There’s nothing like the thrill of discovery, and IUPUI’s hands-on learning culture will put you in the center of the action. You’ll experience how fulfilling—and fun—it is when your research project reveals a new understanding that could change how people think and live.
Undergraduate student researcher, Simi Kaur.
Get immersed in research and creative activity
New this fall for IUPUI students! The 1st Year Research Immersion Program (1RIP) is an exciting opportunity for first-year undergraduate students to gain an immersive experience in research, scholarship, and creative activity on campus. Students will be paired with a faculty mentor and will work with their peers on a team project that spans a wide array of scientific and creative disciplines.
Hear Linnea Johnson, a biology student in the School of Science, share how research has impacted her experience at IUPUI.
Description of the video:
Hi, I am Linnea Johnson, and I'm a biology student here at IUPUI.
What we look at is the genetics that relate to Down
Syndrome and how knocking down certain genes can affect the bone
deficits and cognitive deficits that are associated with the disorder.
I feel like
this is kind of along those lines of I will be able to eventually help people
and then, even further than that, see what therapies we can come up with.
Why Research
I fell in love with research, so I am planning on continuing to do that
throughout my undergraduate career.
After I graduate, the end goal is pediatric cardiology.
If you have the opportunity to be part of a research lab,
Outro
then take that opportunity.
I've had people come up to me and be like, "I
kind of am interested, but I don't really know what to do".
Do it.
It's an amazing experience. I have loved it.
And if even if you find out it's not something for you,
then there's always a million other things that you can try.
But I think you should always definitely try research.
About the 1st Year Research Immersion Program (1RIP)
As a 1RIP student you will spend approximately five hours working on your project per week, either in-person, virtually, or hybrid, during the fall 2023 and spring 2024 semesters. At the end of each semester, $1,000 will be deposited into your bursar account. You will also receive one credit hour for completing the year-long program.
No previous research experience or minimum GPA is required to participate.
Get started
Learn about the available projects, including project description and the faculty mentor's department in the descriptions below.
You can apply for the program online, selecting your top five choices of opportunity. You'll be notified of your match within about a week of the application closing date. At that time, you'll register for the one credit course.
From chemistry and biology to music and arts, research at IUPUI knows no boundaries.
To learn more about the 1st Year Research Immersion Program, contact Darla Campbell at darlcamp@iupui.edu.
Biology
Current work in the lab focuses on the roles of small hair-like cellular appendages called cilia. We are particularly interested in their roles in the brain. Interestingly, when cilia are disrupted in the feeding centers of the brain this results in obesity in both mice and patients with genetic disorders that affect cilia function. We are currently trying to determine how cilia can affect appetite and satiety. We are utilizing conditional and congenital knockout mouse models, tissue culture, pharmacology and electrophysiology to address this question. Student Experiences include: Learning Animal Husbandry & Mouse Genetic Models of Disease, Molecular Biology of PCR Genotyping and Establishing Cohorts, Tissue Histology, Immunofluorescence and Microscopy, Image Analysis
This research will be done in person.
In the Cummins lab we use computational, molecular biological, tissue culture and electrophysiological techniques to study the impact of sodium channel mutations on neuronal excitability. The student will work with me and the lab members to learn the various methods we use for our investigations, the rationale for the research approach and the meaning of the data in terms of the published literature.
This research will be done in person.
This project will use genetically modified mice to identify genes that are involved in fracture healing. The mice will be bred in the lab and then fractured and fixated. Their fracture healing will be observed weekly using X-ray imaging, MicroCT imaging, and histology. Biomaterials and bone marrow-derived stem cells will also be used to accelerate the bone healing process.
The results of this project will help to improve our understanding of the genes that are involved in fracture healing. This knowledge could be used to develop new treatments for patients with impaired bone healing. The student who assists with this project will be given the opportunity to participate in all aspects of the project. They will have the chance to learn from graduate students and to contribute their own ideas to the project. The students will also have the opportunity to present their work at scientific conferences on campus.
This research will be done in person.
Trisomy 21 causes Down syndrome and affects ~1/800 live births. Trisomy 21 is the leading genetic cause of intellectual disability, and also significantly affects skeletal features in individuals with Down syndrome. Scientists in our laboratory utilize data from humans with Trisomy 21, mouse models of Down syndrome, and trisomic cells to understand how genes in three copies lead to the development of intellectual and skeletal disabilities in individuals with Down syndrome. By understanding the genetic and cellular mechanisms of how trisomy causes developmental changes, we hope to be able to improve the lives of individuals with Trisomy 21. Students in our lab test genetic and pharmacological treatments to find if we might correct the developmental trajectory of cognitive and skeletal deficits affected by trisomy. Scientists in the 1st Year Research Immersion Program will have the opportunity to learn in person about Down syndrome and cutting-edge science, participate in genetics and molecular biology research, and be mentored by leading scientists in the Down syndrome field. First year students will be taught basic laboratory techniques including genotyping trisomic mice through polymerase chain reaction (PCR), scoring behavioral tests of Down syndrome mouse models, and introduced to analysis of large datasets. Students will attend a weekly lab meeting on Fridays from 2-4 (must be available during this time) to learn about and discuss innovative research in the field.
This research will be done in person.
This project is a purely bioinformatic project. This craniofacial research focuses on analyzing the effects of age, sex, and ancestry on the shape of the human face and skull and exploring the genes behind its development. Students will take part in CBCT collections at the dental school, will learn to analyze these CBCT scans and prepare the meshes of the skull and face for further research. The main part of the project will be performed in both Blender and Matlab, editing, and running scripts to see how the face and skull shape changes based on different sexes, ancestries, and other variables. It involves vector mathematics and bioinformatics.
This project is perfect for students with an interest/background in coding and 3D meshing. You must have experience in some computer programs, R/Matlab/SPSS are preferable or even some experience in 3D meshing with Blender or other programs. No wet lab work is required. Due to the short number of hours per week, students should enjoy developing their coding skills and how it applies to biological research. This project shall complement other work being performed in the lab on how to predict a face from skeletal remains and help provide their identity.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
In the Perrin lab, we explore the basic cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for normal hearing and, especially, progressive deafness. Research is focused on auditory sensory cells, which convert sound energy to neuronal signals using actin-based protrusions called stereocilia. Recent projects have addressed how the actin cytoskeleton contributes to stereocilia maintenance (recently published in Molecular Biology of the Cell, PNAS, Cell Reports, Current Biology, and PLoS Biology). Ongoing experiments will probe how regulatory proteins control actin, both during development and in mature mice experiencing progressive hearing loss. At the level of disease, stereocilia malformation or degeneration causes deafness, so better understanding the molecular details is a path towards rational therapeutic intervention. At a more basic level, we are uncovering how cell architecture is formed and maintained, which may be broadly applicable to many biological processes.
Our experimental approach uses mice that model progressive deafness, have conditional gene knockout and express transgenes. Hearing is assessed in intact mice by measuring auditory brainstem responses. Cell morphology and molecular behaviors are analyzed by fluorescent confocal imaging of live cells and fixed samples along with high resolution electron microscopy. The Perrin lab is currently supported by NIH funding and has three PhD students, one scientist, and two undergraduates. New undergraduate students can expect to shadow graduate students, attend lab meetings, discuss research with Dr. Perrin, and work towards developing lab skills necessary for research projects.
This research will be done in person.
We are excited to announce an exciting research opportunity in the Picard Lab for a motivated student with a background in computer science, informatics, or engineering. This research experience will delve into the fascinating realm of biological data within the field of insect biology. By working collaboratively, we will embark on insect genomics projects, seeking to unravel critical biological questions using comprehensive datasets. The projects encompass a wide range of topics, including forensics, biodiversity, and sustainable protein production.
Throughout this research experience, the selected student will have the opportunity to acquire foundational knowledge in genome biology while actively contributing to ongoing lab projects under the guidance of a graduate student mentor. Moreover, individuals with a keen interest in applying machine learning algorithms will find a welcoming environment within our lab.
By participating in this research experience, students will cultivate a diverse skill set, including proficiency in science communication across disciplines. Additionally, they will develop a solid foundation in basic programming and gain expertise in data analysis and management. These skills will prove invaluable in their academic pursuits and future scientific endeavors.
We look forward to welcoming an enthusiastic student who is eager to explore the intersection of computer science and biology and make significant contributions to our insect genomics research. Join us on this exciting journey of discovery!
This research will be done in person and virtually.
BioHealth Informatics
Discover what awaits you in the thrilling world of Biomedical Informatics with the Krohannon Lab! Get ready to dive into the forefront of discovery as we utilize cutting-edge next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology to explore the captivating connections between DNA, RNA, and proteins. We'll unravel what drives the intricate workings of our cells, both in health and in disease. By studying these interactions, we'll gain insights that could pave the way for new treatments and innovative ways to enhance our well-being. Join us in this exciting endeavor as we uncover the mysteries of life's fundamental processes and shape the future of medical therapies.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Emerging spatial omics provides unprecedented cellular and subcellular resolution to track the development of complex diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. Modeling the progression of disease development using computational approaches can help to understand the biochemical and biophysical mechanisms underlying these diseases. In this project, students will be coding to analyze the spatial-temporal patterns of disease development. Participants will have an immersive experience in bioinformatics research with cutting-edge data science and biomedical technologies, from data retrieving, data preprocessing, to mathematical modeling, and bioinformatical analyzing.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Virtual Reality (VR) is advocated as an effective medium for enabling individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI) to practice simulated activities of daily living (ADL) through rich sensory stimuli. However, many individuals with ABI suffer from both cognitive and motor impairments, making it difficult for them to process complex sensory stimuli. Ironically, the strength of VR—rich sensory stimuli—can serve as a barrier for individuals with ABI to fully engage in the therapeutic components of simulated ADL. In this research project, we will assess the engagement level and cognitive load perceived by individuals with ADL during VR-assisted therapy sessions, using both quantitative and qualitative data. Participating 1RIP students will gain experience quantitatively analyzing the engagement level and cognitive load and will triangulate the findings using qualitative interview and observation data.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Approximately 15 million premature babies are born yearly and face a higher risk of newborn mortality, particularly in low and middle-income countries. One common complication of prematurity is neonatal hypothermia, which can be effectively treated with Kangaroo Mother Care/Skin-to-Skin care (KMC/STS). However, implementing KMC/STS is hindered by multiple barriers, such as a shortage of healthcare workers and the labor-intensive nature of caring for premature newborns, leading to inconsistent scale-up of KMC/STS.
