Congratulations to the 2016 Undergraduate Library Research Prize Winners!
Four undergraduates at the University of California San Diego have been awarded the 2016 Undergraduate Library Research Prize, co-sponsored by the UC San Diego Library, the UCSD Alumni Association, and the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. Their research topics ranged from exploring the effectiveness of conventional pedagogy practices to designing mechanisms to study asteroids.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the award which recognizes students who have demonstrated exemplary research skills in mining the Library’s rich and diverse information resources and services. Awards are given in two categories: Social Sciences, Art, Humanities, and Physical and Life Sciences. They include a cash award of $1,000 and $500 for first and second place, respectively.
In the Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities category, first place was awarded to John Chisholm, a fourth-year student in Eleanor Roosevelt College who is majoring in International Studies Political Science. His research investigates the effects of Chinese foreign aid to Africa. He completed his honors thesis research under the guidance of his advisor, Professor Clark Gibson from the Department of Political Science. His advisor notes that “all the information that [John] used in the thesis came from the Library – paper books, [items] from interlibrary loan, and electronic databases and provided John with ideas to access data from institutions beyond UC San Diego, such as the World Bank’s development indicators.”
Second place in the Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities category went to Artemio Olivas, a second year transfer student majoring in World Literature in Muir College. His research revolves around exploring the role of culturally relevant English courses taught by Latino and non-Latino faculty on the success of Puente students through designing a study of Puente students at the community college level for his McNair research project. His advisor, Frances Contreras, Ph.D., stated “I have been amazed at Artemio’s ability to grasp and master Qualitative research methodology as an undergraduate student. The research he has conducted is at the level of a graduate student.”
In the Physical and Life Sciences category, first place was awarded to Treysi Vargas Ramos, a third year student at Warren College majoring in Human Biology. Her research focuses on investigating treatments for certain types of cancer of the head and neck. Her faculty mentor, Weg Ongkeko, Ph.D., writes that “upon learning about the project, Treysi had immediately immersed herself in the literature in a quest to learn about these mysterious regulatory molecules.”
Second place in the Physical and Life Sciences category went to Kristine Khieu, a second year student majoring in Bioengineering: Biosystems in Muir College. Her work centralizes around designing an instrument to chip away and collect samples from an asteroid. She is part of a four member team of engineering students who developed this for NASA’s 2016 Micro-g NExt challenge and received the opportunity for NASA scientists and engineers to test the prototype. Khieu noted that the research process was “dynamic and nonlinear” and consisted of utilizing the Library’s mechanical and aerospace engineering guide. She cited that her team combed through a wide variety of databases such as Web of Science and the Encyclopedia of Materials to create their final design, which was “grounded in the vast amount of research already conducted.”
To be considered for the Undergraduate Library Research Prize, students must be nominated by faculty members and must participate in either the annual UC San Diego Undergraduate Research Conference held in the spring, or in other university programs that foster and recognize student research and scholarship. The Undergraduate Research Conference is one of three major undergraduate scholarly meetings that the Office of Student Affairs Academic Enrichment Program coordinates each year that afford students from all academic disciplines the opportunity to present findings of research conducted under the guidance of UC San Diego faculty members.