Rutgers undergraduates have many opportunities to do original research with senior faculty members, as early as their first and second years of study.

Students are often connected with faculty members through programs at the Aresty Research Center for Undergraduates, which also provides financial support for many of these projects and holds annual symposia accompanied by poster sessions that highlight student research.

The fourth annual symposium and poster session on April 25 will showcase more than 250 student research projects in the arts and sciences at the Rutgers Student Center in New Brunswick

Here is a sample of this year’s student research projects:

Ankit Shah, “Alcohol Consumption and Stress Response in the Absence of Osteocalcin;” and Muhammad Shahid, “Osteocalcin and Response to Stress,” with Patricia Buckendahl, assistant research professor at the Center of Alcohol Studies.

Nearly 9,000 scientific papers have been written about osteocalcin, a protein made by bone cells, since it was discovered in 1975, but scientists still don’t know exactly what it does. In two separate studies, Shah and Shahid, both seniors headed for medical school, each discovered that mice missing the gene responsible for the synthesis of osteocalcin do not respond to stress as well as mice that have the gene.

In the photo: From left to right, Ankit Shah, Assistant Research Professor Patricia Buckendahl, and Muhammad Shahid at the Center of Alcohol Studies

Sarah Dziamba, “Myth and Mystery: The Capitoline Medusa,” with Tod A. Marder, professor of art history

The unsigned Medusa sculpture has been attributed to the 17th-century artist Gianlorenzo Bernini, but this has been disputed. Dziamba analyzed the Medusa myth from Ovid to Bernini’s time, researched scholarly sources on the bust, and traveled to Rome to examine the Medusa and other contemporary works. Her senior honors thesis in art history concludes that it is plausible to attribute the work to Bernini, and that it was meant to instruct the viewer against sin and other moral weaknesses.

Read more about Dziamba.

Allison Cronk, “White Slavery: Exploitation or Myth? A New Narrative of European Immigrant Prostitutes in Early 20th-Century New York City”

Working with History Professor Virginia Yans on her senior thesis for the Henry Rutgers Scholars and History Honors programs, Cronk examined deportation records in Washington, D.C., and discovered that immigrant prostitutes expelled under white slavery reform and laws during the early 20th century were not victims of an international trade ring. They had been portrayed as such by the Immigration and Naturalization Service and contemporary reformers, but Cronk concluded that they were willing participants in the massive migration of European workers to the United States who came to earn a living.

Read more about Cronk.

Matthew Cortland, “Relationship Formation in Drum and Bugle Corps,” with Jennifer S. Mandelbaum, associate professor at the School of Communication, Information and Library Studies

Cortland, a first-year student, took his love of the Madison Scouts, a highly competitive, national drum and bugle corps in which he is assistant drum major, and turned it into a communication research project. Using anthropological research techniques, he will film a pair of seat partners, one from Miami and one from St. Louis, on the Madison Scouts tour bus this summer to explore what communication techniques they use in building a family-like bond.

Read more about Cortland.

Kaitlyn Gengarelly, “Locally Grown Foods at Rutgers University: A Pilot Program for Neilson Dining Hall,” with Andrew Pleasant, assistant professor of human ecology, and Kevin L. Lyons, director of purchasing for the New Brunswick Campus

The goal of the study was to design a local farm-to-college program to support the farming economy of the Garden State without adding costs to Rutgers. Gengarelly, a senior, conducted in-depth interviews and research at other universities to evaluate their methods in similar programs as well as benefits and barriers they encountered. She hopes her research will contribute to the growing movement toward eating locally grown food.

Read more about Gengarelly.

Visit the Aresty Center website for more information about this year's symposia and poster session.