
instead of destroying, and does so by using the very materials of the other. What El Libro
destroys La nave rebuilds. El Libro’s mission is to do away with the atrophied waste
of patriarchal order, while La nave seeks to fill up the resulting void with one possible
solution: the conciliation of opposing forces by a tolerant philosophy of inclusion.
SCIENCE
Persistent Global Activation of the Aplysia Serotonergic System After Sensitizing Stimuli
Kristine Kolkman
Mentor: Dr. Thomas Carew
The marine mollusk Aplysia responds to noxious stimulation with a stereotyped arousal
reaction that includes escape locomotion, increased heart rate and sensitization of
defensive reflexes. Although previous studies have shown that serotonin (5-HT) is
important for most of these behavioral responses, it is still unclear how the 5-HT system
is activated in response to noxious stimuli. To address this question, I used a specific
staining of the 5-HT neurons in the living central nervous system (CNS) that allowed me to
(1) systematically record their electrical activity following a noxious stimulus, and (2)
trace their projections using the neuronal tracer Neurobiotin. I found that in response to
tail-nerve shock, a procedure known to mimic a noxious tail stimulus, the vast majority of
5-HT neurons increased their firing rate for several minutes and became more excitable.
5-HT neurons were found to project toward various peripheral targets such as the gill,
heart, body wall, tail, siphon, head, and tentacles as well as to other ganglia in the
CNS. This study shows that the Aplysia 5-HT system is globally and persistently activated
after a noxious stimulus. Such an activation might serve to synchronize the different
aspects of the arousal reaction in Aplysia.
SOCIAL SCIENCES
Stereotype Threat
Stephanie Domzalski
Mentor: Dr. Geoffrey Iverson
The stereotype threat theory (Steele 1992, 1997) examines the underperformance of women in
mathematical domains and minorities in academic domains and attempts to explain these
trends as being due to situational anxiety. Research indicates that the performance
differential between genders and ethnicities can be best understood in terms of stereotype
threat activation rather than biological determinants. The anxiety a stereotyped
individual feels when confronted with an academic task is compounded by a societal
expectation of failure. However, not much research currently exists on the mediating
effects of personal belief in the stereotype. The goal of this study was to examine
whether anxiety was correlated with a stronger belief in the stereotype among college-aged
participants. Individuals from stigmatized groups demonstrated a significantly greater
likelihood to experience higher anxiety levels if they believed the negative stereotype
and that higher anxiety level correlated with lower test scores. These results provide
general support for Steele’s stereotype threat hypothesis.
STUDIO ART
Water Soluble Colorants On Porcelain
Jennifer L. Brant
Mentor: Dr. Charles Olson
In the ceramic work of Scandinavian artist Arne Ase, water-soluble materials such as
titanium sulphate, cobalt chloride, tungsten oxide, molybdenum chloride, and selenium
chloride are utilized as decorative elements on his porcelain forms. Such chemicals are
not of common use in the ceramic arts because of the expense of the raw materials and the
possible hazards of working with these chemicals. However, these colorants can create
subtle yet breathtaking effects, including hues of black, blue, yellow, or pink, that
blend with the surface of the clay, as if the porcelain vessel were a watercolor painting.
It is his research, which I have expanded upon and integrated into my own ceramic work.
Additional colorants have been tested, including iron sulphate, cobalt sulphate, and
copper sulphate. A different firing atmosphere has been incorporated in the research, as
well as two porcelain bodies, to expand the palette of colors that can be obtained. The
most successful test results have been applied to my porcelain forms, which include a wide
variety of functional objects, in order to contribute to my ongoing exploration of
personal expression through the medium of clay.
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