APU held their STEM Research Symposium on Sept. 29 in Segerstrom, and it was the first time a research event went across all STEM departments. The Research Symposium happened because many STEM students work on a research team over the summer, and this was their chance to display their results. According to a letter, Jennifer E. Walsh, Ph. D., the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, hoped that an all STEM department research event would encourage students to collaborate.
Jeffrey Tereski presents his research project about the biological importance of a novel class of organic molecules, spirocyclic oximes, through a well-known drug targeting protein to protein interaction, MDM2-P53 in an oral session.
Along with oral presentations, the STEM Research Symposium had posters for students to present their projects, which ranged in topics from the detection of drones to flatworms.
Students crowd around research posters to learn more about what the research teams have been doing.
Robert O’Dell, a sophomore biology and honors humanities major, poses in front of his research project poster.
Students are given many opportunities in their research projects. Kayla Vander Schuur, a senior and biology major, went to Japan. She states, “In this project, not only did I get to travel to Japan, which was really fun, I got to work outside in my paddy
and I got to be in the sun and the rain. It was a lot of fun. That’s probably the main thing that drew me to this project.”
Assemblymember and APU alum Blanca Rubio came to talk about the importance of STEM and to encourage students to reach for new heights.
Students worked hard on their projects. Cassidy Crandall, a senior chemistry major, says, “Basically, you always are going to fail until you succeed and so you can’t lose hope in your project.”
Students are continuing to research and learn more about their field.