Participants in the 4th annual Undergraduate Science Poster Session, September 2009
Many of The University of Winnipeg staff, students and guests spent Wednesday, September 16, 2009 viewing the results of talented undergraduate research over the past year. The 4th annual Undergraduate Science Poster Session is sponsored by The University of Winnipeg and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. The competition featured 13 posters, and represented a cross-section of the work being performed in the departments of Anthropology, Chemistry, Physics, and Psychology.
First place in the competition went to Dylan Buhr, a student in the Physics Department whose poster, “Geometric Interpretation of Entanglement”, discussed a strange property of quantum mechanics. Other winners at the event included:
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Michael Lang, whose poster “Miniaturized birdcage resonator for MS studies” was awarded 2nd place
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Tyler Atchison, who was awarded 3rd place for his poster on “Derivatives of Oleanolic Acid and Their Biological Activities”
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Mathias Pielahn, who was awarded an honorable mention for “Dynamical Surface Gravity of Black Holes”
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Mark Abotossaway, who was awarded an honorable mention for “Using Silicon Detectors for Neutron Decay”
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Trevor Vincent, who was awarded an honorable mention for “Is Your Mouse Brain Shrinking?”
The awards ceremony was hosted by Rod Hanley, Dean of Science, with Sandra Kirby, the Associate Vice-President (Research) and Dean of Graduate Studies, bringing greetings. Dr. Hanley noted that UWinnipeg prides itself in the fact that our undergraduates can participate in such world-class research. Much of the work detailed in the poster competition will also be featured in leading scientific journals, added Dr. Melanie Martin, the competition’s original organizer and an assistant professor of Physics.
UWinnipeg thanks our judges this year, which included people from a variety of backgrounds:
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Robert Brown – Manitoba coordinator – Sanofi-Aventis BioTalent Challenge
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Richard Buist – Department of Radiology, University of Manitoba
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Julie Carl – Deputy editor, Winnipeg Free Press
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Helen Fallding – Assistant City Editor, Winnipeg Free Press
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Andrew Goertzen – Coordinator, PET-CT Program, Health Sciences Center
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Erin Hickson – Office Assistant, Dean of Science Office, UWinnipeg
The judges were uniformly impressed with the entries. The judges from the Winnipeg Free Press indicated that they would like to follow up on some of the research they saw with the supervisors.
One of the main criteria used was how well the student could present their results to non-experts. This is harder than it sounds – Einstein said that one doesn’t really understand something until one can explain it to a six-year old.
Congratulations to all participants in the Undergraduate Science Poster Session for a job well done.
