Iona College held its third annual Undergraduate Research Day on April 20 in the Mulcahy gym in the Hynes Athletic center. Over 120 students participated in presenting more than 70 posters displaying research projects that had been conducted by students and faculty in nearly every department within the School of Arts and Sciences. There were hundreds in attendance throughout the day, including Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey from New York’s 18th Congressional District who spoke to recognize the achievement of the Iona scholars who presented their research. With a substantial increase in participants from the previous year, the event allowed for research to be presented outside of the science-oriented projects that had made up most of the work at previous research days. Senior Matt Kruk, who had worked on research for the computer science department, said the event was much larger than the Second Annual Undergraduate Research Day. “Last year there were only about 25 poster projects,” said Kruk. “Including other departments from within the School of Arts and Science helped to really boost the event.” Robert Petrausch, the incoming chair of the mass communications department, spoke in an interview about his excitement in having students involved with research in all four concentrations of his department. “It’s a great chance for students to show off what the department does,” he said. Petrausch went on to say that students are also able to display the different aspects of research within the communications field. Broadcasting professor Michael Damergis was also present, displaying the different stories and projects that had been covered by mass communications majors. “It has been a great year for the department as students have been working to cover stories on and off campus,” Damergis said about the interviews and newscasts on display. “It’s exciting to see students excited about a career in broadcasting.” Freshman Kevin Towler was one of the many student presenters representing the sciences, explaining the project he was involved in with Dr. Smiljana Petrovic from the computer science department. His research displayed the culmination of countless hours of work on computer learning and prediction of plastic identity through artificial neural networks. “It’s great to be part of work like this that will sculpt our future,” Towler said. Senior Heather Nannery presented research on two topics at the event: the separation of church and state through the lens of the establishment clause of the first amendment and James Madison’s specific influence in crafting it, and the philosophical and literary importance of Iris Murdoch. Nannery said that student research should be the cornerstone of an academic institution: “It’s a chance for students to demonstrate the hard work they’ve done throughout the entire year.” She went on to say that her biggest disappointment was that using poster board felt like an arts and crafts project rather than a presentation of her culminated work this year. Chair of the chemistry department and co-coordinator of the event Sunghee Lee was impressed with the success of the event, saying that this year marked the best showing in the three year history of the program. Lee attributes the turnout and participation to the faculty of the School of Arts and Science who wished to see their students develop and spread awareness of their own scholarly interests. “I am so gratified by the overwhelming response from so many students and their faculty mentors,” Lee said. “My belief is that the growth of this event from year to year is a reflection of the increasing emphasis on original scholarly contributions from students and faculty across the Iona Campus.” After the great success of this year’s event, next year’s Undergraduate Research Day is sure to feature student research of an equal if not greater caliber.