Grace Peng explains her award-winning project to Dean Joseph Aoun

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity

By Eva Emerson

In the coming months, USC College senior Julie Moffitt will travel to seminars at UCLA and Stanford University to present results from her prize-winning, original study of the genetic influences on bullying and victim behavior in school-aged children.

Before venturing off campus though, Moffitt shared the fruits of her labor closer to home. In April, she joined more than 150 of her fellow undergraduate students to participate in the fifth-annual Undergraduate Symposium for Scholarly and Creative Work. The symposium gives all undergraduates a chance to present the results of their original research, scholarship and creativity to the USC community.

This year, student projects covered a variety of topics, ranging from a search for a new antifouling material for the U.S. Navy and a new analysis of Sylvia Plath’s work to studies of magnetic bacteria and an interactive Web site exploring whether the Trojan War is fact or fiction.

At an award ceremony following the symposium, administrators recognized the most outstanding works. Top winners in each category received cash prizes, with $500 for first place and $250 for second.

“This is a celebration for everyone involved,” says Joseph Hellige, vice provost for academic programs. “These students are active participants in the creation of new knowledge.”

USC College was well represented at the symposium, with 17 of the 25 top prizes going to projects created or co-created by College students.

Hellige joined Cornelius Sullivan, USC vice provost for research, to present the awards. Through their respective offices, Hellige and Sullivan co-sponsor the symposium, with Provost Lloyd Armstrong Jr. providing key financial support for undergraduate research on campus. L. Katharine Harrington, associate vice provost for academic initiatives, oversees undergraduate research programs, including the symposium.

Senior Sajid Siddiqi, who won a first-place prize for his robotics project, appreciated the chance to talk about his own work and to listen to his peers. “I felt really proud of my fellow undergraduates,” says Siddiqi, a triple major in computer science, mathematics and economics.

Marine biology and theater major Heather Feaman, who won second place in Life Sciences, concurs. “It was a great opportunity for undergraduates to show everyone what they’ve been doing,” she says.

Neurobiologist William McClure, a professor of biology who served as a faculty sponsor to many student participants, was thrilled by this year’s turnout. “Each year, the student research gets better and better,” he says. “This is not your typical school science fair. This is real research.”

2003 Undergraduate Symposium Prize Winners in the College

Jonathan Vidar, Trevor Muirhead and Brian Olsen, first place in Humanities for “The City of Troy”

Maryann Wilson, second place in Humanities for “Personification, Objectification and the Self-Discrepant Self in Sylvia Plath’s Poetry”

Aaron Bartels, honorable mention in Humanities for “Ancient Opium Consumption and Organic Residue Analysis”

Grace Peng, first place in Life Sciences for “Ubiquitin-Independent Degradation of ONOO-oxidized Proteins by the Proteasome”

Heather Feaman, second place in Life Sciences for “Long-Term Effects of Hybridization on Two Distinct Copepod Populations”

Victoria Abraira, Raymond Jone and Kera Murphy, honorable mention in Life Sciences for “Development of Multiple Innervation of Skeletal Muscle in the Frog Xenopus laevis”

Jeremie Smith, Douglas Lam, Gavin Locke, Nick Palmer, Hunter Francoeur, Brandon Teel, Nitin Sharma, Leonard Jimenez and Gideon Juve, honorable mention in Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Engineering for “LA-3D: Visualizing Southern California’s Faults and Earthquakes”

Linda Hou, first place in Social Sciences I for “Roma Identity in East European Politics”

Joel Walton, second place in Social Sciences I for “Text Without Readers”

Christina Faegri, Caroline Borchard, Benjamin Albies, Laia Grino, Brandon Mark Higa and Sue Anne Tay, honorable mention in Social Sciences I for “Honors Theses in International Relations”

Marina Whelan, honorable mention in Social Sciences I for “Measuring the Relationship Between Presidential Emotions and Policy Goals”

Julie Moffitt, first place in Social Sciences II for “Genetic Contribution to Peer Victimization”

Lewina Lee, second place in Social Sciences II for “A Cross-Examination of Two Approaches to Trait Anxiety in Relation to Generalized Anxiety Disorder”

Dan Cutting, honorable mention in Social Sciences II for “‘Rhythm Language’ Learning in 8-Month-Old Infants”

Ronna Banada, Charu Gupta and Ilyas Shaikh, honorable mention in Social Sciences II for “Identifying Joined and Unjoined English Letters”

Tracy Hensley, first place in Special Interdisciplinary Award for “Privete Wunderkammen, USC Archaeological Research Collection”

Steven Hood, first place in Special Interdisciplinary Award for “Interpreting Political Power in Iron Age Kingdoms in Anatolia”

Sonia Khurana and Talip Ucar, first place in Special Interdisciplinary Award for “Capturing Multimodal Patterns in Child-Machine Communication”