MIME Student Advisory Board

antibiotic resistant bacteria and genes in environmental reservoirs.

This research project has reached capacity and is closed for mentee applications

Antibiotic resistance in Oregon wastewater treatment systems.

enthusiasm, motivation, and eagerness to learn

That I will be available and just an email away.

 

 

 

Renewable energy storage in chemical fuels and their use in electricity generation (electrochemistry)

This research project has reached capacity and is closed for mentee applications

A student could research existing demonstrations for water splitting (water + electricity --> hydrogen fuel) and develop curriculum for outreach at the middle school and high school level. I can provide supplies for the student to trial these at their location of choice. The student can study the use of different materials, designs, etc. and investigate their effect on the reaction rate. We'd use your curriculum for our future outreach activities and put it on our website!

General chemistry (high school level)

Independence

Interest in renewable electricity storage

Interest in outreach/education

The URSA awardee will be paired with a graduate student and I will meet virtually with them together (along with a STEM leader student whose project is similar in scope) each week by Zoom. Intermittent communication will be by Slack or email when necessary. I will meet one-on-one with the USRA awardee at the beginning and end of each quarter too. 

I expect students to communicate clearly by Slack or email if they have a conflict come up regarding our meetings. Emails from myself or another graduate student should be replied to/acknowledged within 24 hours (or on Monday if over the weekend).

 

The student and I will work together to set goals, and the student should take initiative to ask questions when something is hindering their progress.

 

Our lab is built on a foundation of respect for all people (their time, their talent, their individuality), rigorous science, and a commitment to excellence. 

I will be available for your questions as much as possible. Every person is an individual, so if my mentoring style is not working for you, let's talk about how it can be different. I tend to provide structure initially and more freedom of investigation as a student gains experience.

 

 

 

Structure/function studies of large disordered complexes involved in motility

and viral replication

Protein purification involve expression in bacteria, cell lysis, affinity

purification, gel electrophoresis and size exclusion chromatography. The proteins of interest are:

1) Purification of proteins related to rabies and Ebola viruses

2) Purification of proteins related to dynein motor proteins.

Motivated, hard worker, interested in learning new things, attention to details, have read some papers from my lab and able to discuss it.

I interact daily with all my students. The undergraduate mentee will be

working directly with a graduate student. We have weekly lab meetings that the mentee will be invited to attend. The mentee will be required to give one formal presentation to the lab at the end of each quarter and submit a progress report.

Undergrads will attend our weekly lab meetings by zoom. They will get to present once a term on the project they have. In addition, I meet individually with students also weekly by zoom.

What I expect of students: The mentee will be required to give one formal presentation to the lab at the end of each quarter and submit a progress report.

 

What students can expect of me: I have an open door policy, and expect to have a formal meetings with students at least once every two weeks where we discuss projects and offer help whenever needed.

 

 

 

I conduct research to understand the multifaceted concept of well-being among children, youth and families. I also examine factors that promote well-being and resilience, particularly among at-risk populations such as children and youth in foster care. My lab, the Child Welfare and Child Well-being (2CW) research lab, seeks to generate knowledge and utilize evidence to better support children, adolescents and their families, especially those facing adversity.  The ultimate goal, therefore, is to improve Child Welfare and enhance Child Wellbeing.

 

Therefore, we seek to…

• Understand children and adolescents throughout their development, their relationships with siblings, peers, caregivers, and other adults, and their experiences at home, in school and in their communities.
• Identify malleable individual-, relational- and community-level factors that may help children and families overcome adversity, build resilience and improve well-being.
• Develop and Evaluate prevention and intervention programs designed to better serve children, adolescents and their families, particularly those facing adversity.

Our team collaborates with partners in academia as well as partners in the larger community. We utilize a variety of research approaches (e.g., literature reviews, analysis of existing datasets and administrative data, systematic reviews, measurement development, intervention research, etc.) to accomplish our goals.  We strive to be creative and innovative in determining the ways that support children, adolescents and their families thrive.

