Northeastern Voice

Expo showcases top student, faculty research

President Joseph Aoun examines a poster presented by physical therapy students Kristen Knightly, left, and Jess Dzierga. / JIM CHIAVELLI

See video from the Expo

The people and the posters present in record numbers at today’s Research and Scholarship Expo were praised as one of Northeastern’s biggest selling points during an awards ceremony that honored eight student researchers.

A record 262 posters were on display, each one representing both interdisciplinary collaboration and the “shared governance” of students and faculty that creates promising research results, suggested President Joseph Aoun.

Each poster represents a body of work that is not only furthering the translational and applied research of students and faculty on all levels, but is attracting the notice of future students, Aoun said in remarks at Matthews Arena.

“Students around the world are reading the material” that Northeastern students and faculty are creating, he said, urging the researchers to continue to post their findings online for those who could not walk the packed Matthews Arena.

Aoun invited professors to join him on stage as four undergraduates and four graduate students were honored for their presentations:

• Kathryn Portale, graduate student, mechanical and industrial engineering.
• Brian Plouffe, graduate student, chemical engineering.
• Jing Lou, graduate student, electrical and computer engineering.
• Nadya Vasilyeva, graduate student, psychology.
• Daniel Cocuzzo, undergraduate, electrical and computer engineering.
• Andrea Quintero, undergraduate, psychology.
• Patrick Ng, undergraduate, chemistry.
• Jessica LaRosa, behavioral ecology and insect sociobiology.

Sri Sridhar, vice provost of research, said the event was the university’s largest ever.

“The representation from all parts of the campus is a remarkable showcase of the research that goes on on our campus,” Sridhar said. He noted that the expo is a major symbol of the university’s academic plan, which focuses on fundamental, interdisciplinary and translational research.

Among the presenters was Jennifer Cangialosi, a fifth-year physical therapy doctoral student, who joined seven of her classmates in discussing “Take Control With Exercise,” a project to treat arthritic patients with aquatic and land exercise. Under the direction of clinical associate professor Susan Lowe, students worked with elderly patients on a variety of exercises aimed at easing their discomfort.

“It was really a great experience,” she said. “You could see how much they enjoyed and appreciated it. A lot of them said they felt better, and asked when we were coming back” to continue to help them.

Cangialosi worked with fellow students Christina Crawford, Katie Dacier, Evan Deckelbaum, Samantha Hoffmann, Richard McLaughlin, Olga Myagkova and Christopher O’Brien.

In another presentation, this one a multimedia display, associate academic specialist Cynthia Baron presented findings on “Fauxtography And Visual Literacy.” The author of “Adobe Photoshop Forensics, Sleuths, Truths and Fauxtography” described trends in the use and misuse of photographic images in the media.

“Pretty much anyone can take an image today and create a false reality,” Baron said. “And people have a gut reaction to accept what we see in an image as truth.”

— Susan Salk