To address these challenges, a sensor-enabled swaddling device (NeoWarm) and the linked NeoRoo mobile app have been developed through the IU NeoInnovate Collaborative, to support the adoption and uptake of skin-to-skin care among adult-baby dyads and automatically collect key vital signs information from newborns. The goals of this technology include automated monitoring of vital signs with regular alerts to parents and nurses if any abnormality is detected, enabling nurses to track multiple babies and KMC dyads simultaneously, and setting and tracking shared goals for education, KMC, and discharge. The ultimate aim of understanding whether this device is feasible and acceptable for use in health facilities in the United States. The future directions of this technology include incorporating participatory design feedback, conducting A/B usability assessments, and modifying and evaluating the feasibility of opioid-exposed infants.
The participatory design study with A/B prototypes of the app is being conducted by graduate students from the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indianapolis. This project is to perform enhancements to the NeoRoo app based on the feedback of Neonatal ward nurses at Riley Hospital, Eskenazi, and St. Vincent hospitals.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC, pancreatic cancer) is one of the deadliest cancers with marked resistance to chemo- and radiation therapy leading to a 5-year survival rate of around 11%.
This dire situation is due to advanced stage diagnosis, absence of accurate screening tools for early detection, and lack of effective therapeutics. In PDAC, early disease detection using biomarkers (biological molecules present in the human biofluids such as blood, plasma, urine) levels are not currently effective liquid biopsy technique using blood PDAC biomarkers has been adopted clinically yet, due to limited reliability and accuracy. To reduce mortality from PDAC, which is predicted to be the second leading cause of cancer-related death by 2030, a more reliable detection technology is urgently needed for screening and early diagnosis. In this project, we will develop a novel strategy for the multiplexed detection and identification of PDAC-specific blood biomarkers, which remain challenging, but hold the greatest promise in simple and timely disease diagnosis and prognosis assessment. This project will focus on fabricating an entirely new class of optical nanosensors that utilize multispectral localized surface plasmon resonance properties of noble metal nanoparticles (“ms-plasmonic”) to detect and identify both proteins and microRNAs simultaneously in a single instrument run with unprecedentedly high sensitivity. The 1RIP student will work with the PI and team consisting other undergraduates, and graduate students. The 1RIP student will learn concepts of nanotechnology, and how this emerging field will make a paradigm shift in cancer detection and diagnosis.
This research will be done in person.
Our primary research interest is centered around understanding chemical reactions in complex environments using computational chemistry and molecular modeling. To understand how enzymes achieve catalytic power at a molecular level, we work on obtaining free energy profiles along the reaction coordinate. This involves combining quantum mechanical calculations with efficient molecular mechanics (QM/MM) to conduct free energy simulations of enzymes. However, the demanding computational costs of highly accurate QM calculations have posed challenges in obtaining sufficient statistically sampling of the free energy surface. To overcome these challenges, we have embraced the exciting advancements in machine learning (ML) techniques. By harnessing the power of ML, we aim to train efficient ML models to predict QM energy and forces on-the-fly during free energy simulations, thereby eliminating the need for time-consuming QM calculations. Our lab has been working in this area over the past few years (see the related publications listed below), developing neural network (NN) and Gaussian process (GP) ML methods for combined QM/MM simulations.
In this project, students will engage in a wide array of research activities, ranging from building all-atom models of protein simulation systems, to conducting biophysics-based molecular dynamics (MD) simulations by using various software such as Chemistry at HARvard Macromolecular Mechanics (CHARMM), and to further developing the ML-assisted QM/MM free energy methods. The method development component of this project involves substantial computer programming tasks in Python, machine-learning packages such as TensorFlow and PyTorch, Fortran/C, and Unix/Linux scripts. The student researchers will also receive solid trainings on using the IU supercomputing resources (e.g., BigRed3, BigRed200, and the DeepLearning/GPU platform on Carbonate) and sharpen their scientific presentation skills. This project would be especially suitable for students with interdisciplinary research interests in chemistry, biology, math/physics, and computer/data sciences.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
In my research group we apply cutting edge mass spectrometry technologies to solving important problems in biophysics and structural biology. We are chiefly interested in measuring the different functional states of proteins and how their structures relate to these functions. Students will work with the research team to observe and learn the techniques involved in these analyses.
This research will be done in person.
My research lab at IUPUC focuses on various applications of 3D printing in chemistry. While this is a broad field, my lab focuses on a few specific applications of 3D printing. First, we develop tools and models for teaching chemistry. These can be as simple as a model of a molecule to a more complex system integrating electronics and augmented reality to demonstrate hybridization. Lucky for us non-engineers, there are a wealth of tools available now that make designing and 3D printing objects easier than ever (even if you have never seen a 3D printer before). We are also working on making alternative materials to use for 3D printing. While 3D printing is an amazing tool for creating an endless variety of objects, it does generate a significant amount of plastic waste. We are using naturally derived polymers (plastics from shrimp shells essentially) as a substitute for traditional plastics. This involves some chemistry to modify these materials and finding the right compositions to make them suitable for 3D printing.
Both projects involve working with various 3D printers and a lot of problem solving. Normally it takes a lot of mistakes and failed prints to find something useful. This just makes it more satisfying when something works!
This research will be done in person.
Pancreatic islet β-cell dysfunction is a central element in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes (T1D and T2D). Combined, T1D and T2D afflict more than 37 million people in the United States: over 11% of the population. The Kalwat lab applies multiple methodologies including computational biology, molecular biology, and cell culture techniques on pancreatic beta cell lines and primary human islets. Our goal is to understand how β-cells handle secretory stress under normal and disease conditions to drive therapeutic discovery in diabetes. We have discovered multiple small molecules that alter β-cell function and also have applied machine learning algorithms to publicly available transcriptomic data from normal and diabetic donor human islets. We can offer students training in all molecular biology techniques we employ in the lab, as well as invaluable networking and exposure to small biotech and pharma companies who also work in our building. The sum of these experiences will help the student in their career decisions, including whether they are interested in graduate school, wet lab research, or computational work. Dr. Kalwat has experience helping former trainees achieve their goals across different areas including graduate school, medical school, and industry.
This research will be done in person.
Within this Chemistry Education Research program, undergraduate students will interrogate the resources used in chemistry instruction.
YouTube is an increasingly common resource that the vast majority of students rely on for learning and some instructors reference for instruction. However, there are few guidelines or measures to evaluate the efficacy of videos. The broader goal of this project is to support instructors and students in using YouTube effectively. To reach this goal, undergraduate students will conduct a systematic review of the use of YouTube in chemistry research and instruction. The students will read and analyze articles from the Journal of Chemical Education, Chemistry Education Research and Practice, and Journal of Research in Science Teaching to characterize how instructors and researchers leverage YouTube.
With this project, 1RIP students will (a) search for and read scientific literature; (b) use various frameworks, qualitative methods (e.g., narrative coding and deductive coding), and software (e.g., Mendeley reference manager, NVivo qualitative coding software) to analyze data, (c) engage in collaborative discussions with colleagues, and (d) prepare and deliver high-quality oral presentations.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Community and Health Systems
I have large datasets of Twitter and Reddit data related to various health-related topics: epilepsy, rural health, cyber bullying, and the profession of nursing. Undergraduate students could participate in analysis of these data on existing projects, as well as form and ask their own questions of the data.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
I am a nurse and a health promotion researcher. My recent research is focused on weight management intervention among pregnant women. I have developed an 8-week weight management intervention, which is based on the self-regulation theory and the intervention involves self-monitoring of weight, food intake, and walking. I propose, in this application, a project titled body size and preferred care providers that can be accomplished by a first-year college student. The overall purpose of the project is to assess if perception of own body size among college students is associated with the preferred body size of their chosen care providers, including the physician and the nurse and the provider’s competency in providing weight management consultation.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Computer and Information Science
My research area spans applied cryptography, cybersecurity and Ai/Deep learning. The project I would like for the freshman to work on is secure and verifiable online voting and provide the student with the opportunity to conduct research and implement and test an online e-voting system using different protocols/tools/platforms.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Visual metaphors are powerful communication tools that can be used to describe states or convey persuasive messages. They are often more impactful than verbal explanations, as they can appeal to the senses and trigger emotions. For example, smoking visual metaphors can be more effective in depicting the harmfulness of smoking than simply stating the facts.
