Tag: graduate student research

Graduate student research connects Wisconsin farmers to new ideas for land management

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On Honey Creek Farm in Green Lake County, there is a roughly eight-acre patch of wooded land in addition to the open pasture. Farmer Jim Quick raises grass-fed beef and is looking into a way to let his livestock graze the wooded part of his land while also revitalizing the woods. Quick has become interested in the managed integration of his livestock with trees and forage, known as silvopasture. Diane Mayerfeld and Keefe Keeley, both graduate students at UW–Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, study silvopasture and, in the course of their studies, share that knowledge with farmers across Wisconsin.

Good chemistry: Protecting lakes and streams with natural chemical compounds

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As a graduate student, Sarah Balgooyen has researched phenolic contaminants and their presence in water systems. Phenolic contaminants such as BPA – the chemical commonly known from plastic water bottles – enter lakes and streams where they harm the ecosystem. Other phenolic compounds often come from pharmaceuticals or personal care products. Balgooyen focuses on a mechanism that could help break down these chemicals before they reach the ecosystems at all: oxidation by manganese oxide.

Collecting data on kids’ environments and health

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Researchers use all sorts of methods to collect their data. For one project on campus, that method takes the form of a cute, animal-shaped backpack. Graduate student Amy Schultz specializes in environmental epidemiology, which studies how environmental factors affect human health at the population level. She is a leading research assistant on a project called CREATE: Cumulative Risks, Early Development, and Emerging Academic Trajectories.

Astrophysical discovery rekindles excitement among researchers

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Deep in the ice beneath the South Pole, an array of sensors in the IceCube detector picked up on something in September 2017 that hinted at a solution to a centuries-old mystery. In the following months, a team of international scientists including a number of UW-Madison graduate students scrutinized everything they knew about the cosmic event. They arrived at the conclusion that the subatomic, ghostly particle called a neutrino that entered the detector had come from a specific type of galaxy, far away from Earth.

Graduate degree bolsters clinician’s research into preventing blindness

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The technology for an eye specialist to review a picture of a patient’s eye taken miles away to screen for eye disease has been around for decades. Yet, less than half of Wisconsin adults with diabetes, who are particularly vulnerable to vision-threatening diseases, get annual eye screenings. Yao Liu, MD, an assistant professor in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, has been working to increase access to this technology.

Stem Cells @ 20: Students find inspiration, support in UW–Madison’s stem cell community

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When Kaivalya Molugu was considering graduate schools, she knew she was interested in stem cell research, but she had to decide where to apply. The answer soon became clear: the place where it all began. One of the main reasons she chose UW–Madison “is the strong stem cell research center here,” says Molugu.

Reimagining computer science education

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When Adalbert Gerald Soosai Raj came to UW–Madison for a master’s degree in Computer Sciences, he was surprised by the number of questions in the classroom. Why, he wondered, was it so different than his native India, where conversations were one-way and students rarely asked questions? The possibilities Soosai Raj is exploring to that end promise new directions for computer science education.

Translating raw data into insight

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Niko Escanilla was drawn from his background in mathematics to graduate study in artificial intelligence and machine learning because he was looking for a discipline that could be applied in real world and clinical settings. As a graduate student in Computer Sciences, Escanilla had the chance to put those techniques to work as a research assistant on a UW2020-funded project, assessing variables that can predict the risk of breast cancer.

Archiving today’s culture for tomorrow’s researchers, through podcasts

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When Samuel Hansen started producing podcasts about mathematics and science, it was possible for a small, independent podcast like Hansen’s to rank in the country’s top 60 most popular shows. Now, the top charts are dominated by network-produced podcasts, a change that has taken place in the last 10 years alone – but not the last the world of podcasting will see. To preserve podcasts as they are now, and archive the changes within them, a project at UW–Madison is dedicated to making today’s podcasts available well into the future.

Taking a hands-on approach to catalyst research

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To Keishla Rivera-Dones, chemical engineering is about more than dealing with chemical reactions; it’s about understanding the building blocks of everything. A PhD student at UW–Madison in the Dumesic and Huber Research Groups, Rivera-Dones works with supported metal catalysts and applies them to promote and improve the efficiency of chemical reactions.