Art & technology

by Eva Dameron

Daily Lobo

There is too much separation between artists and scientists, said Dr. Rex Jung from the MIND Institute.

But on Monday, he said, they were rubbing shoulders.

"Scientists can be less rigid and more creative in their thinking," he said. "And artists can take advantage of some of what we know about science and how the brain works in order to inform their art."

Jung was a speaker at the second annual UNM Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium hosted by University College.

Research presentations ranged from scientific to artistic to social.

Project titles included "Microsoft Ethics: Good or Bad," "Research Toward and Intelligent Decision Support System for Chemical and Biological Attacks," "Land Arts of the American West" and "Seductive Marketing: Carl's Jr. Controversial Marketing."

One team from the engineering department developed a voice-activated wheelchair named SAATI, which is pronounced Sadie.

"It's actually been done once by one person, but he didn't have it patented," student Chris Martinez said. "So pretty much what we've done is original, but we need to modify it still and get it working perfectly. Sometimes it doesn't recognize words exactly, so if you're going forward and you want to stop and it doesn't recognize that, that'll cause a problem there because you need to be able to stop at any point."

Student Leanne Storey said they replaced the wheelchair's joystick with a device that enables voice activation.

She said SAATI responds to nine basic commands: stop, crawl, go, run, back, left, right and aloha, which turns it on and off.

Student Michelle Cronoble attended the symposium in the SUB. She said events like these are needed because they open minds to new ideas.

"Art and science together makes a perfect unity," Cronoble said.

Another project dealt with appearances and how people view others based on the way they dress.

Janet Lam, who participated with her communication and journalism class for her project, said they handed out questionnaires to 30 strangers, 20 acquaintances and 10 good friends. The questionnaire asked the person to evaluate things like the student's approachability, leadership skills and probability of abusing drugs - all based on first impressions.

"We changed our appearance for half the surveys to see what the outcomes would be," she said. "Some people, when they changed their appearances, got more negative outcomes than when they were dressed as themselves. We thought it would be harder for people that didn't know us to judge us, but it was really easy for them."

There were about 60 research poster presentations, but the number rose to 500, including musical, theater and lecture performances.

Coordinator Erin Radcliffe said the symposium is the brainchild of Peter White, dean of University College. He started the symposium as a response to the Boyer Report, she said.

"The Boyer Report basically says that large public research institutions, like this one, fail undergraduates because they don't bring the talents of our faculty to our students in a really close way," Radcliffe said. "We're not doing enough for undergraduates to give them part of the research that's going on here."

White said he joined an organization called the Reinvention Center, which started in Stoneybrook, NY.

"There's about 400 people in the United States who belong to this organization, trying to make research universities more responsive teaching institutions," White said. "During freshman orientation, I see 3,000 freshmen coming in every day, and I'm not sure many of them know they have signed up to attend a research university."

He said including UNM, there are 88 research universities in the United States, which are classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Radcliffe said monetary prizes totaling $10,000 will go to the students with the best presentations. There are about 150 judges, including undergraduates in the University Honors Program, graduate students, staff and faculty.

Winners will be announced Nov. 29.