Despite their importance, visual metaphors have not been studied extensively. This research project aims to build computational models that can interpret and generate visual metaphors. Participants in this project will investigate existing work and datasets, create a new dataset, and identify specific research problems with the research group members. They may also have the opportunity to be involved in designing machine learning models.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Research Area: My main research area is enhancing security of networked systems. Such area is motivated by the exponential growth of the number of cyber-intrusions on current networked systems. The pressing need to detect these intrusions inspires new research directions on developing advanced artificial intelligence (AI) techniques for intrusion detection systems (IDS) to secure our networked systems. My research focuses on enhancing main shortcomings of AI for IDS, including high rate of false alerts, and lack of the ability to explain AI decisions. To achieve such enhancement, I focus on the following research objectives: (1) Designing novel explainable AI (XAI) frameworks to improve AI models' explainability in intrusion detection tasks, and (2) Proposing XAI-based feature extraction methods to identify significant intrusion features for different AI models and intrusion types. The students will gain a good introductory experience in research during that project under my supervision. In particular, the students will gain the following skills and learning outcomes during the timeline of that project. They will work in a research team that involves me and graduate students. In total, this project will provide students with a basic research experience in network intrusion detection and XAI. Moreover, it will provide the undergraduate students with several skills, including critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, and writing. This will be a first step in helping the undergraduate students in developing their professional identity and ultimately boosting their interest in graduate school.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
We will deploy Trust Engineering and Inference Causality to enhance our work on Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence. We will extend the use of our metrics, including acceptance, explainability, and fairness in various applications, including medical, natural resource management, and security. The students will be trained in cutting-edge Trust Engineering and Inference Causality skills to develop Trustworthy AI solutions, which is the most required need now in the AI field.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Dentistry
My research interests encompass dental caries and erosive tooth wear, both leading to eventual tooth loss. Fluoride containing compounds play an important role as they can mitigate the impact of both. However, excessive intake of fluoride can be toxic. Hence, determining the intake of fluoride as part of the diet is important to balance risks and benefits. The proposed project aims to understand the relative contribution of beer to fluoride intake. Beer is one of the oldest beverages and is typically made from malted barley, yeast, hops, and water. Each ingredient can contribute fluoride to the finished product.
The present study aims to comprehensively sample beers from craft breweries operating in central Indiana and the main brands of beers available in retail outlets (e.g., Budweiser, Miller, Coors). Beer samples will be obtained and then stored at the Oral Health Research Institute of the Indiana University School of Dentistry until analysis. Beers will be grouped into types (e.g., IPA, lager, stout). The analysis of the beers’ fluoride content will then be conducted using a gold standard method, involving a fluoride ion-selective electrode.
This research will be done in person.
Periodontics has always been one of the dental specialties that is heavily evidence-based in its practice.
The first current project in my lab is collecting gingival crevicular fluid, or the fluid found between the gingiva (gums) and the tooth, to assess inflammatory markers between patients that have periodontal disease and gingival (gum) health. This is of significant importance as it will give us clinicians a better look at what is happening biologically, and it can aid in detecting possible markers that can be used to diagnose or assess disease activity. The students involved will see how we obtain informed consent, the process of collecting gingival crevicular fluid, transferring the samples to the laboratory for further assessment, and possibly even analyzing data if we get to it. It will provide the student with some insight into the process of clinical research.
The second project involves the assessment of implant accuracy and stability in different bone densities. This is an in-vitro study, where the student will see how we perform digital implant planning and static computer aided implant surgery. The student will be able to observe the workflow from data gathering, obtaining a cone beam scan and intraoral scan, followed by merging the data and treatment planning the implant position and surgical guide on a computer aided design software and finally 3D printing the surgical guide and performing implant surgery on the models. They will observe how accuracy will be tested and data will be analyzed using the same software. The student will gain insights in data driven dentistry, more specifically periodontology.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Root canal therapy (RCT) is the preferred method of addressing teeth with infected root canals. During RCT the canal is disinfected by mechanically shaping the canal and irrigating it with disinfecting solutions. Then, the disinfected canal space is filled with a biocompatible material. The apical limit or Working Length (WL) at which root canal instrumentation, irrigation and obturation should end remains a major controversial issue in RCT. Electronic-Apex-Locators (EAL) are devices that help the clinician determine the WL. The EAL displays changes in impedance as an endodontic file is moved in the canal in an apical direction. A sharp change in impedance readings indicates that the file has exited the tooth foramen and is in the apical tissue, a surrounding with a different impedance than the tooth. This helps the clinician establish the WL during RCT. EAL measurements are usually accurate but not in every case. The primary goal of this project is to collect data that will assist in developing an in-vitro model a 3D printed tooth embedded in surroundings that simulate clinical situations that may affect impedance measurements using EAL. A secondary goal is to create a virtual teaching tool that will explain impedance and EAL to dental students. The student will collect relevant papers and present the current status of the topic. The student will help with project preparation such as collecting research supplies and help with preliminary set up.
This research will be done in person.
We recently published a research paper demonstrating the development of a 3D-designed mannequin for teaching dental students the proper techniques for taking radiographs. The goal now is to create a more realistic 3D model, with detailed structures that will be 3D printed. This innovative mannequin will provide an immersive and realistic training experience, allowing students to gain practical skills in accurately positioning and capturing dental X-rays. The mannequin will be equipped with a comprehensive range of simulated dental structures, including teeth, gums, and a fully articulated jaw, mirroring the complexities of a human oral cavity. We are seeking an accomplished student to contribute to the design and testing of this state-of-the-art 3D mannequin, as well as actively participate in the research proposal and subsequent article writing. Previous experience in 3D design is required.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
I am a Board-certified Oral and Maxillofacial Pathologist and am currently a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Indiana University School of Dentistry. Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology is an advanced dental specialty that diagnoses and treats diseases affecting the oral and maxillofacial regions such as oral cancer and investigates the causes, processes, and effects of these diseases. Besides my clinical expertise in the diagnosis and management of oral diseases, my research is focused on the evaluation of the expression of biomarkers that are linked to oral premalignant and malignant lesions. Oral squamous cell carcinomas are the most common malignancy that affects the oral cavity, and they typically start as premalignant lesions called oral epithelial dysplasias that later progress to malignancy. Early diagnosis and management of oral epithelial dysplasias are crucial as they can reduce the incidence of oral squamous cell carcinomas. Currently, I am investigating the expression of a panel of biomarkers in progressive and non-progressive oral epithelial dysplasias as a means to predict the risk for progression to oral squamous cell carcinoma.
Through the 1RIP program, I am excited to guide an enthusiastic first-year student on the skill sets that are required for a successful undergraduate educational experience. I will mentor the student to develop critical thinking skills and research curiosity by guiding them in a systematic literature search on scientific questions and composing review reports. They will be introduced to the foundational knowledge of oral premalignant and malignant conditions, and to develop an understanding of the pathogenesis of oral squamous cell carcinoma. The student will be encouraged to design an evidence-based research project based on the information gathered. Above all, I will provide support for an easy transition to college life and nurture a passion for lifelong learning.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Glucocorticoid induced leucine zipper (GILZ) is a regulatory protein that mimics the anti-inflammatory effects of glucocorticoids and acts by blocking the p65 subunit of the transcription factor, nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB). We and others have shown that the GILZ expression is reduced in lipopolysaccharide induced neuroinflammation and is inversely related to inflammatory mediators. The objective of this research is to extend and compare our observations of GILZ expression in mouse models to human Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Our long-term goal is to systematically characterize the role of GILZ in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in the context of AD. The objective of this current research is to extend and compare the observations of GILZ expression in mouse models of Alzheimer’s Disease to human Alzheimer’s Disease. We hypothesize that the GILZ expression will be inversely associated with the neuroinflammation and disease severity in AD.
Twenty human AD brain tissues (cerebral hemisphere) have been obtained from Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (IADRC). Age and sex matched normal human healthy brain tissues were procured from commercial vendors. 1RIP students will learn to perform: Immunohistochemical analysis of GILZ, GR and NF-κB p65 expression in CNS cell types: Hippocampal slices from AD and control brain tissues will be probed with anti-human GILZ, GR, NF-kB p65, Iba1 (microglia specific), GFAP (astrocytes) and NeuN (neuron specific). Co-localization of GR, GILZ and NF-kBp65 in microglia, astrocytes and neuron will be determined. Students will also learn to perform data analysis and interpretation. They will have the opportunity to participate in research meetings and present posters or abstracts.
This research will be done in person.
Universities continue to face a multitude of challenges as they seek to provide contemporary education to prepare their student learners to become the leaders and workforce of tomorrow. Some of these challenges include but are not limited to decreased state financial support, decreased enrollment numbers, and increased pressures surrounding high student tuition levels. These same challenges impact all components of a university, including units such as the School of Dentistry. If strategies are not identified to address these issues, the number of students pursuing dentistry could reduce, which could have a significant impact on access to care for community stakeholders. One possible strategy to reduce these financial pressures is to establish an active and effective relationship with program alumni. Partnering with program alumni creates a rich opportunity for broad dissemination of the school’s mission and opportunities to cultivate relationships that could foster significant financial gifts to the unit. To that end, we would like to conduct a project to evaluate various dental alumni program structures in hopes of identifying strategies that the IU School of Dentistry can employ to further enhance our alumni involvement and long-term our non-state, non-tuition revenue.
Research questions:
What type of alumni program structures are employed by other dental schools?
How are external alumni associations funded?
What external alumni engagement elements can be incorporated into alumni engagement strategies at the Indiana University School of Dentistry (IUSD)?
