Some college students use the summer for a much-needed break. Some work in an internship or other type of job. Some take classes. For more than 150 Clemson students, the summer was spent in an intensive, full-time research project through the Summer Creative Inquiry + Undergraduate Research (CI) program.
Students from a variety of majors were selected to participate in the 10-week program. The selection process for Summer CI is competitive, and participants are all nominated by faculty mentors before they apply by submitting a research proposal.
“Summer CI allows students to immerse themselves in research without the distraction of classes. Students are able to continue the research from the academic year, advance it, and bring it back to the team in the fall,” said Cora Allard-Keese, associate director of the CI + Undergraduate Research program.
In addition to working on their research projects, Summer CI students had the opportunity to participate in weekly professional development seminars and social activities.
A few examples of the projects students worked on this summer include:
Restoration Ecology: From Coastal Wetlands to the Appalachian Mountains and Back — Students in this project spent the summer collecting data about Rocky Shoals Spider Lilies, an endangered plant only found in fall line streams in the Southeastern United States. The data collected by the students will help inform efforts to restore the plants in areas where they have been reduced or eliminated due to the construction of hydroelectric dams. Students collected data from the Cahaba River and Stevens Creek in Alabama and from Landsford Canal State Park, which is home to the world’s largest population of the lilies. This project is led by Althea Hagan, senior lecturer in forestry and environmental conservation.
Tech, Work, Well-Being — This project looks at ways that people in the workplace respond to the introduction of automation and technology, such as artificial intelligence, into their work. The project specifically focuses on the factors to influence workers’ readiness to embrace automation, which workers view automation as a stressor and what factors may help mitigate that stress. Three hundred workers in the United States were surveyed, and students this summer helped analyze the data. Jenna Van Fossen, assistant professor of industrial-organizational psychology is the faculty mentor on the project.
Machine Learning in Finance and Real Estate — In this multi-disciplinary project, students are learning to use big data and machine learning tools to solve questions in the business world. This summer, students explored whether AI could have prevented the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis. A second summer project focused on developing an AI-driven origination algorithm designed to prevent racial discrimination in the housing market. This CI is led by Lily Shen, associate professor of real estate finance and visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Banks.
Ionospheric Radar Data Analysis and Instrument Development— This project supports NASA Rocksat-X and GHOST, a student rocket launch program hosted by NASA. This summer, students worked with data collected by high-power, large-aperature incoherent scatter radars in the polar region, specifically to address questions associated with high latitude ionosphere and thermospheric physics. They also developed low power ionospheric sounding radars and tested them at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to prepare for a NASA rocket launch over Andøya Space in Norway this fall. The faculty mentor on this project is Steve Kaeppler, associate professor of physics and astronomy.
Students will present their summer research at the Summer Showcase on Monday, August 18, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Watt Family Innovation Center atrium. For more information on the event, visit https://bit.ly/Summer_CI.