Curiosity and strong communication skills are required. Experience working on research projects in human services and/or child welfare settings is desired.  Experience, coursework and/or training in research methods is preferred. Human Subjects training and/or additional training may be required for this position depending upon project selected.

I intend to meet regularly with each URSA engage mentee one-on-one as well as with other individuals involved with the specific project selected (which may include graduate students, research assistants, and/or faculty members).  These meetings will happen via Zoom. In addition, additional communication will happen at least weekly via email, phone and/or Zoom. 

I truly value relationships and open communication is very important.  As a mentor, I will provide help, offer suggestions, and be a sounding board for questions.  I will provide and be open to feedback. I also expect mentees to be responsible, take initiative,  ask questions and be open to feedback. 

Curiosity and an interest in child welfare and child well-being research is required. I expect that mentees are detail-oriented, motivated, have organizational skills, and the ability to work well independently as well as with team members.  I expect that mentees will ask questions and actively engage in selected project.   

 

 

 

 

OregonFlora provides information about Oregon plants for diverse audiences to a level of detail that meets user needs.

The OregonFlora website, https://oregonflora.org, is how we share information about the plant diversity of our state. We are excited about expanding the ways our knowledge can help people of all levels of interest and expertise. We are looking for an URSA mentee to help develop activities and learning modules for middle school-aged learners that are based on our website tools. This would focus on digital media tools and would be relevant to learners anywhere in the state as a way to learn about the plant life that surrounds them.

Curiosity about plants and biodiversity (required).

Familiarity with or willingness to learn screen capture software and simple video production (required).

Organized, attention to detail (required).

Life experiences or coursework focusing on botany or general biology (preferred).

I will meet with the mentee weekly. Virtual meetings (via Zoom, or phone) will allow this project to be mentored and implemented.

I request that we both commit to regular communications, and each hold the other accountable to them. I intend to work with the student to describe my vision for the project, and expect that the student would provide their input to expand/improve/modify that vision in a way that uses their knowledge and interests.

The mentee should expect and receive from me a framing of how the proposed project fits into my program's mission; my openness to suggestions of ways to improve/modify the project; my commitment to provide direction and answers to questions or input on where to find answers; and availability to communicate regularly with them.

 

 

Zoom Link: https://oregonstate.zoom.us/j/96110796227?pwd=YjY2cjFTa0Zqazg4UEJlaWt1M1...

Password: URSA

 

My research is interested in college students' sense of belonging (how much they feel accepted/connected, as well as their feelings about their ability to thrive in college spaces), gender development and expression, and student engagement in college (how much students are "involved").

• Study students' sense of belonging during this remote time through interviews and photo-voice methodology
• Study students' gender expression during this remote environment. How does being remote change our gender expression?
• Study students' feelings of belonging based around their engagement in college opportunities (clubs, projects, research, community engagement, Greek life, campus life, campus events, etc.). Study how being remote may change their level of belonging and engagement.

• Inquisitiveness
• Collaborative
• Empathetic
• Creative
• Determined
• Desire to learn from peers
• Willingness to use art as a method for research

A background knowledge of challenges students face in college would be helpful (could come from personal experience or education). Background in art is not required but could be helpful. Would love to find someone thinking about Students of Color experiences and LGBTQIA+ student experiences. 

Once a week for an hour

I expect a mentee to dig in and care about the work and project. I also expect reliable communication (within 48 hours). This is a collaborative team of two where we will both learn from one another and push each other to make the most of this project. 

Please expect that I will be excited most of the time we communicate. This work matters to me and will hopefully provide a space for us to both grow. I want to be your advocate and ensure you receive the support you need, the answers to the questions you have, and the experience you want.

 

 

Zoom Link: https://oregonstate.zoom.us/j/7708850470?pwd=RytYcVJwSFRFUkRvam9IbTB1dld...

Password: RAD

 

My research group studies the role of zooplankton (small drifting animals in the ocean) in ocean ecosystems and how climate change and other anthropogenic activities may alter this. We study predator-prey relationships, population dynamics, feed web ecology, physiology, and much more. The ecosystems we study include Antarctica, the Northern California Current, and soon the Eastern Bering Sea.

