[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/posters.jpg” caption=”Research awards”]From looking at the use of free samples in interactive advertising to examining Hamilton's social capital, social cohesion, gender, health and lower income neighborhoods, a group of McMaster undergraduate students spent last summer investigating these and other issues.

These students  the recipients of McMaster's first Undergraduate Student Research Awards offered to students in the faculties of business, humanities and social sciences  had 15 weeks, the supervision of a faculty member and $5,000 to delve deep into their research. Their results will be on display from 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. today (Friday) at a poster session in the Marketplace in the Student Centre.

Sponsored by the Office of the Vice-President (Research & International Affairs) and the Faculties of Social Sciences, Humanities and Business, the awards were designed to help undergraduate students in these faculties explore career opportunities in the research environment, investigate and learn more about an area of interest, enhance their academic experience and prepare for work at the graduate level.

Vice-president (Research & International Affairs) Mamdouh Shoukri says these awards afford students in these faculties an opportunity to showcase their considerable talents while pursuing research relevant to their own field of study. “The McMaster experience is truly about bringing research and education together, and this program does just that. I hope that other students will be inspired by these projects and apply for the next competition.”

For a list of project titles, click here.

Photo caption: Nick Markettos, senior advisor in the Office of the Vice-President (Research & International Affairs), left, talks with social science student Irena Jurakic about her research on “Identifying and Interpreting Glass Artifacts in Archaeology: Expedient Tool Technology at a NorthWest Coast Tsimshian Site.”