Undergraduate Research Day, April 1, 2021

This year marks the 16th anniversary of Undergraduate Research Day at the University of Houston. Like so many others in the face of the pandemic, we have shifted all of our operations online to continue supporting the efforts of undergraduate researchers and their faculty mentors. We are grateful to have access once again to the ForagerOne Symposium platform to bring you the most engaging event possible, wherever you may be at this time. Through the 2021 Undergraduate Research Day, we aspire to connect undergraduate researchers to other students, faculty, staff, and professionals in industry to showcase their work. We encourage you to comment or reach out to individual presenters with any questions about their work. Undergraduate Research Day is a collaborative effort between the Office of Undergraduate Research and Major Awards and the Honors College that highlights the diverse range of research projects carried out by University of Houston undergraduate students. The 2021 presenters include students from the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF), Mellon Research Scholars Program, and many others who conducted research under the guidance of University of Houston faculty in the past year. We are proud of our students and their accomplishments and they are eager to share their projects with you. To say that the past year has been challenging would be a vast understatement. Our campus community has always shown resilience in the face of adversity, and this has continued to be evident in the undergraduate research community as well. Students have pressed onward with projects, faculty have created remote research opportunities, and our office has incorporated remote contingency planning into application processes to smooth the transition for students who need to shift their work methods. Despite the obstacles presented in the past year, the Office of Undergraduate Research and Major Awards has supported students from various departments at the University of Houston through faculty-mentored research programs. The 2020 SURF Program had over 140 participants and 48 students were introduced to research in the Houston Early Research Experience. Over 90 students have been awarded the Provost's Undergraduate Research Scholarship between January 2020 and January 2021, with most projects occurring remotely. The Mellon Research Scholars Program, now in its fourth year, received a new $500,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to continue its work preparing students to contribute to their respective fields in the Humanities. Our presenters have collaborated with faculty mentors from a dozen colleges and over 30 departments on campus. Faculty at the University of Houston are dedicated to mentoring students in the pursuit of advancing knowledge in their fields and are always looking for ways to advocate for students' success. Students involved with faculty-mentored research in programs such as Mellon Research Scholars, SURF, or PURS have unique opportunities to develop skills through problem solving, communication, leadership, and critical thinking. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, University of Houston students continue to demonstrate a high level of achievement with their applications for national fellowships and major awards. For the third year in a row, a record number of candidates applied for the Fulbright U.S. Student Program (46) and UH earned its highest number of semi-finalists (25). UH achieved a similar mark for the Critical Language Scholarship. Nine students were named CLS recipients, which is the most in UH history. Thirteen UH students were also admitted to the DAAD RISE and DAAD RISE PRO programs in order to conduct research in Germany. UH fellowship candidates are increasingly competitive for some of the most prestigious awards as well. After earning its first Truman Scholar in 36 years last April, UH matched this success with its first ever Gates Cambridge Scholar. University of Houston students have also been named finalists for the Marshall Scholarship and Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program. The Office of Undergraduate Research and Major Awards welcomed two new student staff members in 2020. Nimra Zubair joined as the Graduate Advisor and provides guidance and support to students who wish to apply for competitive fellowships and major awards. She has applied to awards such as the Boren Awards, Fulbright Program, and was awarded the Critical Language Scholarship to study Punjabi. Nimra works closely with students to match them with various opportunities and assists the Office with social media outreach. Nimra holds a Bachelor of Political Science and a Certificate of Entrepreneurship from the University of Houston and is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Public Administration. Students interested in applying to major awards or connecting with research opportunities should contact Nimra for more information. Paulina Ezquerra joined as a student worker in the Office of Undergraduate Research and Major Awards and supports Dr. Rikki Bettinger with the Mellon Research Scholars Program, the Houston Early Research Experience, and additional special projects for the Office. A member of the Honors College, Paulina is double-majoring in Philosophy and Political Science. A Mellon Research Scholar, FrameWorks Fellow, and former HERE participant, Ezquerra knows firsthand the difference co-curricular programs can make for young researchers. She plans to continue researching the cultivation of moral and intellectual virtues by pursuing a PhD in philosophy. The Office of Undergraduate Research and Major Awards would like to thank the Office of the Provost, the Division of Research, the Honors College, the Cullen College of Engineering, the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, the Cougar Initiative to Engage, and the many other colleges and departments on campus for their support of undergraduate research programs at the University of Houston. The programs featured here today would not be possible without the support of our campus partners (please see page 4 for listing of supporters). Thank you for joining us for this year's virtual celebration of undergraduate research at the University of Houston. As you engage with the presenters online, we hope you find opportunities to connect across disciplines and ask questions about how we can address some of today's most pressing questions together. Now, more than ever, we acknowledge and appreciate the need for a cohesive global research community. We believe that is the type of community you will see modeled by our presenters today.