BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.2.3.1//EN TZID:America/New_York X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VEVENT UID:280@researchweek.unc.edu DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20251022T110000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20251022T140000 DTSTAMP:20251021T190827Z URL:https://researchweek.unc.edu/events/research-discovery-fair-2025/ SUMMARY:Research &\; Discovery Fair DESCRIPTION:\n\nHey undergrads\, stop by the student union to get involved in Carolina’s research community!\n\nThe fair will feature over 25 resea rch labs and projects\, and UNC-Chapel Hill has a type of research that wi ll pique your interest.\n\nVisit the Carolina Union Great Hall to get an u p-close look at what some of our researchers do and see how you can get in volved.\n\nJoin us for an afternoon of demonstrations\, interactive experi ments\, and a look behind the scenes at how discoveries are made in the la b and beyond.\n\n\n\nThis is an in-person\, CLE Credit event.\nParticipati ng Projects & Labs:\n\n \n Experimental (Applied) Engineering Lab\n The Experimental Engineering Lab provides facilities and expertise for bu ilding prototypes of a variety of microtechnology-based systems. It enable s research in the use of information processing technology in a multidisci plinary context.\n \n\n \n Physical Mathematics Lab\n The Physical Mathematics Lab is interested in fundamental problems that find motivatio n in physics and engineering. Led by Pedro Saenz\, the lab uses theory\, s imulations\, and experiments to uncover new phenomena relevant to the fiel ds of physics and engineering.\n \n\n \n NC Pure\n The North Carol ina PFAS University Research Alliance (NC Pure) aims to evaluate commercia l and emerging technologies for PFAS remediation from North Carolina water s. They are an interdisciplinary group of chemists and engineers developin g new\, selective\, PFAS remediation materials\, testing a wide range of w aters from the state\, and designing and implementing pilot-scale water re mediation systems to test remediation technologies at water treatment plan ts.\n \n\n \n Bai Lab\n Led by Wubin Bai\, this lab focuses on bot h fundamental and applied study of soft materials and nanomaterials\, incl uding assembly and manufacturing approaches to enable hybrid integration o f multi-materials towards high-performance electronic and photonic systems \, the development of new technology that can intelligently immerse electr onics and photonics into biological systems\, and the creation of new tool s and devices to address unmet clinical needs and improve human healthcare and sustainability.\n \n\n \n BeAM: Be A Maker\n BeAM@CAROLINA is a network of makerspaces where you can join the UNC maker community in th e design and making of physical objects for education\, research\, entrepr eneurship and recreation. BeAM@Carolina is here to help researchers achiev e their objectives by providing resources and educational opportunities to expand their skillset and prototype\, all at little to no cost to you.\n \n\n \n Digital Literacy and Communications Lab\n The Digital Lite racy and Communications Lab serves as a hub for innovation in the humaniti es with a focus on digital humanities\, critical games studies\, digital l iteracy\, and communications.\n \n\n \n Freeman Lab\n The Freeman Lab\, led by Ronit Freeman\, is an interdisciplinary team seeking to devel op novel designer materials using self-assembling biological components. D rawing from experience in chemistry\, nanotechnology\, materials science\, engineering\, biology\, and medicine\, they manipulate DNA and peptides t o exert fine structural control from the nanoscale to the macroscale and p roduce hierarchical self-assembled architectures with diverse functionalit ies.\n \n\n \n Graduate Costume Production Program\n Research play s a huge role in creating the costumes for a production\, especially when the show takes place in a different era. PlayMakers Repertory Company\, a professional Equity theatre and member of the League of Resident Theatres\ , is affiliated with the Department of Dramatic Art. The opportunity to wo rk in a professional costume shop provides an integral part of the teachin g process. Invaluable production training is gained by committing to the c reation of costumes meeting exceptionally high standards required in the p rofessional theatre.\n \n\n \n Institute for the Environment\n The re are many opportunities for undergrads in the Institute for the Environm ent (IE). In partnership with the Environment\, Ecology and Energy Program and the UNC Study Abroad Office\, IE has established site locations that offer ecosystem settings ranging from mountains to coasts to urban environ ments. Students experience a combination of indoor and outdoor classroom t ime and fieldwork at all the field sites. Also\, the Carolina Drone Lab wi thin IE focuses on the innovative use of remote sensing and unoccupied aer ial systems to address environmental challenges and teaches students how d rones can be used for a variety of research topics.\nAI Applications:\nCar olina Drone Lab\nThe lab utilizes machine learning\, a subset of AI\, to r ecognize objects in the imagery that is created from drone data. These obj ects range from submerged aquatic vegetation in estuaries to identificatio n of a dominant tree species. This information is critical for studying an d preserving habitats and meeting environmental regulations during marsh r estoration projects\, as well as early detection and mapping of invasive f orest pests and diseases.