Get an entertaining inside look at the wide-ranging research that faculty members and students work on together during the lively new Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) “Research Roadshow.” Three teams of faculty members and students will explain their projects and findings in this free multimedia event Thursday, Nov. 15, at the Southwest Florida Event Center in Bonita Springs.
“This is the start of a great tradition,” said FGCU President Mike Martin. “The ‘Research Roadshow’ really demonstrates the wonderful relationship our students have with the faculty. And, it gives us the chance to inform the community both about what we do here and also about topics that they may not have otherwise given much thought to. We bring them a little education and a little exposure to the institution.”
The three diverse student-faculty research projects in this highly engaging, high-tech presentation are:
- “The Potential of Nanotechnology in Cancer Research,” presented by professors Kerry Lee and Lyndsay Rhodes and their student-researchers Ivie Patino, Xylia Horgan, Duneshka Moran-DeLeon and MacKenzie Grubb.
- “Adopting a ‘Less is More’ Golf Swing,” presented by professors Maria Colmer and Tara McKenna and student-researcher Thor Parrish.
- “The Persuasive Power of Koreshan Hymns,” presented by professor Thomas Cimarusti and student-researcher Madeline Peterson.
“This is another way of demonstrating that FGCU belongs to the community. We’re taking the researchers to them where they live and not asking them to come to us. I want people to understand that these researchers are simply a sample of what can be and what is being done here,” Martin added.
Martin, along with Director of Undergraduate Scholarship Billy Gunnels, serve as hosts for the event, which is slated to begin at 5 p.m. with a reception, followed at 5:30 p.m. by the “Research Roadshow.”
“We invite people of all ages to enjoy this show. I think any high school student who sees it and has a systematic curiosity, will see FGCU is a place they can come and exercise that curiosity. Every university in the world offers English 101. Every university in the world offers math 101. But handfuls of universities create a soul around which there is much more to it than just that. This is the beginning of more than just that,” Martin concluded.