Students to Present at National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Lexington, VA, April 21-23

Dr. Ken Nikels
308.865.8843

Nearly 50 students from the University of Nebraska at Kearney have been selected to present their research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) in Lexington, Va., April 21-23.
“UNK will again have one of the largest contingents of students participating at NCUR of any institution in the country,” said Dr. Ken Nikels, dean of the Office of Graduate Studies.  “Our undergraduate students engage in exceptional research activities and compete on a national level, as demonstrated in their acceptance by NCUR.”

The conference, which is held to promote undergraduate research scholarship and creative activity done in partnership with faculty or other mentors, will draw students from more than 300 colleges and universities from almost every state in the nation.

Students will present their research through oral presentations and/or poster presentations. The research will represent a range of disciplines including creative arts, mathematics, business, social science, humanities, physical and life sciences, natural resources, and engineering.

Students are listed alphabetically by hometown, along with the title of each student’s presentation and the faculty mentor.

Bellwood     Kate Semin, Prevalence of Hypertension and Association with Overweight Among

  • Preschool-Aged Children, Dr. Kate Heelan, health, physical education and recreation

Bennington     Ben Goetz, Differences in Nebraskans’ Perceptions of Interior Design, Dr.

Srivatsa Seshadri, management/marketing

Bertrand     Jordan Kuck, The Legacy of “Vadonis” Ulmanis, Dr. Carol Lilly, history
Broken Bow     Sarah Heckenlively, Differences in Nebraskans’ Perceptions of Interior Design,

Dr. Srivatsa Seshadri, management/marketing

Columbus     Sarah DeNio, A Musical and Dramatic Portrait of the Chorus in J.S. Bach’s “St.

John Passion,” Dr. Anne Foradori, music
Ruth Udey, Solid-State Phase Properties of Thin-Film GeC Fabricated by a

Hollow-Cathode Plasma Jet Deposition Method, Dr. Chris Exstrom, chemistry

Fairbury     Mark Rhine, Impact of Wal-Mart’s Presence on Retail Climate of Five Central

Platte Valley Communities and Counties, Dr. Steve Hall, accounting/finance

Grand Island  Justin Sevenker, Reading Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, Dr. Mike Benzel, English    
Grant     Stewart Clouse, Generalization of Complex Numbers and Perplex Numbers, Dr.

Barton Willis, math

Hartington     Nathan Sudbeck, The Effects of Physical Attractiveness on Advertisement

Desirability and Recall, Dr. Theresa Wadkins, psychology

Harvard     Brett Chloupek, Market Area Analysis: Spatial Data Mining and GIS in UNK

Admissions, Steele Becker, geography

Holdrege     Shanon Kempt, Women in War: Soviet Combat Soldiers in World War II and

Vietnamese Guerrillas in Vietnam, Dr. Carol Lilly, history

Howells     Kevin Vogel, Thermodynamics of Dust Particle Interactions in Plasma, Dr. Mark

Markes, physics

Kearney     Bryce Abbey, The Validation of HydraTrend™ Reagent Strips for the Assessment

of Hydration Levels, Dr. Kate Heelan, health, physical education and recreation

Abby Bjornsen, The Impact of Online Sports Forums on Competitive State

Anxiety, Dr. Jean Mandernach, psychology

Kristi Castillo, Differences in Nebraskans’ Perceptions of Interior Design, Dr.

Srivatsa Seshadri, management/marketing

Michael David, Macintosh vs. Windows, Dr. Sherri Harms, computer science

Tessa Gifford, The Proper American Women: Coming of Age During the Second

Wave of Feminism, Dr. Linda Van Ingen, history

Catherine Hock, The Stages of Slavery—The Effects of European Involvement on

the Existing African Slave Trade, Dr. Mary Elizabeth Ailes, history

Jessica Isaac, Technique-Inspired Expression: Beethoven’s Gift to the Performer,

Dr. Valerie Cisler, music

Dustin Kozal, An Approach to Modernizing Bell Tower Interfaces, Dr. John

Hastings, computer science

Mindy Lester, Sandra Day O’Connor, Dr. Peter Longo, political science
Laura Logan, Academic Culture, Dr. Daryl Kelley, sociology

