Search for: All records

This paper describes a preliminary analysis of a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site sponsored by the biomedical engineering department at a large public institution in the southwest United States. Data were compiled from the 2018 and 2019 cohorts of the program.Twenty-four participants from different undergraduate majors and universities were selected from competitive applicant pools, paired with a research mentor in the department, and tracked over each program’s duration. The participants were given a 37-question survey upon arrival and after the completion of the 10-week summer program (i.e., pre-test and post-test). These questions were broadly split among four categories to evaluate the participants’ comfort with (1) scientific writing, (2) scientific presentation, and students’ strength of association with the identities and careers of (3) researchers and (4) engineers. Students reported significant increases in their scientific writing skills and tended to identify more as researchers after the program. Conversely, students noted little change in their ability to present in a scientific setting and reported that their identity as engineers was not stronger. Separate focus groups with the visiting scholars and their graduate student mentors were conducted after the program to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current iteration of the REU program. Possible improvements to the REU are proposed at the end of the paper. 

High-resolution topography (HRT) is a powerful observational tool for studying the Earth's surface, vegetation, and urban landscapes, with broad scientific, engineering, and education-based applications. Submeter resolution imaging is possible when collected with laser and photogrammetric techniques using the ground, air, and space-based platforms. Open access to these data and a cyberinfrastructure platform that enables users to discover, manage, share, and process then increases the impact of investments in data collection and catalyzes scientific discovery. Furthermore, open and online access to data enables broad interdisciplinary use of HRT across academia and in communities such as education, public agencies, and the commercial sector. OpenTopography, supported by the US National Science Foundation, aims to democratize access to Earth science-oriented, HRT data and processing tools. We utilize cyberinfrastructure, including large-scale data management, high-performance computing, and service-oriented architectures to provide efficient web-based visualization and access to large, HRT datasets. OT colocates data with processing tools to enable users to quickly access custom data and derived products for their application, with the ultimate goal of making these powerful data easier to use. OT's rapidly growing data holdings currently include 283 lidar and photogrammetric, point cloud datasets (>1.2 trillion points) covering 236,364km2. As a testament to OT's success, more than 86,000 users have processed over 5 trillion lidar points. This use has resulted in more than 290 peer-reviewed publications across numerous academic domains including Earth science, geography, computer science, and ecology. 

Certain phosphatic grains preserved in the rock record are interpreted as microfossils representing a diversity of microorganisms from bacteria to fossil embryos. In addition tobona fideprimary biological features, phosphatic microfossils and fossil embryos commonly exhibit features that result from abiotic precipitation or diagenetic alteration. Distinguishing between abiotic and primary biological features can be difficult, and some features thought to represent biological tissue could instead be artifacts that are unrelated to the original morphology of a preserved organism. Here, we present experimentally generated, abiotically produced mineral precipitates that morphologically resemble biologically produced features, some of which may be observed in the rock record or noted in extant organisms, including embryos. These findings extend the diversity of biomorphic features known to result from abiotic precipitation.