08/25/09

Student Researcher Honored

From MLive:

After four years as a U.S. Army medic, University of Michigan-Flint senior Cameron Waites was selected for several prestigious scholarship and research opportunities that include work for Stanford University.

Waites has been named one of 15 recipients of the highly competitive National Institute of Health undergraduate scholarship program, a 10- week long summer laboratory experience with a researcher and a postdoctoral fellow.

The Army sergeant has also been selected for the Stanford Summer Research Program/Amgen Scholars Program. Each participant is matched with a member of the school’s faculty to work in one of Stanford’s state-of-the-art research facilities.

Waites, of Mount Morris, spent more than 4,000 hours in patient care with the Army.

“It was during my time in the army, and subsequent time in the Iraqi desert, that I discovered my true calling to become an M.D., Ph.D. and advance the understanding of science and medicine,” Waites said in a UM-Flint news release.

He said he decided to attend UM-Flint after learning about the honors program and health sciences degree.

“These two facets of my education would allow me to be with my family and also have an opportunity to truly stand out and make a difference in the Flint community,” he said.

The medical school hopeful will have the opportunity to advance his education at some of the most prestigious institutions in the country through the programs he has been selected for.

Washington D.C. is also on his itinerary. He is among only 25 undergraduates in the “Michigan in Washington” program, which will allow him to combine coursework with an internship that reflects his particular area of interest during the program.

Classes are taught by UM faculty but students gain access to local Washington experts in their research area.

There’s more good news for Waites.

He recently learned that the Scholarship Program Board of Directors selected him to be one of five scholars for the 2009-2010 Gallagher Koster Scholarship Program. The scholarship is awarded to outstanding, undergraduate students who need financial assistance to pursue their health-related career.

In late September, Waites will be honored among other recipients at a scholar’s dinner in Boston.

Congratulations, Cameron!

05/16/09

Undergraduate researchers at Meeting of Minds

 

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On May 15, nearly 50 students from UM-Flint participated in the annual Meeting of Minds (MOM) Undergraduate Research Conference at UM-Dearborn.  Congratulations to all the student presenters and thank you to all the UM-Flint faculty who attended the event.  For more information about MOM – including the journals for the past few years – visit the Meeting of Minds homepage.

04/27/09

UM-Flint student accepted as Stanford Scholar

We are happy to announce that Honor’s student Cameron Waites has been accepted into the Stanford Summer Research Program (SSRP)/Amgen Scholars Program from June 21st – August 15! As an SSRP Scholar, Cameron will have the opportunity to work closely with Stanford University faculty while receiving full funding supporting for travel, housing, meals, and a $3200 stipend. Also, he will have the opportunity to participate in the Amgen Scholars Program National Symposium from July 18 – July 20 at UCLA.

More information about the Amgen Scholars Program can be found at www.amgenscholars.com.

Congratulations on this accomplishment Cameron!

01/27/09

UM-Flint students to present at the American Chemical Society

UM-Flint undergraduates Anthony Vida, Alexander Findlater, Hyeonjin Cho, and Trisiani Affandi will be presenting results of their research projects at the American Chemical Society in Salt Lake City, Utah, March 21-24. 

Anthony will be presenting work from his project entitled “B-Amino acid conformational energies and solvent effect.” Alexander’s project is entitled “Ground and low-lying excited states of C2O4.”  Hyeonjin (or Katie, as she likes to be called) will present her work on “Theoretical studies of peptide nucleic acid (PNA) monomers”. Finally, Trisiani will present her work on “Ground state and low-lying exciting states of NIC2.” Dr. Jie Song is serving as faculty advisor for all four students.

Congratulations Anthony, Alexander, Katie, and Trisiani!

01/23/09

UM-Flint student to present at NCUR

University of Michigan-Flint Honors student Cameron Waites will present his paper at the 23rd annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) at the University of Wisconsin – LaCrosse on April 16-18, 2009. In doing so, Cameron will become the first student from the UM-Flint campus to ever present at the event. Dr. Maureen Thum is his advisor.

Waites’ paper “Pathetic Fool Or Political Operator: The Role of Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet” explores the role of one of the playwright’s most misunderstood characters. The paper looks to examine how Shakespeare used Polonius as, according to Waites, “an astute manipulator who puts politics before personal relationships.” 

As an NCUR presenter, Waites will have 15 minutes to present his paper, in addition to a five minute session for responding to audience questions.

Established in 1987, NCUR has consistently been one of the largest national conferences for promoting undergraduate research, creative, and scholastic achievement. This three-day event draws thousands of visitors each year as well as hundreds of talented students representing over 400 colleges and universities nationally. Additonal information about NCUR can be found at http://www.ncur.org/.

Congratulations Cameron!

01/15/09

UM-Flint student publication featured

CSCAR consultant and doctoral student Brady West and UROP student Madhur Lamsal recently had a co-authored piece featured in both the New York Times, the Kansas City star, and the Ann Arbor News.  Brady and Madhur developed a statistical model for rating college football teams, leading to a paper “A New Application of Linear Modeling in the Prediction of College Football Bowl Outcomes and the Development of Team Ratings”, published in the Journal of Qualitative Analysis in Sports.

Congratulations Brady and Madhur!

05/22/08

Undergraduate Research news

It’s been a pretty exciting month for undergraduate research here at UM-Flint. On May 16, 2008, over fifty UM-Flint students participated in the 16th annual Meeting of Minds Undergraduate Research Conference (MOM); co-sponsored by UM-Flint, UM-Dearborn and Oakland University.

Shortly after; on May 20, 2008, nine students represented UM-Flint at the annual Michigan Undergraduate Research Forum (MURF) held at the State Capitol. This event – jointly sponsored by the three University of Michigan campuses, Michigan State University and Wayne State University – gave our students the opportunity to share their research with our state legislators and with each other.

Congratulations all our students and their advisors!

For more information about MOM, visit:
www.umflint.edu/research/MOM.

For more information about MURF, visit:
www.umflint.edu/research/MURF.