ACUR 2019

The 2019 Australasian Conference of Undergraduate Research was hosted by the University of Newcastle on 2 and 3 October in its downtown NewSpace building on Hunter Street.

Nearly one hundred student presentations took place in six concurrent streams, along with poster sessions. Sessions ranged from ‘Neuroscience’ and ‘The World of Plants’ to ‘Physical Fitness’ and ‘Gender and Sexuality’. Emeritus Professor Angela Brew, Jacob Ridgeway and Dr Dan Johnstone provided keynotes.

Thank you to Professor Liz Milward and the team of students who supported conference activities including registration, chairing, timing and judging of sessions.

Download the conference program and abstract booklet here.

See the conference video here.

See the conference photos here

AWARDS

Best Overall Combined Abstract and Oral Presentation – Alison Campbell University of Sydney The future is bright: investigating the properties of nanomaterials through single molecule spectroscopy.

Best Abstract – shared by Liam Bond University of Queensland Quantum thermalization and entanglement entropy in the Ising model and Zoe Stawyskyj University of Sydney Wormholes through neural time and space: the role of heavy-tailed transitive dynamics in memory retrieval.

Best Oral Presentation – Chanon Kachornvuthidij University of Queensland Developing technology design framework through co-design with people living with dementia.

Oral Presentation – Special Commendation – Nathan Jones University of Adelaide Pop Psych: the impact of music and lyrics on emotion.

Best Oral Presentation By An International Student – Kunal Mishra Nanyang Technological University, Singapore The identification of novel inhibitors against the deadliest malaria parasite, Plasmodium Falciparum.

Best Indigenous Oral Presentation – Jacob Ridgeway University of Newcastle Two part presentation: Part 1 Performance anxiety; Part 2 Protest songs.

Best Oral Presentation On An Indigenous Research Topic – Aninda Saha University of Queensland Indigenous language robot framework for improving robot-based teaching modalities of endangered individual languages.

Best Poster – Bianca Oliva Macquarie University Snacking with friends: does watching familiar content make you eat more?

Best Poster By An International Student – shared by Kerri Tang University of Alabama, USA Virtual-reality training enhances children’s working memory, processing speed and visual-spatial memory and Kenneth Davis University of Alabama, USA Electronegative clusters play an important role in the stability of proteins.

Best Email – James Santiago University of Queensland

BEST IN SESSION

MIND AND MENTAL STATES – Sophie Cornett Western Sydney University Can the perception of pain be turned on and off?

ENGINEERING THE FUTURE  – Alison Campbell University of Sydney The future is bright: investigating the properties of novel nanomaterials through single molecule spectroscopy.

MORPHING PERCEPTION – Nathan Jones University of Adelaide Pop psych: the impact of music and lyrics on emotion.

CANCER – Maggie Tong University of Sydney Using DNA to design a fluorescent sensor to quantify a platinum anticancer drug.

PHYSICAL FITNESS – Kim Abell Central Queensland University Physical activity behaviour: a dual process approach predicting health behaviour change.

SOCIOPOLITICS – AUS AND OS– Aoife Wilkinson University of Queensland Investigating Japanese nationality in Australia.

DRUGS – Bridgette Mackley University of Newcastle Oxycodone and mortality in older Australians in a community setting.

HARDCORE SCIENCE – Yinuo Han University of Sydney Highly anisotropic stellar winds in recently-identified Wolf-Rayet binary.

LANGUAGE, LITERACY AND EDUCATION – Lauren Maher Western Sydney University Children’s fiction in nineteenth-century Australian newspapers.

BLASTS FROM THE PAST – Jessica Cockerill University of Queensland What’s in a disclaimer? Subverted epistemologies in the Florentine Codex.

HEALTHCARE ACROSS THE LIFESPAN – Chanon Kachornvuthidej University of Queensland Developing technology design framework through co-design with people living with dementia.

A HEAD BY A NECK – Arya Rao University of Adelaide The multi-disciplinary management of dentofacial deformities; long face syndrome.

(SELF) HURTING BEHAVIOUR – Adam Horvath Macquarie University Predicting suicidal behaviour using machine learning in regards to borderline personality disorder.

NEUROSCIENCE – Zoe Stawyskyj University of Sydney Wormholes through neural time and space: the role of heavy-tailed transitive dynamics in memory retrieval.

INFECTION AND IMMUNITY – Kunal Mishra Nanyang Technological University, Singapore The identification of novel inhibitors against the deadliest malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum.

BIOCHEMISTRY – Nathan Burke University of Newcastle Acrylamide derived DNA damage in sperm and the ramifications on fertilisation and embryo development.

GENDER AND SEXUALITY – Adrian Cuerva Macquarie University Dominance and attractiveness of muscularity.

THE WORLD OF PLANTS – Benjamin Foster Western Sydney University Quantifying physiological drivers of forest flammability.