Aria Kimiavi’s research project uses computer science to analyze the VWU men’s soccer team.
McKenna Howenstine|Marlin Chronicle
At the bi-annual Academic Symposium, student presenters are tasked with explaining their research or internships to attendees.
The Academic Symposium is an event that celebrates the academic achievement of students completing a variety of academic experiences, including research, internships, performance and global engagement.
The Academic Symposium is a conference-style event held on the Virginia Wesleyan campus. Students share their work with an oral, poster or panel presentation.
As part of the discussions following these presentations, students are encouraged to reflect upon their experiences and offer advice to other students who are preparing to undertake their own experiences.
The Academic Symposium was held on Wednesday, Dec. 4. The speaker session was held at 2:30 p.m. This is where the students would go up in front of the faculty, staff and other students and present their topic up on stage.
The following event was the poster presentation at 4 p.m., where students set up their poster on their topic in the CMAC. Students and teachers could walk around and got a chance to ask questions one-on-one and get more information on what exactly they focused on.
Senior Harrison Smith presented his research project at the Symposium on the Cozumel Coral Reef Restoration Program, which is an initiative focused on protecting and restoring the fragile coral ecosystems surrounding the island of Cozumel in the Caribbean Sea. Cozumel’s reef is part of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, the second-largest coral reef system in the world, which serves as a critical habitat for diverse marine species. Over the years, human activities, climate change and natural disasters have significantly damaged these reefs.
“We wanted to make a recommendation of ideal shading that we could give to other conservation groups. Since these are very cheap and easy to reproduce, we can send them to other people and say this one works well with bleaching, you can also use it too,” Smith said.
Due to the location of Smith’s project, he had to enlist volunteers to collect data.
“I had trouble in the beginning when the volunteers were first learning how to gather information and send it back to me. But then I was lucky enough for them to have a lot of interns there, and the interns are science majors like myself, so they were interested in learning more,” Smith said.
Another student who presented was Casey Bennett, a senior. He was studying MicroPADs as an Emerging Bacterial Diagnostic Device. This is an innovative and cost effective solution for bacterial diagnostics, particularly in resource-limited settings.
“We were just doing a paper based test to identify bacteria, and based on the color change, I got to know certain traits about them, and that helps me identify them. This could be used for areas that don’t have the resources to implement, like bigger labs for, clinical based testing,” Bennett said.
These devices utilize microfluidic technology integrated into paper, allowing fluid samples, such as blood, urine or water, to flow through pre-designed channels by capillary action. MicroPADs are highly portable, inexpensive and require no external power or sophisticated equipment, making them accessible for point-of-care testing.
According to Bennett’s research, in 2019, one in eight global deaths, estimated at 7.7 million, were directly linked to 33 bacterial pathogens. By 2050, deaths attributed to antimicrobial resistance are projected to increase up to 10 million. Low resource areas are disproportionately impacted by drug resistant pathogens and infectious bacterial disease.
The Academic Symposium is held bi-annually at the end of each semester.
By Brady King
bpking@vwu.edu
