SMU Ph.D. candidate in computational and applied mathematics Michael Uh talking about his research project to a research fair attendee Tuesday afternoon. (MICHAEL DOOLEY/ The Daily Campus)
SMU’s annual Research Day filled the Hughes-Trigg Ballroom on Tuesday afternoon. This event features graduate and undergraduate student research from engineering, the sciences and social sciences.
Students from a variety of departments and programs presented their research, ranging from sociology and psychology to chemistry and physics. The research done by the students was presented in a manner that was not only professional, but also student-friendly.
The topics of research ranged from personal intrigue, to attempts to answer long-standing or current questions. Ashley Howe an SMU seismology student was presenting their research on recent earthquakes in Texas.
“Beginning this summer and continuing through today,” Howe said, “small earthquakes were felt in Cleburne.”
Due to the lack of fault lines or any other visible cause, the city of Cleburne requested the help of SMU seismology.
The presentation showed the process of measuring the earthquakes, as well as the results, and the stations they erected to find the location of the earthquakes. As shown on their map, the earthquakes occurred between two fluid injection wells.
“Those wells opened the pores in the rock,” Howe said, “leading to the activity along an old fault line.”
While the seismology presentation was based mainly on a poster and spoken explanation, Ted Andersson and Vijita Patel used their poster to show the surface work of their research and included additional visuals to demonstrate the making of a new chelating agent from TAT, a commercially available chemical.
Andersson utilized a model of a chelating agent as he explained how it traps metal ions that can then form crystal structures. In addition to a video showing their successful reaction from start to finish, they also had vials of crystals to show visitors and provide further visual evidence of their success.
Andersson and Patel have been working on this project for the past two years, finally achieving a successful reaction with the help of a lucky accident.
After working on a separate reaction, Patel left her site and materials unclean and forgot about it.
“About a month later, I figured I would clean it up,” Patel said. “Down at the bottom I found TAT crystals growing.”
From that incident, Andersson and Patel found a new crystal structure that aided in the formation of a new chelating agent for potential medical imaging use.
The 2010 Research Day was a great opportunity for the students in the sciences and social sciences to share their hard work and the series of events that led to their results.
