By Jenna Kersten ’17 and Jim Eaton
Siena College’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity gives students from all majors and courses of study the opportunity to pursue high-impact, hands-on learning. CURCA ensures that students are able to earn scholarships, pursue undergraduate research and present their work and national and international conferences and events like the ones described below.
Business Students Rub Elbows with Worldly Scholars in Puerto Rico
Marketing majors Stephen Barretta '16, Eugene Corcione ’15 and Daniel Buff ’15 presented their research at the Clute International Business Conference in Puerto Rico last month. They interacted with business professors from a variety of disciplines all over the world and were the only undergraduate presenters at the conference. Barretta was awarded the Best Paper Award in his track, besting papers written by doctoral degree professionals.
“For me, to have this experience was unbelievable,” said Corcione. “I was mingling with scholars from all over the world.” The students also received feedback from the scholars on how to expand and improve his research.
Science Students Win Newly Released Graphics Processing Unit in California
Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy Matt Bellis, Ph.D. attended the Graphics Processing Unit Tech Conference in San Jose, California last month with Garrett Allen ’16 and Sal Baisley ’16. The computer science majors and Bellis presented their research to world leaders in Graphics Processing Units, known as GPUs. These units are primarily used for video games but have been co-opted by many scientists over the past decade to perform numerically-intensive calculations. In attendance were programmers and industry leaders who discussed the latest developments in GPUs for games, movies, self-driving cars, artificial intelligence and other scientific endeavors.
“It was amazing to be able to experience this,” Allen said. “Everything happened in four days and I know I want to get back to this conference in the future.”
Siena College was one of only three undergraduate institutions presenting research at the conference. As an added bonus the Siena group also won the “tweet the hashtag” contest and secured a Titan X, a new GPU that hit the market that day.
“This will be used by us for even faster calculations and will benefit both my research and our students by giving us access to the latest and greatest technology,” Bellis said.
The conference was a unique opportunity to expose the students to cutting-edge technology. It was made possible thanks to CURCA and Bellis’s grant from the National Science Foundation.
Liberal Arts Students Utilize Personal Experiences to Educate Others
Political science major Alicia Munian ’15 was racially discriminated against while working for a politician in her hometown. She turned this experience into the inspiration for her political science capstone research paper.
“I hope my research will empower local minority groups to work for change in the politics of their own hometowns,” Munian said. She will be presenting her research titled “The Plight of Ethnic Minorities and Long Island Politics,” at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Cheney, Washington this month.
Fellow political science major Matt Fuller ’15 will discuss his research on retaliation towards whistleblowers at the New York State Political Science Association Conference at SUNY Plattsburgh in a few weeks.
Fuller’s research sprung out of his internship at the Government Accountability Project, an organization that deals with the protection of whistleblowers. Fuller interned there while he was studying at American University as part of Siena’s Washington Semester program.
“I was fortunate to have the opportunity to interview Thomas Drake while in D.C., who was the main focus of my research,” Fuller said.
Munian and Fuller conducted their research with the support of faculty. “Dr. Naranch has been my guide,” said Munian. “We met almost weekly for an entire academic year and she gave me articles to help with my scholarly research.”
The opportunities in this story were sponsored by Siena’s Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity. Click here to learn more about CURCA.