Research Strategy: The identified student will work with the IUSD Office of Development and Chair of the Department of Orthodontics to:
Identify local, regional, and national institutions for assessment,
Conduct informational website reviews to answer preliminary questions,
Engage with the development officers/teams at these dental institutions via email and telephone to further understand their approach to alumni engagement.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Over the last decade, the composition of the IU School of Dentistry’s alumni base has shifted dramatically. Baby Boomers, who for many years were the primary and most engaged portion of our alumni group, have become less engaged and active as alumni. They have been replaced by individuals categorized as Generation X and Generation Y/Millennials. As the literature suggests, there are rather significant differences in the way that each of these generations perceive work, connect with the community, and communicate. Identifying effective strategies to connect with and engage alumni is a critical component of the school’s overall fundraising efforts. To that end, we would like to conduct a project to evaluate the current demographic of dental alumni engaged in social media and seek to connect their online engagement with their current levels of philanthropic activity.
The 1RIP student will work with the IUSD Office of Development and Chair of the Department of Orthodontics to review the current social media practices of the IU School of Dentistry and evaluate which members are engaged in social media (denote general demographic information by cross-referencing with institutional records), and work with the Office of Development to create strategies to enhance alumni participation in the school’s social media spaces.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
The goal of this project is to investigate the efficiency of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered virtual reality simulation (VRS) on the development of interprofessional core collaborative competencies among health professional students. Collaborative core competencies focus on shared values, roles and responsibilities, professional communication, and team dynamics. Comparisons will be made between the use of AI healthcare provider avatars and human-controlled provider avatars in VRS on the development of these skills. A virtual reality simulation will be developed using the Unity 3D game engine by a team comprised of academics, information technology professionals, and game developers (Unity Technologies, 2023). A virtual clinic, non-player character patient, healthcare professional avatar role and, AI or human providers (physician, nurse, social worker, pharmacist, dietitian, etc.) will be developed in the 3D virtual environment.
Involving student researchers in this project can offer several valuable benefits for enhancing their understanding of IPE and research methodology. Student researchers will have the opportunity to actively engage with the project's design, implementation, and data collection processes. This hands-on experience allows them to directly interact with the AI-powered VRS and understand how it is used to promote IPE. This experience mirrors the type of teamwork they will encounter in real healthcare settings and reinforces the importance of effective communication and shared responsibilities.
This research will be done virtually.
Earth Sciences
Surface freshwater is essential for ecosystem existence and required for human consumption, irrigation, fishing, and recreational use. Access to water with excellent quality is one of the seventeen sustainable development goals identified by the United Nations. Water quality in Eagle Creek Reservoir (ECR) is an important aspect of Indianapolis’s freshwater resources and ongoing information about its water quality is vital for local water resource management stakeholders. Previous studies conducted in my lab focused on the applications of satellite and airborne remote sensing for mapping water quality parameters of this water body. Undergraduate students participating in this research project will use smartphones to monitor the water quality in the ECR. Unlike the application of satellite and airborne remote sensing, smartphone-based sensing does not need a very advanced theoretical and complex technical training and knowing how to use a smartphone app would be sufficient in addition to a very basic very a basic understanding of Remote Sensing Reflectance or Surface Reflectance as measured by satellites, drones, aircraft, or other remote sensing platforms. Undergraduate participants will learn to use two smartphone apps the EyeOnWater (EoW) and HydroColor (HC). Participants will analyze and assess the accuracy and precision of the HC and EoW apps by comparing concurrent measurements made with a field portable spectrometer. Citizen science offers a low-cost avenue to measuring environmental parameters such as water quality at a large scale and volunteered information can expand environmental datasets at no cost, but concerns on the quality, reliability and the overall value of such datasets collected with smartphones are often present. Results from this project will shed light on this point.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
This research in the area of GeoHealth looks to define the element and mineral content of dusts collected from the atmosphere at specific spots and from vacuum cleaner samples people send in. We seek to determine metal content (including lead, mercury, and arsenic) and elongated mineral particles that people may be inhaling as part of their everyday lives in their urban surroundings. Students will sample atmospheric dusts and learn lab techniques to separate minerals and other materials, X-Ray Fluorescence to determine element composition, and both light and electron microscopies to characterize minerals.
This research will be done in person.
Students will work with rock samples and data sets to build basic geology observation skills and quantitative reasoning about magma transport processes in the dynamic Earth.
Activities will involve rock description timed to match first semester course work, and quantitative skill-building culminating in quantitative description of their own rock sample by scanning electron microscopy. In the second semester, students will engage in a paid research experience where we will use a team approach to characterize the whole rock and mineral chemistry of a suite of rock samples from a national park in California using x-ray fluorescence and electron probe microanalysis.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
The 1RIP participant will work closely with a graduate student and faculty member studying glacial sands collected in Greenland. From these tiny grains, less than a millimeter wide, we can make interpretations about how glaciers function. In the lab, we will use optical microscopy, electron microscopy, and laser particle size analyzers. Participate in weekly Sedimentology Lab research group meetings and learn about the work, success and challenges of other IUPUI students.
This research will be done in person.
Our group studies how life has changed through time and how life’s adaptations have altered the environment and climate. We are part of a scientific field known as Geobiology, which combines geochemistry and microbiology to study ecosystems found in modern environments like anoxic lakes or the deep sea and compare these life signals to those preserved in rocks and sediments. We are currently working on a NASA project, glaciers in Greenland, and deep sea sediments from the South Atlantic Ocean. Students who join the group will learn about how to collect samples, do chemical extractions and how to analyze samples on a variety of different scientific instruments. For more details see our lab website: https://gilhoolysil.earthsciences.iupui.edu.
This research will be done in person.
Engineering Technology
Workers’ safety training plays a vital role in enhancing the safety of construction projects because safety accidents mostly occur due to workers’ unsafe behaviors. One promising safety training strategy is to provide trainees with hands-on learning experiences in conjunction with feedback on their learning performance. As trainees practice what they learn from lectures (e.g., inspection of safety harness or lanyard), they have a higher level of emotional arousal and, in turn, become more motivated in learning. Also, accurate feedback on trainees’ learning performance helps them understand their strengths and weaknesses. The integration of vision sensors and machine learning into hands-on learning environments provides new opportunities to create accurate feedback messages on trainees’ learning performance in a non-invasive manner. With vision sensing technologies, it is possible to collect real-time video data on trainees’ actions. Then, using the collected human action data, machine learning automatically identify and categorize what poses trainees take to complete an action. Therefore, it is possible to create accurate feedback information about root causes of trainees’ safe or unsafe actions based on their key poses. In order to fill the gap in literature, this study explores trainees’ key poses of safe and unsafe actions during a construction safety training. To achieve this objective, the study team will conduct a safe training on the inspection and wearing of safety harness with 40 college students, as study participants, majoring in construction management at IUPUI. The safety training program will have one instructional session in conjunction with one assessment session.
1RIP students will be given opportunities to participate in literature review and data collection. The literature review will focus on investigating state-of-the-art technologies (i.e., remote sensing and machine learning) and their applications in construction training. Aside from the literature review, students will participate in collecting and preprocessing video data on trainees’ actions during a safety training. This research activity will allow students to learn fundamental theories and concepts about data collection and preprocessing, which are very useful but can be difficult when taken from other disciplinary.
This research will be done in person.
My research focuses on innovative formulations and optimization methods for compostable plastics, specifically thermoplastic starch (TPS). Our advancements have broad applications, from fabricating environmentally friendly plastic bags to promoting sustainable additive manufacturing. In recent years, our research group has introduced an innovative TPS film formulation that incorporates potato starch in a solution of glycerin and acetic acid (AcOH) sourced from white vinegar (5% AcOH), acting as a plasticizer alongside distilled water as the solvent. Throughout this research experience, students will acquire comprehensive knowledge of the chemical mechanisms involved in the formation of compostable plastics, as well as the techniques for preparing and testing TPS specimens, both film and 3D parts. Students will gain practical skills in measuring TPS physical properties such as hardness, stiffness, strength, and elongation. Additionally, they will gain proficiency in utilizing in-house computational tools to support adaptive experimental design and the discovery of novel TPS formulations. Students will be able to engage within a dynamic and collaborative multidisciplinary research group of faculty and graduate and undergraduate research assistants with diverse backgrounds in engineering and science. As part of this experience, students will actively contribute to preparing scientific papers, posters, and conference presentations.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Reducing the use of fossil fuels to help mitigate the effects of climate change has accelerated the development of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar to meet the country’s electrical energy needs. Pumped Storage Hydro (PSH) has been able to provide grid-level storage and has the advantage of not requiring any mining of materials as is required for chemical batteries. However, PSH requires the topology to support the change in elevation necessary for electrical generation via water flowing from an upper reservoir through a turbine that is coupled to a generator. The generator provides power to the electrical grid when demand is high, for example around dinnertime. After flowing through the turbine, the water flows to a lower body of water (lake, river, reservoir, etc.) to be pumped back to the upper reservoir when the demand for electricity is low. Another possibility where traditional PSH is not viable is to employ PSH for soon-to-be Abandoned Underground Mines (PSHAUM). In this approach, the reservoir and turbine can be located in the same vertical plane, reducing the overall topological footprint. The “soon-to-be” phrase was added because completely abandoned mines may require significant cost to ensure safety requirements are satisfied, while existing mines already meet these requirements.
One of the key design and cost drivers for PSHAUM is the lower reservoir within the mine.
