Whether exploring the biology of language perception, how children with special needs process the world, or illuminating the experience of Black and Latinx immigrants in Boston during the COVID-19 pandemic, BU’s undergraduate researchers were busy this year. Many teamed up with faculty researchers through the University’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program while others worked together as a group. Below are a few of their projects from this year.
Raphaël Feldman (CAS’24), a neuroscience major and jazz pianist, worked with Mark Howe, assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences, in the Howe Lab, which studies the neural circuit mechanisms responsible for motivating, selecting, and learning optimal actions.
Fangqi (Doris) Luo (CGS’22, CAS’24) studied women writers in the late Victorian era with Master Lecturer of Humanities Joellen Masters. The pair researched their backgrounds and published works, as well as the rise of the short story genre in the Victorian period and its appearance in periodicals.
Baderha Bujiriri (Sargent’22) interned at Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s COVID-19 Adult Resilience Experiences Study (CARES), where she recruited individuals of ethnic minority backgrounds to complete the screening survey, verified patient identities, and collaborated with coworkers to develop recruitment strategies. Bujiriri also developed a qualitative research study to characterize the experience of Black and Latinx immigrants in the Greater Boston area during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kendrick Tak (CAS’23) joined the Communication Neuroscience Research Laboratory as a research assistant. The lab focuses on discovering the biological bases of language perception, processing, and dysfunction. Tak assisted in the lab’s project of mapping the shapes and volumes of two key auditory brain regions.
Gayatri Sundar Rajan (ENG'22), Tess Ravick (ENG’22), Carla Sheridan (ENG'22), and Trevor Melsheimer (ENG’22) worked on an innovative way to address the global water shortage crisis: creating a harvester to pull moisture from the air to provide potable water without great effort or expense.