News Release

Celebration of student research March 19

February 23, 2010

More than 20 undergraduate and graduate students will explain the results of their academic research to the campus community at the fifth annual Penn State Harrisburg Student Symposium Friday, March 19.

The 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. celebration of the student efforts will also include poster presentations from additional students. Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to visit the Gallery Lounge throughout the day as the students discuss their academic contributions to the college community.

Lunch will be provided followed by the 1 p.m. keynote from Ernst Conservation Seeds horticulturist Mark Fiely who has played a role in the prospecting, production, and marketing of over 200 native herbaceous species since 1995. The species are grown in Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, Oregon, and Pennsylvania and are used in wetland restoration and upland meadow plantings in eastern North America.

Fiely holds a B.S. and M.S. in horticulture from Penn State and the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, respectively.

The schedule includes:
8:30 a.m. Registration/Continental Breakfast and POSTERS

8:45 Welcome – Dr. Mukund Kulkarni, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

9:00 Technology and Development presentation (moderator Dr. Seth Wolpert)

9:00 John Wolgamuth, Graduate Student, American Studies
Progressive Era Concerns about Character: How the Boy Scouts of America Attempted to Develop Character in American Boys

9:15 Karin Sprow, Graduate Student, Adult Education
Do You Know What I Know? Adult Financial Literacy Education Today

9:30 Galin Zhelezov, Graduate Student, Computer Science
Genetic Algorithm for the Mirrored Traveling (Sports) Tournament Problem

9:45 Janice Smith, Graduate Student, Adult Education
The Meanings of Teaching for Exemplary and Experienced Teachers

10:00 John Petro, Graduate Student, Engineering Science
Nondestructive Evaluation of Concrete Using Hilbert-Huang Transformation

10: 15 Coffee Break/Posters

10:45:  Family Issues (Moderator: Dr. Jose Kutty)

10:45 Paula Plageman, Graduate Student, Adult Education
Family Influence For Better or Worse: How It Impacts Attendance and Persistence of Female Adult Undergraduate Students

11:00 Nancy Jones, Graduate Student, American Studies
A Mother Feathering Her Nest: A Folkloric Approach to the Nesting Instinct

11:15 Brandon Pfeffer, Undergraduate Student, Science
Selsa-1 and Selsa-2 are More Potent Histone Deacetylase inhibitors and better than SAHA in Lung Cancer

11:30 Meghan FitzGerald, Graduate Student, Humanities
The Gothic Alcott

11:45 Carol McQuiggan, Graduate Student, Adult Education
Preparing to Teach Online as Transformative Faculty Professional Development

Noon - 1:00 p.m. Lunch and Dessert with Posters

1:00 Keynote Speaker: “Out Standing in Your Field!” Mark Fiely, Horticulturist, Ernst Conservation Seeds
1:30 Visualizing Images and Languages (Moderator: Dr. John Haddad)

1:30 Ben Tabatabai, Graduate Student, Environmental Pollution Control
Developing Jatropha Curcas Plants Resistant to Abiotic Stresses for the Production of High Yield Biodiesel

1:45 Sarabeth Orlowski, Undergraduate Student, Humanities
Creation of World:  Merleau-Ponty and Klee's Painted Call to Becoming

2:00 Andrew Knisely, Graduate Student, Adult Education
 A Taste of Adult Learning Brewed in an African Pot: Toward an Understanding of the Worldview of Burkinabe Alliance Pastors. 

2:15 Michael Kotovsky, Graduate Student, Computer Science
Deniable SQL

2:30 Mark Minns, Undergraduate Student, Electrical Engineering 
Graphical Training of Neural Networks

2:45 Ryann Reynolds-McIlnay, Graduate Student, Business Administration
Friending Brands: Online Social Network Word-of-Mouth and Advertising

3:00 Allison Funk, Undergraduate Student, Environmental Engineering
How Many Gigahertz Does it Take to Get to the Center of a Switchgrass Seed?

3:15 Evaluations/Closing Remarks

Poster Presentations

Janet DeRosa
The Bicultural Experiences of Mexican American Adult Learners and Undergraduate Degree Attainment

Aniam Iqbal, Undergraduate Student, Science
In vitro regeneration and genetic transformation of Camelina sativa, a promising 2nd generation  bio-fuel crop

Jean Ryan, Undergraduate Student, Environmental Engineering
C:N ratio effect on Trichoderma growth and its ability to supress fecal coliform growth in biosolids

Ben Tabatabai, Graduate Student, Environmental Pollution Control
Developing Jatropha curcas plants resistant to abiotic stresses for the production of high yield biodiesel
Authors: Behnam Tabatabi , Matthew Reitzel, Casey Breidigan, Allison Funk, Pooja Patel, Shobha Potlakayala and Sairam Rudrabhatla

Benjamin T. Wigton and Cole R. McDonald, Undergraduate Students, Civil Engineering
Development of a Low-Cost Portable Fluorimeter and its Application in the Undergraduate Laboratory
Authors: Benjamin T. Wigton, Cole R. McDonald, Rodney A. Kreuter, Danny G. Sykes, Balwant S. Chohan

Benjamin T. Wigton, Undergraduate, Civil Engineering and Johnson Zhang, Undergraduate, Chemistry
Synthesis and Nucleophilicity of a Series of Zinc Thiolate Complexes
Authors: Benjamin T. Wigton; Suzanne T. Thomas; Johnson Zhang; Balwant S. Chohan

Benjamin T. Wigton and Cole McDonald, undergraduate students
A Low-Cost Karl Fischer Apparatus for Measuring Water Content in Oil, Pharmaceuticals, Cosmetics and Foodstuffs.
Authors: Benjamin T. Wigton, Cole R. McDonald, Rodney A. Kreuter, Danny G. Sykes, Balwant S. Chohan

Wade Yankey, Graduate Student, Environmental Pollution Control
Evaluating the Time-Temperature Requirement for E. coli Destruction Using the Live/Dead Test
Authors: Wade Yankey, Yen-Chih Chen

For information, contact Lisa Murray in the Office of Research and Graduate Studies, 948-6482 or lam130@psu.edu.