Honors Houses

Dr. Emily Allen
Full Bio

Join the research team for the JMHC History Project, which will create and publish the history of the college for our 10th anniversary in Fall 2023. Student researchers will engage in every aspect of the project: collecting written and oral histories; videography; digital publishing; collecting and analyzing material artifacts; print manuscript research, writing, design, and publication. Students will participate in the final production of all deliverables and will finish the 2022-23 year as part of a publication team.

Learn valuable skills; work on a team; meet recent alums; create the history of your own college.

Metal Fact: Titanium has the highest strenth-to-densty ratio of any metal.

Dr. Cara Putman
Full Bio

Students will have the opportunity to work with Professor Cara Putman and Dr. Kelly Blanchard to analyze a dataset that has been created over four years related to undergraduate students and their impressions of ethics and education. Some examples of the potential layers of analysis include comparing results across colleges, between student populations like academic year, home residence, age, and gender. We’ve analyzed much of the data related to the School of Management but have a wealth of opportunities to dig deeper and welcome you to our research group. 

Metal Fact: Palladium is a silver-white, noble metal and is named for the asteroid Pallas, which was itself named after the mythological giant slain by pallas athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom.

Dr. Laura Schwab-Reese
Full Bio

My team focuses on how technology can be used to prevent and interrupt violence. There are two primary studies. First, we are working with Childhelp Inc, a national nonprofit, to identify how to talk to young people seeking maltreatment-related support and information. Second, in partnership with the Anti-Defamation League and faculty at Georgia Tech, we are developing algorithms to identify misinformation on social media, then developing interventions that will interrupt its spread. Students on this team will learn about violence prevention, qualitative and qualitative data analysis, and intervention development. No previous research experience is required, but students need to be interested in the topic and able to work independently.

Learn valuable skills; work on a team; meet recent alums; create the history of your own college.

Metal Fact: Titanium has the highest strenth-to-densty ratio of any metal.

Dr. Olga Senicheva
Full Bio

COVID-19 had a severe impact on the supply chains around the world. Both, the demand and the supply sides, have suffered due to uncertainties caused by the pandemic. Many companies have faced shortages and delays. In turn, the consumers have had longer lead times and less product variety. Some essential products like face masks and toilet paper became scarce. While the lack of face masks was mostly caused by insufficient supply, the shortage of toilet paper was a result of panic-buying. In this study, the students will study the toilet paper supply chain, analyze the impact COVID-19 had on various supply chains, position the pandemic among other disruptions in the past and sum up the best practices of companies’ risk management to deal with the disruptions. One of the project deliverables will be a simulation board game based on the toilet paper supply chain that should help other people to understand the issues that companies face in the event of a disruption like COVID-19 and learn how to mitigate such events. The second part of the project focuses on the analysis of consumers’ behavior during the disruption. The students will conduct some behavioral experiments to understand how and at what degree the consumer behavior like panic-buying impacts the supply chains. As an output, the students should make a proposal how companies could add customer buying behavior into the supply chain management decision process related to the risk preparation, mitigation and response.

Metal Fact: Copper was the first metal used by human. It has a unique reddish color and a high melting point (more than 1,900 degrees F)

Dr. Jeffrey Gerber

My research is focused on stellar evolution and stellar abundances, particularly relating to old stars similar in mass to our Sun. I study these stars using observations made with a spectrograph, which is an instrument mounted to a telescope that works like a prism to disperse the light of the star based on its wavelength and create a stellar spectrum. We then analyze the patterns we see in the spectra through modeling done on a computer to determine the abundances present in the stars’ atmospheres. I have various projects ready for an undergraduate to start working on immediately (with data already collected) as well as plans for future projects involving conducting observations with the help of student researchers. Some of the projects with data already collected include determining heavy element abundances (Sr, Eu, Ba, etc.) in old, evolved stars in a stellar cluster and measuring how C and N changes in evolved stars in a different cluster. I’m also open to working on any project an undergraduate may have in mind that is related to the field of stellar spectroscopy or that uses any of the widely available public data from recent astronomical surveys such as Gaia.Addressing Food Insecurity in Tippecanoe County

Dr. Jennifer Hall
Full Bio

In partnership with Food Finders Food Bank, this research team will plan, implement, and evaluate an intervention aimed at increasing community members’ ability and knowledge of how to incorporate common items available at food pantries such as dried beans and canned meats into their diets. The project will begin with a needs assessment of both Food Finders staff, volunteers, and patrons. Based on the needs assessment the team will design an intervention, implement the intervention, and assess the success of the intervention in order to determine the success of the intervention and to make needed changes to increase the intervention’s success. This project is very hands-on, and team members will have direct experience with Food Finders and community members involved with Food Finders. Students from all majors who have an interest in community health, assessment, food insecurity, message design, and community service are welcome.

Metal Fact: A rare metal, platinum is highly malleable and ductile. Its extraordinary resistance to corrosion makes it one of the noble metals.