Montana Tech THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA |
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Research 98 Back to Past Research Activities Page In This Issue In-Depth
Look at Young
Researchers Geologic
Maps Environmental Research
Activity Chemistry
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Researchers get Boost from Montana Tech’s Dave Carter, Ph.D. During 1995, Montana Tech started an Undergraduate Research Program to lead undergraduate students to hands-on research in their particular areas of interest. Joe Figueira, Research Director of Montana Tech, initiated the program and formed the Undergraduate Research Committee (URC) consisting of Dave Carter (Chair), Doug Drew, John Evans, Paul Sawyer, and Courtney Young. Funded by Montanans on a New Track for Science (MONTS), the URC encourages undergraduate research by awarding stipend grants of $500 each to deserving students for doing research at Montana Tech. For these awards, research is broadly defined to include both investigations of cultural or historical questions and laboratory or field research commonly associated with the sciences and engineering disciplines. All currently enrolled Montana Tech students in good academic standing who have successfully completed their freshman year are eligible to apply for the grants. Applicants must attend classes full-time in the academic year they expect to receive their grant. Students may submit one proposal per year to the URC. Each spring, the committee evaluates the proposals on a competitive basis and approves the best projects for funding. Funding becomes available in fall of the following year. The work must be done sometime after the proposal is submitted and before the Undergraduate Research Conference the following year. A URC grant recipient may reapply in subsequent years as long as URC guidelines are followed. Group proposals may be submitted if each member of the group meets the eligibility requirements. The second Undergraduate Research Conference took place at Montana Tech on March 24, 1998. During the conference, 16 undergraduate students from a variety of academic disciplines presented their findings. New to this year’s program were seven projects addressing some aspect of Tech’s Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA). Students talked on such topics as air sampling, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and micro-controllers for the RPA. Among the other projects presented were studies on cattail survivability, humic acid in pit water, cation exchange properties of vermiculite, and photolysis for enhancing the hydrophobicity of minerals in flotation. Undergraduate Research Conference A three-member panel of judges reviewed each project and awarded “Best Project” and $500 to Michael Harney for his project, A Study of the Feasibility of Typha Latifolia as a Subject for AFLP Analysis. Two second place awards of $250 each were awarded to the second-best engineering and non-engineering projects. These awards went to Julie Gress for her paper, Isolation and Characterization of Bio-active Metabolites by Berkeley Pit Fungi and to Josh Knutson for his paper, The Making of Mine Talings into a By-Product. Montanans on a New Track for Science has generously and consistently funded this program. Additional funding is anticipated from the Montana Space Grant Consortium and will likely expand and enhance this excellent program.
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