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English senior Saelis Mercado works as an undergraduate research assistant for Laura Estill in the English department.
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Jenny Hollowell — THE BATTALION
A&M undergrad researchers share experiences working in top research program By Madeleine Brennan @madkathbren
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Texas A&M participates in the Student Experience in the Research University survey every other year.
National student survey uses responses to improve undergraduate education By Savannah Mehrtens @SJMehrtens Young adults in undergraduate studies have the opportunity for their voices to be heard at Texas A&M and nationwide by participating in the student survey known as the Student Experience in the Research University, or SERU.
cross Texas A&M, students play an integral role in aiding and developing professors’ research projects. Undergraduate research offers students experience in the research field, while developing important skills for collectively working on a team. With more than 66,000 undergraduates and 12,000 graduate and professional students in its research programs, A&M leads as one of 62 universities in the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization of leading public and private universities in the United States and Canada. For students, Texas A&M’s research programs offer an abundance of different opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students to get involved.
Undergraduate and graduate research occurs in every college at Texas A&M from dentistry to history, architecture to liberal arts. Saelis Mercado, English senior and Blackbox residency poet, works as an undergraduate research assistant for Laura Estill, who manages the World Shakespeare Bibliography. This database catalogs every journal or article that discusses Shakespeare in order to provide an up-to-date source of material for scholarly research. As a research assistant, Mercado skims paper and online journals and articles for Shakespeare references to add to the database. Although she works primarily in the background, Mercado said she enjoys working behind the scenes to make the process more efficient for others in the team. “I like being a part of something
so big and so useful to people all over the world,” Mercado said. “And I think that’s something I want to do no matter what career I go into. I like knowing that I’m contributing to something that can help others.” Nick Johnson and Margaret Gill, biology juniors, work as research assistants alongside Ginger Carney, associate professor of biology studying behavioral neuroscience through experiments testing the effects of genetic modification on fruit flies and their mating patterns. The students’ work primarily focuses on working alongside graduate students in the preparation and management of Carney’s experiments. They often perform tasks ranging from cleaning to cooking food for flies and conducting the experiments. By working inside a RESEARCH ON PG. 3
To improve students’ undergraduate education, SERU provides evaluations based on student responses in the survey. According to their website, the responses are meant to provide information about all aspects of an undergraduate experience. SERU was developed by the SERU ON PG. 2
A&M, NASA partner to design ‘Robonaut’ Prof, grad student to create robot to help astronauts By Mikayla Andrade @MikaylaAndrade It won’t be too long before robots are a part of everyday life on Earth, but Texas A&M is working with NASA to design a robot which will assist astronauts in space. Dezhen Song, professor of computer science, and his graduate student Shu-hao Yeh are collaborating with NASA’s Johnson Space Center to create localization mapping algorithms for a robot that will one day be sent into space. The robot — better known as the Robonaut — will help astronauts with simple tasks to save time and boost effectiveness, such as holding items, moving objects and retrieving tools. The final goal of for the Robonaut is to make it fully auton-
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Ph.D. student Lindsay Woodard works on the research team at A&M to pioneer a method that will treat cranial injuries.
Research team receives $1.9 million Polymer to heal cranial bone defects to be researched and tested before clinical trials Rachel Grant — THE BATTALION
Texas A&M is working to design a robot to assist astronauts in space.
omous to help astronauts be more efficient while working in space. “Our ultimate goal is try to ROBONAUT ON PG. 2
By Tyler Snell @Tyler_Snell2 A research team in the Department of Biomedical Engineering was awarded a $1.9 million research grant by the National Institute of Health in February and plans to use the funds for ongoing research.
Associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering Melissa Grunlan heads the research team that is continuing a project to develop a polymer to fill and heal cranial bone defects that occur from an injury, birth defect or surgery. The project has been going on for almost five years, and Grunlan
said she is excited to continue moving forward with eventual clinical testing in the future. “It’s very exciting because it comes after many years of hard work to prove the concept behind what they ultimately rewarded for us,” Grunlan said. “It’s exciting to be able to move forward with this GRANT ON PG. 2