MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University student researchers lined the third floor of the Miller Education Center, recently presenting their projects to the campus community at the seventh annual Undergraduate Research Center Fall Research and Creative Activity Open House.

The event “is a celebration of curiosity, collaboration and scholarly growth,” said Jamie Burriss, director of the center. “It’s a space where diverse academic disciplines converge, ideas are shared, and the next generation of researchers take their first steps toward discovery.”

Research was presented by 36 students across 13 disciplines, such as economics, psychology, biology and animation, on the same floor as the center’s new office, allowing current and future researchers the opportunity to see the space that can provide support and resources for their projects.

The Nov. 7 event was intentionally kept small to provide students “with an opportunity to practice presenting research in a low-stress, audience-friendly environment to build confidence and gain feedback from colleagues and faculty mentors,” Burriss said. Around 75 attendees, including faculty, administrators and students attended.

Past election research connects to present

Current researcher Anna Collins, a senior agribusiness major with an economics minor, said she has “taken every opportunity I can to do research.”

The 20-year-old from Pleasant View conducted her project on if newspaper endorsements affected the 1968 election because while Republican nominee and former Vice President Richard Nixon spoke negatively about the media, newspapers heavily endorsed him, helping him secure the win over Democratic nominee and then incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey, she explained.

Her research was inspired by her macroeconomics professor Steven Sprick Schuster, associate professor in the Department of Economics and Finance, who does election research himself and gave the project idea to Collins.

Collins noted that her research shared similarities with this year’s election, since there wasn’t a primary election for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris or Humphrey, which was an “unintentional alignment that happened, but it has wound up being extremely relevant.”

During her research project, she discovered that newspaper endorsements don’t carry the same weight due to the changing media landscape, but she found that “readers and voters are shifting towards podcasts as their main source of news.”

Animation department creates first original film

Research projects don’t have to be a one-man show, and four animation students proved just that by working with over 200 animation students and faculty to create the first original film the MT IMAGINE Animation Studio has ever made.

“‘All One’ is about a journey of an astronaut who goes to different planets, different areas and different worlds and encounters all these different types of adversities — famine, the lack of kindness — just trying to find somewhere where we can all fit and be together,” said Stacey Teves, 21.

The senior Nashville-native said, “the inspiration from this film came from an adversity that we can all relate to … loneliness, disconnection and depression.”

Teves highlighted that the film’s theme had an impact on the animators as well because, “We’re all joining together and trying to finish this project as one.”

Skye Baxter, a 20-year-old junior from South Pittsburg, explained that since any animation student, from freshman to seniors, could be a part of the project, they all brought different experience levels and skillsets to the table. Due to their different creative styles, the film contains 3D and 2D elements as well as motion graphics, she said.

Seth Savage, 21-year-old senior double major in animation and visual arts from Murfreesboro, discussed how the film went from a grant proposal to a storyboard to a completed film, and Cooper Rogers, 20, announced that the film will premiere in the Student Union Ballroom on Thursday, Dec. 12, from 7 to 8 p.m.

Rogers, a junior from Spring Hill, said the movie will be submitted to film festivals and that the students who worked on the film will receive IMDb credits, which improve their resumes.

Their faculty mentor is Rodrigo Gomez, associate professor in the Department of Media Arts, who said the film’s purpose is to remind the audience that “you are not alone. We are all together in this.”

‘I just love the brain and behavior’

Allison Throm, senior biology major, used electroencephalogram (EEG) signals to examine how cognitive performance, such as working memory and visual attention, is correlated to age and the level of pain the person experiences. She specifically looked at the effects of “subclinical pain, which is pain that’s not really diagnosable, like chronic back pain or general inflammation.

The 21-year-old from Memphis said her degree and psychological research coincide well together, setting her up for success as she works toward attending medical school. “I just love the brain and behavior.”

Psychology was a popular discipline for this year’s undergraduate researchers. Psychology 2023 graduate Alexis Shumate, 22, is a research assistant for Cyrille Magne, professor in the Department of Psychology.

Her research used EEG signals to study neurobiological markers of individual differences in reading abilities, such as having dyslexia. Additionally, her project included standardized tests and working with Vanderbilt, who used submitted saliva samples to examine genetic markers from her participants.

Shumate has conducted research through the center since 2022 when she was completing her undergraduate degree. She was a member of the Student Organization for the Advancement of Research, better known as SOAR, as well as a recipient of the Undergraduate Research Experience and Creative Activity, better known as URECA, grant.

“I am so very grateful for all of the experience I’ve had with research and also being able to interact with diverse populations in so many different communities that I wasn’t even aware of,” Shumate said. 

She continued, “It’s always amazing seeing all of the wonderful research that’s happening at MTSU and the impact that it is having not only on the research community, but also the community that we’re constantly involved in.”

Shumate works at Monte Nido in Nashville, treating people of all ages who struggle with eating disorders, and is pursuing her doctoral degree in clinical psychology.

She attributes her success in part to the support system she found in both Magne, who she said, “has constantly pushed me to pursue different research projects,” and Burriss, URC director, who “taught me so many different things that will be very useful as I pursue higher education.”

To learn more about the Undergraduate Research Center and its services, visit https://urc.mtsu.edu.

— Maddy Williams (Maddy.Williams@mtsu.edu)