Inspired by a documentary she watched during her PIO 201 class, Lexi Jobe ’23 (Monroeville, Pennsylvania) and her professor, Michelle Jeitler, set out to determine if men completed more running races than women, as the film suggested.
“We wanted to determine if that was a supported claim, so we started looking at 100-mile ultramarathons — very long races,” Jobe said. “We actually found that there is no difference in that distance.”
The culmination of four semesters of research was presented by Jobe during the poster session of All Scholars Day on Thursday, April 20th. In total, there were 177 poster and oral presentations by students in various locations on campus. Rather than having classes, students, faculty and staff were encouraged to attend various sessions to learn about students’ projects.
“It feels really good to have it finalized but, also, there’s still a lot of research that can be done,” said Jobe, who hopes to work in statistics of marketing after she moves to Virginia. “Actually, there’s a freshman who is going to take over my research this year. She will be working with Michelle on it for the next couple of years, so that makes me very happy that someone will be moving my research forward.”
Kyle Jacobs ’23 (Parkersburg, West Virginia) spent the academic year learning about atomic force microscopy. His research focused on “Troubleshooting Coarse Approach Issues for Scanning Probe Microscopy in Ultra-High Vacuum,” which is what his advisor, Professor Craig Howald, spends much of his research focusing on. Jacobs was at ease discussing the stages of his research, which was a continuation of another student’s work.
“That’s the great thing about being a Physics Department — we are expected to present everything we do at all times, so I’ve already presented this poster at a conference in Michigan, so I feel very well prepared,” Jacobs said. “When we do this kind of research, we have weekly meetings and you stand up in front of everybody and you discuss what you did that week. You get the criticism and the questions that make you able to think on your feet and be able to respond or defend yourself. I feel really good today other than the fact that I’m a little bit sad to be done researching this.”
Artemii Stepanets ’23 (St. Petersburg, Russia), Ryley Warner ’23 (Marietta, Ohio), Austin Offenberger ’23 (Marietta, Ohio), and Henry Gyamfi ’23 (Kumasi, Ghana) initially were going to present a project that focused on machine learning to do forecasting for petroleum engineering but decided to switch gears.
“After speaking with a couple of professors and doing some additional research, we realized it was going to be way too difficult of a project, with way too much happening, and the data sources weren’t reliable enough or digitized for us to use,” Stepanets said. “So, we decided NBA forecasting would be much easier because there are a lot of statistics out there and there are a lot of different years (that) we could pull data from.”
Accounting major Kya Forker ’24 (Zanesville, Ohio) presented on her internship with Perry & Associates, a local accounting firm that offers a variety of tax, audit, advisory information systems, financial consulting and forensic accounting. She worked from January to April with the firm in the tax department.
“It was at the height of tax season,” she said. “It was very quick-paced. During tax season, it’s very quick-paced and you don’t realize how much they actually do.”
The experience was beneficial for her for an array of reasons, including working with accounting software such as Yearli, QuickBooks, and Access.
“I also worked in the audit department, and it was a little more slow-paced,” she said. “I didn’t have much tax experience before the internship, so that was one of my goals coming in. But I feel like, after the internship, it was a good experience, but I don’t know if I want to work in tax after I graduate. I didn’t like it as much as I thought I would. I liked the auditing side better, though I don’t know if I’d be in external auditing — too much travel.”
After All Scholars Day, Emileigh Mathis ’23 (Portsmouth, Ohio) planned to visit family. Her poster focused on the representation of African American men in the movie, “Madea."
“I saw family issues, drug abuse and stereotypes as the three themes and I found that (director) Tyler Perry is very different from all the other producers in Hollywood because he uses comedy to show real-world issues throughout his movies, and unlike a lot of other producers, he doesn’t use a lot of stereotypes that you see in film about African American people,” Mathis said.
Mathis was nervous throughout the process of researching and preparing to present her poster, but she was also excited to give her thoughts and ideas about Perry’s movies, which she enjoys.
“I’m going home on Friday, so I’ll miss Doo Dah Day,” Mathis said. “My family misses me and they want to see me before graduation. After graduation, I plan to stay in Marietta and I’m currently looking for a job so I can stay. I really loved my time here.”