Honors Program celebrates 2013 graduates and "ones to watch" in 2014

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Sheela Sharma, (808) 956-7492
Education Specialist, Honors and UROP
Terry Hunt, (808) 956-5404
Director, Honors Program and Chair, Undergraduate Research Opportunities Council
Posted: May 14, 2013

The University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Honors Program, in conjunction with the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), is proud to celebrate the 55 members of the Class of 2013 who graduated with honors last weekend.  The number of undergraduates participating in the Honors Program has steadily increased in recent years, up from 188 students in 2010 to nearly 800 students today.

Honors Program students and funding recipients of UROP recently presented their research in a competitive forum called the Spring Symposium.  The winning posters and presentations from the Spring Symposium are listed below, along with the best presentations from the spring Proposal Conference for new research work to be conducted during the 2013-2014 academic year.

Many of the research topics selected by UH Mānoa undergraduates for the 2013-2014 academic year are highly relevant to local community issues, including research proposals to: complete the first complete survey of Kaua‘i’s coral reefs in more than 30 years; study anti-obesity health benefits of traditional Hawaiian foods; and address issues of community engagement and homelessness in Thomas Square Park, among other diverse topics.

Follow the “ones to watch” and other Honors Program and UROP news throughout the year at: honors.hawaii.edu and manoa.hawaii.edu/UROP.


2013 Spring Symposium Award Winners (for research conducted during 2012-2013)

Natural Sciences
Reid Oshiro: “Monitoring Fluorescently-labeled MinCDE and FtsZ Localization in Dividing and Differentiating Heterocyst Cells in Anabaena” (presentation)
Roberto Rodriguez: “Kava Espresso Machine Design, Analysis and Optimization” (poster – tie)
Jiayu Tu: “An Assessment of Using the Prevailing Trade Winds to Generate Power at the Quarry Site of Grace Pacific in Kapolei” (poster – tie)

Social Sciences
Austin Simpson: “Implicit and Explicit Recognition in Eyewitness Testimony:  Evidence for Response Facilitation and Inhibition in Subliminal Priming” (presentation)
Andrea Hidano:  “Tracking the Exotic:  Changes in Pictorial Representations of Hawai‘i Women in Paradise of the Pacific and Honolulu Magazines” (poster)

Arts and Humanities
Chelsea Sassone:  “We’re All Stories in the End:  The Fairy Tale as a Lexicon of Popular Culture” (presentation)
Madison Brittingham:  “Box Car Door” (poster)


2013 Proposal Conference Award Winners (for the best proposals pitching new research to be completed in 2013-2014)

Natural Sciences
Daniella Orias:  “Anti-obesity Mechanisms of Mormodica charantia (Bitter Melon)” (presentation)
Francesca Koethe:  “The Resurveying of the Kaua‘i Marine Environment:  Views from the Locals and Kupuna” (poster)

Social Sciences
Claire Yakabe:  “Les Mots du Communisme:  The Impact of Language and Image on Communism during the 1978 French Legislative Elections” (presentation)
Christopher Saki:  “Quantifying the Relationship between Microfinance and Socioeconomic Development” (poster)

Arts and Humanities
Keanuenue Gannet:  “Helping the Tzu Chi Foundation Open a Full-time Bilingual School in Hawai‘i” (presentation)
Marika Wilson: “Free Square:  Community Engagement and Exchange in Thomas Square Park” (poster)

For more information, visit: http://www.honors.hawaii.edu/