Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 8, 2004)
mw Tuesday, June 8, 2004 THE BATTALI Undergrad research trends helps students land jobs, scholarships Tour guide By Jaime S. Jordan THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Graduate Chris Smith earned more than a diploma when he graduated from Trinity University. He got a job offer from Microsoft to become a software design engineer. As a freshman. Smith worked on a research team that created software for a virtual reality den tal training glove. By his sophomore year, Smith had two research papers published on the subject. “It's all about experience,” said Smith, who graduated in May. Although universities often have included jun iors and seniors in research, developing programs specifically for undergraduates is a relatively new trend, said Tim Holst, board chairman of the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research, a group of university faculty, students and admin istrators that promotes undergraduate research. He said the shift began about a decade ago when a higher education commission studying the nation’s roughly 125 research universities found that many of those schools neglected undergradu ates and recommended that they make research- based learning the standard. Universities began developing research pro grams tailored for undergraduates and recruiting bright students while they were still in high school. Since then, student presentations at NCUR’s annual conferences have doubled, Holst said. The group’s 18th annual conference at Purdue University in April had more than 2,100 student presentations, he said. Rice University in Houston is among several Texas universities which offer freshmen and soph omores research opportunities. Rice has used its $6,000 two-year research schol arship to lure top students from around the country. Before the program began in 2001, Rice attracted only about 5 percent of students who ranked among the top 4 percent of the nation’s smartest, said Ann Wright, vice president of enrollment. “Now, with this program, we get 20 to 25 per cent of those,” she said. The students involved in research do more than just monitor incubating chicken eggs or chart plant strains. They study everything from how the human body processes iodide, necessary for proper thyroid function, to the proteins associated with neurodegen- erative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Robin Woolley, a junior at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, started doing research the summer after high school as part of her under graduate studies in biology. She is paid hourly to study how certain bacteria resist antibiotics. The findings will help pharmaceutical companies develop more effective drugs. “We’re able to get the benefit of working but at the same time getting research and adding to the knowledge of our areas,” said Woolley, who has presented her work at two national conferences. She is among 2,600 research students at Tech. Gerald Pitts, chair of computer science at San Antonio’s Trinity University, said some professors were uncomfortable at first giving research proj ects to teenagers with no real lab experience. Pitts said he gives freshmen two weeks to get acclimated to college life before he puts them to work in labs. He said freshmen bring fresh ideas and new perspectives to the research, and some times wind up running labs and overseeing exper iments conducted by seniors. “It’s proof to me that they can really do it,” Pitts said. Texas A&M has about 3,000 undergraduates a year working on various projects, including a pro gram that mimics a grad school experience by requiring students to submit a proposal, spend the year researching it and write a thesis at the end of the year, said Edward Funkhouser, executive director of the university honor’s program. Near Dallas, a group of 20 students at Texas Christian University are developing software for a “Smart Home,” testing various computer tech nologies that will tell a homeowner everything from how warm a room is to whether the family is low on milk and bread. The project began two years ago as part of a National Science Foundation collaboration grant with the University of Texas at Arlington. BRIAN WILLS • THE BATTAIS Kyle Woemer, a senior biomedical engineering major, leads (from left) Joseph and Glenn Moore of Longview, on a tour of the Texas A&M campus near The Zone at Kyle Field Monday afternoon. Woemer, who startedj| ing tours this summer, helped Aggie hopefuls like Jaj get aquainted with the Univeristy's storied heritage ' r m. uper ummer avin caffe* capri the Place for Italian for more info, ask a friend [ FREE APPETIZER With meal purchase and this coupon. Nut good with any other offer I As owned & operated 222 n. main in historic downtown bryan 979.822.2675 i * UV Free Tanning ©I *Tan in 60 seconds 2998 Texas Avenue South College Station (979) 764-3101 GOOD'frEAH I $ 25 One Month Unlimited Tanning (Umit 1 coupon per semester) Good at any locatioa Expires 08-29-04 S|Q Off Mystic Tan Visit (First time customers only) Expires 08-29-04 COLLEGE STATION BRYAN COLLEGE STATION 680-0055 846-4822 693-5555 1605 Texas Ave. S. 4001 East 29th St. 1718 Rock Prairie Rd. (Culpepper Plaza) (Winn Dixie Center) (Prairie Center) Next to Sonic Near College Station Wal-Mart www.TotalTanSalons.com .y OIL, LUBE 8 FILTER AND TIRE ROTATION s 29 00 Regular Price ANY SERVICE OVER S I00.00 Includes: Lube where applicable New oil filter installed Up to 5 quarts Exxon brand oil, most vehicles 4 tire rotation Not valid w/any offer. Expires 07/15/04. > Most vehicles. Additional charge for shop supplies. 