The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) recently held a special celebration recognizing this year’s Dean’s Award for Research Excellence (DARE) winners. Forty-seven recipients presented their research projects, which were completed over the summer under the supervision of LA&PS professors, through creative posters.
“DARE is such an innovative and impactful initiative for LA&PS,” said LA&PS Dean J.J. McMurtry. “It provides a unique opportunity to foster collaboration between faculty members and our brightest students in ways that will impact both for years after the program. Further, our students develop and refine research capacities, which will serve them well in their future endeavours.”
LA&PS launched DARE to provide opportunities for undergraduate students to engage in faculty-supervised research. Students each received $5,000 for their work over a four-month period.
This year’s research projects spanned a wide range of topics such as infection health-care, waste management in Africa, the exploration of Canadian identities, discussions on democracy, global citizenship, immigration and mining in Jamaica, and more.
“Through DARE, students receive early exposure to research, enhancing their undergraduate journey and equipping them for a future full of possibilities,” said Ravi de Costa, associate dean of research and graduate studies at LA&PS. “LA&PS truly fosters a diverse culture of research, and you can see that showcased in these superb projects.”
At the celebration event, the Faculty also awarded prizes for most creative and innovative poster. Olivia Carstensen in the Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics received this year’s award for best poster for her project titled “Exploring Turkic Vowel Harmony.” Honourable mentions were given to Osman Berk Er in the School of Information Technology for his project called “Improving River Flow Predictions with Diverse Data Inputs” and to Jessica Lappin from the Writing Department for her project titled “First Steps for Building a New Canadian Book Publishing Press.”
See the full list of 2024 DARE recipients in the winner’s gallery.
Originally published in YFile.