\n \nPiehler Lab\nThis lab is leveraging publicly available environmental datasets\, two decades of laboratory measurements \, and novel machine learning methods to identify opportunities to incorpo rate and optimize ecosystem function into environmental management practic es. Their current focus is utilizing unsupervised learning algorithms to i dentify spatiotemporal patterns of agents degrading environmental quality — setting the stage for supervised learning techniques to predict outcom es of human interventions on ecosystems.\n \nCenter for Environmental Mode ling for Policy Development\nThis lab uses machine learning to predict air quality and PFAS exposure patterns in drinking water and house dust. They used a modern statistical technique that combines traditional Response Su rface Methodology (RSM) with deep learning to model and optimize complex\, non-linear systems\, and developed and tested a prototype for DeepRSM.\n \nData-Driven EnviroLab\nThis lab is developing a conceptual framework and methods that apply natural language processing with links to AI to examin e the coordination of individual plans within a community and the implemen tation actions generated by such plans.\n \n\n \n Marine Life Science s\n The Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) and Department of Earth\, Ma rine and Environmental Sciences facilitate research that explores our plan et's interconnected systems. Joel Fodrie\, director of IMS\, is an estuari ne ecologist who studies the population dynamics of fishes and shellfish.\ n \n\n \n Joint Fluids Lab\n The Joint Applied Mathematics and Mar ine Sciences Fluids Lab is an interdisciplinary research lab in the Caroli na Center of Interdisciplinary and Applied Mathematics at UNC-Chapel Hill. The lab is a collaborative effort between professors\, postdoctoral resea rch associates\, graduate students\, undergraduate students and high schoo l students in the Departments of Mathematics\, Marine Sciences\, Biology\, and Physics.\n \n\n \n Behavior and Biodiversity Lab\n Using spad efoot toads as their study system\, Karin Pfennig's lab integrates behavio r\, ecology\, and evolution to understand behavior’s role in the origins and distribution of biodiversity. They combine work in natural population s with lab-based experiments and genetic analyses. They primarily study th e evolution of mate choice behavior\, because it is both subject to strong selection and is itself a potent selective force.\n \n\n \n Research Labs of Archaeology\n The Research Laboratories of Archaeology (RLA) w as founded in 1939 as a center for the study of Native American culture in North Carolina and nearby states. Since then\, its activities have grown to include research throughout the Americas. Currently\, the RLA’s missi on has four facets: to expand knowledge of native peoples in the Americas\ , with particular emphasis on North Carolina and the South\; to train grad uate and undergraduate students in the methods of archaeology\; to inform the public about Indian culture and archaeology\; and to serve as a reposi tory of archaeological collections.\n \n\n \n University Libraries\n The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s library system is c onsistently ranked among the top university libraries in North America and is one of the premier libraries in the South. The University Libraries pr ovides a range of research support services for UNC students\, staff\, and faculty\, including research consultations\, library data services\, and access to both digital and physical materials.\n \n\n \n Psychology o f Sport Injury Lab\n Fear of reinjury can greatly increase an athlete ’s chances of getting hurt again – but VR techniques developed by Shel by Baez and her lab can get them back in the game. Baez’s research exami nes the impact of psychosocial factors on health outcomes after sport-rela ted injury\, with a focus on patients after anterior cruciate ligament rec onstruction. Her lab examines the impact of psychosocial factors on biolog ical outcomes\, such as neurocognitive function\, biomechanical alteration s\, and secondary injury risk.\n \n\n \n School of Data Science and S ociety\n The School of Data Science and Society (SDSS) is shaping the e merging field of data science with a human-centric approach to the entire data life cycle. The school envisions a world made healthy\, safe\, and pr osperous for all through data-informed decisions. The College of Arts and Sciences and SDSS have collaborated to offer students two new educational opportunities: bachelor of arts in data science and bachelor of science in data science.\n \n\n \n Closed Loop Engineering for Advanced Rehabil itation (CLEAR) Core\n CLEAR fac­ulty are com­mit­ted to improv­ing the lives of indi­vid­u­als with dis­abil­i­ties by study­ing basi c sci­ence in neu­ro­me­chan­ics\, sen­so­ri­mo­tor inte­gra­ti on\, tis­sue bio­me­chan­ics\, and devel­op­ing inno­v­a­tive and effec­tive reha­bil­i­ta­tion and assis­tive tech­nolo­gies. The CLEAR core tightly col­lab­o­rates with UNC and other local hos­pi­ta ls and indus­try part­ners in our effort to trans­late new knowl­edge and tech­nolo­gies to stake­hold­ers.\n \n\n \n Applied Physiolog y Lab\n The Applied Physiology Lab (APL) is dedicated to exploring the interaction of exercise and nutrition for improving health\, chronic disea se\, and human performance. The APL is a facility rich in evidenced-based practice and prides itself on mentoring young scholars\, including undergr aduates\, masters\, and doctoral students\, in laboratory experiences and good clinical research practices in exercise and nutrition.