UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The 2022 Undergraduate Exhibition for Research, Inquiry, and Creative Activity earlier this month featured the hard work of 282 undergraduate researchers from across Penn State.
Held virtually for three days from April 6 to 8, the final day of the exhibition saw students, faculty, staff and visitors gathered in person for two hours in the HUB-Robeson Center. The Penn State Undergraduate Exhibition hasn’t been held in person since 2019, when many graduating seniors were in their first or second year.
“It’s fantastic to be back in person with our undergraduate research community,” said Associate Vice President and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Alan Rieck, as the exhibition floor in Alumni Hall buzzed with activity on April 8.
Although COVID disrupted research opportunities and academic exhibitions alike, Rieck said students stepped up under adverse pandemic circumstances and continued to pursue research and inquiry opportunities. Rieck also praised the work of faculty in providing research opportunities, sometimes in difficult circumstances.
“It’s a testament to our incredible faculty that we had so many students conducting research during the pandemic,” he said. “They stepped up to make sure students had access to opportunities. They are changing students’ lives in the process.”
All presenters participated in the virtual part of the exhibition, and the format allowed students from 16 different campuses to easily present their research in poster presentations, oral presentations, performances, or as part of the Engagement Exhibition, which is supported by the Student Engagement Network.
New this year was the addition of the Business and Entrepreneurship category, whose entrants included Vanshika Madaan and her presentation on “Challenges in Corporate Sustainability.” Madaan, of New Delhi, India, is a senior set to graduate in May with a degree in community, environment and development from the College of Agricultural Sciences.
Her research delves into the challenges companies are facing to become more sustainable environmentally and socially. She also is working to discover the skills students should focus on to work in the field of corporate sustainability.
“This is a really fast-emerging field and there is no straight and defined path towards sustainability,” Madaan said in her presentation.
Madaan explained in an interview that while she has long been passionate about climate change, she originally never planned to get involved in the business world. But when she realized how much power and influence corporations had, she became interested in learning about their efforts to become sustainable.
“The one thing I appreciate the most about doing research in this area is how applicable and relevant it is to our generation and our world today,” Madaan said. “Doing research in this field can lead to creating solutions that can help companies to make their business model more sustainable in the long term — environmentally, economically and socially. This can lead to making a positive and much-needed impact in our world.”
Madaan began her project in summer 2021 by researching sustainability reports from various companies. She then conducted interviews with key personnel from Hershey, PepsiCo and Nestlé and compiled the information during the fall 2021 semester to ready herself for a final presentation.
Autumn Mueller, a senior political science major in the College of the Liberal Arts and Schreyer Honors College, began last fall to research U.S. states’ approach to the death penalty. In looking at states that have abolished the death penalty from 2000-20, Mueller was interested in why a state voted to abolish (with her hypothesis that more liberal states were more likely to abolish the death penalty) and how the decisions of neighboring states affected a legislature’s decision.
“A lot of times with policies, states have a tendency to learn from each other and copy each other, especially their neighbors,” Mueller explained. “However, the literature says that with the death penalty, states aren't as likely to do what their neighbors do.”
While Mueller did find that states that abolished the death penalty were still clumped together geographically (Virginia joined its neighbors West Virginia and Maryland in tossing out the death penalty in 2021), there seemed to be a more ideological reasoning when state legislatures took up the issue.
Mueller said she started the research for her poster, “The Diffusion of Abolishing the Death Penalty Among the American States from 2000 to 2020,” because she is interested in laws and how they vary by states.
The Undergraduate Exhibition wouldn’t be possible without the help of volunteer judges of Penn State faculty, staff, graduate students and community members — all with backgrounds in doctoral-level research. Being able to communicate research to different audiences is considered an essential part of the research journey. Judges help to give students a benchmark of their overall presentation.
“We had a smaller number of judges this year, but the ones who volunteered really stepped up to make the exhibition possible,” Rieck said. “We are sincerely thankful to those who volunteered their time to improve our research community.”
Based on scoring feedback from judges, event organizers will announce the winners of prizes across nine different categories later this month. Some prizes come with cash awards.
The Undergraduate Exhibition is coordinated by Penn State Undergraduate Education.