IDEA Grants

My name is Sam Greenhut, and I am a junior at Florida State University. I am 20 years old and grew up in Jacksonville, Florida. College has been a time where I have been able to explore both academic interests and hobbies that I care about, and a surprising amount of those hobbies involve animalsContinue reading “Sam Greenhut: Animal Caregiver to Suicide Prevention Researcher”

This project represents an exciting opportunity to apply my background in biochemistry to a meaningful area of biomedical research while developing new technical and professional skills. As a senior biochemistry major at Florida State University, I am eager to contribute to a project investigating the early synaptic and cytoskeletal changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease. BecauseContinue reading “Lyons Buckley: Expanding your Research Skillset”

In my research project with Lyons Buckley, I am excited to learn more about Alzheimer’s disease pathology, and the role synaptic stability and plasticity has in resisting key features of Alzheimer’s. Neuroscience is a relatively new subject to me, as I just started taking neuroscience classes as electives in addition to my regular biochemistry courseworkContinue reading “Isabella Minderman: Alzheimer’s Disease and Synaptic Stability”

My name is Anna Garufo, and I am going into my final year at Florida State University as a double major in Studio Art and Literature, Media, and Culture. Over this past semester, I have been immersing myself in the art of botanical illustration for my Advanced Painting and Advanced Drawing classes. More specifically, orchidsContinue reading “Anna Garufo: In Vitro Illustrations of Orchids”

Hello! My name is Edith Santos, and I am a Studio Art major in the BFA program at Florida State University! As a daughter to immigrant parents, my body of work centers on Mexican labor in the United States to highlight the opportunities and challenges immigrants take on after crossing the border to support theirContinue reading “Edith Santos: Migration, Storytelling, and Self-Reflection”

A woman called Dorothea Dix began touring American prisons with a notebook in the 1840s. What she discovered were horrific conditions – incarcerated people chained, beaten, neglected – and people with mental illnesses and disabilities in prison for no reason at all. Dix took it upon herself to lobby the Massachusetts government and draw attentionContinue reading “Exploring Female Mental Illness in the Florida Prison System”

Hello! My name is Kayla Joiner and I am a senior majoring in Psychology. During my time at FSU, I have become involved in research and mental health organizations. In my first year, I conducted a UROP project examining how living in the South impacts the identity development of LGBTQ+ individuals.  Currently, I work asContinue reading “Kayla Joiner: Social Media Exposure and Beauty Ideals”

Hello! I am Kennedy Milton, an undergraduate student working towards completing my Honors In the Major (HITM) project. I am currently Communication Science and Disorders major! When I came into college, I already knew that this was the field that I wanted to go into, initially hoping to work inside of schools as a speechContinue reading “Kennedy Milton: Credibility and Perceptions of Language”

Last night I got around 3 hours of sleep right before my statistics exam this morning. “Why might this information be relevant?”, you may be asking. That’s because I SHOULD KNOW BETTER!!! My research is on how sleep deprivation affects the hippocampus which is the part of the brain that helps with the formation ofContinue reading “Kishon Maddipati: Discoverying the Mysteries Behind Sleep”

As my parents’ careers as classical musicians led to frequent long-distance uprooting to follow necessary employment opportunities, my childhood became defined by a looming, uncertain question: where will I end up next? The chaotic instability of sustained transience has irreversibly shaped my personal and artistic identity, leaving me with a feeling of fragmentation that bleedsContinue reading “Liana Rieger: Sustained Transcience”

Hello reader! My name is Victoria Montalvo, but I prefer to go by Vicky. I am a third year undergraduate student at FSU studying Cell and Molecular Neuroscience. I am on the pre-medical track, and have been involved in other CRE programs like UROP, Global Scholars, iGEM, and now IDEA Grants! I am very fortunateContinue reading “Victoria Montalvo: A Developing Research Career in Heart-based and Neurodegenerative Diseases”

I am Casey Jewett, a second-year double majoring in Studio Art and Chemistry. I am a visual artist focused on painting and ceramics. For the last year I have been working on a series of paintings and sculptures that are a reaction to feeling haunted by the deaths of my grandparents. When they died, IContinue reading “Casey Jewett: Exploring Family History and Death through Art”

