Students showcase research at ACU’s 17th annual festival

ABILENE, Texas (KTAB/KRBC) – Local high school and college students gathered at Abilene Christian University to share their extensive research projects with academic scholars and the public.

Technology, literature, and the human experience. These were just some of the subjects covered at Abilene Christian University’s 17th annual Undergraduate Research, Creativity and Innovation Festival. Presenters for the research festival included students from Abilene Christian University, Hardin-Simmons University, Lubbock Christian University, Texas Tech, McMurry University, and Abilene High School who covered a wide variety of subject matter, looking to add their contribution to their respective fields. Director of Undergraduate Research Creativity & Innovation, Dr. Candice Ortbals, spoke to some of the goals of this festival for these presenters.

“We want them to move on to external festivals, maybe in their field of study. So that could be a regional conference or even a national or international conference in their academic field. Another opportunity might be a publication,” Ortbals said.

A publication means not only does the student gain recognition for their research academically, but also has potential for students to obtain grants for further research into their subjects. ACU undergrad student, Emily Hine, presented a project that focuses on analyzing the full composition of materials and elements used in a molten salt reactor and explained how the type of important research seen at the festival projects can go unnoticed if not for festivals like these.

“I think it’s important to make any kind of information digestible for the layman. You can have a fantastic project, and the science can be wild, and you can be doing great things. But if you’re not going to get that out there to the world, there’s not going to be a lot of publicity for it, then it’s hard for those things to kind of either get funding or other people to know,” Hine explained. “When you have people knowing and have that communication, I think that’s a powerful thing.”

While many of the subjects covered relate to fields like biology, history, or medicine, each has unique qualities that bring new insight to the respective fields. Abilene High School student Brenna Barbarick presented her research on the correlation between television character changes and significant historical movements and explained some of the details she uncovered.

“The thing I presented was about how laugh tracks are being used in sitcoms to push similar ideas that the feminist movements have done in the past. This meant that fathers were becoming more the butt of the joke rather than joke makers, which correlated with what we were seeing, both in television in general and in the feminist movements,” Barbarick shared. “Whereas fathers were once wise and strong and the joke makers, now fathers are goofy, unreliable, and the butt of the joke.”