Chris McClemens, Nineteenth Century Crime and Criminals, Dr. Mark Ellis,
history

Jay Powell, Enhancing Knowledge Acquisition in the Context of Automatic Case

Elicitation, Dr. John Hastings, computer science

Ashley Scantling, Association Between Physical Activity and Adiposity in

Preschool-Aged Children, Dr. Kate Heelan, health, physical education and
recreation

Lexington     Megan Kulhanek, Portrayals of Men and Women on the Cover of Time Magazine,

Dr. Keith Terry, communication

Joel Martin, Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act and the Farm

Security and Investment Act: Analysis and Comparison of Methodology and Results of Two Farm Subsidy Programs, Dr. Diane Duffin, political science

Lincoln     Christie Coleman, Herpetofaunal Species Composition and Relative Abundance

Between Riparian Woodland and Clear-cut Areas at Jeffrey Island Habitat Area, Dawson County, Nebraska, Dr. Bruce Eichhorst, biology

         Andrea Herndon, IT Service Needs in Rural Markets, Dr. Srivatsa Seshadri,

management/marketing

Brett McCurdy, The Effects of Magnets on Dexterity and Strength, Dr. Bill

Wozniak, psychology

Omaha     Jim Chezem, The Influences of Drains and Tributaries on the Groundwater

Aquifer Along the Central Platte River (Part 1), Steele Becker, geography

         Kathleen Parish, Legal Aid in Lexington, Nebraska (For Residents Without

Citizenship), Dr. Claude Louishomme, political science

         Micah Torgrimson, Parody: Factors of Fair Use and Grammatical Anarchy?,

Drs. Carol Lomicky and Martha Kruse, communication and English,
respectively. Torgrimson will also be presenting the late Ken Gallagher’s

paper Opinion and Libel: The Evolution of a Defense. Dr. Carol Lomicky was Gallagher’s faculty mentor.

O’Neill     Tim Friedel, Small Mammal Population Diversity in a Wooded and Cleared

Platte River Habitat, Dr. Joseph Springer, biology

Ord     Krista Carlson, The Influence of Secret Societies in the Enlightenment, Dr. Mary

Elizabeth Ailes, history

Papillion     Julie Boukal, IT Service Needs in Rural Markets, Dr. Srivatsa Seshadri,

management/marketing

Scottsbluff     Naomi Schemm, Just What Were They Thinking? British Arctic Exploration,

1818-1850 and Grammatical Anarchy?, Drs. Mary Elizabeth Ailes and
Martha Kruse, history and English respectively.

Sutherland     Rebecca Bay, Testing for the Chivalry Hypothesis Within the Central Nebraska

Drug Court System, Dr. Scott Sasse, criminal justice

Wayne     Heather Stauffer, Boom to Bust, Dr. Mark Ellis, history

KANSAS
   Atwood     Lydia Pochop, Credit Unions, Dr. Srivatsa Seshadri, management/marketing

Cole Spresser, Utilization of Drosophila Melanogaster to Study the Human Gene,
OTK18, Dr. Kim Carlson, biology

   Haysville     Jennifer Atterbury, Marital Status and Ratings of Attractiveness, Dr. Joe Benz,

psychology

Kensington     Jennifer Bienhoff, Effects of Symmetry, Spatial Frequency, Sex of Face, and Sex

of Participant on Judged Facial Attractiveness, Dr. Bill Wozniak,
psychology

COLOMBIA
Bogota     Jose Martinez, Data Mining Applied to Crop Life Cycle Management, Dr. Sherri

Harms, computer science

INDIA
   Hyderabad     Siva Kommuri, Theseus: Building a Simulated Self-Taught Biological Agent

Using Automatic Case Elicitation and Study of Drought Effects on Vegetation Growth Using Decision Trees and Neural Networks, Dr. Sherri Harms, computer science

MOLDOVA
Ribnita      Olga Stasishena, Finding the Appropriate Discount Rate for Short-term Risk-free

Decisions, Dr. Karl Borden, accounting/finance