Hello everyone,  My name is Jonathan Michel, and I am a senior at Florida State University majoring in Cell and Molecular Neuroscience on the pre-med track. I am truly honored to be selected as one of this year’s IDEA Grant Awardees. Alongside my research partner, Copeland Frazee, I will be working on nutrition and brain health in older adults.  Continue reading “Jonathan Michel: Nutrition Research and the Human Brain”

Hello! My name is Lauren, and I am currently a third-year student here at FSU, where I am majoring in Biology and minoring in Geology. I’m from Tampa, Florida, where I was born and raised with my parents, older sister, and Havanese-breed dog, Chip. Besides classes and research, I love making time to journal, bake,Continue reading “Lauren Yoakum: Paleobiology, Geology and Clarinet”

Every life is slated for a non-zero amount of suffering. Much of it is banal (a wounded knee or mild social rejection) but some is deeply painful and, in many cases, irreversible, like the loss of a loved one. But in the midst of that suffering, the relationships we have with other people can softenContinue reading “Nilaja Grant: Oxytocin and Consolation”

My name is Lucas David Gonzalez, and I am a filmmaker at Florida State University focused on telling human stories through cinematic worldbuilding, no matter the scale. My work is influenced by my background growing up in Maracaibo, Venezuela, before immigrating to the United States at a young age, an experience that shaped my understandingContinue reading “Lucas David Gonzalez: A Film of Our Dark Future”

Hello! My name is Ariana Chu, and I am a second-year psychology major on a pre-medical track. I am from South Florida and have lived there my entire life, until moving to Tallahassee. The research topic I chose was an expansion upon the field research I conducted in my freshman year of college for myContinue reading “Arianna Chu: Burnout among Inpatient Hospital Workers”

My name is Jordyn Bain, and I am currently a third-year student studying International Affairs and Economics on a pre-law track. I am in the process of completing an Honors in the Major Project. I began my research in the fall, and with the support of the IDEA Grant program and my research mentor, IContinue reading “Jordyn Bain: Developing Policy Recommendations to Combat Human Trafficking”

Hi! My name is Matthew Baca, and I’m an Exercise Physiology major at Florida State University on the pre-med track. I’ve always been interested in medicine, especially because of my love for sports growing up. Over time, that interest has expanded beyond athletics into a broader passion for understanding how the body works and howContinue reading “Matthew Baca: Mindfulness and Hypertension”

Hi! My name is Copeland Frazee, and I am a sophomore at Florida State University.This summer, I will be working on an IDEA Grant research project that focuses on a simple, yet important idea: how does what we eat impact how we think, move, and age.  My partner, Jonathan, and I will be looking atContinue reading “Copeland Frazee: Integrative Science for Healthy Aging”

The research that Amber and I spent the last few months on has the potential to revolutionize the insurance industry. Our models could significantly speed up damage assessment after disaster events and even improve the everyday assessment experience by eliminating the need for a physical assessor to visit a homeowner’s residence. While we’re making incrementalContinue reading “Jas Chawla: Drone Damage Assessment”

As the pieces that make my body of work finally come together, I find it useful to return to the heart of my research as well as the artists and writers who inspired me in the first place. In her 2016 book Staying With the Trouble, author Donna Haraway emphasizes the importance of creativity andContinue reading “Approaching Completion and Looking Forward: Conversations in Art, Technology, and Wildlife”

Hello again, and thank you for following along on my research journey! I’m excited to share some updates on my study exploring the sleep quality of postmenopausal women. After months of planning and preparation, we’ve finally reached the data collection phase. So far, we’ve successfully recruited four women into the study, and they are currentlyContinue reading “Sleeping Better, Living Better: Why My Research Gives Me Hope”

As a student researcher, I have found deep meaning and purpose in the work I’ve been involved with throughout my undergraduate career. With women’s health research historically underrepresented compared to research on men, my passion for this field has only grown as I’ve come to better understand its direct impact on the lives of women.Continue reading “Exercise, Metabolism, and Menopause: My Role in Women’s Health Research”

Hello again! It’s hard to believe it’s almost the start of a new school year. Summer has gone by fast, but it’s been definitely been productive. Data collection at the clinic continues to go well, and we have even started conducting some preliminary data analysis. We are excited to continue data collection over the courseContinue reading “Claire Sullivan: Waiting With Intention: Bringing Mindfulness to a Free Clinic Waiting Room”