The objective of this project is to investigate an artificial lower reservoir to hold the substantial volume of water required for grid scale energy storage, in lieu of having the lower mine walls and floor serve as the lower reservoir and requiring shotcrete. Material properties, stresses, degradation effects, and modular construction approaches would be studied for this structure along with a cost estimate of this approach. The anticipated outcome of this investigation would be a set of materials and their viability for holding several million gallons of water.
This research will be done in person.
Geography
I investigate urban agriculture and food insecurity as interlinked socio-ecological systems. My research is conducted alongside a group of community partners who work at Indy Urban Acres (IUA) on the city’s east side. IUA is a non-profit, organic farm that donates the entirety of its annual harvest. Managed by the Parks Alliance of Indianapolis, the farm yields 60k pounds of fresh produce. It distributes this produce through Old Bethel Food Pantry and a free veggie-box program sponsored by IU Health.
First-year students are welcome to join the research team. In addition to gaining hands-on experience in organic agriculture and soil and water conservation, students who participate in 1RIP at the farm will learn how to formulate and investigate research questions about the interlinked socio-ecological systems associated with environmental sustainability and food. My research group meets at the farm on Monday and Wednesday mornings from 9 to noon.
This research will be done in person.
Dr. Jeff Wilson (Geography) can support two to three 1st-year students during the 2023-24 academic year who are interested in multidisciplinary research that integrates applications of geographic technologies to sustainable development and natural resource conservation in the context of food studies. In collaboration with colleagues at the University of Catania (Sicily, Italy), we are developing a geographic database of socioeconomic and environmental characteristics for products recognized under the EU’s system of Geographic Indications for specialty food products. This work informs the development of prototypes for similar policies in the US. 1RIP Students will work with geographic data and satellite imagery in local and cloud-based environments, learn some fundamental coding skills, and develop brief reports and data summaries for 35 food products certified with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status in the EU.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Human-Centered Computing
Although hospital care is carefully documented and that information is electronically available to clinicians, few information systems exist for patients' families to use while they are in the hospital. Information often appears trapped within the hospital room. In this research project, we are using Human-Centered Computing research and design techniques to envision the hospital information systems of the future. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and working in partnership with patients & cancer doctors at Riley Children's Hospital, we are radically re-thinking the design of patient-facing hospital technology. This year, we plan to transform qualitative findings into design requirements, and propose audacious design solutions using interactive prototyping toolkits. Join us!
This research will be done in person.
My research is in Human-Computer Interaction, where I examine the intersection of aging, health, and intelligent technology design. I employ user-centered and participatory design methodologies to investigate the design of existing and novel intelligent technologies, such as conversational assistants and AI-enabled tools, to support aging through improved access to health information and wellness resources. More broadly, I investigate ways to enhance the usability and accessibility of technologies for older adults across their lifespan and explore the benefits and barriers of adopting these technologies in home and community environments. Within my research group, I can offer the student any of the following experiences:
reviewing related literature
conducting human subjects research and study design
gathering and analyzing user data about a technology to generate requirements for technology design or understand their technology experiences to inform future directions
developing and evaluating prototypes of technology aimed to support older adults’ health/wellness
This research will be done in person and virtually.
People with Alzheimer’s Disease, related dementias, and diabetes have a notably higher risk of hypoglycemia and adverse events, including hospitalization and death. This project’s goal is to increase awareness of hypoglycemic risks and shared decisions about treatment options among patients with Alzheimer's and diabetes, caregivers, and primary care clinicians. To that end, we will design an information technology leveraging continuous glucose monitoring and evaluate its impact on care.
Students will have the opportunity to experience research at the intersection of health services and information technology. They will become part of our lab and interact with patients, clinicians, analysts, and other student researchers. Students will assist in our recruitment, analysis, and manuscript development.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
Anime, manga, and fandom studies is an exciting, interdisciplinary research area that encapsulates the work of a wide variety of scholars. From gender analysis of Sailor Moon to food ethics research into Tokyo Ghoul, to larger, survey-based research into fan communities themselves, anime and manga studies is a vibrant and varied research area that can give fantastic opportunities to engage students, especially ones that are new to research. As the Editor of the Journal of Anime and Manga Studies, I can offer students a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at popular culture scholarship and what it's like to craft and run a fandom studies survey, on top of what it's like to manage an interdisciplinary academic journal that attracts international readership. This project will involve students interacting with various stakeholders across the fan convention community, giving students skills in outreach and information management. Students will assist in the creation and administration of a survey that will ultimately assist fan conventions and scholars in their understanding of how attendees feel about conventions in the "post-COVID" world.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
I am a photography and intermedia professor whose research practice encompasses working with image based artistic processes to explore the intersection between science, technological advances and how society comprehends and values nature. My current body of artwork titled the Future is Broken, addresses how our choices are changing the earth's climate by overlaying a range of scientific data visualization directly into landscapes we hold dear. I work with long exposure photography, Video, LED light mapping techniques, laser etching and CNC milling in this body of work.
This academic year I will be preparing work for exhibitions at the University of Augusta and the Nordic House Museum in Reykjavik, Iceland, Researching a project involving photographing glaciers in Iceland in summer 2024, and sketching out and producing new photographs for the series locally. I will also be applying to select exhibitions. A first-year student working with me would have the opportunity to engage directly in several professional practices of a working studio artist from project research, to artwork production, to exhibit preparation and execution.
This research will be done in person.
Dr. Jeremy Wilson (Anthropology) can support two to four first-year students in the Bioarchaeology Lab during the 2023-24 academic year that have expressed an interest in multidisciplinary research and the intersections between the biological and medical sciences with the social and behavioral sciences (i.e., STEM+). During the fall semester, the 1RIP students would be trained in the fundamentals of human skeletal anatomy, bone biology, growth and development, and functional morphology. Participants will learn to 1) identify and side bones and bone fragments, 2) estimate the biological profile of unknown remains, and 3) characterize the pathological processes routinely encountered during the analysis of human skeletal remains, among other subjects. Once trained, the 1RIP students would then transition in the spring semester to the Greenlawn Cemetery research project. The former grounds of Indianapolis’ first cemetery are presently being developed along Kentucky Avenue and Dr. Wilson has secured the research contracts to analyze the exhumed human remains. As a result, the 1RIP participants would actively contribute to the inventorying and analysis of human skeletal remains from this archaeological context, assisting with the development of biological and taphonomic profiles for each exhumed individual as the project progresses.
This research will be done in person.
I am a scholar of the Black body, and I study how Black secular and religious institutions have historically responded to the Black body. Specifically, I address how questions around the Black body continue to impact the viability and sustainability of cultural and religious organizations in the contemporary moment and how local organizations think about their deployment and engagement of body-focused initiatives. My focus on the "local body" has shifted my work from a primarily theoretical encounter to addressing the ways that local institutions and individuals talk about the Black body and construct responses to the dehumanization and disregard of Black bodies by dominant institutions. In this regard, "Black Indianapolis is not an abstraction" or a theoretical variable, but it is a constellation of histories and present stories that need to be engaged, archived, and disseminated. Black Indianapolis or the stories of the Black bodies that have shaped Indianapolis, moreover, require a method that is attentive to the erasure and minimization of Black communities. I believe that collaborative and community-embedded scholarship is the best method to reclaim and retell these stories. Students who work with me will be a part of a collaborative and community-embedded research team that includes university-based scholars, local scholar-activists, community members, and community organizations.
Over the course of the next year, students who choose to work on this project will do the following:
Engage the practices and methods of collaborative and community-embedded scholarship (this will include reading literature on this method as well as talking to other faculty members who are experts in this area)
Build relationships with leaders of Black community and political organizations in the city of Indianapolis (this will include the important methods of observing and participating in local community events and hearing the stories of community leaders' experiences working with IUPUI and IUPUI faculty)
Facilitate the completion and dissemination of the above-mentioned documentary (this will include students being involved in developing and marketing showings of the documentary as well as helping to create study guides and resources that will support the documentary)
Collect, analyze, and archive data associated with the projects associated with this proposal (this will include participating in community interviews, coding data, and digitizing data as well as other tasks as defined by the research team)
This research will be done in person and virtually.
The Africana Repertory Theatre of IUPUI (A.R.T.I.), launched in 2018, leverages the creative and communal power of Black theatre arts as a tool for fostering community, youth empowerment, and positive social transformation. Black theatre is pedagogical. A growing body of research indicates that lively Black theatre arts activity in communities helps social cohesion, enhances well-being, and supports economic resilience. This is a key moment to conduct research on thought-provoking productions, offering a critical analysis of existing performances, and deepening the understanding of the arts’ roles in fostering community health. A.R.T.I. is developing the “Black Theatre Scholar’s Eye” The Scholar’s Eye (iu.edu) and it will be further developed by students learning the skills and knowledge developed through guided, mentoring and CEnR inquiry. Using community engaged research (CEnR) methods, my research is focused on educational leadership and university/community engagement to foster lifelong learning. In the urban setting, community-engaged research is attentive to the rich diversity of cultures and languages as well as poverty and wealth, to privilege and marginalization. Community-engaged research practices are equity-driven and intentionally change-oriented.
