Dec 12
Nov 22
Apr 05, 2019
ACADEMIC SHOWCASE –Students and faculty mingle during last year’s senior research symposium at Lake Superior State University. This year more than 100 students from dozens of majors will share their results in a campus-wide poster session 3-5:00 p.m. on April 12 in LSSU’s Taffy Abel ice arena. A senior thesis is the capstone experience for most students at LSSU. Students choose a topic, design a study, collect and analyze the data, write a thesis and present the information to the university community and interested members of the public. (LSSU/John Shibley)
Lake Superior State University invites the public to come see what kind of work its students have been doing, with the fifth annual university-wide senior symposium in the university’s Taffy Abel Ice Arena, 3-5:00 p.m. on April 12.
Seniors from dozens of disciplines will share research posters set up throughout the arena and offer visitors personized briefings.
A senior thesis is the capstone experience for most students at LSSU. Students choose a topic, design a study, collect and analyze the data, write a thesis and present the information to the university community and interested members of the public.
Projects typically take an entire year for the students to design and complete, and often address practical issues within their areas of study.
The senior thesis experience is one aspect of LSSU that greatly sets it apart from undergraduate programs at other universities, whether it’s pure research or collaborations with businesses, organizations, and agencies.
An example is some ambitious software solutions developed by computer science students for the Department of Natural Resources and the Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District (EUPISD).
Jared Boucha (Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.) and Benjamin Kamper (Pickford, Mich.) developed an integrated room reservation and event planning system for the EUPISD. It includes date, time, room and equipment reservations, and food ordering. The system uses email to coordinate requestors, attendees, and EUPISD staff, along with automatic reminders. It was implemented under Microsoft Office 365 and Sharepoint.
The team of Connor Kintz (Brutus, Mich.), Nicholas Pung (Indian River, Mich.), and Spencer Zulski (Harbor Springs, Mich.) developed apps for both Androids and iPhones to collect fish survey data (e.g. species, lengths, weights, etc.) by fisheries technicians and researchers in the field. The apps organize and store collected data for transfer to a network repository and database.
“We invite the Sault community members to see what our students do, which may lead to ideas that could tie senior projects to help local companies and organizations,” says Gregory Zimmerman, professor of biology and one of the event organizers. “Prospective students can also see what they could be doing while at LSSU.”
Admission is free and open to the public. High school students are strongly urged to come. For more information, contact Greg Zimmerman at (906) 635-2470 or by e-mail.