Month: September 2016

Volleyball: Lady Senators will go far this season

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Our very own Ulster Senators are working hard for an impeccable season this year with the guidance of Coach Glenn Warnock, and Assistant Coaches Kerry Malak and alum Jessica Muller. Their hard work and dedication to this year’s team has shown in the 3-2 ongoing record, with losses against Orange and Queensborough Counties.

D2 Ulster Women's Volleyball
D2 Ulster Women’s Volleyball

The starting Senators consist of veterans Carrigan Buhler, Cianna Vigrass, Erica Prindle, Marianna Mena, Katie Slater and with new additions Valentina Villa, and Lindsey Harder. Practicing everyday after classes, our lady Senators are training hard to proliferate their talents and cooperate as a team to go far this season. The girls already have an obvious bond, while only knowing each other for just a few weeks, and have already established a familial connection, which is hard to see, as well as attain within a group of girls. Their dedication and common love and passion for volleyball is seen on and off the court, as many of the girls will spend their off time in the gym just peppering and practicing. It has become very uncommon to see any these girls around campus without a volleyball, and you just know that if they keep up this focus, they will get very far this season. With upcoming away games at Dutchess Community College and Westchester Community College this week, the girls are working hard, as well as keeping their studies in check, giving us a reason to keep fueling our pride to be Ulster Senators.

GO SENATORS!

Eva Santos’ Research Project at Purchase

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Eva Santos with project plan

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.

copy-of-20160620_103819She 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.

Closeup of Eva's project, the robotic arm.
Closeup of Eva’s robotic arm.

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!