Wayne State University’s Office of Undergraduate Research will host the third annual Undergraduate Research Conference on Friday, Nov. 10, 8:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. in the McGregor Memorial Conference Center on Wayne State’s downtown campus. The event is free and open to the public.

This conference showcases the university\'s best undergraduate research projects and allows student researchers to share their work through panel and poster presentations.

Many students are recipients of Undergraduate Research Grants, and all work closely with faculty mentors. The conference will provide this year’s 85-90 participants with an excellent opportunity to gain presentation experience.

During the conference research from the hard sciences, social sciences and performing arts will be represented. Previous presentation topics include Gender and Dose Dependant Effects of Toluene Abuse on the Locomotor Activity of Rats; Implementation of a Voter-Verifiable Receipt System; and the short film Images of the City: from Hart Plaza to City Hall.

Following are examples of projects scheduled for this year’s conference:

Alonso del Arte of Detroit of Detroit presenting: An Experiment on Listeners’ Ability to Differentiate Between Music Performed by Humans and Music Performed by Computers intends to show that, in spite of the prevalence of computer-performed music in popular music and the music of TV and film, listeners can still distinguish between the two with accuracy in the context of classical music.

Lauren Henrikson of Romulus presenting: A short ethnographic film titled Free Detroit. This film describes how and why Henrikson developed a radical solution to poverty in Detroit by establishing The Free Store, a nonprofit project she began more than a year ago. Her presentation will detail the project’s challenges and successes to date.

Meghan E. Curavo of Ferndale presenting: In Search of Sarah C.B. Scarborough. The purpose of Curavo’s research is to correctly establish Sarah C.B. Scarborough in the historical record. Sarah was the wife of William Sanders Scarborough, a man who rose from the status of a slave to that of a scholar of Greek and Latin during the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Curavo’s research portrays Sarah Scarborough as a fascinating portrait of a 19th-century woman who defied all social norms, but whose life had not been studied and story has not been told until the student\'s research.

Katherine Cockrel of Detroit presenting: Detroit Upside Down: An Interpretive Analysis of Revolutionary Movements in Detroit. The project explores and describes the use of democratic theory by the leaders of four of Detroit\'s most influential revolutionary movements. It examines the ironic relationship between the democratic ideal and the idea of rebellion by analyzing revolutionary movements in 1960s Detroit. The project examines four of the most influential revolutionary movements in Detroit’s history. The League of Revolutionary Black Workers (LRBW), the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM), the Motor City Labor League (MCLL) and the Labor Defense Coalition (LDC) that were perhaps, the most effective catalyst for change in the city’s economic and political structure.

For further information about the Undergraduate Research Conference call, Carol Baldwin, (313) 577-4621 or visit: www.undergradresearch.wayne.edu



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