“CREATE” Symposium showcases student ingenuity

“CREATE”

SYMPOSIUM showcases student ingenuity

During an afternoon activity hour once every fall and spring semester, hundreds of students take over the classrooms in Building A for a celebration of their ingenuity and hard work.

For the last several years, the “CREATE” Symposium has provided GGC students with an opportunity to showcase their efforts in creative and scholarly works across all disciplines. From individual and team poster presentations to panel discussions and computer-based activities, the event truly offers something for everyone attending the event.

Here are 12 examples of the variety of topics featured at this spring’s CREATE Symposium:

• Improving daily life and communication skills for adults with intellectual disabilities • Effects of beavers on urban streams

• Chicken egg food safety • Protecting patient privacy

• Detection of genetic modification in non-GMO labeled soy-based protein powders • Blood parasites in Gwinnett

County birds • Literacy modeling: transforming struggling readers • Firewall – the first line of defense

• Human-environment engagement in Gwinnett County • Robot arm manipulation • Obesity in America: an economic solution

• Education and a country’s income status

Dr. Nathan Bowen, a guest judge and an assistant professor of biology with Clark Atlanta University’s Center for Cancer Research and Therapeutic Development, listens as Binh Lam, ’18, biology, explains her team’s research on a potential biomarker for early detection of pancreatic cancer. Participation in the CREATE Symposium was a requirement of the team’s biology research methods course, with judging included in grades for the work.

In addition, information technology students presented demonstrations of assorted programs, apps and games they developed, as well as mobile and web designs.

Students also displayed art projects in the library, including drawings, twodimensional designs and layered images.

“About 500 students from across multiple disciplines participated in the spring event and about 700 attended,” said Dr. Amanda Wilsker, assistant professor of economics and chair of the CREATE Symposium Committee. “The program has doubled over the last three years.”

All student projects and presentations must be sponsored by a faculty member, some of whom sponsor multiple students. This year’s symposium involved 80 faculty, including Dr. Latanya Hammonds-Odie, associate professor of biology.

Hammonds-Odie includes the CREATE Symposium as a class activity for her research methods course for biology majors. One of the symposium presentations arising from her class involved research into a potential biomarker for early detection of pancreatic cancer. The research was conducted by Yodit Koya, ’18, Bihn Lam, ’18, and Mai “Betty” Anh Tran, ’18. The students conducted RNA sequencing analysis of selected data from an archived experiment. They then created a presentation of their project in poster format for the symposium.

“Very few of the students enrolled in the research methods course have had the opportunity to conduct an authentic biomedical research project or to present that research to an audience,” said Hammonds-Odie, who invites local scientists to judge her students’ presentations at the CREATE Symposium. “This is an ideal venue for students to showcase their work to other students and, for the purposes of this course, to an audience of scientists.”

In this way, the CREATE Symposium not only allows students to develop and implement effective presentations of their creative and scholarly works, but it also allows them to engage with people who may or may not be knowledgeable about their subject matter.

“They must explain their work and answer questions in terms people of various backgrounds can understand,” Wilsker said. “It is a great experience for practicing soft skills they will use in their careers.”

The symposium is a feast for those who enjoy interacting with students eager to share their work. However, there is one downside to the one-hour event.

“No one can see it all,” said Wilsker.

Symposium guests try out apps and programs created by information technology students.

“It is a great experience for practicing soft skills they will use in their careers.”

– Dr. Amanda Wilsker

Dr. Jason Delaney, associate professor of economics and assistant dean for student services in the School of Business, talks with Darien Fajardo, ’18, business, and Lizette Saldarriaga, ’18, business, about their presentation “Does Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Matter? How CSR Affects Profits.”