Oladele Osisami presented his and his colleague's award-winning research on the correlation between depression and pain in patients with a serious illness. Photo by Sarah FaulknerMark Linn - Copy Editorcopy@insideuab.com
On July 21 UAB held its annual Summer Expo, showcasing research and service learning projects that are being undertaken by UAB undergraduates and other students from across the country participating in summer research programs.
The UAB Expo is held each spring, summer and fall by the Office of Undergraduate Research. It features presentations by students from across many disciplines, divided into categories such as humanities, engineering, education and the health sciences.
One of the highlights of the Summer Expo is the opportunity for students from across the country in Research Experience for Undergraduates programs to present their work. REUs are competitive summer research programs funded by the National Science Foundation for undergraduates studying primarily in the fields of science, engineering or mathematics.
“One thing that's different [is] that we have a lot of participants from other schools because of the Summer REU,” said Gareth Jones, the program administrator for Office of Service Learning and Undergraduate Research. “So they take students from all over the country who come here for the summer for an intensive program, and part of the capstone is to present here at the Expo.”
Host institutions like UAB allows undergraduates to work in concert with faculty on particular research projects. Participating students receive a weekly stipend for full time or part time work.
One of the participants in the Expo was UAB student Oladele Osisami, a biology student who plans to become a psychiatrist. Osisami won first place in the social and behavioral sciences category for his study on the specific correlation between depression and pain in patients with a serious illness.
“So basically the aim of this study was to determine the relationship between depression severity and pain intensity among patients at the UAB Supportive Care and Survivorship Clinic from the years 2012-2016,” Osisami said. “We found that patients who were severely depressed had significantly higher pain scores than patients who were only mildly depressed.”
A new facet of the Expo is the addition of the President's Summer Researcher Scholarship Program. Ten UAB undergraduates were selected to receive $4,500 stipends and devote 30 hours a week for a 12 week research or service learning project, with their results displayed at the Expo.
One of the recipients of the scholarship was Bryce Martinez, an art student who submitted a proposal to assist in the creation of Veterans Memorial Arbor, an outdoor memorial for Alabama veterans being constructed in Aldridge Botanical Gardens in Hoover in concert with the nonprofit Vettes-4-Vets. Martinez is using the funds to sculpt and cast the likeness of Lance Cpl. Thomas Rivers, a U.S. Marine from Hoover who was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan in 2010.
“I applied for [the scholarship] because this project, the Veteran's Memorial Arbor community bust project was going to take a lot of money away from other aspects of the veterans’ memorial going up in Aldridge Gardens and I didn't want to take that money away from where it was needed,” Martinez said. “So after proposing and receiving this scholarship, it allows me to work on this bust, [and] then UAB can donate the final product which will help raise the profile of UAB and their involvement in the community, as well as help out with the development of Arbor and of this commemorative space for foreign veterans.”
Also making an appearance at the Expo was UAB president Ray Watts, M.D., who spoke to several students about their presentations and took a group photo with all of the recipients of the President's Scholarship.
“I'm really impressed with the quality of research of our undergraduates and it's something that we strongly encourage,” Watts said. “And it's a great opportunity at UAB that you don't get at a lot of universities. The good thing is our students, our undergraduates get to work with our faculty at the most senior levels, and it helps guide their future careers.”
