Undergraduate Research Day, October 2, 2008

We are so pleased to welcome you to our fourth annual Undergraduate Research Day. This is an important and exciting event for the University of Houston for a variety of reasons. Undergraduate Research Day is an opportunity for undergraduates from all colleges and disciplines to display and present their research to the campus community, hence learning and growing from each other. It is a venue for sharing ideas and information with all members of the UH community, including students, faculty, staff and friends of UH. It is also an arena for conveying the University's commitment to promoting undergraduate research activities on campus. Through the support of the Office of Undergraduate Research's programs and the Quality Enhancement Plan, it is evident that UH has made undergraduate research a priority for its students' academic development. Today you are viewing 42 posters from our Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) participants. These students' projects range from researching Houston's civil rights movement, determining the power of presidential policy proclamations, and studying Julius Caesar to examining magnetic resonance imaging for early detection of breast cancer, working with receptors to better understand the neurological pathways underlying schizophrenia, and developing an artificial skin simulant for the testing of a novel type of catheter. Today we also have other undergraduates' posters on display, as well as students that conducted oral presentations that took place earlier in the day. These students, like our SURF students, have conducted substantive research projects within the last year. Since its development in 2004, the Office of Undergraduate Research has supported and assisted over 500 students through the Provost's Undergraduate Research Scholarship program, the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program, and the Senior Honors Thesis program. We are thankful to be able to offer these programs to students, and look forward to supporting even more undergraduates throughout the coming years. Funding these research endeavors, however, would not have been possible without the support from many of our advocates on campus. The Provost's office, the Division of Research, the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the Cullen College of Engineering, the Honors College and the College of Technology have all contributed to our office's programs, hence ensuring that many more undergraduates are able to engage in meaningful mentored research experiences during their collegiate careers. We also want to extend our appreciation to our first-rate selection committee and advisory board. The members of this committee donate their time and expertise throughout the year to select the student recipients of these highly desirable scholarships and fellowships. This truly is a demanding, thankless job, and therefore we are tremendously grateful to these individuals. Thank you again for attending Undergraduate Research Day, and supporting undergraduate research endeavors at the University of Houston. If the Office of Undergraduate Research can be of any assistance to you in securing research opportunities or seeking undergraduates to assist you in your ongoing research, do not hesitate to contact us.