Undergraduates showcase research in annual academic exhibition

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — More than 200 Penn State undergraduates presented the fruits of their research April 15-17, summing up in a few minutes the hundreds of hours of work they’ve put into their projects. 

The annual Undergraduate Exhibition for Research, Inquiry, and Creative Activity, held virtually April 15-17 and in-person on April 17, brought together researchers and creative performers from disciplines across the University. 

One Penn State World Campus student crossed six time zones to present her research. Vivian Schoning, of Waldfeucht, Germany, is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in psychology through Penn State World Campus. 

She worked on her research project “Exploring the Underlying Mechanism of Sleep and Psychedelic Treatment for Hyperfrontality” along with fellow undergraduates Erica Armstrong and Maria Hellerbran and graduate student Rachel Hanley, under the direction of William Horton, assistant teaching professor of biobehavioral health. 

Hyperfrontality is a condition characterized by reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex, Schoning explained, and is associated with several psychiatric disorders. The research project involved review of scientific literature to understand the method by which sleep deprivation and psychedelic treatments work to promote neuroplasticity and dendritic growth. Future research could lead to other, better treatments. 

“You don’t want to sleep-deprive a person. You don’t want to give them psychedelics, because that’s illegal,” Schoning said.  

Though a psychology major, Schoning said she loves the biology behind the field. She had long thought about going to graduate school, and being involved in undergraduate research reinforced the idea. 

“There was a time where I thought about going to medical school and helping people in that way,” she said. “I did an internship, and it was horrible. And then, working with Dr. Horton has been amazing. He showed me all these ways to do research.” 

Some undergraduates started in research early on in their academic careers. Charles Colvin, of Malvern, Pennsylvania, in his second year at Penn State pursuing a major in plant science, returned to the Exhibition in 2024 with another research project involving corn, “From Metabolites to Microbes: Paving the Way for Sustainable Maze Crop Improvement.” 

Colvin’s work involved 16S gene sequencing, a particular gene found in all bacterial species and acts as a genetic fingerprint to identify which bacteria are present in a given sample, he explained. That works well for things like soil and water samples. 

“When you try to do it on leaf tissue, or the stomachs of insects that eat leaf tissue, you run into an issue where the mitochondria and chloroplasts that are found in the leaves, contaminate your sample and you end up just amplifying a bunch of mitochondria and chloroplasts,” he said. “And you can't learn anything about the microbiome because you don’t have enough bacterial species representative in your sampling. And so, my project was kind of finding a two-step method to eliminate the contamination by these two sources, mitochondria and chloroplasts.” 

Colvin said he was still waiting for many of his samples to be processed, but the work has helped him crystallize his future plans. When he first arrived at Penn State last year, he said he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, other than study plant science.  

“But through the lab, I’ve learned that I’m really interested in research. I want to go to grad school, and continue doing this sort of plant science research, which opens the doors for more opportunities in industry roles and scientist roles, where I can continue my passion for like problem solving, doing research or filling gaps in knowledge that we find.” 

The exhibition showcases how students are working collaboratively with faculty and graduate students, and getting better than a front-row seat to how research is done at an institution classified as R1: doctoral universities —  very high research activity. For those who aspire to higher degrees, undergraduate research is often an excellent steppingstone. 

“I was thrilled with the variety of participants this year and the energy they brought to the Exhibition,” said Alan Rieck, associate vice provost and associate dean of Undergraduate Education. “We had a great response from volunteer judges this year. The faculty not only spend their time mentoring our undergraduate researchers, but they’ve helped to make this event possible and create an experience for our students.” 

Evening of Creative Inquiry in Music  

Later in the evening of April 17, students from the School of Music took to the stage in Recital Hall for a diverse demonstration in what research and scholarship can look like in music and music education. 

Zachary McKee traveled to Long Beach Island, New Jersey, measured the bay tide and plotted waveform data from oscillations during the four major moon phases. He then used MaxMSP, a visual programming language for music and multimedia, to play the waveforms. By feeding the data points into his newfound instrument, McKee demonstrated how this could be used to create music by playing a snippet of an ambient track he created himself. 

The junior music technology major said he felt compelled to create a piece “greater than himself” that explored climate change. Initially expecting to find that the tide levels had increased over time, McKee discovered no change in the levels he recorded in 2023 compared to records from 2003, which he said led him down a rabbit hole of astronomy and gravity to figure out why that was the case. 

“So, what does that mean for my data?” McKee said. “I wanted to create instruments and timbres that would be assigned to abstract ideas in the piece like pollution or human acceleration of this process. But I'm also trying to take an approach where I’m not blaming an individual. But I also didn’t want to take the approach where I was blaming a bunch of billionaires, who wouldn't ever hear this anyway. So, my piece is just general emotion of this problem.” 

During the event, Ann Marie Stanley, director of the School of Music, said the research musicians do may look different from other areas of the University. 

“But yet, we’re doing the same sort of creation and dissemination of new knowledge,” she said. “So I'm really thrilled to be able to celebrate these students.” 

Sarah Esslinger, a music education undergraduate, discussed her work in establishing a resource in the history, performance and lyric diction of Amy Beach’s French and German art songs. Joined on stage by Ann Deighton at piano, Esslinger performed “Ich sagte nicht,” which translates to “I did not say.” 

Sarah Campbell, music education, took the audience back to the ’90s and 2000s when Missy Elliot ruled the airwaves. Campbell’s presentation focused on neoclassicism, a demonstration of a new generation paying tribute to classical artists before them. She explained how Missy Elliot, with her six platinum albums, inspired newer artists like Chlöe and Lil Kim. 

Campbell said neoclassicism is a 20th century development, particularly between the two world wars, where composers drew inspiration from the music of the 18th century. 

“Even asking your non-music friends who their favorite classical composers are, they probably say Beethoven, Bach or Mozart. But why can't the same concept be applied to these artists?” Campbell said of modern hip-hop artists. “Each of these hip-hop artists have either paved the way for their genre or excelled at it so much that they’re also now household names. Just because they’ve not written a concerto opera or piano sonata does not mean they’re not also classic artists within their own context.” 

David Hutchinson, music education, presented his findings from student interviews at Penn State and University of Oxford on the technology used in music coursework. Using these interviews, Hutchinson delved into technology use and how it’s changed over time, especially in the wake of COVID-19. He also asked if students wanted to use more or less technology in the future. He also used machine learning during his analysis by feeding transcripts of the interviews into ChatGPT-4. 

Ailish F. Quiñones Rivera, who is pursuing a bachelor of arts in music, presented on Puerto Rican composer Ismael Rivera’s influence on artists Bad Bunny and Tego Calderón. She sought to interview people in Puerto Rico, where she is from, on their thoughts on the connection between these generations of artists. She said her aims were to figure out the influences of older artists on newer music, how people perceive that legacy and how people perceive maintaining art, history and legacy. 

The evening ended with a faculty panel featuring Linda Thornton, professor of music education; Jennifer Trost, professor of voice; and Baljinder Sekhon II, associate professor of composition. The three shared their thoughts on interdisciplinary approaches to music composition and learning, aging voices and inclusive repertoire, embracing change and collaboration in the arts and AI’s impact on music composition and education. 

How to participate in the Undergraduate Exhibition 

Applications for the annual Undergraduate Exhibition, held each April, typically open in February. Undergraduate Research and Fellowships Mentoring offers workshops to help students prepare for academic exhibitions. 

URFM also offers dedicated resources to help students understand and find undergraduate research opportunities. 

The Undergraduate Exhibition is coordinated by Penn State Undergraduate Education.