Community engaged research (CEnR) is a collaborative process between the researcher and community partner co-creating questions; sharing pursuits of answers; and disseminating knowledge. Using a hybrid modality, two first year undergraduate 1RIP students will learn about CEnR methods. The students will develop research skills and throughout the process increase their confidence in carrying out research; add to their understandings of research concepts, methods and practices; demonstrate good research methodology and technical adroitness including collection and interpretation of data; preparation of tables; research paper writing, while considering recommendations.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
This project will provide first-year undergraduate students an immersive experience in working with the staff of the Frederick Douglass Papers--a research unit of the IUPUI Institute for American Thought (School of Liberal Arts)--in their on-going effort to prepare a comprehensive online collection of the thousands of letters to and from Frederick Douglass, the iconic 19th African American abolitionist and reformer. Students will be instructed in the technique of transcription of Douglass letters, utilizing state-of-the- art online electronic software. They will be trained to work together as teams to verify their transcriptions. Students then will be introduced to how scholars research and write "annotation" of people, places, events, and quotations found in historical documents to make them comprehensible to the modern-day reader. The students will have the satisfaction of seeing their own finished transcription and annotation projects be added to the online documentary collection found on the Frederick Douglass Papers website.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
The New Humanities Lab at the IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute (IAHI) is seeking enthusiastic and curious undergraduate interns for an immersive internship experience. As an intern, you will be part of team-based, community-engaged research projects that address contemporary problems through interdisciplinary collaboration. This internship offers an opportunity to explore the ways in which the humanities (working in tandem with arts, social science, and STEMM disciplines) can help address important societal issues. In the process, students will develop knowledge, skills, and competencies that will both extend their classroom experience and make them more competitive in the job market.
1RIP Students who participate in the program in 2023 and 2024 will have the opportunity to participate in several ongoing projects:
The A&H podcast series: interns working on this project will develop skills in project management, storytelling, audio engineering and editing, interviewing, researching, and engaging with listeners effectively.
The IUPUI Public Art App: interns working on this project will develop skills in web development, user experience design, historical analysis, historical GIS, and digital curation.
Archive: interns working on this project will develop skills in developing augmented reality apps, content curation, problem-solving, and project management while working on a project that focuses on understanding the history of social justice in Indianapolis.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Ray Bradbury, one of the most well-known authors of the 20th century, wrote in a vast array of literary genres--science fiction, fantasy, horror, detective fiction, etc. He was incredibly influential. The Ray Bradbury Center houses a collection valued at over $7.8 million. Its archive includes over 150,000 pages of Bradbury's work, and we have actually recreated Bradbury's basement office with entirely original artifacts--his desks, typewriters, and working library are on display in Cavanaugh Hall. People travel from all over the world to see this collection, and you'll have to work on-site every week.
The Bradbury Center needs a student researcher who 1.) Loves to read and 2.) enjoys science fiction, fantasy, horror, and other types of literature. Should you accept this research position, you'll spend 5 hours/week conducting on-site research and public scholarship. Your task will be to compile a resource for Bradbury Center staff that includes brief, bullet-point summaries of Ray Bradbury's short stories that include character names, basic plot points, and a brief evaluation of whether or not the story will resonate with young readers today. This is an essential operation that will help the Bradbury Center staff further its intellectual control over Bradbury's vast writing career by providing a resource that allows the Bradbury Center to easily access Bradbury's stories in particular genres, thematic elements of Bradbury's stories, etc. In the process, you'll gain valuable knowledge of one of the most famous writers in American history, and you'll get to work with a really fun team. Dr. Aukerman, the Center Director, also teaches courses on Science Fiction, Banned Books, Conspiracy Theories, and American Supernatural. Other team members include a creative marketing professional, an archivist, a Navy veteran, a librarian, and museum studies professionals. This is a cool opportunity! Don't pass it up. We need your help!
This research will be done in person.
My research inquiry is related to Informal Learning Environments Research (ILER), which explores the non-formal, free-choice learning in out-of-school learning settings. My research focuses on elementary-aged children’s use of hands-on maker technologies in libraries and home environments. I employ qualitative research methods to investigate learning processes in authentic contexts and examine factors within rural libraries and home environments that influence making and learning. My analytical approaches provide the foundation for an empirical understanding of learning and participants’ cultural assets, which I use as resources for designing tech-supported maker experiences. I am currently serving as a PI on a federal grant entitled Family Makers that aims to develop a culturally relevant online engineering program for underserved children (5-10 years) and their caregivers in rural communities that can be facilitated by staff at rural libraries. As part of this grant-funded project, we will strengthen rural libraries’ capacities for outreach educational programming, online facilitation skill, and culturally relevant engineering program for underserved children.
Towards this goal, 1RIP students will be involved in various roles and responsibilities, including web-based search, transcribing, support with the design of the project website and other digital resources needed for the project. By participating in this project, students will gain hands-on experience in federally-funded research.
This research will be done virtually.
My research areas include the following: Futures Thinking and Futures Research in Mental Health;
Telebehavioral health; AI for education and mental health practice; Telehealth equity; Distance Education; Online simulation-based learning.
I was a first-generation, nontraditional student from a low-income family that lived in a rural community. I recognize some of the challenges a student can face when trying to advance their education and careers and know how critical a role strong mentorship can help students achieve academic success. My experiences as a student and professional will allow me to offer to potential 1RIP students a supportive mentor, an educational resource, and the opportunity for us to collaborate with one another on shared interests to help them better understand and experience research in a positive, enlightening, and enriching way while ensuring I remain mindful of the demands the student may be experiencing. The student would work with me on a research endeavor that explores using futures thinking and strategic foresight to identify potential future and ethical considerations in relation to the use of AI for mental health education and practices. If the student desires, they can also work with me on a met-analysis on futures work in social work practices.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
This research project is designed to benefit the community through assisting a nonprofit organization whose mission is to create youth philanthropy education programs for communities committed to preparing the next generation of charitable sector leaders. The youth philanthropy program is implemented by local community organizations with the goal of promoting more engaged citizens and philanthropists. This project studies the outcomes of this program for youth participants and shares these data with the community partners. For learning outcomes, student research assistants will gain valuable research skills by applying social science techniques to benefit a community partner. This will aid the student in developing evidenced-based reasoning; being informed by relevant research; analyzing complex social issues; and assessing philanthropic actions by studying their community impacts. The most important qualifications for this position are an unquenchable curiosity, eagerness to learn new skills and apps, and a desire to research a program that aims to create positive change in the lives of young people.
This research will be done virtually.
I am an economist who conducts global and interdisciplinary research at the intersection of agriculture, the environment, and energy, which all play important and interconnected roles in climate change mitigation and adaptation. My research seeks to help solve the challenges faced by society in a carbon-constrained world. It assists policy makers, institutions (e.g., households, farmers, firms), and individuals understand the rationale behind and consequences of new policies and the effects of macroeconomic forces on policy outcomes and climate change. In the coming year, I am involved in a project that quantifies the interaction between (1) climate change and crop yields, (2) vehicle electrification and biofuel demand, and (3) climate change policy in the United States. The research experience for the students will involve Executive Summary Reading Assignments. Students participating in the 1RIP will be assigned to read some of those executive summaries relating to climate change and agriculture, carbon policies, and vehicle policies (e.g., fuel efficiency standards) in the United States. At the end of each reading assignment, students will submit a short paragraph outlining (1) what they have learned and (2) what questions they have. The reading of the Executive Summary prepares students with the more technical aspects in this part of the 1RIP. Specifically, I will show students how research is implemented for forward-looking policy analysis via online video conferences for easy screen sharing, I will show them how the analysis is implemented in a computer software. At the end of the 1RIP, students will have covered the basics of a research project in applied policy analysis from reading the relevant literature, data, analysis, and research output presentation.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
This line of my research agenda involves active researcher-community-practitioner partnerships with two prosecutor's offices (Lake and Monroe County Prosecutor's Offices). Through this work, I am examining the prosecution of low-level criminal offenses and infractions, identifying the presence of racial disparities as cases are managed, and assessing the effectiveness of strategies to divert residents from the justice system. Students will primarily support administrative records collection and the development of translational reports/presentations. Students will attend standing virtual meetings with each office. Students will have the option to attend site visits to shadow elected or deputy prosecutors, support field observations, support interviews with justice-involved individuals, and participate in community town halls about prosecution and justice system reforms.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
This project involves analyzing the motivation and profitability of following large option trades. There is a cottage industry of financial professionals that tout following institutional size option trades as a route to profits. Preliminary work shows this is far from the truth. The study method involves tracking the top five, as ranked by volume versus open interest, option trades each trading days and determining if they large trades are buys, sells, or part of a spread. Finally, the profit or loss for each large trade is tracked, using open interest changes as an indication if the trade was exited or held through expiration.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
My research areas are in the fields of sport management and marketing. Especially, I focus on the research regarding sport consumer behavior, sporting events and media effect, and younger generation's consuming behavior of sports related social media. I would like to have opportunities to mentor and discuss these research topics with 1st year students.
This research will be done in person.