7% or’15.00 maximum may be added. U.S. plans to withdraw troops from S. Kore By Christopher Torchia THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Military shift Not valid w/any offer. Expires 07/15/04. beans $ I. 00 OFF me un Lot-of-fun, Lacigh-a-lot K any COFFEE or SMOOTHIE y 452 Southwest Parkway {Corner of Southwest Parkway <S Dartmouth) 979-694-2600 Ticket dismissal, insurance discount. M.-Tu. (6 p.m.-9 p.m.) or W.-Th. (6 p.in.-9 p.m.), Fri. (6 p.m.-8 p.m.) & Sat. (10 a.m.-2:30 p.m.) or Sat. (8 a.m.-2:30 p.m.) Lowest price allowed by law. $25 Cash 104 Texas Avenue S, Ste. 200 846-6117 (Office above Aggieland Kiva. Next to Applebee’s) Walk-ins welcome. Arrive 30 minutes early. ou minutes early. m wmmmm ■ mmtm ■ ^ SEOUL, South Korea — A U.S. plan to cut the number of its troops in South Korea by one-third by the end of 2005 will force the South to shoulder more responsibility for defend ing itself against any North Korean military aggression. The U.S. plan calls for with drawing 12,500 of the 37,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, according to a statement released Monday by the U.S. military in Seoul. The statement coincided with the beginning of talks between the two allies on another sensitive issue: moving U.S. troops fLirther south away from the tense border with North Korea. Those troops were long con sidered a “tripwire” that would ensure U.S. intervention in the event of an attack from the North. Many in the South also see it as a healthy restraint on the United States, believing Washington won’t take military action that could provoke the North when U.S. troops are in harm’s way on the border. The American plans augur the biggest shift in the U.S. troop deployment on South Korean soil since the early 1990s, when the two allies coor dinated the removal of 7,000 U.S. soldiers. The new scheme, part of a global realignment of American forces, comes at a time of heightened tension over North Korea’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons. North Korea was silent Monday on news of the U.S. plan to withdraw troops, but some South Koreans are con cerned that their communist neighbor will view the develop ment as a sign of weakness on the part of Washington, its long time adversary. If that is the case, North Korea could feel emboldened to push harder for concessions in the dispute over its nuclear program. China, a major regional power that has preserved its traditional alliance with North Korea while developing close economic ties with South Korea, might also view a withdrawal of troops as an opportunity to expand its influ ence on the peninsula. The U.S. delegation in Seoul, led by Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Lawless, told the South Koreans the troop reduction would not affect U.S. defense capabilities in the the- As the two countries openedfi Future of the Alliance talks, US and South Korean officials | announced that the United States wants to withdrawal of its 37,000 troops from Sou? Korea by the end of 2005. Talks will focus on U.S. plans to: ► Withdraw 12,500 U.S. troops over 2004-05, including 3,600t be redeployed to Iraq ► Reposition most U.S. troops stationed near the North Korea: border to points south ot Seoul ► Move about 7,000 U.S. forces;, and families from Yongsan Base? in downtown Seoul to a facility south of the capital by 2006 SOURCE: ESRI \ ater because the United Si plans to bring in more m weapons systems, according| Kim Sook, head of the Soi| Korean Foreign Ministnl North American bureau. The U.S. troop cut wol include some 3,600 already eairnarked for redeplp ment this summer from Korea to Iraq, the statement sai “Details are being work! out as the process of consult lion with the Republic ofKon continues,” the statement South Korea’s 650,00C ber military is a modern, we equipped force that routine conducts joint training with U.S. counterparts. Most oft combat-ready troops are cot centrated close to the border around Seoul. Seoul has talked of streng ening its military to makeup the sizeable U.S. withdraw! but no official plans have bet made public. The North Korean military harder to decipher: it has a m Liable arsenal of missiles a more than 1 million soldiers, it is said to have fuel shortag and lack spare parts for decrepit military hardware,sot*^ of which dates to the 1950s. stil hac
