August 17, 2015

Undergraduate researchers find the UW to be an awesome “summer camp”

Each summer, when campus is quieter and Mt. Rainier is out more often, undergraduates from the University of Washington and from universities across the country participate in the UW version of a wonderful childhood tradition: summer camp. The UW, however, is quite a bit techier than the thin-walled, mossy-roofed cabins of yore.

Here, the hum, buzz and whir of high tech lab equipment replaces the song of the mosquito; lab coats are worn instead of polar fleece; and student researchers’ “camp counselors” are faculty members whose interests push the boundaries of innovation and contribute to a world of good.

This summer, more than 120 undergraduates brought their innovation mindsets and drive to discover to faculty research projects across campus. The projects varied from understanding pain to better alleviate it, to photonics, genome sciences, engineering and more.

New programs bring new opportunities for undergraduates

Of particular note is a new program in which undergraduate researchers are better understanding and contributing to the alleviation of pain. Millions of people in the US alone suffer from debilitating chronic pain. In the new Innovations in Pain Research Summer Program, students work alongside doctors and researchers from UW Medicine to better understand pain and treatment mechanisms, develop new therapies and improve access to evidence-based pain care.

Rising senior Alta Steward worked with Dr. Kushang V. Patel from the Department of Anesthesiology conducting epidemiology research with an emphasis on chronic pain and cellular aging. “Many older people suffer from chronic pain, and chronic pain has been linked to early death,” explains Stewart. “By looking at the relationship between cellular age and pain, we hope to shed light on what factors lead to earlier death and what can be done to combat these.”

This project is the first research project Stewart, a mathematics and neurobiology double-major, has worked on. She “had no idea what to expect going into this experience and had never even thought of doing epidemiology research before. I realized within the first week that this was a really great fit for me and I am thrilled to be able to continue this research in the coming year.”

Tom Gebert, a rising senior in neurobiology, researched different aspects of pain in children. In one study, he and his fellow researchers “analyzed a national database to study pediatric pain patients and subsequent development of psychiatric disorders in adulthood.” In the project he’ll present at the August 19 symposium, the team studied trends in opiod prescriptions in children, adolescents and their family members over 15 years. Given the high potential for misusing opiod prescriptions, results from this study could guide future studies and clinical practices around opiod use.

Even though Gebert has participated in undergraduate research for two years, he says that this summer’s projects have been “an incredible experience to be able to peek further into the world of academic research, and it is encouraging to see that with enough passion and drive there are opportunities to pursue just about any intellectual curiosity.”

The Innovations in Pain Research project is funded by a gift from Scan Design to the Department of Anesthesiology, which, in turn, is collaborating with the Undergraduate Research Program.

Another new opportunity for undergraduates is a collaboration with the UW’s CoMotion. Students in the CoMotion Mary Gates Innovation Scholars program spent the summer interning with faculty-led initiatives to create real-world impact from University research. Students work alongside UW teams in bringing discoveries to the marketplace and extend their classroom-based work into the realms of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Undergraduate research opportunities abound in the summer

In addition to these research opportunities, students are making advances in faculty-led research in organic chemistry, materials science and engineering, physics, electrical engineering, chemical synthesis, and more. Undergraduates are finding research opportunities in such programs as Hooked on Photonics, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Exceptional Research Opportunities Program, and the Center for Selective C-H Functionalization as well as others across campus.

The Undergraduate Research Program supports students in these summer research programs through advising, by building a community of researchers, and facilitating the application process to connect students and faculty researchers.