This project encompasses the areas of medical sociology, gerontology, and public health. As part of a larger project focused on understanding older adults’ experiences of aging-in-place, I have an opportunity for a student to gain hands-on experience analyzing qualitative data (i.e., approximately 50 interviews) with the goal of assessing the resources and needs of older adults living in the community. The student would be responsible for reading over excerpts of transcribed interviews and compiling answers to the questions about community resources. After identifying any gaps in services (e.g., lack of transportation), the next objective would be to find existing agencies and services in Central Indiana that fill these gaps. Finally, the student would create a brief report analyzing community resources, needs, and barriers that influence older adults’ ability to age in place. Included in the brief report would be a pamphlet or flyer that would spread awareness about existing programs/services. In sum, the four aims of this project are to: (1) characterize the most desired services/programs as reported by older adults; (2) ascertain what programs currently exist in our community and state; (3) analyze to what extent are these services and programs available, but not being used; (4) develop an easy to use guide for older adults about services and programs to enhance their ability to age in place.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Medicine
My long-term goal is to enhance medication safety and optimize medication use in patients by using pharmacogenomics. In my current position (Research Associate Professor), I have focused on translational pharmacogenomic research to prevent adverse drug reactions. During my training and my transition to a faculty member, I was fortunate to have had exceptional mentors. These mentors had a significant impact on my career and therefore I strongly believe in the duty to invest time into mentoring junior scientist. I am excited to serve as a mentor for an undergraduate student. This research experience will be hybrid with some in-person meetings and work that can be done remotely. I have extensive experience mentoring undergraduate, graduate, pharmacy, and medical students, as well as post-doctoral fellows.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
I am a molecular cancer epidemiologist with expertise in the intersection of health disparities and tumor biology. I am currently the Director of the Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank (KTB) at Indiana University. An underlying theme of my work is the utilization of tissue to better understand carcinogenesis, from disease initiation to response to treatment, with special emphasis on including participants that have historically been underrepresented in research. With respect to the KTB, my primary interest is understanding and predicting increased risk of breast cancer in women who have had a previous clinically-indicated benign breast biopsy. We know that this experience increases a women's risk of breast cancer approximately two-fold compared to a woman who has never needed a biopsy, but there is limited insight as to why this might be. The KTB has normal tissue from approximately 400 women who have also undergone a clinical biopsy, and we are interested in receiving consent from these women to obtain a piece of that tissue. This process will give the student experience with developing a protocol, gaining regulatory approval, coordination with other KTB team members (including tissue collection and other outreach events) and data collection and management. I look forward to meeting undergraduate students at IU-Indianapolis and welcoming them into the inclusive environment we work to facilitate at the KTB.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
I work on Pancreatic Cancer and Cancer Cachexia. We utilize cell-models and murine models to assess novel targets. I can offer the students to come to our weekly lab meetings, engage in setting up experiments, testing hypotheses, analyzing data, manuscript writing and collaborative work with others in the lab.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the most common complication of diabetes in which microvessels supplying blood to the back of the eye are either dysfunctional or grow uncontrollably, resulting in vision impairment or, in extreme cases, complete vision loss. Our laboratory is focused on studying mechanisms of DR development and newer treatments. Our studies demonstrate improper circadian rhythm in DR, and we found that clock gene dysfunction is central to developing vascular dysfunction of DR. Additionally, our lab is also focused on discovering biomarkers of diabetic retinopathy using peripheral blood stem cells. Interested 1st-year Research Immersion Program students will gain experience working on basic molecular and cell biology techniques and be exposed to animal studies characterizing the ocular phenotype and immunohistochemistry techniques.
This research will be done in person.
Patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) exhibit bone loss which increases incidence of fracture and mortality. However, there are no therapies currently approved for improving bone in these patients. CKD results in disruptions in mineral metabolism including deficiencies in iron. Our lab is interested in how CKD related factors influence bone homeostasis, especially in bone forming activities of osteoblasts. Students that participate in the lab will contribute to various molecular analysis techniques related to evaluating and reversing the effects of iron deficiency on osteoblasts from DNA all the way to protein evaluations. They will work alongside PhD students performing translational work in mouse models of CKD. In sum, students will obtain insight into how biomedical research is conducted.
This research will be done in person.
Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are vital to generate all blood cell lineages throughout the entire life span. As a result, HSC-based bone marrow transplantation has been used to treat multiple blood diseases, including leukemia. However, HSC homing and engraftment is often compromised due to the complicated microenvironment that creates an unfavorable barrier. The research in the Zhang lab combines biochemistry, cellular/molecular and genetic approaches to explore the metabolic inputs, including oxygen and amino acids, that affect HSC function following transplantation. The ultimate goal is to be able to manipulate the nutrient availability to improve HSC-based therapeutics in patients with blood disorders.
This research will be done in person.
I will teach the students about oncogenic proteins such as Mdm2 that are involved in cell signal transduction and cancer. If they understand the concepts of protein production, we will produce proteins in bacteria. Upon success/mastery of protein production and purification, we will perform protein-protein interaction. This set of experiences is set up to provide an incremental experience that will lead to more challenging experiments i.e. tissue culture, transfections, and cellular assays in the upcoming year.
This research will be done in person.
My laboratory focuses on developing novel gene editing approaches for muscular dystrophies. We can offer the 1st year student hands-on experience in carrying out experiments that employ techniques in molecular biology, biochemistry, cell biology, viral vectors and animal studies.
This research will be done in person.
Our laboratory utilizes gene editing tools and animal models to study the functional consequences of mutations leading to blood disorders. One of our projects is to investigate the functions of protein arginine methyltransferases (PRMTs) in multiple myeloma and hopefully to develop a treatment for myeloma patients, especially relapsed/refractory patients. Joining this project, the prospective student will have an opportunity to be familiar with varieties of laboratory techniques, learn how to read scientific papers, and learn how to analyze and present the research data.
This research will be done in person.
P53 is an oncogene that plays a key role in keeping cancer cells alive especially after induction of DNA damage during cancer treatment such as by X-rays. MDM2 and MDMX are proteins that alter the functions of the P53 protein. We are investigating whether the knockout of specific gene combinations of P53, MDM2, and MDMX affected the X-ray sensitivity and repair capacity of mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs). Overall, our data to date indicates that in p53-/- cells, MDM2 and MDMX knock out affect cell viability and radiation sensitivity differently and may alter how the cells die after X-ray treatment. Further investigation will be required to understand these differences and mechanisms involved. 1RIP students will work with Dr. Mendonca and his lab members to gain an understanding of the rationale for the experiments being performed, the research methods being utilized, and the methods to analyze the data collected. If time allows, students will also be trained to perform and analyze experiments themselves.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Our Laboratory focuses on developing novel quantitative MRI techniques and analysis methods on CNS and musculoskeletal system. The research group has developed advanced MRI techniques to detect the early change of Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and ASD, including UTE, multi-component T2*, quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), and compressed sensing for high-resolution diffusion MRI.
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that affects over 6 million people in the United States alone. The pathogenesis of AD is a topic of ongoing investigation, and a complete understanding has not been achieved. Novel biomarkers for early diagnosis are essential for the development of preventative strategies for AD. In addition, there is an urgent need to develop novel imaging strategies to improve AD diagnosis and enhance our understanding of AD pathogenesis. High-resolution diffusion MRI may provide a sensitive imaging biomarker for detecting Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and monitoring AD progression. Students will learn 3D printing design, be familiar with 3D printing software, gain basic coding experience with Matlab or Python, have knowledge of imaging acquisition and analysis, be familiar with image visualization and animation, know brain anatomy, etc.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
My research primarily revolves around the creation of bioinformatics strategies and software to interpret various types of omics data, with a particular emphasis on single cell sequencing and epigenetic aging. With affiliation of Indiana Center for Musculoskeletal Health, I try to figure out the influence of exercise to aging. In this project, students will learn to find and analyze data from a few public databases. I will give an introduction to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data from CDC, where we can find lifestyle and diseases information of the participants. The students will learn how to filter and download the data of interest first. After the students download the data, I will teach them how to analyze and interpret the data. Some basic training in programming and data analysis will be provided. Depending on the progress of the project, I may also give them a brief introduction about bioinformatics and omic data analysis related to aging.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
The major focus of Dr. Fletcher A. White’s laboratory is to understand, at the molecular/cellular level, the processes involved in inflammatory and chronic pain states. The main approaches utilized in the laboratory include biochemistry, molecular biology, electrophysiology, mouse genetics, and imaging. Projects in our laboratory involve the development of drugs that act on inflammatory mediators/receptors as well as the molecular basis for pain in bone fracture and mild traumatic brain injury both at the pre-clinical and clinical level.
This research will be done in person.
My research program is currently focused on the use of invertebrate models of drug addiction in Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). The models are used to study the underlying processes involved in drug reward and addiction and to test potential drug treatments for substance use disorders in humans. Due to the high throughput nature of the models, the goal is to screen for novel treatments in a quicker, more economical manner. We have examined the rewarding properties of a number of drugs of abuse in C. elegans to date, but our primary focus over the next year will be on nicotine and alcohol. The student will have the opportunity to learn about the use of animal models to study addiction and the use of C. elegans in research. In the laboratory, they will assist in the maintenance and care of the C. elegans and help perform the assays we use to study drug preference, compulsive drug seeking, and adaptive responses such as tolerance and withdrawal. In the spring, the student will also conduct their own study from start to finish with oversight from one of the graduate students.
This research will be done in person.
Music and Arts Technology
The Emergency Musical Hologram (EMH) Project began with developing the Faceplayer software and the Telepod projection system. These systems work in tandem to create a visually engaging interactive image of a musician that creates live music in real-time. These systems have been successfully deployed at IUPUI MAT performances, but there is much more work to be done to perfect these systems and develop them further. Specifically, this year our goals will be to continue production of Phase 1 EMH iterations for MAT-related performances while beginning work on Phase 2, which will move away from capturing videos of human musicians and into the development of fully digital avatars for the system while also wholly redesigning the Telepod projection system with Faculty collaborators.
If awarded this grant, my lab (Machine Musician Lab) would offer up to two 1RIP students the opportunity to work with me, a grad student, faculty collaborators, and my undergraduate performing group (DISEnsemble) in the production of musical holograms for the Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 semesters. These students would attend regular meetings with team members developing the EMH system, interact with the software, capture videos for use in the performance projects (or for later documentation of project results), set up and maintain the system for rehearsals and performances, and collaborate on papers or other dissemination outlets relating to the project or to eventual commercialization opportunities.
