Eva Santos, a SUNY Ulster college scholar and student aide, recently participated in the Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program at SUNY Purchase. The computer science major is one of two students from Ulster to be accepted into the Purchase program, which was just opened to our campus STEM community this past year. The Bridges six-week program, designed for underrepresented students from local community colleges, gives budding scientists in fields like computer science, biology, and psychology the chance to network with others in their field and complete a scientific research project under the supervision of a faculty member.
She first discovered the program through posters around campus, as well as from the Honors and STEM departments on campus. After applying and getting accepted, Eva got to spend late May through early July living at Purchase, working on her research project with fellow program members, who were grouped into teams by major. Under the direction of their faculty sponsor, Dr. Mark Jonas, they developed their project, titled “The Effect of Carbon Dioxide on Climate Change”, which was designed to discover the effects of excess carbon dioxide on the genetic expression in fruit flies and specific plant types. While the main portion of the experiment was based in the biology field, Eva and a fellow computer science major in the group were given the task of creating a remote-controlled robotic arm for accomplishing specific tasks, like planting seeds. The idea behind this, and robotics in science experiments in general, is to reduce the effects of human interaction and lessen the possibility of error, an obvious goal for all research projects.
The project was a great success. The robotic arm could complete the basic functions it was assigned wirelessly, which was the primary goal, and could be adapted to do even more with additional time. The main project, with the plants and flies, was also successful. Their findings showed a significant change in one group, a 5-10 day longer bolting time for the plants whose parents were exposed to greater amounts of carbon dioxide. This difference was large enough that it could be researched further.
Eva says she enjoyed the program, although it was tough to complete the work in the short amount of time they had. She was intrigued by the experience and is interested in getting involved in another program somewhere next summer, after she graduates from Ulster. We wish this talented student all the best for her future projects!
