The WSU values struggles of the past, asserts rights in the present, and celebrates aspirations for the future.

The Women Student Union fosters the growth of women personally, professionally and politically. The WSU will celebrate the power existing within every woman to promote self-autonomy, denounce all limitations, educate on systems of oppression and advocate inclusivity within a diverse community. WSU facilitates a network among organizations, departments, and services to embrace, engage and empower.

The Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS) is an annual showcase for undergraduate students from all majors to present their work to the wider community. Excitingly, this year's URS will be held virtually using Whova on April 1, 2021! Hundreds of student researchers, including those from the Garnet and Gold Scholar Society, Honors in the Major Program, the Undergraduate ResearchOpportunity Program (UROP), and independent studies, will present their work as poster and creative presentations.

We will also be having a Nourishing Creativity Hour on April 1 as part of the URS. The CRE strives to broaden and include the creative arts into the research conversation. In contrast to the poster presentations at the Symposium, this will be an open-format performative presentation. It is a way for the audience to break from the typical poster format of research symposia and expand the ways in which people present, express, and engage in research.

Learn more about UROP: https://cre.fsu.edu/undergradresearch/urop.

The CRE would like to welcome the new 2021 Tech Fellows cohort: Thalia Mendoza (International Affairs, ’23), Shemar Charles (Computer Engineering, ’23), Lapadre Proctor (Mechanical Engineering, ’24), David Wedderburn (Marketing, ’23), and Nicholis Perez (Commercial Entrepreneurship, ’23). They are starting the program with the Spring preparation course where they are learning about the work of business incubators and developing their summer research projects. Keep an eye out for their upcoming blog posts at the HSF.

The FSU-iGEM synthetic biology research competition team is recruiting two new team members to serve a Software and Visual Arts leads. We need your help to research and innovate in this year’s problem area, food insecurity and malnutrition. These positions are open to all majors and prior knowledge of synthetic biology is not required. The Software lead will head the team’s development of a wiki or website from scratch that documents all of the work of the team over the life of this year’s project. You can find past team websites here and here. Our Visual Arts lead will use their graphic design skills to help us develop imagery and video content to not only document the team’s work but help educate the public on synthetic biology and our community’s difficulty with malnutrition. To learn more about the FSU-iGEM team visit our website, https://med.fsu.edu/igem/home. If you are interested in pursuing one of these positions, please email Dave Montez at dmontez@fsu.edu. 

Go here to view more information about the sessions and to register: https://fla.st/3rdeVbr

Our 2021 IDEA Grant Winner Cohort was recently announced, and we are so proud of them! We're also looking forward to seeing how their research will play out over the summer and into the coming academic years. We want to celebrate the new cohort by spotlighting one of the IDEA Grant Winners, Anne-Marie Senatus!

Here is the project abstract from Anne-Marie: Selenium (Se) is commonly found in wastewaters and it is known to be highly toxic when present in large amounts. If removed correctly, it can be useful to humans. It can help with the production of glass, alloys, steel, and even oil. Se can be separated from water using various methods. But certain methods have been proven to be expensive and not environmentally friendly. This research explains how three different water treatment units combined into one system will be created to help separate elemental selenium, treated water, and biomass residue from each other. The overall system consists of a biological reactor, a bacterium selenium nanoparticle (SeNP) separator, and a tangential flow ultrafiltration module (TFU). During experiments, the selenium contaminated water will be treated using the biological reactor and the separation between the water, SeNP, and bacteria will occur in the bacterium separator. Lastly, the water will be fully filtered using the tangential flow ultrafiltration module (TFU).

Anne-Marie tells us why she decided to begin conducting research into water quality:

"I grew up in Haiti where having clean, running water was a privilege. In order to have running water in your home, one must wait until the district makes it available, which can take weeks or even months. However, when it becomes available, most people are unable to afford it. In many regions, residents do not even have the option to have running water and must rely on underground springs and rivers. Although that water is often contaminated, it is still used for cooking, laundering, showering, dish washing, and even drinking.

When I moved the United States, I learned that my country was not the only one with limited access to clean water. Recognizing this issue sparked my interest in water-related research. In the near future, I hope to pursue a PhD in Environmental Engineering with a concentration in international development. Having firsthand experience with what it is like to live in a home without proper resources has profoundly impacted my career choices. I want to put an end to the water crisis in developing countries like mine by building better water resources and better access to clean water. I believe that having access to clean water should be a right, not a privilege."

Thanks for sharing your story, Anne-Marie! We're so proud and excited to see where your IDEA Grant research journey will take you!

We had amazing success with FURC 2021, which took place the last weekend of February (February 26-27). For the first time in FURC's now 12 year history, the conference pivoted to a virtual format. Our most significant finding from FURC 2021 was that, for 86% of conference participants, FURC 2021 was the first conference they had attended. This is an incredible metric, especially for a virtual conference.

We utilized a new conference management system, Whova, to manage all our workshops, poster sessions, graduate school recruiters, and networking events! Here's what a typical session in Whova looked like, allowing for participants to attend Zoom session, ask questions, create polls, and start conversations in the community tab.

After reviewing the feedback for our event, we found that most participants highly valued the opportunity to connect with fellow undergraduate researchers from across the State. This was facilitated through Whova's specific gamification elements, including the Leaderboard and Photo Contests, which you can see below. These elements encouraged student participation in the conference and was a fun and unique way to engage with and learn from other undergraduate researchers.

Thanks to everyone who made FURC 2021 such a success! We look forward to attending FURC 2022 next year hosted by the University of Central Florida--this time, hopefully in-person!

CRE VIRTUAL ADVISING

Please set up a meeting through Campus Connect, use the instructions on the “Getting Started” page, and we will respond to you with a link to a Zoom appointment.