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April 15, 2002
Contact: Sherry Wallace or Anita Kesavan, 309/556-3181

IWU's 13th Annual John Wesley Powell
Student Research Conference Slated for April 19-20

BLOOMINGTON, Ill.-- The 13th annual John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference, co-sponsored by the Illinois Wesleyan University Provost's office and the IWU Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, April 19-20. The conference will be held in the Center for Natural Science (CNS), 201 E. Beecher St., Bloomington.

The Student Research Conference was first held at IWU in 1990, and this year will showcase approximately 66 students and their individual projects. The topics of the works span diverse fields in the sciences--biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, psychology, mathematics, computer science--as well as the social sciences, language and art--economics, English, sociology, history, anthropology, Hispanic studies, international studies, and music.

Charles Pell, a research associate in biology at Duke University will keynote the event. Vice President of Science and Technology at Nekton Research in Durham, North Carolina, he also is co-principal investigator on the biomimetic Miniature Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (MAUV) effort sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Pell’s other biologically inspired projects include the Nektor flexible maneuvering thruster and PilotFish, unmanned agile-underwater vehicle efforts, sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, plus educational toys and TwiddleFish.

The conference will begin with a continental breakfast and poster setups at 8:30 a.m. in the atrium of the CNS. At 9:00 a.m. Poster session A will begin, where attendees are encouraged to browse the displays and talk to the students about their projects. Oral presentations of projects will begin at 10:00 a.m. in rooms C101 and C102 of the Anderson Auditorium and Beckman Auditorium, and room E103, respectively, of the Center for Natural Sciences, where IWU students and researchers will describe and explain their research projects and findings.

At 11:00 a.m. Pell will give his keynote address in the Anderson Auditorium followed by a complimentary lunch in the Main Lounge of the Memorial Student Center, and Poster Session B at 1:15 p.m. in the CNS atrium. Oral presentations will begin again at 2:15 p.m. in the Beckman and Anderson Auditoriums and at 4 p.m. there will be a reception and certificate presentation in the atrium

Phi Kappa Phi, a national scholastic honor society for juniors and seniors, which was established in 1922 at IWU, will grant three research awards of $100 each to selected students participating in the conference. The recipients will be recognized at the conference awards ceremony Saturday afternoon. An interdisciplinary committee of faculty Phi Kappa Phi members will make the award decisions.

The following are examples of research projects to be presented at the conference:

The Use of Genetic Algorithm to Evolve Neural Networks for a Natural Language Processing Task
The Effects of Medical Malpractice on Medical Specialties
Synthesis of Hexamolybdate Complexes with Dysfunctional Amines
Head Start and Their Use of Multicultural Education
Demand Elasticity and Commodity Substitutability in Simulated Economy
Augustinian Influences on Thomas England: Love, Reason, and the Unruly Will in Tristan
Examining the Cognitive and Physiological Processes Underlying Traumatic Disclosure
An Analysis of Luigi Dallapiccola’s Sicut Umbra
Characterization of a Major Hemolymph Protein and its Role in the Ovarian Development of the Lubber Grasshopper

The conference is named for explorer-geologist John Wesley Powell, a Civil War veteran and a founder of the National Geographic Society, who joined IWU's faculty in 1865. Powell became the first U.S. professor to use field work to teach science. In 1867, Powell took IWU students to explore the Colorado mountains. It was the first expedition of its kind in the history of U.S. higher education. Powell later became the first director of the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of Ethnology.

News from Illinois Wesleyan

April 15, 2002 Contact: Sherry Wallace or Anita Kesavan, 309/556-3181 IWU's 13th Annual John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference Slated for April 19-20 BLOOMINGTON, Ill.-- The 13th annual John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference, co-sponsored by the Illinois Wesleyan University Provost's office and the IWU Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, April 19-20. The conference will be held in the Center for Natural Science (CNS), 201 E. Beecher St., Bloomington. The Student Research Conference was first held at IWU in 1990, and this year will showcase approximately 66 students and their individual projects. The topics of the works span diverse fields in the sciences--biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, psychology, mathematics, computer science--as well as the social sciences, language and art--economics, English, sociology, history, anthropology, Hispanic studies, international studies, and music. Charles Pell, a research associate in biology at Duke University will keynote the event. Vice President of Science and Technology at Nekton Research in Durham, North Carolina, he also is co-principal investigator on the biomimetic Miniature Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (MAUV) effort sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Pell’s other biologically inspired projects include the Nektor flexible maneuvering thruster and PilotFish, unmanned agile-underwater vehicle efforts, sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, plus educational toys and TwiddleFish. The conference will begin with a continental breakfast and poster setups at 8:30 a.m. in the atrium of the CNS. At 9:00 a.m. Poster session A will begin, where attendees are encouraged to browse the displays and talk to the students about their projects. Oral presentations of projects will begin at 10:00 a.m. in rooms C101 and C102 of the Anderson Auditorium and Beckman Auditorium, and room E103, respectively, of the Center for Natural Sciences, where IWU students and researchers will describe and explain their research projects and findings. At 11:00 a.m. Pell will give his keynote address in the Anderson Auditorium followed by a complimentary lunch in the Main Lounge of the Memorial Student Center, and Poster Session B at 1:15 p.m. in the CNS atrium. Oral presentations will begin again at 2:15 p.m. in the Beckman and Anderson Auditoriums and at 4 p.m. there will be a reception and certificate presentation in the atrium Phi Kappa Phi, a national scholastic honor society for juniors and seniors, which was established in 1922 at IWU, will grant three research awards of $100 each to selected students participating in the conference. The recipients will be recognized at the conference awards ceremony Saturday afternoon. An interdisciplinary committee of faculty Phi Kappa Phi members will make the award decisions. The following are examples of research projects to be presented at the conference: The Use of Genetic Algorithm to Evolve Neural Networks for a Natural Language Processing Task The Effects of Medical Malpractice on Medical Specialties Synthesis of Hexamolybdate Complexes with Dysfunctional Amines Head Start and Their Use of Multicultural Education Demand Elasticity and Commodity Substitutability in Simulated Economy Augustinian Influences on Thomas England: Love, Reason, and the Unruly Will in Tristan Examining the Cognitive and Physiological Processes Underlying Traumatic Disclosure An Analysis of Luigi Dallapiccola’s Sicut Umbra Characterization of a Major Hemolymph Protein and its Role in the Ovarian Development of the Lubber Grasshopper The conference is named for explorer-geologist John Wesley Powell, a Civil War veteran and a founder of the National Geographic Society, who joined IWU's faculty in 1865. Powell became the first U.S. professor to use field work to teach science. In 1867, Powell took IWU students to explore the Colorado mountains. It was the first expedition of its kind in the history of U.S. higher education. Powell later became the first director of the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of Ethnology.