This research will be done in person.
This project involves building a research network of expertise to explore the neurobiological mechanisms and measurement technologies explaining music’s ability to address chronic pain. The student will have opportunities to explore the available literature related to music-based interventions and pain. This includes interacting with a multidisciplinary team, extracting information from research literature, and perhaps an opportunity to participate in designing pilot studies.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
This study will test the efficacy and mechanisms of a music-based intervention to reduce cravings, decrease substance use, and mechanisms of action. The student will be able to assist in identifying relevant literature, assisting the project manager in following up with meeting agendas/tasks, data quality monitoring, etc.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
My research focuses on using music technology to foster creativity and STEM Self-Efficacy for children ages 5-14 in informal learning environments. The primary aim of the Music Technology Academy is to launch after-school and summer-based programming at local community centers and middle schools in Indianapolis. Children will learn to record and manipulate sounds and implement them into songs, coding projects, and simple games. Undergraduate assistants will serve as peer mentors and assist the research team in facilitating small-group projects with students. We need peer mentors to help us one day a week after school from 4p-6p and periodically throughout the school year. Most of these events will be in-person, but there will likely be some hybrid meetings and opportunities to assist with online demonstrations and curricular planning. Bilingual (Spanish and English) students are encouraged to reach out. Anyone interested in music-making, podcasting, education, and games is also encouraged to apply. I expect the project to launch again in the early fall and expand to additional sites in Spring 2024.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Physics
We will continue building a system to test if general relativity is the full description for gravity, or if it is actually quantum in nature. Students will build and test different parts of the system, from how to produce a mist with quantum dots, to trapping them in a laser, to build an optical cavity in high vacuum. While doing so, they will learn numerous experimental techniques (optics, vacuum, solid state,...)
This research will be done in person.
With easy-to-use and exceptionally powerful computational tools (and large-language-models including ChatGPT), students at all levels of preparation can meaningfully participate in discovery through model-building and numerical experimentation; in many cases, this is followed by leveraging the emergent understanding for applied sciences. Over the past decade, undergraduate students in my group have carried out research on classical systems -- electrical circuits with energy gain and loss and memory; properties of memristors, a circuit element discovered in 2008; properties of single-neuron ion channels and neural networks and quantum systems. For the 1RIP, my project is to investigate the emergence of “clocks” – i.e. periodic, oscillatory behavior – and their robustness in different physical systems. In isolated qubits (quantum bits) such behavior emerges naturally, but the clock period changes when the system is perturbed. Recently, we have shown that highly tunable periodic behavior can emerge in linear, electrical circuits with time-modulated parameters (Zach Cochran, undergrad Phys. Rev. Applied 18, 054034 (2022)). Based on the student interest, we will investigate corresponding phenomena in the three aforementioned domains - biological, classical, or quantum. The "period" of such clocks ranges from years to nanoseconds, based on the platform.
My group is platform agnostic (Mathematica, Matlab, Python, Jupiter, etc.) and the focus is constantly on solving the problem – as opposed to learning a particular tool that might help solve it. In addition to the weekly group meeting (comprising postdoc, doctoral students, undergraduate students, and high-school students who join remotely), the student will have weekly 1-1 meetings with me. The one-year duration will allow the student to undertake a moderately challenging project with multiple parts, some of which might require interfacing with experimental colleagues to assist them in realizing the model in their platform.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
My lab works on utilizing lasers to develop high speed components for optical communication systems. The research includes experimental work, theoretical and mathematical models, and computer simulations, and so can accommodate students with interests and talents in hands-on lab work, mathematical inclinations, and computer programming background. Students will have the opportunity to shift their focus if and when their interests change. Specific projects will be determined in consultation with students.
This research will be done in person.
One question investigated in our group is how neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin interact with lipid membranes that lack specialized receptors. This is relevant to understanding how neurotransmitters are collected by the post-synaptic membranes followed by quasi-2D diffusion to receptors. Recent work from our group has shown by small-angle X-ray scattering that dopamine prefers the headgroup region of model lipid membranes made of single lipid types [1]. The objective of current work is to develop a reliable and cost-effective method to prepare lipid samples that are mixtures of two or more lipid types to be used for x-ray scattering and solid-state NMR spectroscopy. These physical methods require relatively large amounts of lipid materials. First-year students can work in the next step of our project and learn how to prepare binary and ternary lipid membranes with different headgroups. The students will then learn and perform measurements by Dynamic Light Scattering, x-ray scattering, and solid-state NMR spectroscopy. These results will allow us to quantify the effect of dopamine on membrane electrostatics which in turn affects molecular processes in the brain.
This research will be done in person.
Psychology
Binge alcohol drinking is a major health risk in the US and worldwide. Work in the Boehm lab seeks to understand how repeated bouts of binge alcohol drinking impact brain function and behavior. Students training in the Boehm lab get hands on experience working with mice in various behavioral testing paradigms, making alcohol and other drug solutions for consumption or injection, taking blood samples, and harvesting brain tissue for later imaging or molecular analysis.
This research will be done in person.
My laboratory explores sex differences in brain and behavior related to stress and alcohol effects, and how they alter one another. We use biochemistry, physiology, and rodent behavioral models (rats and mice) to understand how the brain adapts to stress and what this means for alcohol misuse. In particular, we are interested in ways that stress and alcohol may change the brain differently in males and females to increase our understanding of why women are more susceptible to stress-induced mental illness, including for alcohol misuse. We also hope to identify changes in the brain that may be targeted to find new drug therapies that better treat both men and women with stress-related alcohol use disorders. Interested students can be involved in any part of this research. Those interested in rodent behavior can learn to run stress- and alcohol-related behavioral paradigms and contribute to video scoring of certain behaviors. Those with more interest in the molecular end of neuroscience can learn how we analyze protein and RNA content in various brain regions following specific behavioral exposures to understand how the brains are adapting. In addition to direct exposure to laboratory experimentation, I will help expose the students to the basic principles of the scientific method and its role in experimental design, analysis, and presentation of results, including discussions on ethical considerations in research. I have a fairly active team of undergraduate researchers and am happy to help students engage in this during their first year at IUPUI.
This research will be done in person.
This project offers a variety of experiences for students and is focused on analyzing naturalistic social experiences in matched healthy control and schizophrenia cohorts. Social dysfunction is among the most disabling aspects of schizophrenia and laboratory measures are limited in what they can assess. The goal of our study is to collect real-world social interactions to account for limitations of existing methods and to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and incremental validity of our methodology.
Experiences for undergraduate Research Assistants can vary based on their interest and offer opportunities to interact with the PI, external collaborators, and advanced graduate students. Our laboratory already boasts an active undergraduate research program, with many students advancing to conducting independent projects and honor's theses as they advance at IUPUI.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
I have two interconnected labs where undergraduate students may learn valuable knowledge and skills in psychological research aimed at understanding and remedying gender and race bias in work and academic-related contexts. The WoW lab (Women and Work lab) studies sexual and racial harassment. First-year undergraduate students will learn how to review and summarize research literature related to our studies on racialized sex-based harassment, sexual harassment training effectiveness, and empathy training with an emphasis on virtual reality training. First-year undergraduate students will also learn how to conduct an experiment with human participants comparing the effects of sexual harassment empathy training where participants experience a real-life story of sexual harassment, complete empathy exercises, and complete questionnaires testing their knowledge, attitudes, and behavioral intentions toward sexual harassment. The study will compare three forms of media conveying the sexual harassment story: written narrative, 2D video of a re-enactment of an interview with a sexual harassment experiencer, and 3D virtual reality video of that same re-enactment. The first-year undergraduate will help conduct the laboratory research testing these training modalities mentored by senior students and myself.
The Indiana CARES lab (Creating Accountability and Building Relationships to Eradicate Sex Harassment) is an NIH-funded lab consisting of myself, Dr. Ann Kimble-Hill (Biochemistry and Cell Biology), Dr. Randall Roper (Biology), Dr. Wei Wu (Psychology), two graduate students, an IPrep student, and an advanced undergraduate student. This lab is conducting research on the role of research mentors’ power and mentees' positive and negative lab experiences including allyship, mentorship, sex harassment, racial microaggression, and incivility. We are developing and implementing the first round of interventions with research labs on the IUI/IUSM campus to improve positive research mentoring experiences and decrease mistreatment of students working in those labs. First-year undergraduate students will learn how to review and summarize research literature on these topics and assist with preparing the intervention materials. They will also observe more senior students who are building and executing online data collection instruments.
Students working in either (or both) labs will also learn how to create an IRB protocol for research with human participants.
This research will be done in person and virtually.
Broadly speaking, my program of research develops, tests, and implements evidence-based interventions to promote positive clinically relevant outcomes among minoritized persons. My most recent projects are in the health equity space and focus on Black women and Black birthing persons. Specifically, I have multiple projects that examine how perceiving non-Black persons as allies can alleviate social identity threat (e.g., devaluation concerns due to your identity) in different organizational environments. Students that work with me can expect to be exposed to any or all parts of the research process, including reading relevant literature, preparing IRB protocols, attending regular lab meetings, participant recruitment, programming data collection materials, data collection, and analyses. Students that hope to ultimately attend graduate school in psychology and have a passion for projects focused on interventions for Black individuals would be an excellent fit for my lab.
This research will be done in person.
Looking for more opportunities?
The IUPUI Center for Research and Learning has additional research opportunities available.