Flash Talks are 5-minute talks on undergraduate research meant for general audiences from all disciplines — any first year should be able to understand these presentations! Anyone who is interested in or currently pursuing research is encouraged to join!

How can Flash Talks develop my skills as a researcher?

• Learn about interdisciplinary research your peers have been involved in
• Network with current undergraduate researchers and learn how they got involved
• Hear about research opportunities in a wide variety of fields
• Practice your presentation skills by presenting your own research

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Talks Presented at Flash Talk Sept 2024

💡 Knockdown of Neurodevelopmental Disorder Implicated Gene, NAV3, Increases Neural Stem Cell Proliferation and Decreases Glial Cell Production (River Zhang)

We investigated the cellular phenotype of a potential neurodevelopmental disorder-implicated gene, NAV3. This may provide some important insight into autism spectrum disorder or neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.

💡Does Perceived Emotional Harm Affect Moral Judgements in Second-Year Infants? (Aaron Wang)

This flash talk examines whether second-year infants consider emotional harm in their moral judgments or rely on fairness expectations. The proposed study aims to determine if infants prefer distributors who elicit positive emotions over fair ones who elicit negative emotions, offering insights into early moral reasoning and social cognition development.

💡 Children's Development of Modal Thought (Dominic Le)

Modal thought - or thinking about possibilities - is an interesting area of research in cognitive developmental psychology because it is closely tied to processes like memory, problem-solving, and knowledge formation, suggesting their developmental trajectories may be interrelated. This brief talk summarizes recent research on the emergence of modal thought in children and previews efforts to consolidate fragmented theories and establish milestones for this developing cognitive ability.

💡 Arctic Net Primary Production: Factors, Trends, and Modeling Challenges (Parham Bokaei Jazi)

This study explored changes in Net Primary Production (NPP) in the Arctic Ocean, examining the factors influencing these changes and the observed trends over time. Additionally, it assessed how climate models depict NPP in the region, providing insights into possible future directions for research on this topic.

💡 Development of an Artificial Intelligence Virtual Tool for Measuring Distances during Image-Guided Surgery (Raphael Kwok)

My research involves the development of an AI tool for measuring distances during image-guided, minimally invasive surgery, a task that would normally depend on inaccurate visual estimation. It focuses on how computer vision can be used to identify key points in an image that can then be used to convert 2D pixel dimensions to 3D real world coordinates.

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