USU’s 2018 Ignite event recap
Utah State University’s annual Ignite event was held Friday, marking the ninth and final event of USU’s Research Week. The event had eight speakers who gave five-minute presentations with 20 auto advancing slides. Students, staff and community members came to watch some of Utah State’s finest graduate and undergraduate students perform fast paced presentations on their different fields of research.
“When I remembered how important it was to share research and re-get excited about it, then it was really fun,” said Gabriela Judd, who presented on the parallels between diversity in ecology and diversity in the scientific community.
Ignite, sponsored by USU’s Office of Research and Graduate Studies, is an opportunity that student researchers can participate in. The process to speak at Ignite involves applications, interviews, and speech auditions until the staff narrows the participants down to the final eight speakers who then get to perform on stage. Prior to the event, nominees receive help and coaching from the Ignite program.
Rilee Scoresby Keith Buswell talks about barbershops and social situations
Keith Buswell, who spoke on research about barbershops, said the coaching was “very good.”
“The staff were very supportive. They, in some regards, they took ownership of each of the exhibits and it is almost like they knew the research and they were very passionate about it like we were,” Buswell said.
The event overflowed with people, and some sat on stairs and leaned against bookcases to watch the presentations.
Rilee Scoresby Listeners are seated on the stairs to listen to the research talks.
“The audience was a little bit nerve wracking but I definitely wanted to play off the audience which is why I did my big ‘Aloha’ at the beginning but having the whole audience reverberate it back to me was so awesome because I didn’t think I was going to get that big of a reaction because we aren’t in Hawaii,” said speaker Pono Suganuma, who presented on the diversity in media, specifically relating to Hawaiian culture and representation.
Rilee Scoresby Pono Suganuma, the first speaker from Hawaii, opens her talk with a traditional Hawaiian Aloha.
Ignite research can revolve anything from the therapeutic and anti-inflammatory use of carbon-monoxide presented by Tatiana Soboleva, to the water demand of different toilet flushing mechanisms by Paul Consalvo. Research of any department could be performed and that includes Kirtan Patel’s presentation of how low-caste tailor Pragji became a spiritual leader in Svāminārayaṇa sampradāy in western India.
Presentations also included Bethany Jensen’s research on harmful algal blooms and her teams creation of a device that can harvest these blooms which can later be turned into fertilizer, as well as Michelle Parker’s research on how the combination of vocal features together influence the listener’s impressions and ultimately create each person’s unique voice.
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