\n \n\n \n Support for High-Need Children and Their Families\n Kathleen Thomas is a behavioral economist and mental health services researcher in the Eshel man School of Pharmacy whose work focuses on three areas: disparities in a ccess to care\, patient self-efficacy managing health and health care use\ , and health insurance policy. She conducts patient-engaged work with mult idisciplinary teams.\nAI Applications:\nThe lab uses Microsoft Transcribe for first-step transcription followed by human review. The team also uses AI for writing statistical programming code\, performing literature review s\, making data visualizations\, and editing/organizing written text\, lik e writing a Python script to comb through over 100 Word documents to find segments of text with certain words and their context.\n \n\n \n BME Applied Biomechanics Lab\n The Applied Biomechanics Lab engineers solut ions that help people age gracefully. Their primary research seeks to disc over the musculoskeletal and sensorimotor adaptations that underlie a loss of independent mobility\, and to introduce creative new approaches for pr eserving walking ability and preventing falls. They use a highly integrati ve approach that combines quantitative motion analysis and electromyograph y with dynamic ultrasound imaging\, computational simulation\, and virtual reality.\nAI Applications:\nThis lab uses AI in their research in two way s. They train wearable sensing systems to identify instability in individu als at risk of falls. The trained AI-based systems could be deployed for d iagnostics\, remote monitoring\, and testing the efficacy of interventions to prevent falls.\nThey also train wearable sensing systems for orthopedi c applications\, to estimate knee joint loads and cartilage tissue health in individuals with or at risk for knee osteoarthritis. It is impossible t o measure these forces without sophisticated and very expensive laboratory -based equipment. By using AI and wearable sensing\, they can move discove ries from the lab to the clinic and the community.\n \n\n \n Carolina Center for Neurostimulation\n Flavio Frohlich's lab seeks to understan d the neural basis of behavior and develop novel treatments for psychiatri c and neurological disorders through the interdisciplinary study of networ k dynamics. We walk the translational talk by integrating preclinical and clinical research\, and use electrophysiology\, imaging\, brain stimulatio n\, cognitive assays\, and gold-standard clinical trials methodology.\n \n\n \n Global Social Development Innovations\n Global Social Devel opment Innovations (GSDI) is a research center at the UNC School of Social Work. GSDI’s mission is to generate evidence to advance youth well-bein g\, globally. Their work focuses on youth development in the digital age u sing the positive youth development framework\, which recognizes that for young people to become healthy\, productive and engaged\, programs\, pract ices\, and policies must partner with young people to improve their assets \, agency\, contributions\, and enabling environment.\n \n\n \n Trans lational Adolescent Research\n Casey Calhoun is an assistant professor in the School of Education. His research uses a combination of experimenta l\, school-based\, and prevention-oriented studies to examine stress and c oping during adolescence. His lab-based work examines the neurobiology and subjective experience of stress reactions\, incorporating various methodo logies to establish stress response profiles connected with increased risk of internalizing symptoms\, such as anxiety\, depression\, and suicidal i deation.\n \n\n \n Accessible Music Education\n William Payne is a n assistant professor of User Experience and Design at the UNC School of I nformation and Library Science. He works with blind and low-vision musicia ns to make music more accessible. Across his research\, he uses participat ory methods to co-design and deploy novel systems with community partners. \n \n\n \n Office of Research Communications (Host)\n The Office o f Research Communications conveys the value of research conducted at Carol ina to the university community\, the citizens of North Carolina\, and int erested and invested parties across the nation and world. The office also maintains resources for the Carolina research community on the UNC Researc h website\, and publishes the award-winning UNC Research Stories magazine. \n \n\n \n Office for Undergraduate Research (Host)\n The Office f or Undergraduate Research believes that students who engage in research du ring their college careers are better prepared to collaborate with others to improve the world and to become tomorrow’s leaders. They help undergr aduates get connected to the larger Carolina research community\, find res earch funding\, and share their research with others.\n \n\n ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://researchweek.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/ 2025/07/rd-fair_rameses-research-head.jpg CATEGORIES:CLE Credit Event,Featured Event,In-person Event,Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research,Office of Undergraduate Research LOCATION:FPG Carolina Student Union\, Great Hall\, 209 South Rd\, Chapel Hi ll\, North Carolina\, 27599\, United States X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=209 South Rd\, Chapel Hill\ , North Carolina\, 27599\, United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=100;X-TITLE=FPG Ca rolina Student Union\, Great Hall:geo:0,0 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20250309T030000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR