Undergraduate researchers take home top prizes

While research is commonly reserved as the focus of graduate studies, the undergraduate students at Lassonde are getting an early start with their fresh approach to research projects. 

On August 19, 2015, undergraduate students from a number of faculties at York University gathered at Lassonde to present their research projects to the judges. The NSERC undergraduate summer research awards gives students the opportunity to not only have hands-on experience with research methodology but also to discover how fascinating and rewarding the world of research can be.

2015 was also the first year for Lassonde’s very own LURA (Lassonde Undergraduate student Award) program, supporting undergraduate research exclusively from Lassonde students. The program emerged from a need to support undergraduate students and a demonstrated demand for paid research internships. The pilot program produced innovative research results and will be renewed next year for bright minds.

From physics to psychology, York University students conducted wide-ranging research projects under the supervision of faculty members. The projects were judged based on research background, methodology, results and conclusions.

Professor Pouya Rezai of the Mechanical Engineering department at Lassonde supervised Boris Barron during his summer of learning and development of a new technique. His project, “Development of a Multi-Size Monodispersed Microdroplet Generation & Sorting Device” has implications for disease diagnosis and drug discovery.

In the future LURA and NSERC awards will continue to support undergraduate research initiatives from Lassonde’s growing number of creative thinkers.

For more photos of the event, visit the Lassonde Facebook page.