For release: April 5, 2013
News and Media Relations contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 (office), 615-785-1196
(cell) or Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu
MURFREESBORO — While
MTSU recording industry major and commercial songwriter Kristen Brassel was
belting out four bluesy and folksy ballads Friday afternoon in a tent inside
Murphy Center, more than 300 student peers were showcasing their research.
It was all a part of the university-wide Scholars Day, which
concluded the five-day MTSU Scholars Week.
Across the way on the Murphy Center track, Cody Hazelwood
had the assistance of a robot to explain his research: “Designing, Building and
Testing a Low-Cost Autonomous Search and Rescue Robot Featuring Smartphone
Surveillance and Control.”
Closer to the performance tent, Michael Floyd, a second-year
master’s in biology student who plans to graduate in May, provided one of the
most unique research projects.
Floyd is in an early Phase 1 exploration of using Chinese
herbal extracts that inhibit the growth of trapyson, which causes African
sleeping sickness.
“It’s a great project,” Floyd said. “The results have turned
out fantastic (so far).”
Floyd said from 30,000 to 500,000 people die annually from
the disease, which is transmitted by the tsetse fly, and eight to 10 people die
after receiving an arsenic-based treatment currently used.
Brassel, a senior from Grenada, Miss., sang to a small but
appreciative audience. She said she is used to playing to small crowds.
“I love a small audience,” Brassel said. “I play for waiters
and people packing up every night.” She added that she has performed at
Nashville’s famous Bluebird Café and Murfreesboro’s 3 Brothers. She sang four
songs she said she wrote and played her acoustic Martin guitar.
When asked about Scholars Day and Scholars Weeks, Brassel
said, “Being in recording industry, I forget what’s on campus. I haven’t gotten
to see everything (here today), but this is amazing to see.”
Todd Gary, recently hired as a part-time consultant and
grant writer for the Office of Research, summed up the day perfectly.
“This is a fantastic time for students to share and showcase
all of the work that they have put into it, all of the genius and scholarship,”
he said. “This is the equivalent of a concert to a musician or a book signing
to an author. This the culmination of all of their hard work and a very
significant day.”
More than 300 undergraduate and graduate student posters,
the presenters and many of their faculty mentors were selected. In addition to
the musical and poetic performers, there was undergraduate and graduate
multimedia, faculty research posters, and booths for centers, institutes and
programs on campus.
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MTSU is committed to developing a
community devoted to learning, growth and service. We hold these values dear,
and there’s a simple phrase that conveys them: “I am True Blue.” Learn more at www.mtsu.edu/trueblue.
For MTSU news any time, visit
www.MTSUNews.com.
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