This research project has reached capacity and is closed for mentee applications

(1) Sinking sea-pickles (quantifying the flux of pyrosomes to the seafloor off the Oregon Coast).

(2) Virtual Antarctic fieldwork assistant (remotely assisting with data entry and outreach during our Antarctic field season).

(3) Google Earth Treasure Hunt (for this I would be looking for a student with experience in computer science as I'd like the student to incorporate a treasure hunt I developed into Google Earth).

(4) Mining for gold (data mining the historical literature on krill).

 

• Relevant coursework, e.g. anything about marine science or oceanography (preferred).
• Ability to work independently (required).
• Eagerness to learn and acquire new skills (required).

• A good team player (required).

  ​

My graduate students and I will meet with the URSA Engage student/s working in our lab. I will assign one graduate student to each awardee and they will meet weekly. I will meet with the awardees several times throughout the course of the terms. I will also be available to meet with the awardees at other times if necessary. I will be operating 100% remotely as I will be in the field in Antarctica. But this will provide a unique opportunity for the awardees to interact with a scientist in the field.

I expect that my undergraduate mentees are:

• reliable and able to work independently (as the work will be conducted remotely).

• hard-working and eager to learn and acquire new skills.

• work well as part of a team (even though we are all working remotely, this aspect is still very important).
• communicates clearly and early (doesn't wait until things become too overwhelming to deal with).

An undergraduate researcher working with me can expect the following from me:

 

 

 

Research in the Mackiewicz group is at the chemistry-biology interface bridging several fields of chemistry with biology and engineering. Our research is centered around 4 major themes that include:

1) designing nanoscale materials using green synthetic approaches for biomedical and environmental applications,

2) studying nanoparticle-biological interactions and nanotoxicology,

3) developing diagnostic assays and systems to monitor disease states and therapeutic response and

4) systems for imaging and targeted drug delivery.

Our long-term goal is to advance our bench side chemistry to translational applications in cancer, Alzheimer's disease, glaucoma, and macular degeneration. We have developed platform nanotechnologies that allows us to explore a variety of biomedical, environmental, and industrial applications. Concurrently, we and our collaborators work to test these platforms in a variety of translational applications. In addition, we study the nanotoxicological effects of the new materials developed and their nanoparticle-biological interactions to advance their designs and overcome translational barriers that limit their use in vivo. Herein, is a brief summary of several research areas we are currently working in as well as the partnerships we have developed between Portland State University (PSU), Oregon State University (OSU), Casey Eye Institute, Devers Eye Institute, and Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) to achieve our long-term research goals and advance our technologies forward into new directions.

This research project has reached capacity and is closed for mentee applications

Project 1: is an NSF funded collaborative proposal between PSU (Mackiewicz) and OSU (Stacey Harper) on “Teasing Apart how Specific Nanoparticle Features Relate to Environmental Fate and Contribute to Ecotoxicity”.

 

Project 2: is an NIH funded collaborative project with Martina Ralle (OHSU) on the development of “Subcellular Organelle Probes for Visualizing Copper Distribution.”

 

Project 3: is focused on the development of “Nanomaterials for Enhancing the Resolution of Optical Coherence Tomography Imaging” to visually track and longitudinally study therapeutic stem cells that repair blindness in patients with macular degeneration.

 

Project 4: is focused on the “Design Targeted Nanomaterials for Visualizing and Studying Axonal Transport in the Eye”. Here our aim is to develop hybrid lipid-coated gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) as probes for tracking axonal transport pathways in the retina in vivo, as well as potential drug delivery vehicles for patients with glaucoma.

 

Undergraduate students must be excited about research, willing to learn, accept ownership of problems, show enthusiasm for learning, good listening skills.

We will meet 1 time per week for each student. we will communicate by slack and email and zoom. We can also meet in the lab via social distance rules for 1:1 interaction for experiments.

I expect the students will be committed to the scheduled time, they will have clear communication skills, and if, not something they are willing to work on communication. I expect that they will follow all the safety rules and if they need help that they will ask for it. Good written skills in their lab notebook will be very important. 

