UNA hosted Research Day in the GUC banquet halls April 8-9. There were 35 student presentations throughout the two days.

UNA student Alex Edwards, who presented his research on analytical solutions to the cubic equation, said research is very important for students.

“I think it is very fundamental,” he said. “I think undergraduate research is something that needs to be strengthened at all universities.”

The turnout received a mixture of feedback as some were pleased with it, while others were disappointed.

“Turnout has been rather well,” Edwards said.

Katie Melching was one of those who was disappointed by the turnout.

“(Attendance) hasn’t been as good as I expected it to be,” she said. “I think a lot of the students are here because they have to be here for a class.”

Lisa Keys-Mathews, director of the Quality Enhancement Plan, was pleased with the turnout and presentations but wants to improve upon the numbers next year.

“I don’t think I could be more pleased,” she said. “We have had faculty members bring entire classes in. I would like to shoot for twice as many presentations and twice as much traffic next year.”

In the second year of this event, Keys-Matthews believes comfort has been very important in the improvement of the event.

“I think that students are becoming more comfortable with presenting research, and I think faculty is becoming more comfortable with helping students with research,” she said.

Melching enjoyed seeing the other departments’ research and meeting some of the professors from the other departments.

“I think it is really neat to see how different departments across campus are doing research and what their research interests are,” she said. “It is cool meeting professors from other departments that I would have not usually met.”

There are also improvements to be made to the Research Days.

“I want to get community members involved more,” Keys-Matthews said.

Edwards would like to see professors help get students into the banquet halls to see the research.

“I think an improvement would be letting class out for a day and making students write a one-paragraph summary of what they read,” Edwards said.

Edwards has also realized the unique situation UNA is in when it comes to research.

“We have a very unique situation here where we don’t have a huge graduate program, but we have a bunch of Ph.D. professors that are very capable of doing a lot of research and are able to have one-on-ones with undergraduate students, and I think that is a great opportunity for the university,” he said.