Since my last blog post, I have completed the most exciting part of my IDEA Grant journey, my research trip. I travelled first to Washington, D.C., to visit the History of Computer Cartography and Geographic Information Sciences Archive at the Library of Congress for five days, then to Philadelphia for the Ian McHarg Collection atContinue reading “Flora Domitrovic: My Research Trip and Beginning the Writing Process”

This month has been an eventful one for us. We already have a basic model that can detect damaged windows reasonably well; however, this alone isn’t sufficient to achieve our broader goal of drone-based damage assessment. To move closer to that goal, we decided to revisit the dataset used to train the original model andContinue reading “Jas Chawla: Professional Labelers”

As I reflect on the second month of my project, there is one word that continues to come up in my mind: noise. I have plenty of literature that is guiding my work, a great working relationship with my mentor, but the noise continues to sound loudly through the numbers. I am not speaking aboutContinue reading “Miguel Arceo: Controlling the Noise within the Numbers”

The rehearsal process was where I found the most challenges in this project. The concept, logistics, working with designers, and even running the show itself had their unique hurdles, but rehearsal was the largest part where I was continuously navigating different obstacles. As I mentioned in a previous post, this project operates within a moreContinue reading “Max Allen: Rehearsal is the Hardest Part”

As technology advances, so has the prevalence of 3D printing. The ease of sending a design file to a printer is unrivaled, and the new possibility of creating complex structures is revolutionary compared to age-old construction techniques. However, as humanity innovates, the waste produced by this expansion is unprecedented. The waste products from modern constructionContinue reading “Rameen Ahmad: Pivoting to a More Sustainable Route”

Greetings Esteemed Reader, This past month, completing a big band arrangement of ‘Smart Race’ and finishing the theme of ‘Celebration’, the last movement of my big band suite, revealed some persistent problems I’ll be facing in my tuning methodology. The Lumatone is anticipated to give me insight on said methods, however, it is stuck inContinue reading “Peter Fasano: Hurdles to Xenharmonic Computation”

To reintroduce the topic I have chosen, I am investigating the future outlook of a small, coastal community amidst the decline of one of their historic industries, oyster harvesting. Apalachicola, Florida, and the surrounding areas have long been known for their native oysters, and this sentiment was felt most vibrantly by the residents of FranklinContinue reading “Morgan Krause: Dear Reader, It’s Okay to Mess Up. Keep Going.”

Hello again! My name is Kellan Kissinger and I am an IDEA Grant recipient currently working on an Honors in the Major thesis about how female utopianism appears in medieval and contemporary texts. Specifically, my thesis aims to explore the intersections between Christine de Pizan’s medieval A Book of the City of Ladies and contemporaryContinue reading “Researching Utopian Thinking”

As I continue my research for this summer, I have been absolutely enraged and pleased with the project in front of me, as is the way with anything creatively enriching. Although unsurprising, one of the most pressing obstacles I’ve encountered has been the difficulty of gaining access to witness an embalming. From the conception ofContinue reading “Joanna Godfrey: Finding Clarity in Chaos”

In prison there is a saying, “From the dirt I will rise.” It’s a quiet promise, a seed planted in soil others thought barren. Every research journey is a path of discovery. Mine began as a subject–Degrees of Opportunity: Mapping Success and Barriers for Justice-Impacted Students. But over the summer, it led to an educationalContinue reading “Eddie Fordham: From the Dirt, We Rise! A Summer of Preparation and Purpose”

I spent most of the last month enjoying a short break, during which I was able to visit friends and family, as well as go on a trip to Ecuador. My trip was filled with natural beauty, everything from the beach, rainforest, and mountains, and was an incredibly rewarding experience after a busy spring semester.Continue reading “Time Well Spent and Return to Campus”

Now that we’re getting farther into the summer semester, and I’m getting farther into my IDEA Grant project, I’m glad I’m getting to put some of the skills I’ve developed during previous research experiences to use. On Saturday, I finished writing an abstract on the association of body fat percentage with the variability of autonomicContinue reading “Progress, Funding, and a Feline”