That i will communicate with them clearly about lab expectations, that will support their development in skills in the lab, and if they have trouble understanding the materials or procedures I will be there to help them. i am more than happy to provide resources I share with my students that I find useful to their scientific and professional development. I am happy to mentor them beyond the lab.

 

 

 

My research explores the impact of juniper removal on Greater sage-grouse and the surrounding vegetative and invertebrate communities.

 

Additionally, we are examining meso-predator populations in these areas through the use of camera traps on the Clear Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

Invertebrates: Lab work identifying invertebrates to the family level (mostly insects, but there are some other arthropods such as scorpions and spiders). Samples were obtained from northeastern California and northern Nevada along the Oregon border using pitfall traps. Responsibilities would include sorting and identifying invertebrates using a dissecting microscope and a dichotomous key, recording the observed families and the number of individuals in each, weighing samples, and re-storing samples properly.  Additionally, there may be an opportunity to assist in the capture and marking greater sage-grouse with transmitters in during the new moons of Jan-Mar 2021 near Lakeview, Oregon. ****The proposed invertebrate ID work would need to be completed in-person in an OSU lab and could not be completed remotely. COVID precautions and guidelines would be strictly enforced and followed in the lab space.

 

Meso-predators: The identification of meso-predators to species (e.g., coyote, badger, cougar, etc.) from the camera traps would require only 1 or 2 in person meetings for training from there the student could sort images remotely. 

• Previous experience with entomology and invertebrate ID is preferred 
• Previous experience working in a lab setting is preferred
• Interest in ornithology, entomology, rangeland science, and/or landscape ecology\
• Basic identification of meso-predators (mostly mammals)
• Ability to work well independently
• Strong work ethic
• Positive attitude
• Attention to detail

My Master's students, Kim Haab (inverts) and Chelsea Sink (predators), will be the primary contacts and I would anticipate them mentoring 2-3 times per week especially at the beginning while training the mentee in invertebrate classification.  I would plan to zoom with the student bi-weekly or weekly in addition to their more frequent contact with Kim and Chelsea.  My contact could be less frequent if that is what is needed. 

I expect my undergraduate researchers to maintain an honest, consistent, and professional line of communication. I expect them to be prepared and on time for check-ins, training, their research work, and any other scheduled events. I expect them to speak up when they have questions, need clarification, or require help, and I encourage them to do so as often and as regularly as they need. I encourage them to be curious and to not be afraid to explore their own ideas or share their unique perspectives. I expect them to behave professionally and safely and to follow all lab safety measures and protocols. I expect them to have integrity, to stay organized, and to always try their best.  I expect them to treat this research experience as an opportunity for growth and learning. 

My undergraduate researchers can expect the same in terms of communication, behavior, and research work, as I expect of them. They can expect that I will maintain a consistent, honest, and professional line of communication. They can reach out to me as often as they need when questions or concerns arise or when they need additional help/guidance. They can expect that I will come prepared and will be on time for check-ins, work sessions, training, and all other events. They can expect that I will set the correct example for a safe and professional work environment and that I too will follow all lab safety protocols and procedures. I will do my best to stay organized and communicate clearly, I too will always try my best, and I will be learning and growing from this experience alongside them. 

 

 

 

I am interested in machine learning food preservation (freezing) . Google and others are following fruit growth from pollination to ripening but stop there. I would like to follow the path of preserved foods through this process, all the way to consumption.

We will set up an Infra-red camera, visual camera, etc. in an outside freezer. With changing ambient, phase change material, etc., can we minimize power consumption while maintaining fruit quality?

The mentees are expected to be hands-on and comfortable with cameras, thermocouples, etc. A solid background in Python or Julia is preferred.

I plan to meet with the mentee virtually 2-3 times a week. As a new member of staff (half Prof. of Practice/half instructor) I have no graduate students or postdocs so I would be as engaged as  much as the mentee would need and want.

I expect undergraduate researchers to be inquisitive. I will expect attendance of one planned meeting per week and other meetings open ended. I expect a professional manner.

They should expect the same from me.